Physics Books for the Novice?

cornjchob asks: "I've been a Slashdot reader for quite sometime now, and I've seen alot of Physics articles posted. I've got a good understanding of alot of it, but that doesn't mean there's no room to improve. So what's some good reading material for Physics that will give you a good, solid foundation if you've missed something, and then give you some additional stuff? What about online articles or PDF's for us cheap folk? Quantum Mechanics is another subject area that--judging by alot of posts underneath the articles, at least--many of us could use some brushing up on. Any suggestions for books/articles/PDF's on that? Suggestions on anything pertinent to any of those would be great."

A great site.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.physlink.com/

QED

[rnb]

QED (Quantumelectro Dynamics) by Richard Feynman is a great (if specialized) physics book for someone who doesn't know that much about physics. I found it to be interesting and quite educational. It also got me interested in finding out more about some of the topics discussed in the book and physics in general. I highly recommend it.

"a lot" is two words, damnit!

[Anonymous Coward]

(I apologize, but somebody had to troll.. err.. say it.)

Hawkings new book is great...

[Anonymous Coward]

Get "Universe in a Nutshell" that's a pretty good one. Also check out A Brief History of Time. I like books by George Gamow (Mr. Thompkins) as well as some of the Sagan stuff. Those are good starters.

cheers,
pt

www.flashenabled.com

Hawking

[sh00z]

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is easily understood by anybody with a high school diploma, and should take less than three hours to read. It'll get you through the classical stiff, quantum physics, and just enough relativity to be dangerous

Easy

[MxTxL]

Stephen Hawking: Brief history of time and Universe in a nutshell.

Very well written, in plain english that anyone can understand. And the ideas in them will blow your mind...

A Brief History of Time

[Nezer]

Steven Hawking's A Brief History of time is a great introduction without getting too technical. Though a bit dated it was revised not-too-long ago and now includes discussion of the ever-popular string thoeries.

He does talk a great deal about relativity and does touch upon quantum mechanics.

Physics is such a deep subject that, from there, you can go just about anywhere you want!

Try this site.

[Anonymous Coward]

It has a lot of information on physics [wikipedia.org]

Feynman's a classic...

[yorick]

The first book of Feynman's "lectures" on physics isn't bad at all. The big question you need to ask is whether or not you just want a conceptual understanding of physics, or one that enables you to do the required mathematics involved. Unfortunately they tend to be a different audience...most layman's books have no math, and most college books concentrate on the math...which isn't bad, it's just that sometimes things are introduced differently because of the required mathematics.

Feynmann Lectures

[FuzzyDaddy]

The "Feynmann Lectures on Physics", in three volumes.

They're expensive, but outstanding and well worth it. He developed them for a freshman level course, so they're accesible and don't rely on particularly fancy mathematical notation.

John Gribbin

[Ami_Chan]

For quantum mechanics, I highly recommend the books by John Gribbin - In Search of Schrodinger's Cat and the more up-to-date sequel, Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality. They both give a good historical background on quantum mechanics, and provide a decent background meant for the lay-person. He also has several other books on various topics in science, but I myself have not read them.

Feynman Lectures

[Carbon Unit 549]

They are 40 years old but still a great and unique introduction to the foundations of physics.

Many of the lectures in mp3 and pdf format are currently being posted to news:alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.spoken-word

If you can buy them in your neighbourhood.

The most amazing website on physics...

[yorgasor]

If you want to know anything about physics fundamentals, check out http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe. html
I've used it to get a good foundation on a few topics and am amazed at how much information it has, as well as how nicely layed out it is.

You could try...

[The_Pey]

For black holes, wormholes and some of the more astro related phenomenae, you could try Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy [amazon.com] or The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory [amazon.com]

Both are very current and are intended for laymen.

-B

Isaac Asimov

[PHAEDRU5]

Asimov did a nice little introduction to Physics. I found it quite readable.

The Elegant Universe

[pmcneill]

• The Elegant Universe

by Brian Greene is probably the best popular physics book I've read recently. From memory (it's been about a year), it's divided into three major parts. The first is an excellent introduction to both relativity and quantum mechanics, as well as explaining why they are ultimately incompatible and must be combined in a new theory (quantum gravity/string theory). The second part is a description of the current state of string theory, and the third is a description of where the theory might go (called M-theory). My only complaint about this book, which is brand new given other books I've read, is it doesn't mention the primary fallacy of string theory, which is that it relies on a static background. M-theory, if workable, could fix this, but I don't recall that ever being made clear in this book.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

[CmdrSam]

If you're looking for the real, actual stuff (a book of physics as opposed to a book about physics) I would very strongly recommend the Feynman Lectures on Physics [amazon.com]. They cover mechanics, E&M, and quantum mechanics: they were the first 2 years of courses at Caltech when Feynman taught them.

They get tough in places, but are appropriate for a physics major undergrad, someone with an already good general knowledge of mathematics and a little bit of physics, or just a bright and ambitious high school student. They're a little pricey (all textbooks are) but you might be able to find them at the public library.

Just about every student at Caltech has at least one of these three books...

--Sam L-L

Mike's Particle Physics

[FortKnox]

Mike's Particle Physics column on Kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org] explains particle physics quite well for the layman. Unfortunately, K5 is slower than balls atm, so I can't give you a direct link (search for 'particle physics' and you should get all, like 5, articles).

Any of the Feynman Lectures on Physics

[auferstehung]

are very good, although pricey. A good excuse for a trip to the local public library. Read Amazon's [amazon.com] summary and review archives.

Personal Favorites (new physics)

[masterkool]

The Dancing Wu Li Masters: Gary Zukav" [quanta-gaia.org] A book about the dynamics of new physics without mathematics.
The Elegant Universe: Brian Greene" [wwnorton.com] Again, another new physics book with neat pics and no mathmaticas. Specific to Superstrings mostly.
A Brief History of Time: Stephen Hawking" [psyclops.com] A good book about allmost everything between classical physics and the physics of the last few years. I.E. Relativity, quantum mechanics etc.

Quantum theory, etc.

[Triv]

Let's see...

"Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries" by John Gribbin. Very readable and occasionally funny. Bit of a steep learning curve but you don't really notice it if you've got a few physics classes under your belt.

"The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory" by Brian Greene. excellent read (although I'm only halfway through - there might be plot twists that I don't know about. ;)

Oh, and I'd also pick up a copy of "Copenhagen" by Michael Frayn. No, on second thoughts, I'd pick up a copy on CD [amazon.com]. It's a play, and should be seen...but since that's not available, you're better off listening to it instead. :)

Triv

Serway, Serway, Serway.

[Garin]

Raymond Serway's text, "Physics for Scientists and Engineers (with modern physics)" has EVERYTHING that a beginning physics student needs. All that you need to bring to the table is some basic math skills (you can even get by without calculus if necessary). This is (was?) the workhorse textbook for virtually every first-year "real" physics course that I've ever seen. Heck, we used it in two first year courses, and three second year courses. It's a great book. When I did my physics degree (graduated 2000) I used this book clear through to my senior years as an overall reference. I used the 3rd edition, but I'm sure newer editions are just as good.

It is clear, concise, complete, and easily available on the cheap. I'm very sure you could go to your local college or university and buy it in the used textbook store. Don't worry if it's five or ten years old -- first-year physics hasn't changed much in ten years :)

Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide to Physics"

[Cosmicbandito]

I grew up on this one. He uses clever little drawings to explain physics principles. Gonick is only the cartoonist though. He collaborated with a physicist named Art Huffman to write this. It's a great introduction to the principles of physics and electricity for novices.

Just search for his name and physics on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller.

He's also written some excellent history books.
(Cartoon history of the universe I and II. These got me through me freshman year history courses. Lots of interesting little tidbits. Did you know the Egyptians used crocidile dung as birth control?)

Quantum Mechanics is essential

[Hanul]

To understand modern physics a deep understanding of quantum mechanics (QM) is absolutely neccessary and that means you have to do MATHS! Without computing some problems with your own brain cells a lot of the important structure of QM will be hidden. Not one of the popular book on this topic, be it Hawking, Penrose, Barrow, or else, can explain this, because - well, because the structure lies in the mathematical form itself. You can't translate this in layman's terms. No, you can't.

Also, you can't determine the limits of QM without knowing what maths is used for it. And to explore far more advanced topics like QED, QCD, or even Super Strings and M-Theory, you should be aware, that the underlying maths is far more advanced, too.

"Principles of Quantum Mechanics" (2nd Ed.) by Ramamurti Shankar is a good introductory textbook. If you worked through it, and solved all the exercises, you will have a good understanding of classic quantum mechanics.

You can't understand a subject without actually studying it - and by studying I mean studying as you would for an university exam.

I recommend Greg Egan

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/FOUNDATIONS/i ndex.html

His science fiction is great as well.

Careful with Feynman Lectures

[Mr. Theorem]

Most physicists find that the Feynman lectures are amazingly insightful books, but they are often unhelpful for the beginner. Feynman's class, upon which the books are based, was a disaster (read about it in the Feynman biography Genius).

Whatever books you choose, remember that simply reading is not sufficient to really understand what's going on: you must work the exercises and problems. One of my professors once remarked to the class that "you haven't read a book until you've worked all the problems."

Some books I haven't seen mentioned:

• Experiments in Modern Physics, by Melissinos. Often used as a textbook in upper-level undergraduate labs. Dated but interesting.
  
• Purcell's Electricity and Magnetism. Very nice, often used for the "honors" level introductory E&M
  
• Walker's The Flying Circus of Physics although it's been a long time since I've looked at it
  
• Cartoon Guide to Physics by Gonick and Huffman--also a long time since I've looked at it
  
• Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles by Eisberg and Resnick. Although I thought this was terribly simplified for an upper level quantum mechanics course, it would be very good for a modern physics course.
  

free introductory physics books

[ibex42]

You can find free introductory physics books at www.lightandmatter.com [lightandmatter.com] They are downloadable as pdfs.

Re:Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide to Physics"

[Lish]

Absolutely. The Cartoon Guides really do a good job of distilling down broad topics to a level Joe Reader can understand, in a way that's funny and interesting. The genetics one is particularly great, as are the History of the Universe books. I just found out they're doing a Volume III of that series, looking forward to it.

For completeness, here's an Amazon link: Larry Gonick [amazon.com].

Re:Serway, Serway, Serway.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you realy want a chalenge.....master these.... or take a class useing. Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory John R. Reitz Frederick J. Milford Robert W. Christy -- Hard core....3 semesters of studing within 630 pages. Classical Mechanics Tai L. Chow -- Lagrangian and Hamiltonian in the first chapters......how rude. The book to relearn Calc and DifEQ to. A calculus course is mathmatical masterbation without the problem solving found in these two examples texts. Chapter 4 in Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory changed my life...well before TIVO.

Re:Why don't you

[prismatic]

try the dancing wu li masters. (amazon.com [amazon.com] or half.com [ebay.com]). it is an excellent book for learning the concepts behind classical and modern physics without worrying about the math or the specific details.

after that, *then* read a brief history of time.

after reading both of those, if you still want to know more of the details, take a physics class at the local community college.

Re:Isaac Asimov

[beej]

I second this wholeheartedly. The only drawback to his book is that he deliberately stayed away from calculus. This could be boon or bane, depending on your perspective. I could tell there were a number of places where he could have more clearly described the concepts using calculus.

Overall, I highly recommend the book. All 3 volumes bound into one can often be found in the discount books section at your local major bookstore.

dont laugh

[grahamsz]

It's actually got a lot of very good material.

I used it to revise for my semiconductor electronics course and was surprised by the quality or the text (and the decoration).

Some suggestions from a Fizzicks grad student

[mrflip]

I am an nth year grad student at UTexas-Austin. Here are my suggestions:

QED by Richard Feynman

QED stands for Quantum Electrodynamics -- the modern theory of how light travels and interacts with matter. It also stands for Quod Erat Demonstratum -- the phrase mathematicians use to show the successful completion of a proof. QED (the theory) is one of the most beautiful and precisely verified theories in all of science; the author is not only one of the principal architects of that theory but its clearest expositor. Feynman carefully paints a clear, physical picture of a mindblowing esoteric landscape populated by particles that spring into existence or annihilate into photons, taking all possible paths in order to find the 'natural' one. This is the best science book for a general audience I have read.

Any educated person with an appreciation and interest for science should enjoy this book.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. 1
by R.P. Feynman and R. Leighton

For the more serious and technical reader, the first volume of the Feynman Lectures serve as an excellent self-study textbook. Reading these books made me change my major to physics. I referred to them consistently well into my graduate studies, since they do the best job of describing a tangible, physical model of what is happening. For example, the chapter on conservation of energy does the best job I have seen of not only describing the principle but explaining the importance and relevance of conservation principles. Six chapters of this book are sold as 'Six Easy Pieces' -- but anyone geeky enough for Slashdot should spring for the real thing.

Any person with a technical background and college mathematics will enjoy and refer to this book -- especially as a supplement to lesser textbooks.

Nobel Lectures in Physics 1901-1921, pub. Elsevier 1967
Nobel Lectures in Physics 1922-1941, pub. Elsevier 1967
(possibly out of print; try BookFinder [bookfinder.com] or similar)

Each Nobel Laureate gives a talk that is supposed to describe the science behind the prize at a general level. Most of them succeed in doing quite a good job. The science from these first four decades of modern physics is well described elsewhere, but these lectures give you a first-hand account that complements the textbook approach, and can be quite enlightening scientifically as well as giving a history, social, and scientific context.

All the heavy hitters are here:

Laureates in vol. 1 include Roentgen, for X-rays; Becquerel and the Curies, for discovering radioactivity; JJ Thomson, for discovery of the electron; Michelson (of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the precision measurement of the speed of light); Laue, and later the Braggs, for X-Ray diffraction; Max Planck, for the quantum hypothesis; and some dude named Albert Einstein (who won for his theory of the photoelectric effect but gave his lecture on relativity, which was understood to be more important but was still speculative at the time).

Laureates in vol. 2 include Bohr, for the structure of the atom; Millikan, for determining Planck's constant; Franck and Hertz, for verifiying Bohr's quantum model of the atom; DeBroglie, for matter waves; Heisenberg, Schroedinger, and Dirac, for quantum mechanics; Davisson and Thomson, for demonstrating that electrons are waves as well as particles; and Fermi, for artificial radioactivity.

Any person who wants a first-hand account of the story and the science behind the great developments in physics will enjoy these books.

The Flying Circus of Physics by J Diamond

This book simply contains a series of single paragraphs, each of which describes an ordinary or extraordinary physical phenomenon followed by a series of general questions on that topic. (For example: Why are sunsets usually more colorful than sunrises?) Some conundra would make good science fair project for a middle-to-high school student, or amateur hobbyist; most can provide a group of geeks with solid dinner-conversation material as they puzzle out the answer. Even a physics professor will have to think carefully before answering each question, but they all depend on basic physics -- an elementary physics student with motivation has the tools to answer any given question. The back of the book contains a brief answer to each question and pointers to journals or books giving more information. However, the real value of the book is to make you sweat out the physics and sharpen your intuition, so looking at the answers is cheating (early versions of the book had none).

Physics majors or students taking college physics classes who want to plumb the depths of their understanding or find jumping-off points for independent study should get this book.

Light and Matter

[Corvus9]

I see several posters suggesting books by Feynman and Hawking. While these are no doubt excellent writers for university undergrads, the article writer specifically asked for "online articles or PDFs" giving "a good, solid foundation".

If you are looking for an on-line physics course covering the basics, with a free on-line PDF textbook, check out Light and Matter [lightandmatter.com]. This course starts out at square 1, describing what science and physics are, moving on to what a "measurement" is, why mathematics are useful for physics, then starts with Newtonian physics, continues through optics and electromagnetism, and to quantum mechanics.

The site also contains some astronomy texts, physics Java applets. This is an excellent site for anyone teaching physics.

Re:The Elegant Universe

[canadian_right]

Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics
by Gary Zukav, David Finkelstein

Mass Market Paperback - 384 pages Reissue edition (September 1, 1984)
Language: English
Bantam; ISBN: 055326382X

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
by Brian Greene, B. Greene

Paperback - 464 pages 1 edition (February 29, 2000)
Language: English
Vintage; ISBN: 0375708111

Read the Dancing Wu Li Masters first, then Elegant Universe to get an excellent overview of quantum physics over the last 100 years or so.

I've read them both twice, and I still can't honestly say I grok quantum physics.

Re:physics for poets

[bcrowell]

Do you mean Physics for Poets by March [amazon.com]? Yeah, really cool book!!!! March is a simple, understandable book written for beginners . So far, nearly all the posts sound to me like someone asked for the best Linux distro for the absolute beginner, and the suggestions were Debian and Gentoo. C'mon, folks! The original poster asked for introductory books.

And along the same lines, I can't believe that nobody has suggested Conceptual Physics [amazon.com] by Hewitt. I've taught introductory physics at many math levels, and used many books. Hewitt is the only book that I honestly liked teaching out of (well, besides my own books :-).