I have no idea why these sorts of posts are popular. Past college you're not going to learn physics by trying to self-study an entire university course. The best way to learn is just to pick a small part of physics you'd like to learn (preferably related to your job), i.e. how GPS work or some fluid mechanics etc... Then learn the physics you need for that. Knowledge accumulation can't be organized in a straight line…
So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
11–20 of 73 posts
Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#12I have no idea why these sorts of posts are popular. Past college you're not going to learn physics by trying to self-study an entire university course. The best way to learn is just to pick a small part of physics you'd like to learn (preferably related to your job), i.e. how GPS work or some fluid mechanics etc... Then learn the physics you need for that. Knowledge accumulation can't be organized in a straight line…
Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#13Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#14Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#151) Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman (2 vols) - https://mirtitles.org/?s=physics+for+entertainment Great to motivate oneself and learn to think in physics terms.
2) Fundamentals of Physics by B.N.Ivanov - https://mirtitles.org/2018/04/21/fundamentals-of-physics-iva... Nice overview which approaches physics "from atoms to matter".
3) Physics for Everyone by Landau and Kitaigorodsky (4 vols) - https://mirtitles.org/?s=Physics+for+Everyone A nice overview of all the major domains in physics.
4) General Methods for Solving Physics Problems by B.S.Belikov - https://mirtitles.org/2015/12/07/general-methods-for-solving... This is a great book which teaches you by walking through the solutions of various physics problems using a general methodological framework.
Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#16I have no idea why these sorts of posts are popular. Past college you're not going to learn physics by trying to self-study an entire university course. The best way to learn is just to pick a small part of physics you'd like to learn (preferably related to your job), i.e. how GPS work or some fluid mechanics etc... Then learn the physics you need for that. Knowledge accumulation can't be organized in a straight line…
A university would expect maybe eight undergraduate level courses, four credit hours per course, and you are expected to do three hours of study per hour of credit per week. That's 1,500 hours.
How does that compare to the "hours played" on a typical strategy game Steam review?
Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#17Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#18I have no idea why these sorts of posts are popular. Past college you're not going to learn physics by trying to self-study an entire university course. The best way to learn is just to pick a small part of physics you'd like to learn (preferably related to your job), i.e. how GPS work or some fluid mechanics etc... Then learn the physics you need for that. Knowledge accumulation can't be organized in a straight line…
When you're forced to use AI instead of the skills you've put decades learning; it's time to learn new skills to keep the brain from becoming mushy.
I think dense personal curriculum like this is the way forward.
Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)
#19I have no idea why these sorts of posts are popular. Past college you're not going to learn physics by trying to self-study an entire university course. The best way to learn is just to pick a small part of physics you'd like to learn (preferably related to your job), i.e. how GPS work or some fluid mechanics etc... Then learn the physics you need for that. Knowledge accumulation can't be organized in a straight line…
So for instance, what is energy? Somebody who knows a little would probably tell you something like the capacity to do work, and so it feels quite abstract. But the interesting thing is that energy really "exists" so to speak. If you paused the universe somehow, and then resumed it - you'd need to know exactly how much energy was and where in order to keep things moving as they were. Yet there is no known 'thing' that is energy - just a wide array of mathematical abstractions.
And then this thing is also perfectly conserved such that the amount in play will never change. It's completely bizarre to think about, and this is something you initially "learned" in grade school, and probably never even really though twice about.
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And more generally I think the point of learning should not be to do something, but to expand your own mind and understanding of the world (and beyond). Outside of this being arguable alone as a philosophical point of view, I also think there's even a practical reason for it - unknown unknowns. There are things you can't even imagine that you don't know, and the only way you can reconcile this is trying to dive into things across a wide breadth.