Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
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Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
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Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#2Landau's Theoretical Minimum, Landau's Seminar, ITEP in the Beginning of the 1950's - https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0204295v1
"...In the worst cases, when the speaker failed a few times, he was ostracized — excluded from the list of the seminar participants, and Landau would refuse to have discussions with him, but, of course, he (the ostracized person) could attend seminars. (I remember two such cases — in one case the speaker was a famous physicist, V.G. Levich, who eventually became a Member of the Academy of Sciences). Only after a long time, a year or more, and after being advocated by the most respected seminar participants, could such a person be pardoned by Landau..."
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#3I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#4I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application
The key is to make sure you're reading books by Landau and Lifshitz. Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer.
That said, these are definitely books to read when you're in the mindset of studying for PhD doctoral exams in Physics. I loved them at the time but would definitely have a hard time curling up by the fire with them on a rainy afternoon.
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#5It would be incredible to gain access to the archive of exams, particularly those administered during Landau's era. These must surely exist in paper format somewhere, right?
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#6I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application
The key is to make sure you're reading books by Landau and Lifshitz. Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer. That said, these are definitely books to read when you're in the mindset of studying for PhD doctoral exams in Physics. I loved them at the time but would definitely have a hard time curling up by the fire with them on a rainy afternoon.
>Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer.
As the famous quip goes, "not a word of Landau and not a thought of Lifshitz."
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#7I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application
I remember trying to read the first tome of Landau and Lifshitz in my first year of studying at the physics department and instantly bouncing off. The textbooks of Irodov, Savelyev, and Sivukhin were much more approachable.
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#8I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application
I remember trying to read the first tome of Landau and Lifshitz in my first year of studying at the physics department and instantly bouncing off. The textbooks of Irodov, Savelyev, and Sivukhin were much more approachable.
There's a reason the profs love Landau/Lifshitz. The books have a certain elegance that, once you have a decent understanding of the subject already, is easy to appreciate. But as a first year theory student, that's just not what you need.
Went through the same experience you describe. But enjoyed them when I picked them up again a few years later.
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#9Fairly comprehensive, highly technical but hardly inspiring or insightful. Old-fashioned, austere (The classical theory of fields has like a handful of diagrams).
The polar opposite of the "Pleasure of finding things out" of Feynman. Or the incongruous visual orgy and outright speculation of Gravitation.
Of-course the interesting question is which educational / pedagogical approach works "best". Alas that is almost impossible to define, let alone prove on the basis of the highly idiosyncratic development of physics in the 20th century.
Re: Lev Landau's “Theoretical Minimum”
#10Fairly comprehensive, highly technical but hardly inspiring or insightful. Old-fashioned, austere ( The classical theory of fields has like a handful of diagrams). The polar opposite of the "Pleasure of finding things out" of Feynman. Or the incongruous visual orgy and outright speculation of Gravitation . Of-course the interesting question is which educational / pedagogical approach works "best". Alas that is almost…
It makes me wonder of the 43 students who passed, how many achieved significant breakthroughs or Nobel prizes?