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So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)

susanrigetti.com

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Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)

#11

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…

I think this is unnecessarily pessimistic. I think there's actually a surprisingly large number of people who are interested in and have the discipline to study something on their own, and there's value in pursuing a whole course of study from beginning to end. Doing things piecemeal and incrementally has value too (especially in software development), but can obscure the whole shape of a discipline.

Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)

#12

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…

Somehow millions of people have learned physics in a "straight-line" at university. Most physics majors have a logical progression from the simplest to most complex ideas.

Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)

#15
Some classic soviet-era physics books which one can use as a good supplement to the listed textbooks.

1) 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)

#16

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…

Let's subject that claim to some basic arithmetic.

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)

#18

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…

Personal curriculum is a positive trend[1] IMO.

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.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4MIYOKapQ

Re: So you want to learn physics (second edition, 2021)

#19

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…

I'd disagree and have done exactly that. I started with a reasonable basis in physics, but self studying through an entire course dramatically expanded my understanding. For an example of what I mean this [1] is Feynman's lecture on conservation of energy. It's something every schoolkid learns -- I'm fairly sure I saw my first pendulum from the nose demo in middle school, yet Feynman will take this and make you completely rethink your understanding.

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.

--

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.

[1] - https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_04.html

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