The physics handbook : fundamentals and key equations / Charles P. Poole, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In the Preface the author describes this book as `an attempt to bring together a compendium of physics at the graduate level. It is at the same time a summary of the basic subject matter that a physicist learns during the first two years of a doctoral program, and a precis of much of what he or she frequently has occasion to look up during his or her subsequent academic and/or industrial career.'

In these terms this is an unusual physics textbook, quite unlike more conventional texts, which at a chosen level of sophistication treat a particular subject in some detail and at length. The assumption being made is that the reader is at least vaguely familiar with the material, but may well have forgotten the details through lack of use. Individual topics are therefore all treated rather swiftly, which means that within its comparatively modest length - less than 500 pages - all the essential areas in physics and the associated mathematics are covered. From Lagrangians to superconductivity, or the three-quark model to synchrotron radiation, there is much that a working physicist would find very useful. Here is a book everyone should have on the shelf, and not just because it is so useful as an information source. The brevity of treatment brings a freshness, even an enthusiasm to each subject, making the reader wonder why some things seemed so tedious during student days - because all the material here is so accessible, whatever one's individual speciality, and it reads so well.
It is also salutory to think of all this material as being well within the compass of the graduate courses in the United States. Would that one could be confident that the same were true in the United Kingdom!