Jaffe Robert L. - The Physics of Energy

A long awaited book which comprehensively covers the fundamentals that engineers, scientists and others specializing in energy related fields need to master. Wonderfully written, it unlocks and presents the science behind energy systems in a pure yet accessible manner, while providing many real world examples to help visualize and frame this knowledge. This book would serve as an excellent text for a foundational course in energy engineering.

Khurram Afridi, Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Finding the energy to power a civilization approaching 10 billion people without unacceptable consequences to the environment is the greatest challenge facing humanity this century. This book develops all of the fundamental concepts in physics underlying a quantitative understanding of energy sources, interconversion, and end usage, which are essential parts of meeting this challenge. It will serve as unique and authoritative textbook for the teaching of these topics. ... Overall it is a masterful exposition of the fundamental concepts of physics and their application to the energy-environment problem.

Michael J Aziz, Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies,

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

The textbook by Jaffe and Taylor is an invaluable resource, for instructors and students alike, discussing the physics of energy, a subject that is most important for humankind. ... The book has great potential as a teaching text for emerging courses on energy physics and promises to become a classic for years to come.

Katrin Becker and Melanie Becker, Texas A&M University

Jaffe and Taylor have produced in a single volume a comprehensive text on energy sources, energy conversion technologies, and energy uses from the unifying vantage of physics. Either in a course or in self-study The Physics of Energy can serve as the foundation for an understanding of conventional and renewable energy technologies.

Paul Debevec, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Illinois

Jaffe and Taylor have compiled a comprehensive treatise that covers all aspects of energy: its fundamental role in physics, its sources and its uses. In addition to serving as the backbone for a variety of courses, this book should be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the physics of energy in all of its forms.

David Gross, Chancellors Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical

Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Joint Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 2004

The book can be very useful as a mid-level textbook, as a survey for self-instruction for the serious-minded energy policy analyst, or as a desk reference covering the physics of the full range of energy topics everything from the energy content of biofuels, to safe nuclear reactor design, to efficient design and placement of wind turbines, to geothermal energy flow, and dozens more topics ... This book very effectively fills a gap between the plentiful simplistic treatments of energy issues and books for full time professionals in the various energy areas.

Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, former Member of Congress

We live in an age of wonders, when a designer in almost any engineering field can find a dizzying assortment of tools, materials, components, and construction technologies for building. ...The Physics of Energy answers the question of where to begin. No engineers library will be complete without a copy of this literary and intellectual masterpiece. A brilliant story of the foundations of everything.

Steven Leeb, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The book is the only comprehensive discussion of energy sources, flows, and uses that I know of. ... It is designed as a text for a college level course, or as a refresher for those who already have the background, and is successful in achieving its goal of introducing the student to the science of energy.

Burton Richter, Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus and Director Emeritus,

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Joint Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1976

This is a unique textbook: broad, deep, and crucially important for our society. ... [Students] are also inspired by new insights into nature and everyday life: no other energy book covers heat pumps, spark ignition engines, climate change, wave/particle duality and the Big Bang.

Joshua Winn, Princeton University