While (re)teaching myself physics I thought it might be helpful to do all the problems from the books I am reading. Currently I am reading through Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern Physics, 14th Edition, Young and Freedman. Each chapter has the following problem sections
- Discussion Questions
- Exercises
- Problems
- Challange Problems
If things start to go slower than I want I will switch to only doing Discussion Questions and Exercises. If I feel like I am missing things I will try to spread the work out amoing Exercises and Problems.
I am going to keep track of how things are going. This will be mostly for me so that I can stay encouraged and also gauge how I am doing.
You can follow along here if you are realllly bored.
I am going to be going pretty fast I hope, I already took a bunch of physics in my undergrad. Here is a very roughed out schedule,
I want to make it though what is normally Physics 1 and 2 by the end of the year. Currently I am only doing the discussion and Exercises. If I try to do all of them I won't have time.
| September | October | November | December | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Physics1&2 | Physics1&2 | Physics1&2 | Physics1&2 |
| Chapers | Chapters 1-7 | Chapters 8-14 | Chapters 15-20 | Chapters 21-32 |
| Status | Slipped | Chapter 8 | TBD | TBD |
| Chapter | Discussion | Exercises | Problems | Challenge | Passage | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26/26 | 48/48 | 0/41 | 0/2 | 0/3 | 74/120 |
| 2 | 22/22 | 54/54 | 0/32 | 0/3 | 0/3 | 76/114 |
| 3 | 16/16 | 38/38 | 0/40 | 0/3 | 0/3 | 54/101 |
| 4 | 38/38 | 29/29 | 0/26 | 0/1 | 0/4 | 67/98 |
| 5 | 28/28 | 59/59 | 0/52 | 0/4 | 0/3 | 87/146 |
| 6 | 24/24 | 61/61 | 0/31 | 0/2 | 0/3 | 85/121 |
| 7 | 23/23 | 36/36 | 0/43 | 0/1 | 0/4 | 57/107 |
| Total | 177/177 | 325/325 | 0/265 | 0/16 | 0/23 | 502/807 |
| Chapter | Discussion | Exercises | Problems | Challenge | Passage | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 0/26 | 0/63 | 0/39 | 0/3 | 0/4 | 0/120 |
| 9 | 0/22 | 0/55 | 0/34 | 0/2 | 0/4 | 0/114 |
| 10 | 0/30 | 0/53 | 0/37 | 0/3 | 0/4 | 0/101 |
| 12 | 0/25 | 0/41 | 0/47 | 0/3 | 0/4 | 0/98 |
| 13 | 0/30 | 0/50 | 0/37 | 0/1 | 0/4 | 0/146 |
| 14 | 0/21 | 0/40 | 0/38 | 0/3 | 0/3 | 0/121 |
| Total | 0/154 | 0/302 | 0/232 | 0/15 | 0/23 | 0/807 |
Spring
I actually think I will be able to make it through the rest of the book in January. Most of the material that is coverered in Quantum mechanics is mostly high level. I will switch books in Febuary to Introduction to Electrodynamics 4ED, David J. Griffiths. There are only 12 chapters in this book but the content is much more difficult.
| January | Febuary | March | April | May | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Physics1&2 | EMAG | EMAG | EMAG | EMAG |
| Chapers | Chapters 33-44 | Chapters 1-3 | Chapters 4-5 | Chapters 6-8 | Chapters 9-12 |
| Status | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Summer |
For the summer I will try to get into some more application type material. Not sure on the chapters but I have two books of interest, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics by Wiley and Sturges. I might be forced to start reading back over my Calculus and Differential Equations books and cover some other mathematical topics,
- Essential Calculus: Early Transcendentals, James Stewart
- Elementary Differential Equations, Kohler and Johnson
- Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems, Selwyn Hollis
- Mathematics for Physicists, Dennery and Krzywicki
| June | July | |
|---|---|---|
| Book | Statics | Dynamics |
| Chapers | TODO | TODO |
| Status | TBD | TBD |
| Fall |
In the fall I will dig around for more advanced books. I have some options such as
- Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths and Schroeter
- Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Shankar
- Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths and Schroeter
| August | September | October | November | December | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | TODO | TODO | TODO | TODO | TODO |
| Chapers | TODO | TODO | TODO | TODO | TODO |
| Status | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Here are the list of books that I can work from.
Introduction
Mechanics
- Classical Mechanics, Taylor
- Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems
- Introduction to Classical Mechanis, Morin
- Analytical Mechanics 7ED, Grant and Fowles
- Engineering Mechanics: Statics
- Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics
Electromagnetism
Quauntum
- Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Shankar.
- Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths and Schroeter.
- Quantum Mechanics, Auletta, Fortunato, and Parisi
- Introduction to Quantum Physics, French and Taylor
- Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition, Zee
Particle Physics
Relativity
- Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, Hartle
- Gravitation, Misner, Throne, Wheeler, and Kaiser
- Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell, Zee
String Theory
- String Theory, Vol. 1, Polchinski
- String Theory, Vol. 2, Polchinski
- String Theory and M-Theory: A Modern Introduction, Becker, Becker, and Schwarz
- A First Course in String Theory, 2nd Edition, Zwiebach
Optics
Solid State
Scientific Computing
- Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications, Frenkel and Smit
- A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python, Langtangen
Mathematics
- Essential Calculus: Early Transcendentals, James Stewart
- Elementary Differential Equations, Kohler and Johnson
- Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems, Selwyn Hollis
- Mathematics for Physicists, Dennery and Krzywicki
Philisophical
- Philosophical Concepts in Physics (Pbk.). 1998. Cambridge University Press
- From Paradox to Reality (Pbk.). 1989. Cambridge University Press
- Philosophy of Physics. 1992. Westview Press
- Character of Physical Law. 1994. MIT Press (recommended)