''Fundamentals of Physics'' is a

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

-based

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

textbook by David Halliday,

Robert Resnick Robert Resnick (January 11, 1923 – January 29, 2014) was a physics educator and author of physics textbooks. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 11, 1923"Robert Resnick." ''Marquis Who's Who''. Marquis Who's Who, 2008. Reproduced in ...

, and

Jearl Walker Jearl Walker (born 1945 in Pensacola, Florida) is a physicist noted for his book '' The Flying Circus of Physics'', first published in 1975; the second edition was published in June 2006. He teaches physics at Cleveland State University. Walker ...

. The textbook is currently in its 12th edition (published October, 2021). The current version is a revised version of the original 1960 textbook ''Physics for Students of Science and Engineering'' by Halliday and Resnick, which was published in two parts (Part I containing Chapters 1-25 and covering mechanics and thermodynamics; Part II containing Chapters 26-48 and covering electromagnetism, optics, and introducing quantum physics). A 1966 revision of the first edition of Part I changed the title of the textbook to ''Physics''. It is widely used in

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

s as part of the

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

physics courses, and has been well known to

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

students for decades as "the gold standard" of freshman-level physics texts. In 2002, the American Physical Society named the work the most outstanding introductory physics text of the 20th century. The first edition of the book to bear the title ''Fundamentals of Physics'', first published in 1970, was revised from the original text by Farrell Edwards and John J. Merrill. (Editions for sale outside the USA have the title ''Principles of Physics''.) Walker has been the revising author since 1990.Jearl D Walker
Profile page at CSU Ohio. In the more recent editions of the textbook, beginning with the fifth edition, Walker has included "checkpoint" questions. These are conceptual ranking-task questions that help the student before embarking on numerical calculations. The textbook covers most of the basic topics in physics: *

Mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...

Wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (re ...

s *

Thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...

Electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of ...

Optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

Special Relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws ...

The extended edition also contains introductions to topics such as

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter ...

, solid-state physics,

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. A solutions manual and a study guide are also available.

References

External links

''Fundamentals of physics'' at Wikibook

Physics textbooks {{physics-book-stub

See also

References

External links