A Student's Guide to Vectors and Tensors

This book explains vectors and tensors in plain language to give undergraduate and beginning graduate students a better understanding.

Daniel A. Fleisch (Author)

9780521171908, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 September 2011

206 pages, 80 b/w illus. 50 exercises
22.8 x 15.1 x 1 cm, 0.34 kg

'This highly readable introductory book will be of great assistance to those taking undergraduate or graduate courses and meeting tensors for the first time.' George Matthews, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (ima.org.uk)

Vectors and tensors are among the most powerful problem-solving tools available, with applications ranging from mechanics and electromagnetics to general relativity. Understanding the nature and application of vectors and tensors is critically important to students of physics and engineering. Adopting the same approach used in his highly popular A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations, Fleisch explains vectors and tensors in plain language. Written for undergraduate and beginning graduate students, the book provides a thorough grounding in vectors and vector calculus before transitioning through contra and covariant components to tensors and their applications. Matrices and their algebra are reviewed on the book's supporting website, which also features interactive solutions to every problem in the text where students can work through a series of hints or choose to see the entire solution at once. Audio podcasts give students the opportunity to hear important concepts in the book explained by the author.

1. Vectors
2. Vector operations
3. Vector applications
4. Covariant and contravariant vector components
5. Higher-rank tensors
6. Tensor applications
Index.

Subject Areas: Applied physics [PHV]