Lectures on Theoretical Physics

Focusing on one subject each semester, the lectures formed a three-year cycle of courses that Sommerfeld repeatedly taught at the University of Munich for over thirty years.

"[1] The textbooks, originally published in German, were based on series of his lectures, which were made to be self-consistent within each section, at the University of Munich that ran over a three-year cycle.

[6] In addition to specialized classes, the set of lectures presented by the book represent Sommerfeld's standard introductory courses in physics that he gave in Munich, with each subject taught over one semester for a total of three years.

[12] He had also edited the book series Die Theorie des Kreisels, which was based on a set of lectures given by his mentor Felix Klein.

[17][18][19] In his 1954 review of the volume, Lindsay wrote that Sommerfeld's "clarity is indeed remarkably well exemplified" by the mechanics textbook and he praised the book for its "many ingenious comments to help the learner over the rough spots".

[20][21][22][23][24] The series' fourth volume, Optics, was published in 1954 by Academic Press after being translated from the German textbook Optik by Otto Laporte and Peter A. Moldauer.

[30] In his 1955 review, Karl Meissner wrote that the book is characteristic of Sommerfeld's lectures, which he summarized as "[c]lear and vivid presentation[s] of the basic ideas" with an "elegance in language and of mathematical developments" and an "emphasis on physics.

"[26] Thermodynamik und Statistik, the fifth volume of Sommerfeld's Lectures, was edited by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner and published posthumously in 1952 by Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.

The book was translated into the English volume Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics by Joseph Kestin and published in 1956 by Academic Press.