51–60 of 194 posts
I studied physics (2001-2006) and teach physics (and math) at a high school and am working through the list of proposed books (and others [1]) again, just to stay up-to-date :)
Other ressources: brilliant.org, quanta magazine,youtube channels (Veritasium/Vsauce/Physics Girl/PBS Spacetime...), ...
[1] e.g. Leonard Susskind's "The theoretical minimum" series.
I thought I would also add my two cents, though there have been many excellent responses already. I recently defended my PhD in Physics (MIT '18). First of all - great idea! It is never too late to learn math and physics! In fact, with hard work and commitment, anybody can muster them to a high level. (1) Reading =/= understanding in math and physics. You understand a topic only if you can solve the problems. (2) Wor…
Isn't an important aspect of learning Physics is being able to conduct experiments in a lab?
Experiments teach you, that reality is complicated and models have to be simple, but with judicious choices of assumptions, one can still get accurate and precise prediction out of simple models. I am a theoretical physicist, but I would say the experimental courses I have taken were the most important courses in understanding the limitation of theory.
I thought I would also add my two cents, though there have been many excellent responses already. I recently defended my PhD in Physics (MIT '18). First of all - great idea! It is never too late to learn math and physics! In fact, with hard work and commitment, anybody can muster them to a high level. (1) Reading =/= understanding in math and physics. You understand a topic only if you can solve the problems. (2) Wor…
Isn't an important aspect of learning Physics is being able to conduct experiments in a lab?
I thought I would also add my two cents, though there have been many excellent responses already. I recently defended my PhD in Physics (MIT '18). First of all - great idea! It is never too late to learn math and physics! In fact, with hard work and commitment, anybody can muster them to a high level. (1) Reading =/= understanding in math and physics. You understand a topic only if you can solve the problems. (2) Wor…
However, some points are IMHO superfluous, for example:
> Not all topics are equally important. Focus on the important parts.
These statements are correct and general, and most people would agree with (even having no idea the topic), but are rarely actionable (or even: make sense for a newcomer). Vide most of the motivational quotations.
In short: hard to disagree. But how the heck a newcomer knows what is important and what is not?
I thought I would also add my two cents, though there have been many excellent responses already. I recently defended my PhD in Physics (MIT '18). First of all - great idea! It is never too late to learn math and physics! In fact, with hard work and commitment, anybody can muster them to a high level. (1) Reading =/= understanding in math and physics. You understand a topic only if you can solve the problems. (2) Wor…
I think it's essential to have a strong grasp of high school mathematics, not just high marks, but actually understand it. Gaps here are very serious. What do you think?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't an important aspect of learning Physics is being able to conduct experiments in a lab?
Absolutely. How can you claim to model something if you haven't at least looked at the thing with your own eyes, played with it with your (metaphoric) hands? Experiments teach you, that reality is complicated and models have to be simple, but with judicious choices of assumptions, one can still get accurate and precise prediction out of simple models. I am a theoretical physicist, but I would say the experimental cou…
I self-studied physics when I was a high-school student. I read The Feynman Lectures of Physics, and it was a great introduction (especially Vol 1 and 2; Vol 3 gives interesting insights but I wouldn't treat is like a canon of quantum physics). It is accessible online, https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/ , so go there and read chapter by chapter the pace you like. AFTER there are plenty of ways to go, but for an…
I would suggest S Chandrashekhar's Principia For the Common Reader.
1. Action Principle: A lot of problems in mechanics can be boiled down to writing down the correct Lagrangian.
2. Statistical physics, this teaches you about to think in terms of "Zustandssummen" and is the starting point for deriving lots of interesting laws like black body radiation.
3. Field (Gauge) Theory, turns out you can write down and derive interesting Lagrangians for Electrodynamics, Fluid Dynamics and General Relativity as well.
3.1. Noethers Theorem and Symmetries allow you to get a unified view of conserved quantities.
4. Spinors, they are fundamental for understanding the quantum behaviour of matter
5. Path Integrals necessary to understand Feynman diagrams and Calculations in Quantum Field Theory.
6. Do the harmonic oscillator in as many different ways as possible, a lot of physics can be understood by solving the harmonic oscillator or coupled oscillators. Once you've understood why this is the case and the situations in which it isn't true, you will have understood a lot of physics.
I would recommend a depth first instead of breadth first approach. Pick something advanced that really interests you and work backwards what prerequisites you need to understand it. There are parts of classical physics that are super interesting but barely anyone learns about them anymore (I skimmed through Sommerfeld's lectures on theoretical physics once, they contain all kinds of super interesting problems with spinning billiard balls, tops and so on, this was at a time when Quantum Mechanics was in its infancy).