| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Greg Loftus" |
| Date: |
26 Aug 2003 02:42:40 PM |
| Object: |
Where can I learn outside of school? |
It is not possible at this time that I attend a college or university
to study physics. None the less I am interested in pursuing a
mathematically rigorous and conceptually complete understanding of the
physical universe. Would anyone have recommendations on _specific_
texts that I might find useful? I have already taken a freshman level
calculus class and I am familiar with the basic concepts of
derivatives and integrals, what is the most useful mathematics to
study from here (calculus 2 I guess)? I have taken a freshman level
mechanics course as well, but it was a few years ago. Is it necessary
for me to review that material in detail or can I jump right into
electromagnetic theory, relativity, etc?
Please spare me the "There's a thing called a library..." crack that
is so popular on this group, I could amass 200 different texts on my
own but what I really need is someone with experience to point me in a
more focused direction.
Thank you for your time,
Greg Loftus
P.S. E-mail replies are welcome as well.
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| User: "Pmb" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
26 Aug 2003 03:21:53 PM |
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"Greg Loftus" <gwltfrancis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4f44464f.0308261142.3892f400@posting.google.com...
It is not possible at this time that I attend a college or university
to study physics. None the less I am interested in pursuing a
mathematically rigorous and conceptually complete understanding of the
physical universe. Would anyone have recommendations on _specific_
texts that I might find useful? I have already taken a freshman level
calculus class and I am familiar with the basic concepts of
derivatives and integrals, what is the most useful mathematics to
study from here (calculus 2 I guess)?
I'd say complete the calculus sequence. Since you're doing this by yourself
then I'd suggest that you find a decent caclulus text and go through it
cover to cover and work out as many problems as you can. Then if you're up
to it pick up a copy of a physics text like that of Haliday and Resnick or
the one by Ohanian. Each I've read and each I liked. Stick with that until
you finish the calculus work.
I have taken a freshman level
mechanics course as well, ...
What kind of course? I've never heard of anything like that. Usually there's
a physics sequence like Physics I, II and III. Then after the student does
that he goes to a mechanics course. What text did you use in that course?
...but it was a few years ago. Is it necessary
for me to review that material in detail or can I jump right into
electromagnetic theory, relativity, etc?
That too depends. Especially as to what you're itching to learn. I'd
recommend going through one of the Physics texts I mentioned. You'll learn
EM there. Straight EM courses and texts assume that you've gone through that
material.
Please spare me the "There's a thing called a library..." crack that
is so popular on this group, ...
I hate it when that happens. :-)
I could amass 200 different texts on my
own but what I really need is someone with experience to point me in a
more focused direction.
How would you like to approach this? What are your priorities?
Pete
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| User: "FrediFizzx" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
26 Aug 2003 03:48:15 PM |
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"Greg Loftus" <gwltfrancis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4f44464f.0308261142.3892f400@posting.google.com...
| It is not possible at this time that I attend a college or university
| to study physics. None the less I am interested in pursuing a
| mathematically rigorous and conceptually complete understanding of the
| physical universe. Would anyone have recommendations on _specific_
| texts that I might find useful? I have already taken a freshman level
| calculus class and I am familiar with the basic concepts of
| derivatives and integrals, what is the most useful mathematics to
| study from here (calculus 2 I guess)? I have taken a freshman level
| mechanics course as well, but it was a few years ago. Is it necessary
| for me to review that material in detail or can I jump right into
| electromagnetic theory, relativity, etc?
|
| Please spare me the "There's a thing called a library..." crack that
| is so popular on this group, I could amass 200 different texts on my
| own but what I really need is someone with experience to point me in a
| more focused direction.
As Pete mentions, you will definitely need to learn everything in Haliday
and Resnick's "Physics" or something similar. Feynman's "QED: the strange
theory of light and matter" is good to get focused on an introduction to
quantum electrodynamical things.
If you think you can handle it and you want to jump into electrodynamics,
Griffiths' "Introduction to Electrodynamics" is good and fairly easy to
follow and it has some introductory stuff for special relativity as applied
to ED. This might be good concurrent with calculus 2. It will give you
stuff to use the calculus on. After you finish with calculus, you will need
to learn linear algebra and more to properly understand the full math for
quantum mechanics.
Well, this should get you started.
FrediFizzx
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| User: "Gauge" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
27 Aug 2003 05:54:52 AM |
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"FrediFizzx" <fredifizzx@hotmail.com> wrote
If you think you can handle it and you want to jump into electrodynamics,
Griffiths' "Introduction to Electrodynamics" is good and fairly easy to
follow ...
If one has a solid understanding of vector calculus and he doesn't
seem to have gotten anywhere's near that level yet. That's why I
didn't mention it. It could be done concurrent with a calculus III
course.
...,and it has some introductory stuff for special relativity as applied
to ED. This might be good concurrent with calculus 2. It will give you
stuff to use the calculus on. After you finish with calculus, you will need
to learn linear algebra and more to properly understand the full math for
quantum mechanics.
I wonder about that. The required math may be learned during such a
course such as QM. I've never seen a physics program which required
it. They required topics are covered in other courses that are given.
At my college we studied it in a course called "Transform Methods for
Linear Systems.
However don't get me wrong. I think one can't take too many math
courses and there's few areas of math that are not useful. In fact
this is why I double majored - I wanted as much math under my belt as
possible.
But I agree - Linear Algebra would be a good thing to stufy as would
abstract algebra and complex analysis etc.
But let's not scare the poor guy! :-)
Pete
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| User: "tj Frazir" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
26 Aug 2003 10:12:37 PM |
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Go lay out weld and a machine shop first.
Be an electriian first.
Itll put some reality bihind the math
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
27 Aug 2003 04:26:59 AM |
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In article <4f44464f.0308261142.3892f400@posting.google.com>,
(Greg Loftus) wrote:
It is not possible at this time that I attend a college or university
to study physics. None the less I am interested in pursuing a
mathematically rigorous and conceptually complete understanding of the
physical universe. Would anyone have recommendations on _specific_
texts that I might find useful? I have already taken a freshman level
calculus class
Which text did you use? If it's a dumbed down text, you need more
work. Also calc doesn't get really interesting until the end of
II and after the series in III. I can't recall what IV covered.
You are missing a whole year of calc. (and this is just the basics).
Needs work.
.. and I am familiar with the basic concepts of
derivatives and integrals,
You can't be familiar with only calc I.
.. what is the most useful mathematics to
study from here (calculus 2 I guess)? I have taken a freshman level
mechanics course as well, but it was a few years ago.
Did you use algebra or calculus?
.. Is it necessary
for me to review that material in detail or can I jump right into
electromagnetic theory, relativity, etc?
Please spare me the "There's a thing called a library..." crack that
is so popular on this group, I could amass 200 different texts on my
own but what I really need is someone with experience to point me in a
more focused direction.
MIT is supposed to have some of their courses on the web. Look
at them, see what texts they are using, try some of the problem.
Buy the Schaum's Lagrangian Dynamics. Do the first problem in
the _introduction_. You won't be able to do it :-)
Also you need to know how to do vector arithmetic. And I bet
you haven't busted out of the Euclidean geometry box.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
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| User: "Chergarj" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
27 Aug 2003 03:01:33 PM |
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Any good old textbook on Calculus will give you what you need for 2 or 3
semesters worth of the subject. You will need funamental trigonometry
knowledge to deal with physics, mechanics or otherwise. In fact, you can't
progress much in Calculus unless you understand trigonometry.
A good choice of physics textbooks are the University Physics series(or set) by
Sears, Zemansky, & Young. This will correspond to the funamental course
series\sequence of the universities, for Mechanics (semester #1), Electricity &
Magnetism (semester #2), and Modern Physics (semester #3). You really need
some of the laboratory work to help build your feel for what is discussed in
the books. Worded problems are essential, but not enough.
G C
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| User: "Chergarj" |
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| Title: Re: Where can I learn outside of school? |
28 Aug 2003 04:00:34 PM |
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Please excuse me for misspelling as "funamental" which should have been spelled
as "fundamental". I did not intend to be sloppy.
(See my last post).
G C
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