| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
28 Aug 2006 10:24:20 PM |
| Object: |
A few questions for you guys... |
Hello there, guys. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of
questions for me. First, a little background: I've always been
interested in physics but lets just say my highschool experience with
every teacher I ever had was less than stellar. So, like many folks out
there, I had a profound distaste for actual studying. I breezed through
it all figuring out the path of least resistance (High school physics
was ridiculously easy since it was all about pointless excercises that
were really all the same. Just apply the formula.) And math, well math
I just ignored completely. Ofcourse, now that I'm in college I see the
error of my ways. What I want is to go through all that highschool
material again to freshen up so I can start with college level stuff.
Both math and physics. I plan on taking physics as a second major
(Thats what you call them, right, majors? Sorry, not my native tongue)
Anyway, this is what I need:
Could you recommend some books that go through the entire material in a
more reasonable way than your regular highschool books? Physics and
mathematics. I dont need it to repeat stuff for me or take it slow like
they normally would. I do need them to go into detail so none of those
lite physics books with little math. This is important because I need
to familiarize myself with the proper vocabulary and symbology in the
english language mathematics (yes, its supposed to be universal but it
really isnt all that much) Recommend a few if you can because I might
not be able to find some.
Also, if you can point me to any valuable online resources on the
subject and communities dedicated to the learning of physics (besides
this one, ofcourse) it would be great.
Thanks a bunch
.
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|
| User: "Sorcerer" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 09:15:26 AM |
|
|
<antonioetayo@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156821860.400916.299560@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
| Hello there, guys. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of
| questions for me. First, a little background: I've always been
| interested in physics but lets just say my highschool experience with
| every teacher I ever had was less than stellar. So, like many folks out
| there, I had a profound distaste for actual studying. I breezed through
| it all figuring out the path of least resistance (High school physics
| was ridiculously easy since it was all about pointless excercises that
| were really all the same. Just apply the formula.) And math, well math
| I just ignored completely. Ofcourse, now that I'm in college I see the
| error of my ways. What I want is to go through all that highschool
| material again to freshen up so I can start with college level stuff.
| Both math and physics. I plan on taking physics as a second major
| (Thats what you call them, right, majors? Sorry, not my native tongue)
| Anyway, this is what I need:
|
| Could you recommend some books that go through the entire material in a
| more reasonable way than your regular highschool books? Physics and
| mathematics. I dont need it to repeat stuff for me or take it slow like
| they normally would. I do need them to go into detail so none of those
| lite physics books with little math. This is important because I need
| to familiarize myself with the proper vocabulary and symbology in the
| english language mathematics (yes, its supposed to be universal but it
| really isnt all that much) Recommend a few if you can because I might
| not be able to find some.
|
| Also, if you can point me to any valuable online resources on the
| subject and communities dedicated to the learning of physics (besides
| this one, ofcourse) it would be great.
|
| Thanks a bunch
Go to good bookstore and spend a day browsing until you find what
you are comfortable with, then buy it. There are many online resources,
google for what you like. If I have to tell you how to use a search
engine then online is not for you anyway, go to your local library instead.
Androcles.
.
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|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 09:50:14 AM |
|
|
Sorcerer wrote:
<antonioetayo@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156821860.400916.299560@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
| Hello there, guys. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of
| questions for me. First, a little background: I've always been
| interested in physics but lets just say my highschool experience with
| every teacher I ever had was less than stellar. So, like many folks out
| there, I had a profound distaste for actual studying. I breezed through
| it all figuring out the path of least resistance (High school physics
| was ridiculously easy since it was all about pointless excercises that
| were really all the same. Just apply the formula.) And math, well math
| I just ignored completely. Ofcourse, now that I'm in college I see the
| error of my ways. What I want is to go through all that highschool
| material again to freshen up so I can start with college level stuff.
| Both math and physics. I plan on taking physics as a second major
| (Thats what you call them, right, majors? Sorry, not my native tongue)
| Anyway, this is what I need:
|
| Could you recommend some books that go through the entire material in a
| more reasonable way than your regular highschool books? Physics and
| mathematics. I dont need it to repeat stuff for me or take it slow like
| they normally would. I do need them to go into detail so none of those
| lite physics books with little math. This is important because I need
| to familiarize myself with the proper vocabulary and symbology in the
| english language mathematics (yes, its supposed to be universal but it
| really isnt all that much) Recommend a few if you can because I might
| not be able to find some.
|
| Also, if you can point me to any valuable online resources on the
| subject and communities dedicated to the learning of physics (besides
| this one, ofcourse) it would be great.
|
| Thanks a bunch
Go to good bookstore and spend a day browsing until you find what
you are comfortable with, then buy it. There are many online resources,
google for what you like. If I have to tell you how to use a search
engine then online is not for you anyway, go to your local library instead.
Androcles.
No good bookstores in my area. Its all about fiction and lame self help
books around here. Libraries dont exist since its a third world country
(they do but, yknow, its not quite the same, if you catch my drift) I
also need the books in english, which rules out the previous options
completely (Pretty much limitted to the ebooks I can find but hey,
scientific knowledge should be free anyway)
Heh, online is not for me he says. I do know how to use a search
engine. I just like to also ask the opinion of people with studies in
the area since their insights are far more valuable. Usually when they
know their stuff they have a few resources they can name off the top of
their head. If not, well, they can always tell me to use a search
engine.
.
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|
| User: "ABarlow" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 04:39:54 AM |
|
|
wrote:
Hello there, guys. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of
questions for me. First, a little background: I've always been
interested in physics but lets just say my highschool experience with
every teacher I ever had was less than stellar. So, like many folks out
there, I had a profound distaste for actual studying. I breezed through
it all figuring out the path of least resistance (High school physics
was ridiculously easy since it was all about pointless excercises that
were really all the same. Just apply the formula.) And math, well math
I just ignored completely. Ofcourse, now that I'm in college I see the
error of my ways. What I want is to go through all that highschool
material again to freshen up so I can start with college level stuff.
Both math and physics. I plan on taking physics as a second major
(Thats what you call them, right, majors? Sorry, not my native tongue)
Anyway, this is what I need:
Could you recommend some books that go through the entire material in a
more reasonable way than your regular highschool books? Physics and
mathematics. I dont need it to repeat stuff for me or take it slow like
they normally would. I do need them to go into detail so none of those
lite physics books with little math. This is important because I need
to familiarize myself with the proper vocabulary and symbology in the
english language mathematics (yes, its supposed to be universal but it
really isnt all that much) Recommend a few if you can because I might
not be able to find some.
Also, if you can point me to any valuable online resources on the
subject and communities dedicated to the learning of physics (besides
this one, ofcourse) it would be great.
Thanks a bunch
Okay, well, as far as mathematics goes, unless you are extremely gifted
in terms of your ability to pick up and retain concepts, you're almost
certainly going to have to sit down and do lots of problems like you
would at school. You'll be able to more or less set your own pace, at
least, but so far as I know for the vast majority of people, the only
way to learn and retain mathematics is practice. As far as mathematics
books goes, I'm not sure about any really good ones off the top of my
head, since I'm not quite sure what you've covered. If you want to do a
lot of physics (say for a major), then you're going to need to learn
calculus. For calculus, I used "Calculus, Early Transcendentals 6th Ed"
by Edwards and Penney and found it to be quite good. If you need to go
back and learn say functional notation or logs/exponents, trigonometry
etc (all very important for physics), then there are a number of texts
that are probably appropriate--just pick and choose the topics you
need. There's probably even sufficient material on the internet to
master those topics if you look hard enough. You could always call up a
local high school and ask what text they normally use for their senior
math courses, too.
For physics, I've found that the text "Physics for Scientists and
Engineers" by Serway gives a really good overview of pretty much all of
the introductory physics material you could ever want. Except modern
physics I guess, which Serway conveniently covers in his second book
(that one is not as good though in my opinion... better off getting
Shandar, Liboff or maybe Griffiths instead, despite that these are more
advanced). The problems are typically a little more advanced than the
"plug the numbers in the formula" type of situation, and there are
usually a handful in each chapter that are quite challenging, and while
the text does require some calculus, if you don't know it or are shaky
with it, it won't limit your learning in most topics. The Feymann
lectures are another excellent resource for physics, although it is
really a supplemental material since they aren't as mathematical or
detailed as you probably desire. Still, I highly recommend them.
Hope that helps,
A.
.
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|
| User: "Teja" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 02:57:41 AM |
|
|
I sure can give u online resources.
Physics - www.physicsclassroom.com
.
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|
| User: "Boris Mohar" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 07:17:41 AM |
|
|
On 28 Aug 2006 20:24:20 -0700, wrote:
Also, if you can point me to any valuable online resources on the
subject and communities dedicated to the learning of physics (besides
this one, ofcourse) it would be great.
Thanks a bunch
http://motionmountain.dse.nl/welcome.html
Regards,
Boris Mohar
Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca
void _-void-_ in the obvious place
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
.
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|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
29 Aug 2006 09:36:40 AM |
|
|
Teja: Thanks, man. Thats a damn good site.
ABarlow: Yes, I realize everyone has to practice a little bit when it
comes to mathematics. But you know how highschool books have a way of
taking it painfully slow to progress through the subjects in a horribly
dry manner, without elaborating much into concepts. But I suppose if
they're the only source its ok.
I cant really call my local highschool because its not what I'm looking
for. I know what books they use because I used them too. Besides, I
really want to get familiarized with physics and mathematics in english
(We speak spanish in my country) because of the wealth of material
available in that language.
I'll see if I can find those books you mentioned. Thanks a bunch.
Boris Mohar: Heh, thanks. I already have motion mountain. Its a nice
little book but I thought it beats around the bush a bit. I really
enjoyed reading the first chapter but I want more solid information.
I'll go back to reading it once I freshen up on the basics.
If anyone has more resources or books to recommend please do so. I'm
writing all of them down just in case I dont find one or two of them.
.
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|
|
| User: "ABarlow" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
30 Aug 2006 05:20:16 AM |
|
|
wrote:
Teja: Thanks, man. Thats a damn good site.
ABarlow: Yes, I realize everyone has to practice a little bit when it
comes to mathematics. But you know how highschool books have a way of
taking it painfully slow to progress through the subjects in a horribly
dry manner, without elaborating much into concepts. But I suppose if
they're the only source its ok.
I think I understand what you mean, and there probably are better books
out there than what you'd find at your average high school. I guess
part of the problem is that exactly what "grade 12 math" is will vary
from country to country because different places have different
curriculums, so I don't really know what you already know and what
would be new to you (and I'm just not as familiar with textbooks from
this grade level as university texts anyway).
For the record, my university offers a precalculus course which uses a
book by Mark Dugopolski called Fundamentals of Precalculus. I don't
know if the text is any good or not because I have never used it, but
that's what they use. I've been trying to track down a syllabus, but
haven't had any luck. Looking through Amazon.com though, I did notice
that Mark Dugopolski has written a lot of books on algebra,
trigonometry and precalculus material that is supposedly geared toward
colleges/universities, so that might be a good starting point. For that
matter, since you aren't keen on the high school texts, it might be
worth your while to look up some high calibre universities and see what
text they are using for a precalculus type of course. I would suspect
that the texts they use are probably a little more advanced than your
average high school text and probably moves at a faster pace. Who
knows, some of the texts might even be good, too.
This is just an aside, but at the website below, there are some really
fabulous, very in-depth studies of a variety of physics topics. They
are probably a lfairly advanced compared to what you're looking for,
but the treatment of some topics (classical mechanics in particular) is
probably better than any text I've ever used.
http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~tatum/
Cheers,
A.
.
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|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: A few questions for you guys... |
30 Aug 2006 09:34:17 PM |
|
|
ABarlow wrote:
antonioetayo@gmail.com wrote:
Teja: Thanks, man. Thats a damn good site.
ABarlow: Yes, I realize everyone has to practice a little bit when it
comes to mathematics. But you know how highschool books have a way of
taking it painfully slow to progress through the subjects in a horribly
dry manner, without elaborating much into concepts. But I suppose if
they're the only source its ok.
I think I understand what you mean, and there probably are better books
out there than what you'd find at your average high school. I guess
part of the problem is that exactly what "grade 12 math" is will vary
from country to country because different places have different
curriculums, so I don't really know what you already know and what
would be new to you (and I'm just not as familiar with textbooks from
this grade level as university texts anyway).
For the record, my university offers a precalculus course which uses a
book by Mark Dugopolski called Fundamentals of Precalculus. I don't
know if the text is any good or not because I have never used it, but
that's what they use. I've been trying to track down a syllabus, but
haven't had any luck. Looking through Amazon.com though, I did notice
that Mark Dugopolski has written a lot of books on algebra,
trigonometry and precalculus material that is supposedly geared toward
colleges/universities, so that might be a good starting point. For that
matter, since you aren't keen on the high school texts, it might be
worth your while to look up some high calibre universities and see what
text they are using for a precalculus type of course. I would suspect
that the texts they use are probably a little more advanced than your
average high school text and probably moves at a faster pace. Who
knows, some of the texts might even be good, too.
This is just an aside, but at the website below, there are some really
fabulous, very in-depth studies of a variety of physics topics. They
are probably a lfairly advanced compared to what you're looking for,
but the treatment of some topics (classical mechanics in particular) is
probably better than any text I've ever used.
http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~tatum/
Cheers,
A.
Another fantastic reply, my friend. Thats a great site. I'm reading the
electricity and magnetism notes right now. Its an area I've been very
interested in lately (I shouldnt stray from my plan of focusing on the
basics first but I've also been reading up on electronics lately and
the chapters about magnetism were fascinating)
.
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