Giancoli?

[In The Great White North]

For all of you who use Giancoli Physics:

Is there a solutions manual/teacher's edition?

Did you need it?

Did you use the Study Guide? Was it helpful?

Does it matter which edition of Physics you get (I think they're up to 7th now)

Did you "teach" it or did dc go through it himself?

Are there experiments? Doable at home or skipped?

Did dc take the SAT Subject test/ AP Physics (A,B,C)? Were they prepared? How did they do?

TIA

[Gwen in VA]

My kids used Giancoli and one has done well on the AP exam and the SAT-II. Hopefully the other will do well on the AP -- but we won't know until this July!

We used it through an online class, so I can't tell you about TM's and other support material. My kids thought it was a great text, though.

I can say that the difference between the editions is minimal. We own both the 5th and the 6th editions, and honestly I think the publisher just scrambled the problems around a bit so educators would need to buy the newer one. There is NO apparent difference in material between them. (No experience with the 7th edition -- but the 6th just came out!)

Just make sure that all your support materials are connected to the same edition so the problems and answers correlate! (Duh!)