Can anyone please help me out that knows physics very well?

reply to post by seangkt


I think, Seangkt, that that is the true value of such books -- They can cause you to think, and question and get excited about learning about things.

Einstein was a clerk in a patent-filing office. Quite often, it seems, great thought comes from humble origins. We can all hope that we tap into just a portion of what we were meant to be.

I also spent a lot of time with "A Brief History of Time". It was written very well and it drew me in, but, like you, I had to figure out what he was talking about when I got lost. Trouble was, at that time there was no internet, nor any authorative body that could explain Hawking's theories. That was a good thing. It made me ponder stuff on my own.

21 is far from too late. I expect that a year from now, you might be fleshing out new theory for us, getting us olde pharts up to speed ....

p.p.s.s. Einstein conducted a lot of "thought experiments". I think he wasn't so swift with math, and he didn't need to be. He excelled in something that was not even talked about until 60 or more years later -- thinking outside the box. I know........ a worn out phrase.

Einstein apparently found it somewhat boring but easy to craft the math to describe what he saw. I think he was a genius beyond compare, at least in modern times. He was also a great humanitarian. If you Google Einstein's works, you will find a suprising amount of humanitarian works in excess of his physics.

I think it all makes a difference. I think it all is a particle in the fabric of the weave that forms the universe.

I am so excited for you I can hardly stand it. Okay, time for me to take my medication, lol!

I wish you insight, but without any pressure or expectations.

Peace

reply to post by argentus


It is a truly wonderful book!

Funny thing is, I haven't read it in about 5 years.
Just this last week, I stumbled upon it in a dusty box in my garage and just started reading it again.

Its a shame you can't get it in your location, but seeing that you've owned it five times, at least you still have the memories

Cheers to you as well my friend


reply to post by seangkt


Hey sean, if you're really interested in astronomy, over here in Apple Valley, at the Lewis center, the High Desert Astronomical Society usually has something going on on Friday nights.

Heres the linky:
www.hidasonline.com...

I myself have not had the pleasure of attending one of there events yet, but from what some friends have told me, it's pretty fun and educational.

and a Cheers to you too my friend

reply to post by argentus


Take a deep breath and get back at it again.
My dad didn't get his diploma in computer science at 65 for nothing.
And he still had a lot to learn. LOL
Solve pre Clovis, solve faster than the speed of light. The formula for negative mass. The thirteenth division of a quark and how it can be divided into several more parts by wishing or concentrating to make it so.
Just kidding.
Just need folks like you that want answers not cookies.

reply to post by ZombieJesus


Geology to me is the best expression of terrestrial physics I know of.
If you and the OP are not familiar with Rainbow Basin, it is north of Barstow and a little south of Fort Irwin,
Check it out. The best expression of plate tectonics on the planet. Quite a physical expression of earths restlessness. Owl Cannon also.

reply to post by Donny 4 million


I recently went to Own Canyon for the first time about a month ago. That place is really cool.

reply to post by Donny 4 million


Wow, a bigger desert rat than me

I'll definitely have to gas up the old Jeep and check it out, I never heard of those spots.

Usually all my trekkin is in the Big Bear, Johnson Valley area, but I have really been wanting to go exploring more North.

Thanks

[edit on 23-11-2009 by ZombieJesus]

You want to learn physics? Avoid popular books like Green's The Elegant Universe and Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters. These are books about physics, not books that teach you physics.

You sound like a serious-minded guy, so learn the subject properly instead of just reading books about it. You can read the books (if you still want to) afterwards. That way you'll be able to read them with understanding, and criticize them as they deserve.

Learn physics. Nobel-prizewinning theoretical physicist Gerard t'Hooft has actually posted advice and even a syllabus for aspiring theoretical physicists on the Internet. There are links to useful resources. There is also a hell of a lot of hard work, which, I'm afraid, is unavoidable. Hard work is what real physics is all about.

Here's the link to t'Hooft's theoretical physics study plan and resources site.

If you want to become an experimental physicist, however, there's no easy way. You'll have to go to university.

After you've made some progress with t'hooft's plan, you'll probably see the need to continue your studies at a university anyway.

Good luck, and my salutations to you.

[edit on 24/11/09 by Astyanax]

reply to post by Astyanax


I am seriously loving the website you linked. Thank you very much.

I know I'm just repeating some of the advice already given, but some of it needs a seconding.

High school/college entry-level textbooks are definitely great places to start. they give you a firm handle on the more mundane aspects and introduce you to the mathematics involved.

You will need calculus if you want to understand physics. I'd recommend either a lot of study on a good calculus textbook, or if you can afford it, a night course in calculus at your local college.

Fearful Symmetry is an awesome book, but it is more along the lines of what you have already been reading... start with the foundation, then I highly recommend it.

I'd also recommend HyperPhysics. It's a very well-linked primer on most of the concepts involved in physics.

As you progress, you will no doubt find certain areas that will interest you more than others. I cannot overemphasize the need to be grounded in as many of the different disciplines as possible, but rare is the man who can claim proficiency in more than a few areas. Physics is not a science in itself; it is an entire branch of sciences, all of which deal with the physical world in general. Everyone seems to gravitate toward their own particular branch (or branches in some cases). As an example, my interests lie in electromagnetics, chemistry, and light. Remember that while all the different branches are unique, they are also all inter-related. Thus, my advice to become grounded in as many as possible.

Once you have that grounding and have chosen your preferred direction (or it chooses you ), then you will be ready to move into the most recent ideas and theories that are under consideration. There are great men in all the disciplines; from Hawking to Einstein to Tesla to Searle to... you get the picture. One or more of these will interest you more than the rest.

I will advise caution with Michio Kaku; he is an extremely intelligent man, but he will say what is most profitable to him, not what he truly believes. Sad, but true.

Good luck with this fabulous journey!

TheRedneck


[edit on 11/24/2009 by TheRedneck]

Originally posted by Gools
(BTW If you read Hawking's book I also recommend Brian Green's The Elegant Universe)

Great book! I own a copy and the String theory is highly regarded by me...

Definite must have in any library. Pretty hard to read for those that don't understand Quantum Physics, though.

Believe it or not, the Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory is a great starter book -- and even a good "intermediate" book. It's actually very informative and not too "dumbed down" at all, despite its title (it is in very easy-to-understand everyday English -- and requires no math). It was written by George Musser, who is a writer for Scientific American magazine. It's also available as an audiobook.

The book clearly explains particles, forces, and the interactions of these particles and forces. It also explains the theory of where the forces and particles came from by describing the universe milliseconds after the Big Bang.

Granted, the point of the book is specifically about "String Theory", but the first 10 chapters or so explains quantum physics and relativistic physics (Einstein's theories) very clearly and accurately. An understanding of these theories is necessary to understand String Theory.

String Theory may be relatively new and untested, so take what he says about String Theory with a grain of salt, but Einstien's theories have been around for 100 years, and quantum physics has been around for 80 years. These theories may not explain everything, but they have been proven to be at the very least good approximations of nature.

Let me just say that physics is not a field that you can learn through books alone.

You need partners, teachers, experiments, and calculus based problems to truly understand the basics.

Looking back at my schooling (I have an engineering degree) I think that the best advice I can give is to start with the basics, and go from there. Many times I saw either myself or my peers stuck on a concept because we had forgotten or misunderstood some key concept from a year or two before.

I'd make sure your math background is good. You should learn calculus and differential equations for sure to understand physics. Statistics and linear algebra would help for certain areas, like quantum mechanics or optics, but calc/DE are key to almost everything in physics. Other concepts that would help greatly are trigonometry, geometry, and complex numbers, but fortunately those last three aren't too hard, at least compared to the other stuff I mentioned.

Regarding the nonmathematical books about physics, I see nothing wrong with those and I enjoy that sort of thing, but those alone aren't really enough to truly understand physics. They are most useful probably for learning little-known scientific facts or getting an understanding of just what branches of science are actually out there.

I took electrical engineering in school, and just to give you an idea of what I did, here's a list of some of the courses I took, the ones that concern subjects you seem to be interested in. It'll give you an idea what kind of stuff is out there and a rough idea how much math and such is needed to understand them.

4x Calculus courses, 1x Linear Algebra, 1x Differential Equations, 1x Statistics & Probability
2x Inorganic Chemistry courses
1x Statics course (the basic civil engineering course, the physics of stuff like beams, bridges, friction, and such)
2x Mechanics courses (basic mechanical engineering course, physics of moving things, like thrown objects or colliding objects)
4x Physics courses (subjects included waves, optics, electromagnetism)
-Many electric circuits courses (since this was my major, I had tons, but for a general knowledge you won't need nearly so much)
2x Power Engineering/Motors (more useful if you like practical applications or want to build stuff, otherwise you can probably skip it)
2x Nanotechnology courses
2x Communications courses (stuff like radio, TV, waveguides)
1x Thermodynamics course (we covered the first two laws of thermodynamics, though there are 3, plus the '0th law')

I did other stuff too, like biomedical engineering, controls systems, signal processing, computer programming, and I took as much history as I could for credit, just because I like that stuff, but these are subjects that, depending on your interest in them, you could avoid if all you want is pure physics.

A few things I want to learn more about (to give you more ideas )
-astronomy
-relativity
-quantum mechanics
-plasma
-organic chemistry
-almost anything in biology, as I know virtually nothing here

Regarding the math, you really can't get too much of it, if you want to understand physics well. Many times when looking up higher level physics I am still seeing math that is unfamiliar to me, and it makes it really hard to figure out what the heck is going on sometimes. To give you an idea, most people who take physics degrees will, by the end of their program, almost have a math degree as well just because they need that much math to learn physics properly.

If you have certain areas you want to focus on, I'll try to suggest the topics I think would help the most.

Also, this is a course list for the university I went to. I am putting it here because you can go to the physics courses and get an idea of what kind of stuff there is out there to learn. They also will tell you what kind of math you need to understand it. (since they won't let you take something like electromagnetics without calculus first, for example)

I don't know how good these are, but MIT has some *free* online course materials here on a bunch of subjects, including physics.

The only other thing I have to say is that the more you learn about this stuff, the easier it is to learn more, or at least that's what I found. For instance, my first year of university I found extremely frustrating because I was still learning the basics, but once I had those down, it became a lot easier to understand more stuff. So, basically, don't get discouraged if the first few books (like the two you mentioned in your opening post) are really hard for you to understand at the time.

EDIT: Not reading others posts correclty

[edit on 26/11/2009 by LightFantastic]

reply to post by seangkt


Hi seangkt

So have you decided on an approach to learning physics yet?

Any idea which area of Physics interests you?

I must say the t'Hooft link from Astyanax was very good as you discovered. And it starts with adding real number lol, which is really at the beginning. For the few bucks they cost again I recommend the Feynman '6 pieces' books whatever you decide.

PHYSICS is passe, overrated, overhyped, ad nauseum. And should be extinct as PAULA ABDULs career.

Study ASTROPHYSICS (is the new PHYSICS....and more the direction EINSTEIN was moving, after all he was an alleged Mason--not that there is anything wrong with that)!

The LARGE HADRON COLLIDER proves we are already at the denouement of Physics. What else is there after Mr. Boson? $9 billion on the LHC just to have the CHECK ENGINE lite come on! (i have a friend who could fix that for a nominal fee and a nickel bag).

It doesnt MATTER anymore, you see--because its all in the STARS.

There are some tid bits to enjoy on Youtube as well. I think also that some professors have some work posted there too but I enjoy the video descriptions and explanations of the different areas of physics more.

The Special and General Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein. I have read A brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

They are not even taught to physics students.
Science lost its leader in 1943 when everthing of Tesla's was locked
up by the FBI and still classified to the highest level.



[edit on 11/27/2009 by TeslaandLyne]

ED:
Part 1 of 6: Eric Dollard Tesla Longitudinal wave
www.youtube.com...

See where Physics and electricity have parted.


[edit on 11/27/2009 by TeslaandLyne]

ED+: I even corrected my youtube post but I see
that has not been posted yet.


[edit on 11/27/2009 by TeslaandLyne]

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


I just wonder what Tesla's notes are worth. He was WAY ahead of everybody else in his time.