I'm looking to learn physics. I never really got into the subject in school since my teacher was too busy chatting up the girls and ignoring the quiet students like me. All through my physics course I sat in confusion. I assumed I'd fail my exams. But on the final day before the exam my teacher passed around an A4 sheet of paper which contained loads of formulas for working out such things as voltage. After I burned these into my mind the years of confusion dissapeared and I understood a lot of what was said... at least of the stuff I remember. Anyway since then I've pretty much forgotten everything about physics. I have the basics in my old note books but I was hoping some of you could recommend some reading for me. Something that's not too complicated. An easy to intermediate guide to physics that will get me on the path to learning more and more. Thanks in advance.
This is a website that you may find interesting. Most of the material linked is at a pretty advanced level though, but the some of the math links may help. Almost all of the links are to free online material. http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/theorist.html It might help if you tell us at what level you are in math. Algebra, trig, calculus, diff equations,etc. Appropriate physics texts depend on the student's math ability.
It would be nice if we had a sticky resources topic, but in addition to the link provided above there are some good links on this thread.
It's been two years since I've studied either Maths or Physics so I guess I'll also have to hit my old maths note books too.
Phasmid: Ideally, one should have a good grasp of first year calculus, and at least some familiarity with vector analysis and differential equations. Not that there aren't physics texts that limit math to algebra, many high school and even college physics are taught at that level. But you can't really understand with only algebra, you end up just memorizing and "formula plugging". How you arrive at the formulas, that's real physics, and that means some advanced math. Don't let that frighten you off, basically what you need is taught first year to science, math, and engineering students at uni. It really depends on at what level you want to comprehend and how much effort you want to put in. przyk: That page should be required reading for some around here. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
