Physics — Susan Rigetti

So You Want to Learn Physics…SECOND EDITION Introduction to the Second EditionApril 20th, 2021Nearly six years ago, I sat down at my desk and typed up a detailed guide for anyone who wanted to learn physics on their own. At the time, I had no idea how many people would read it and use it — my only goal was to put the information out there in a clear and straightforward way so that anyone who wanted to learn physics would have the self-study curriculum they needed. Since then, over six hundred thousand people have turned to this guide to study physics. According to the emails I’ve received from readers, many of you have gone on to get undergraduate degrees in physics after following the curriculum in this guide (some of you are even now in graduate programs!), but the majority of those who have bookmarked and followed this guide — even all the way to the end! — have done so out of pure curiosity and for the sheer joy of understanding the incredible universe we inhabit. The success of this guide is, I believe, a testament to two things. First, that one of the most impactful things you can do is to share what you know with others, even if it doesn’t seem like a lot. I wasn’t able to become a professional physicist, but I was able to use my knowledge of undergraduate and graduate-level physics to type up a comprehensive and accessible curriculum that has helped hundreds of thousands of people learn physics. That’s pretty remarkable. If you are wondering what you have to offer the world, I hope you will think of this guide and consider what you might know that you can share with others. Second, that there are so many people in the world who want to understand physics but are unable to study it formally in a university setting for any number of reasons. These same people are very serious about learning physics, and not for any career purposes but simply because they want to understand the universe, and they are and have been dreadfully underserved and underestimated by the academic physics community (who do not take them seriously because they aren’t studying at colleges and universities) and by the authors of contemporary and popular physics books and the publishers of those same books (who mostly just sell them books that assume most readers can never and will never really understand physics).

When I wrote the first edition of this guide, I was pretty sure there were a lot more people out there who really wanted to learn physics — real physics — than academic physicists and publishers believed, and those were the people I wanted to help. As it turns out, there were even more of you than I could ever have imagined!Well, after almost six years and lots of reader feedback, I decided that it was finally time to make a (lightly) updated version of this guide. I went back through the emails and comments I’ve received over the years, and then made a list of the most popular requests. I skimmed through all the books in the curriculum and a few new ones as well. I updated textbook editions, added more undergraduate-level electives, added a section of graduate-level electives, and made a few other small changes — all in the hope that this new version will be even more useful than the first. As I wrote in the first edition: “Remember that anyone can learn physics…Whether you turn it into a hobby or a career, the pure joy of understanding the universe around us is one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever have in life.”Godspeed!You can still find the first edition here, on my old website: https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2016/8/13/so-you-want-to-learn-physics. Introduction to the First EditionAugust 13th, 2015Over the past few years, ever since writing a blog post called “If Susan Can Learn Physics, So Can You,” I've been contacted by people from all backgrounds who are inspired and want to learn physics, but don't know where to start, what to learn, what to read, and how to structure their studies. I've spoken with single mothers who want to go back to school and study physics, tenured philosophy professors who want to learn physics so that they can make significant and informed contributions to philosophy of physics, high school students who want to know what they should read to prepare for an undergraduate education in physics, and people in dozens of various careers who want to really, really learn and understand physics simply for the joy of it. This post is a condensed version of what I've sent to people who have contacted me over the years, outlining what everyone needs to learn in order to really understand physics.

The general physics education given in U.S. universities is divided into what is learned at the undergraduate level and what is covered in graduate courses, and I've divided my list in a similar way. Because each subject is built upon the previous subjects and the mathematics becomes more complex and difficult, it's important to learn each topic in the order presented below. If you work through the all of the textbooks in the Undergraduate Physics list of this post, and master each of the topics, you'll have gained the knowledge equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree in Physics (and will be able to score well on the Physics GRE). If you work through the graduate core of the Graduate Physics textbooks, you'll have the equivalent knowledge of obtaining a Master's Degree in Physics. A PhD in Physics requires the graduate coursework as well as several years of research and a thesis, and the experience involved in a PhD isn't something that can be gained independently of a PhD program. Remember that anyone can learn physics. It's no different from learning programming, from learning a musical instrument, from reading great literature. Whether you turn it into a hobby or a career, the pure joy of understanding the universe around us is one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever have in life. Before You BeginPopular Books on PhysicsWhen you're solving problems, working through textbooks, and getting into the nitty-gritty details of each topic, it's so easy to lose the forest for the trees and forget why you even became inspired to study physics in the first place. This is where really, really good (and non-speculative) popular books on physics come in handy: they inspire, they encourage, and they help you keep the big picture in mind. One big problem is that many popular physics books (especially those written by famous physicists) are incredibly speculative and tend to present an unrealistic view of what the study of physics is all about. When you're learning physics, it's best to avoid these types of speculative books and stick to the ones that talk about the real physics that we know exists (in general, anything by Frank Close or Richard Feynman is a safe bet!).Here are a handful of my favorite popular physics books, ranked in order of difficulty: The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (Level: Easy). An account of the Big Bang by one of the most brilliant physicists of all time.The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman (Level: Easy).

A brilliant, inspiring little book on the laws of nature.The Particle Odyssey by Frank Close (Level: Easy). A brilliant popular introduction to particle physics and its history, beautifully illustrated with amazing figures and photographs. (Unfortunately it’s a bit difficult to find online right now, but if you find a copy, you should buy it ASAP!)Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne (Level: Easy/Medium). My absolute favorite popular introduction to general relativity. The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky (Level: Medium). A solid introduction to classical mechanics. Is best understood around level 5 in the undergraduate curriculum. The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Boxed Set) and Feynman Lectures on Physics (Kindle Edition) (Level: Medium). Feynman's Lectures are essential readings for everyone interested in physics, and you'll find a copy on the bookshelf of every amateur and professional physicist. These lectures are what got me into physics: my astronomy professor told me to read them and see if I liked physics - they changed my life! They are somewhat difficult to understand if you are just getting started, but they will make more and more sense by the time you reach levels 5 and 6 in the undergraduate curriculum. Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics by Bruce Schumm (Level: Difficult). The very best popular book about particle physics — it clearly explains the most difficult concepts without resorting to speculation. (I had the honor of working with Bruce on a search for supersymmetry at the ATLAS detector.) This book is a great read while you are starting level 7 in the undergraduate curriculum. Mathematical and Scientific PreliminariesBefore you begin studying physics and working through the topics in the sections below, you need to be familiar with some basic mathematics. A high school education — which should include pre-algebra, algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, and pre-calculus — is sufficient. If you need a refresher, I recommend either working through the Khan Academy math courses (https://www.khanacademy.org/) or the book Why Math? by R.D. Driver. There's no need to be familiar with calculus before starting, because you’ll learn it as you work through the undergraduate-level courses.There are no scientific prerequisites for this curriculum.

You don’t need to be familiar with biology or chemistry at either the high school or college level in order to understand, although doing some studying on the side can’t hurt. Khan Academy has some great high school science refresher courses that are perfect for this (https://www.khanacademy.org/science). How to StudyEveryone learns very differently, and knowing your learning style is important: do you learn by reading, by taking notes, by talking, by watching, by doing, or by a combination of some or all of these? For example, I learn by reading and by note-taking, so I read through textbooks very carefully, take copious notes, and summarize each concept in my own words before moving on to something new. Think about this before you begin so that you'll know how to structure your studies. Regardless of your learning style, you'll still need to solve the physics problems in each textbook. Solving problems is the only way to understand physics. There's no way around it. Even though it can feel tedious at times, there's nothing more rewarding than figuring out a really difficult physics problem and realizing that you figured it all out all by yourself!One tough thing about learning on your own is that you may not know whether you are solving the problems correctly. Some of the textbooks listed below have answers to selected exercises in the back of the book, but these aren’t always adequate for two reasons: (1) they often only show the solutions to the problems, and not the steps taken to get there; and (2) it’s much better to do all of the exercises rather than just a select few. The good news is that many of the solutions (and step-by-step ways to solve them) can be found online with a simple Google search. If you are going to Google the answers, however, please first try to solve the problems on your own, and try multiple times (you’re not in school trying to get a perfect grade — you’re trying to learn and understand).And, finally, a note on learning in a laboratory vs. learning from textbooks. Physics is both an experimental and theoretical science, and while research happens in laboratories and on blackboards and computers, the majority of any physics education does not take place in a laboratory but in lecture classes that teach from textbooks and assign homework problems that are found in textbooks.