MuddTextBooks

Text books used at mudd... (other pages you might check out: BookSale HumClassReview)

Core

• Physics Frosh Year
  • Helliwell. Motion I & II. softcover books bought from the department.
  • Helliwell's Relativity book.
    • buy it from Huntley actually. ($4?)
    • Very nice book!

• FroshChem
  • Silberberg. Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change, 4th ed.
    • Obsoleted the below books in 2005, to the dismay of FreshMen who had to buy the new book fresh. And naturally Huntley didn't order enough. Grrr.
  • Oxtoby, Gillis and Nachtrieb. Principles of Modern Chemistry, 5th ed. ISBN 0-03-035373-4 (amazon.com, search)
    • Lousy Chemistry book. Don't buy it. Borrow it. Zuhmdal's better. or a pchem text book.
    • Actually it's a pretty decent basic book. If you are going to do anything vaguely related to chemistry later (bio, chem or engineering (materials) and likely physics) it would probably be useful to own as a reference. Many upper level chem majors go back to look at something because it explains things simpler then upper level books. But if you're a math major, or something, you might not have much use. And a pchem book is useless if you want general chemistry, and some p-chem books suck.
    • Will relook at it, just remember there being a lot of things in frosh chem that were beyond the textbook, perhaps I'm remembering wrong. Was probably exagerating. Might be a good text book for a more basic treatment of the subject. My feelings are that there has to be a more comprehensive basic text book somewhere.
  • Cutting Edge Chemistry (by someone, some edition) ISBN 0-85404-914-2 (amazon.com, search)
    • (Do they still use this?) A little flashier than the standard FroshChem book, but lighter on content. When I took FroshChem, I cracked it all of twice. Unless the chem department has really taken a shine to it in the past year for some reason, borrow it from someone who got suckered into buying it.
    • Don't forget, this is the book responsible for the Hydrogen Counting Incident. Consider yourself warned.

• CS5
  • No Textbook (w00t)

• Single Variable Calculus (Math 11)
  • At the moment: Spivak, Michael. Calculus.
    • Spivak may be dense sometimes, but he's very thorough - the book is entirely worth it.

• Linear Algebra (Math 12 & 63)
  • Poole, David. Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction, 2nd edition.
  • Lay, David. Linear Algebra and its Applications. They're probably on third or fourth edition now.
    • Sufficient if you just want to refresh yourself on the basics (I know I've cracked it a few times to review eigenvalue/eigenvector problems). Sort of lame if you actually wanted to learn something.

• Differential Equations (Math 13 and 64)
  • If you're lucky, the current edition of Boyce and DiPrima?. If not, Borelli and Coleman.
    • We seem to be unlucky in 2005.
    • And in 2007.
    • I disagree. Having taken 13 with Borelli and Coleman and 64 with Boyce and DiPrima?, I much preferred Borelli and Coleman. --RichardGarfinkel
    • Boyce and DiPrima? seems to focus more on using methods than on deriving them, which is just dandy if that's all you want--the DEs courses are pretty process-oriented.

• Probability and Statistics (Math 62)
  • Devore, Jay. Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences. I'm not sure what book the followingcomments refer to.
    • Not that good a book. Can probably use an older edition.
    • Having access to the formulas and such might be a GoodIdea for later use, but you can always use something else.

• Multi V (Math 14 and 61)
  • Colley, Susan. Vector Calculus. 3rd edition.
    • Pretty spiffy book. Lots of big ugly integrals that evaluate to zero (whoopee!). Also useful for E&M.
      • CAUTION: Book requires analysis to understand. Sophomores have not taken analysis. Your professor might forget this and expect you to learn from the book.
  • Schey, Harry M. Div, Grad, Curl, and All That. 4th edition.
    • Seems to be more oriented towards physics/engineering than towards math.

• Stems
  • Existence of an official Stems textbook depends on what semester you take it. Consult your doctor before use.
  • http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Engineering/59/LecturesandReview/index.html
  • At this point, Fundamentals of Signals and Systems by Cha and Molinder. Effectively the previous semester's binder of lecture notes, only bound into a book and priced at $100.
    • Reactions are...mixed. Most people dislike it, but I thought it was halfway decent. Easily readable, decently organized, and contains enough content for lecture attendance to be optional, if you can learn by reading (I can, I know other people can't.)
      • The last chapter is a summary of the entire course, which SuiteBetrayal found to be incredibly useful.

• Frosh Physics Lab
  • Taylor, John. An Introduction to Error Analysis. Second? edition.
    • You really only need the information on the inside front cover. Some profs might make you do exercises from the book proper, though.
    • mine did, and really, error analysis is useful to know. --KL
    • you don't REALLY need it. I didn't take the plastic wrap off mine until my roommate wanted to borrow it for E&M lab.
  • As of Spring '07, profs seem to be using a handout written by ProfLynn? called "An Introduction to Experimental Uncertainties and Error Analysis" instead of Taylor.

• E&M
  • Halliday, Resnick, Krane. Physics, Volume 2. Fifth Edition. ISBN 0-471-40194-3 (amazon.com, search)
    • These guys are my heroes. Nice book (says the PhysicsMajor...).
    • A little hard to understand without a prof's help along the way.
    • You know how many times I had to read the chapters on interference and diffraction before I understood enough to write my tech report on them? My copy falls open to the beginning of those chapters now.

• Bio 52 Changes and is probably one of the following two
  • Purves, Life. 6th or 7th edition.
    • Didn't think much of the book to begin with, but it grows on you. Rather fond of it now, actually.
    • Wide scope of information. They also use it in Bio 101 (Structure and Function). At least, they do now.
    • Out of curiousity, is the ExponentiallyDepreciatingBioBook still in circulation?
      • LucasBaker's got it at the moment (I'm fairly sure); last I heard, he was trying to figure out who he'd promised to sell it to.
  • the book with the turtle on it.
  • Currently it's Cell & Molecular Biology ed. 5, by Karp. ISBN 0-471-46580-1 (amazon.com, search)

Non-Core

MatheMatics

• Discrete (M55)
  • As of 2006-2007 it is being taught by ProfessorBenjamin who is using a different book. Someone in the class should update this.
  • When taught by ProfessorOrrison
    • Mathematics: A Discrete Introduction, by Edward Scheinerman, it looks like there's only one edition Actually, it's now on the second edition.
    • It has a picture of a guinea pig in the homework hints section. one has to respect authors that do things like that...
      • Don't forget "As silly as it looks, evaluate".
    • The Acknowledgements bit at the beginning has lots of names you might recognize...

• GraphTheory? (M104)
  • As of Spring 2007, Orrison is using Introduction to Graph Theory (2nd edition) by Douglas West.

• Analysis (M131)
  • Rudin, W. Principles of Mathematical Analysis. Third Edition. Blue cover. Make sure you don't get the wrong one. Excellent book, but outrageously expensive for its actual size.
    • What is it: A little blue book of mathematics that starts with the rationals and systematically builds up mathematics with definitions and theorems. Course some of the proofs are a little cryptic but that's good for you and proving is fun! (Unless you're Cal in which case you're silly and should be corrupted.)

• Analysis II (M132)
  • Insofar as you use any text at all for Analysis II, it's the same book as in Analysis I. Most of the material in Analysis II is covered in sets of notes which ProfessorRaugh passes out. The material covered vaguely resembles the latter half of Rudin, and Rudin is definitely useful as a reference, but it isn't followed nearly as closely as it was in Analysis I. The homework is no longer out of Rudin.
  • Fall 2003 Raugh actually had us buy another book as reference, but all the assigned reading was the notes Raugh posted. --KatieLewis

• Complex Variables (M136)
  • Fundamentals of Complex Analysis with Applications to Engineering, Science, and Mathematics by Saff and Snider. 3rd Edition. (Ward confirmed that we would bew using the 3rd edition for Fall 2003)

• Differential Geometry (M142)
  • Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces by Manfredo P. do Carmo (To the best of knowledge there is only one edition, but if you find that there is a newer edition order the newer one.)

• Advanced Geometry (M143)
  • Riemannian Geometry, by do Carmo. This book is exceptionally terse; it will be a good reference (eventually) if you're interested in the material. An Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, by Lee, is not in any way officially recommended for the class, but is exceptionally readable and may come in handy.

• Topology (M147)
  • Only has a book if you take it from Flapan on Pomona (I think). In that case, the Dover Books Introduction to Topology. Worthless -- you'll never open it, and if you did, it wouldn't help. On the plus side, it's only $11.

• Probability (M157) (the math major one not the core class)
  • "A first Course in Probability" by Sheldon Ross(6th edition). <- edition used spring 2004

• AbstractAlgebra? (M171) and AbstractAlgebraII? (M172)
  • Fall 2006, ProfessorOrrison used Algebra An Approach via Module Theory by Adkins and Weintraub (a GTM). Spring 2007 he is using Dummit and Foote (3rd edition) for Abstract II
    • SarahFletcher thinks that after working out of the GTM, Dummit and Foote feels really wordy. Dummit and Foote is probably more user friendly if you have not had to learn to work out of crazy dense books though...
  • Dummit and Foote. Abstract Algebra. I've only ever seen the one edition.
  • Would like to point out that there is a second edition. I think that is probably the correct one for Fall 2003 seeing as it is the one I ordered, but I'm not looking up emails on the matter at the moment. --KL
    • Would like to point out that there is a third edition, as I saw it at MathFest? 5 days ago. Heaven only knows which one they'll be using.
    • Third Edition used for AbstractI? Fall of 2003 and Abstract II spring of 2004
  • Reasonably complete, so far as undergrad algebra goes; it's also used for Algebra II. While not the clearest book to learn from, it's a useful reference, and probably worth owning if you're interested in its sort of thing.

• Big Linear (M173)
  • Lax, Linear Algebra. Vaguely Rudinesque, except that it has the occasional picture (read: two or three throughout the entire book), and the exercises are interspersed with the rest of the book (which is useful if you're trying to read it and mildly annoying when you're doing homework...)

• Applied Analysis (aka Big Fourier) (M180)
  • "Applied Partial Differential Equations" by David Logan. Second Edition.

• PDEs (M182)
  • Lawrence C. Evans, Partial Differential Equations. Readable, well-put-together, mostly thorough, though he leaves out some generalizations and some of the more interesting proofs. Some nice illustrative pictures. Problems are out of the book about half the time; most of them are interesting while not impossible. An indispensable reference.

ComputerScience

• Cs60
  • Keller's soft-cover book (Computer Science for Smart People) sold by the CS Department. $35 from the CS department.
    • A used copy is fine, and the cs department even sells them, I think, at a cheaper cost.
    • It's like reading a Keller lecture. Gech. He posts lecture notes online, so if he's teaching 60, it's not a necessity, but can be useful now and again. I'd borrow one.
    • I forgot I even had it until I saw this.
    • [Exists online].

• Algorithms (CS 140, Math 168)(Ran)
  • Corman, Leiserson, and Rivest. Algorithms. Second Edition
    • First edition is fine, but make sure you have access to the right edition for the very occasional assignment out of the book.
    • Evaluation: apears to be a good book, but the class is good enough you don't need it that much, at least from Ran.
    • It's a pretty good reference for algorithms in general. I'm keeping mine.

• Theocomp (CS 142, Math 16?) (Ran)
  • Sipser (I forget the title)
    • Good book, but, like the Algorithms book, not especially necessary for the class except for homework.

• CS70
  • C++ Primer. Much better to learn C++ from that Stroustrup below, but it's not great on what you should and shouldn't do. I recommend keeping a copy of Stroustrup around as a reference, but learn the language from C++P. --KwangKetcham
  • Weiss. Data Structures and Problem Solving Using C++ (2nd Ed)
    • It's a pretty good reference, so if you're serious about CS, you might want to buy a copy and keep it. You can usually get away with not buying it at all, though, since there's not much reading from it. (At least with Kuenning.) It's kind of expensive.
    • Can sometimes substitute for missing lecture, although Kuenning is much more entertaining. (The book is a bit dry.)
  • Stroustrup. The C++ Programming Language (3rd Ed)
    • Not explicitly used much in class, but a reasonably good reference. If you can get a cheap copy, do so - otherwise you might want to stick to online references. (Well, I personally prefer leafing through paper references than browsing online/electronic ones, but if you don't have that preference, you might not need to bother with this book.)
    • Bjarne Stroustrup may have created C++, but he's a pretty lousy writer and the index sucks. On the other hand, it's a pretty comprehensive overview of the language.
    • It's worth repeating: the index sucks. You'll have better luck Googling whatever it is you're looking for.
  • Kernighan and Pike. The Practice of Programming (1st ed?)
    • Actually optional for 70 (from Kuenning, anyway), but has lots of insight into style- and convention-type stuff. Kickass book if you don't mind spending the money. Or else borrow it.

• CS81
  • Kozen. Automata and Computability
    • Extremely difficult to read. Keller's lectures were a far better way to understand the material than trying to decipher the text.
    • As a mathematician, I did not find it that hard to read, it definitely leans mathy though (except when I wished that it did more...)
  • Dalen. Logic and Structure (4th Ed)

• CS121
  • Larman. Applying UML and Patterns: [insert long subtitle here].
    • Not worth the cost at all; we never touched it. It might be a good reference later for design patterns and other formal OOD/OOP type stuff. UML can be learned from sources other than the book, and the small scope of the projects meant that design patterns never really became necessary. This might change if someone other than Z teaches the course.
  • McConnell?. Code Complete
    • Like the course this semester, written by somebody that appears to know what they're talking about.

Physics

• BabyQuantum
  • Eisberg, Resnick. Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles. Second Edition.
    • Makes more sense than ProfessorTownsend, but not everything in the course is in the book.
    • A bit dense, but tons of information. Not so great as a quick review/reference.

• TheoMech?
  • Nowadays: Goldstein (and Poole and Safko). Classical Mechanics. Third Edition.
    • No big friendly boxes, but fairly well-written. No other commentary yet.
  • Hand, Finch. Analytical Mechanics. First Edition.
    • Nice reference. Important formulas are in big friendly boxes. Summaries at the end of each chapter. Be warned: some of the notation and processes are a little different from what ProfessorSahakian does in lecture. Problems from the book range from trivial to excruciating.

• StatMech
  • Fall 2004: Schroeder, Daniel V. An Introduction to Thermal Physics (0201380277).
    • Now they use a decent book. Sheesh.
  • Previously: Kittel, Kroemer. Thermal Physics. Second Edition.
    • die die die
    • To be honest, I can't think if any textbook, no matter how good, would have helped.
      • Eh. Some of the ones on reserve in Sprague are supposed to be comprehensible.

• BigQuantum (and GranddaddyQuantum?)
  • Townsend. A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics.
    • ProfessorTownsend's book (but it is an actual published book, unlike the frosh physics texts)
    • The style's especially clear and readable, which is nice because BigQuantum effectively forces you to do the reading.
    • Conceptually deep, but doesn't get as bogged down in details as, say, Eisberg and Resnick.

• Big E&M
  • Griffiths. Introduction to Electrodynamics, Third Edition.
    • This book is so beautifully written, it makes me want to cry. (...either that, or the class does.) -TamaraReimer

• Droptics Lab
  • Bevington, Robinson. Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences. Third Edition.
    • Absolutely wretched book. You use it roughly once all semester, and the formulas have typos. Inexcusable. I don't know why they don't just use Taylor.

Chemistry

• Pchem (Chem 51)
  • Atkins, Peter and de Paula. Physical Chemistry. 7th edition.
  • Unless they decide to be evil and give you Silbey and Alberty, which ProfessorVanHecke was proud to find because it had no color ink and no picutures (just graphs). Utterly horrid book. Impossible to get through a single paragraph.

• GQ&S (Chem 52) see GQSBooKs
  • Atkins, de Paula. Physical Chemistry. 7th edition.
  • Harris and Bertolucci. Symmetry and Spectroscopy. Dense but ok.

• Carbons and O-chem (Chem 56 and 105)
  • Vollhardt and Schore. Organic Chemistry. Think they're up to 4th edition.
    • Decent text. Older edition probably okay.
  • The Organic Lab Survival Guide, or something like that. Clear, well-written, and lots of useful pictures. Well worth purchasing.

• Inorganic (Chem 104)
  • Miessler and Tarr. Inorganic Chemistry, 3rd edition.
    • This is the book used as of Spring 2007. Pretty good, though includes minimal information in captions for pictures, which means that it can be difficult to understand what they mean, which is frequently important. Text is well written however.
  • Housecraft and Sharpe. Inorganic Chemistry
    • Utterly ignores units on everything. Otherwise pretty good book (though published in England, which can make it amusing).

• Chemical Analysis (Chem 103)
  • Harris. Quantitative Chemical Analysis. 7th.
    • Written by Prof Harris' father. Highly amusing book written in a tongue-in-cheek, semi-colloquial manner. Easy read and very informative. ('Meh. Not extremely. I don't feel the need to keep it as reference.') Includes sentences like, "And the chemist comes charging in on her white horse to save the day".

• Instrumental Analysis (Chem 114)
  • Skoog, Holler, Nieman. Principles of Instrumenal Analysis. 5th.
    • Utterly dry, boring and hopeless for retaining any information out of. Makes all the required reading quizzes barrels of fun. Good diagrams, but not well written. Nevertheless, probably as good as a book describing a (large) handful of techniques is going to get and a good reference once you know the stuff.

Biology

• Structure and Function (Bio 101, spring 2003)
  • Purves 6th Edition. (see Bio 52)
• Neurobiology
• Ecology (Bio 108)
  • There are 2, but you'll never need them in class.
• Evolution (Bio 109)

Engineering

• Design Representation and Realization (Engr 8)
  • Bruce A. Wilson. Design Dimension & Tolerancing
    • Karl Janich: "There was a book? That's interesting"

• Chemical Engineering & Thermal Processes (Engr 82)
  • Felder and Rousseau. Elementary Principles of Chemcial Processes. ISBN 0-471-68757-X (amazon.com, search)

• Digital Electronics & Computer Engineering (Engr 85)
  • Harris and Harris. From Zero to One.

• Advanced Systems Engineering (aka BigStems) (Engr 101, Engr 102)
  • Oppenheim, Willsky, and Nawab. Signals and Systems. 2nd ed.
    • Absolutely required for 1st semester (Engr 101), necessary only for the first part of 2nd semester (Engr 102).

• Fluid Mechanics (E131)
  • Munson, Young, and Okishii. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. 4th ed.
    • Best textbook ever.
    • Absolutely required for reading, problem sets, and general understanding.

• Environmental Engineering (Engr 138)
  • Gilbert Masters. Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science. 2nd ed.
    • Not a bad book and very useful, though most of the content is about a level below what ProfessorCardenas teaches. ProfessorCardenas acknowledges this.

Hum Classes There has to be some way to organize this, but we'll see...Alphabetical by course number maybe.

• CLAS_121, Classical Mythology, Professor Glass, Pitzer, (list from Spring 2003), note: particular translation or edition not important.
  • Homer, Iliad (Lattimore translation)
  • Homer, Odyssey (Fitzgerald Translation)
  • Hesiod, Homeric Hymns and Homerica The Loeb Classical Library(Hardbound, Harvard U. Press)
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses (Penguin Edition) (M Innes translation)
  • Virgil, Aeneid (Fitzgerald Translation)
  • Apollonius of Rhodes, Voyage of Argo (Penguin Edition)
  • Apuleius, The Golden Ass (Lindsay Translation)
  • Robert, Graves, The Greek Myths. (beware: take Graves commentary with a grain of salt)

• ENGL_074, British Novel, Proffessor S. Raff, Pomona, (Fall 2003)
  • Moliere "School for Wives" (play)
  • Defoe, Moll Flanders [1]
  • Eliza Haywood, "Fantomina" (play)
  • Richardson, Pamela
  • Fielding, Shamela, Joseph Andrews
  • Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
  • Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
  • Matthew Lewis, The Monk
  • Amelia Opie, Adeline Mowbray
  • Austen, Persuasion [2]
  • Clarification: Sentimental Journey and Villetta out. Three books (added above) in. 8/11/03
    • Old commentary: She said Pamela & Shamela & Joseph Andrews are definitely in. She'll let me know as regards the rest by and by. I want to state that I would like to include some warnings as to the contents of Pamela, Shamela, and Fantomina. I would probably have been happier not reading these (at least for the time being). As regards School for Wives - If you are a guy and see a girl reading this your best bet might be to duck for cover, although certainly it does not take itself seriously enough to reach the same levels of outrage as may be procured in other books. The translation I got ahold of translated everything in rhyme and came across as a corruption of Dr. Seuss that I found extremely funny. Austen's Persuasion is a delightful love story, that I found a pleasure to read. I found Villette a bit hard at first, but I really enjoyed the third volume. The book warrants a great deal of respect and the strength of some of its descriptions and characters can be...! A Sentimental Journey is a 'series of sketches' told in a half humorous and musing fashion that can at times be a bit funny and at other times nice. It's not in the main particularly compelling, but it can be pleasant. -- KL

• GOVT_091, Intro to Constitution, Professor R. Rossum, CMC. (Book Lists from Fall 2002 and 2003)
  • By Ralph Rossum & G Alan Tarr: American Constitutional Law. Vol II, The Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments. 6th Edition. (2002 & 2003)
  • The Bill of Rights: Original Meaning and Current Understanding by Eugene W. Hickock. (2002& 2003)
  • From Parchement to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constitution by Robert Goldwin. (2002)
  • Veit, Helen E. Creating the Bill of Rights. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1991. (2003)
  • A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law by Antonin Scalia. (2002)
  • Ross Sandler and David Schoenbrod, Democracy by Decree. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2003. (2003)
  • Email me if you want information on this class --KL

• MUS_88, Prof. Alves, Mudd. (Book list from Fall 2003)
  • Computer Music 2nd Ed by Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse - there've been 2 assignments that involved summarizing chapters of the book, but other than that it's not really necessary
  • The CSound Book, ed. Richard Boulanger - this one is optional, but it's a nice reference for CSound stuff and a lot of synthesis and processing techniques. Get it if you think you'll want a reference later.

• PSYC_53, Prof. Roades, Mudd. (visiting prof from Cal Poly) (Book list from Fall 2003)
  • 'Psychology and Life' (16th Edition) by Richard J. Gerrig & Philip G. Zimbardo. My dad says this is a pretty well-known Psychology textbook, so you should be able to find it easily second-hand. My dad used to be a psychology professor, so he'd know. :P --Selene
  • "There will be a few supplemental articles/readings as well, but this will be the primary text." --Prof. Roades
  • "I don't have the previous editions of this text, so I am unable to make this comparison for you directly. I suspect there is a significant amount of overlap across the editions. However, the 16th edition will have more recent research findings, may be organized slightly differently, and is the edition we will be using in class. Therefore, although I would encourage students to use the current edition for the class, the decision is an individual one."