An Introduction to Nuclear Physics

I found Cottingham-Greenwood an excellent text to introduce any physics student to the field of nuclear physics. This text is best suited to senior undergraduates with a one-semester course in quantum mechanics. The authors have selected fifteen topics (check 'LOOK INSIDE!'), covering fundamental as well as applied aspects of nuclear physics. Each chapter is supplemented with 5-11 exercises. Beware that this is not an encyclopedic text with detailed derivations. The advantage of this approach is that one can focus on ideas, leaving the algebra as back-of-the-envelope exercises or discussions with the instructor. All that extra writing is saved in size: excellent format, good paper quality and easy-to-read fonts. Excellent introductory text, or supplement to a more thorough and advanced textbook.

I found this book to be very readable and an excellent introduction to the field. I agree with previous reviews that derivations are lacking, because this book is a more qualitative introduction to the subject, which was especially important for me as I took nuclear physics my second semester in undergraduate physics. Krane's standard text will serve as a better reference book and provides more detailed mathematics, but it would also take a person much longer to read Krane's book, and Krane's book is appropriately more expensive. I also highly doubt that a one-semester undergraduate course could cover all of Krane's text, where as this book can be covered in one semester. I highly recommend this book to new students of nuclear physics without a background in quantum mechanics.

Book came in on time and everything went fine. it's cheaper than at school. So, awesome!