ISBN0495112453

SAVE YOUR MONEY, DON'T BUY THIS EDITION. No, seriously, this book is identical in content to the last edition. If you are going to be a scientist or an engineer and you're buying this book, you have failed your first goal; always find the most affordable solution that is every bit as good as the most expensive.

I'll tell you what you should do -- Buy the last edition, the one with the ship's hull on it, and then ask you professor (or anywhere else the new book is) if you may borrow the book, go to the library and photocopy ONLY THE PROBLEMS FROM EACH CHAPTER. So for 2 maybe 3 semesters of physics the cost is around $30 ($10 dollars for the all-chapter last edition and $20 for around 200 photocopies)!

I purchased the Serway/Jewett Physics for Scientists and Engineers Textbook 7th Edition to aide in my understanding of the core concepts in Physics. I have always found the Serway/Jewett series of Physics textbook to offer the greatest material in terms of helping one individual understand the fundamental meanings of the basic concepts of such a complicated subject.

I am a physics major currently enrolled at my local community college taking Physics with Calculus I during this write-up. Our course is using the Halliday/Resnick 8th Edition Textbook.

I have found that the Halliday/Resnick series offers greater homework problems whereas the Serway/Jewett series offer better conceptual understanding of the meanings and formulas. I have occassionally found myself referring back to Serway/Jewett when trying to understand the derivations of certain formulas found in Halliday/Resnick because their explanation or derivation is somewhat lacking. I am sure you would agree if you compare the two textbooks.

Anyhow, I would highly recommend this textbook as a "supplement" textbook in gaining a better understanding of the concepts whereas I would recommend the Halliday/Resnick series for better applications of the concepts.