physics

I have been interested more and more in space and time and all that and I recently started reading "A Brief History of Time" by Steve Hawking...

It got me very interested in physics and the relating sciences that circle around all that. But my question is... where should I start to get information about learning this stuff... I understand that a lot of it is extremely complicated material, and I never was a super math wiz or anything. But I also think that if it is something that interests me enough.. then I can learn it..

so any advice where to get started into this field? I am looking at going back to college to take courses on it as well..

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Originally posted by kleinma
But my question is... where should I start to get information about learning this stuff... I understand that a lot of it is extremely complicated material, and I never was a super math wiz or anything

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Well, there are many books for the layman which explain the facts without resourcing to math. To name but a couple, you may read "Relativity" by Einstein himself, a brief introduction very clearly explained (yeah, it has some math too but it is kept at a minimum). There are a few books of this nature by Richard Feynman, one of them I have recently read is "QED" -standing for "Quantum Electrodynamics"- something he admitted was very difficult to explain to a non-initiated audience but I think he does a great job.

Sure there are books dealing with more basic stuff (e.g. mechanics) but offhand I can't remember any of them. Maybe I'll take a look at my shelves at home.

I thought QED was "quod erat demonstrandum" ;)

A Brief History Of Time and The Universe In A Nutshell are a step in the right direction. Whatever you do, DON'T get confused between QED and that kind of thing, and bog standard physics, coz you'll be mighty disappointed to turn up to your first lecture to be told about... something stupid like Newton's laws of motion...

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Originally posted by A$$Bandit
A Brief History Of Time and The Universe In A Nutshell are a step in the right direction. Whatever you do, DON'T get confused between QED and that kind of thing, and bog standard physics, coz you'll be mighty disappointed to turn up to your first lecture to be told about... something stupid like Newton's laws of motion...

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but isn't all that related?

Newton's laws are by no means stupid, they are one of the greatest achievements of mankind and the fact that under certain circumstances they are not applicable any more and must be substituted by quantum mechanics and/or relativity makes them no less valid for the vast majority of systems one encounters in physics.

Further, you must have a thorough understanding of them if you want to get involved with more complex topics.

A very good vintage basic book in physics is "The Feynman Lectures on Physics", 3 volumes, and I think it may be worth getting a copy of, at least, the first volume. Or perhaps go to the book-shop, pick it from the shelf (should be available) and browse through it for awhile.

Stay tuned...

SilverSprite, you quoted Einstein wrong, well he probably did say that, but according to the MLA, you used an improper format. Here's what you put:

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YL says:"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."(Einstein)

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This is what you should have put:
YL says: "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts"(Einstein).

See, the preiod goes after the parathenesis. No big deal, but I just thought you should know.....

Well the stupid referred to the something, not the laws. I was just pointing out that most of physics is boring, it's only that kind of stuff (Newton and Einstein) that isn't.

Well, you know, I think whatever one does not like is boring to him/her, but surely there are folks who are thrilled by it. For instance I myself find medicine boring, it's just that I was not born to be a doc, whereas I bet physicians enjoy their jobs.

One more comment about science books for laymen: I utterly recommend the books of Isaac Asimov (not the fiction ones). He is such a great communicator and makes science so easy to understand! I am thinking of one particularly I recently read but I don't remember the title in English. It was translated into Spanish as "El electron es zurdo" which literally means "The electron is left-handed". It has a number of essays of some 20 pages each on a variety of subjects, and not all of them are physics. Don't miss it.

There's one book I was thinking about but couldn't remember its title. Now I have browsed through the shelves at home and found it: "The Evolution of Physics" by Leopold Infeld and Albert Einstein. It gives a very understandable overall picture of the fundamental concepts in physics. It has very little math and covers a wide variety of subjects, from mechanics to electromagnetism, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and relativity... I really enjoyed it.

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Originally posted by krtxmrtz
There's one book I was thinking about but couldn't remember its title. Now I have browsed through the shelves at home and found it: "The Evolution of Physics" by Leopold Infeld and Albert Einstein. It gives a very understandable overall picture of the fundamental concepts in physics. It has very little math and covers a wide variety of subjects, from mechanics to electromagnetism, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and relativity... I really enjoyed it.

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thanks.. i will check that out when i finish hawkings book i am reading...

The English title of Asimov's book will probably be 'The left hand of the Electron'. - bits of it seem to be scattered about the web if you do a search for this title with google.