Recent content by patrickd

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    Discovering Math in Physics: From Vector Calculus to Group Theory and Beyond

    Peter, thanks for replying. "A physicist's level of rigor" could be a laughable oxymoron (if you are a mathematician), just the right amount (if you are an undergraduate physics major), or a level well above one's head (if you are me.) I'm not a physicist (I'm an ophthalmologist), so a level...
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    Discovering Math in Physics: From Vector Calculus to Group Theory and Beyond

    A year of college calculus gets you into, maybe, the early 1800's in terms of offering some mathematical insight into physics. The literature attempting to educate us non-scientists on developments thereafter tends to rely on words alone, the authors apparently agreeing with their editors that...
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    Favorite physics videos on internet

    QuarkCharmer: "I haven't been able to find any other Physics II (intro to EM, gauss law, that sort of thing) videos online." http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02-electricity-and-magnetism-spring-2002/index.htm
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    An observation regarding pop sci books

    I believe that the more advanced topics require math for a deep level of understanding. The language in which the concepts exist is, after all, mathematics. Since pop-sci authors are nearly always dissuaded by their editors from including math, they are left to use human language to explain...
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    Pop-math book publishing coincidence

    ... amazing that they were published only two weeks apart (read the descriptions)! In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World, by Ian Stewart https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465029736/?tag=pfamazon01-20 The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics as Told...
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    Question: Early history of QM

    Many popularized accounts of the development of quantum theory generally go like this: • Maxwell shows that all electromagnetic radiation is a variant of one phenomenon. • Experimental results measuring black body radiation are inconsistent with the radiation theory as understood. • Planck...
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    Why Does Minimizing the Action Describe the Path of a System?

    The link given by Phyzguy is not working. Is there an alternate?
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    Ping-pong ball floating on a bowl of water

    The submerged ball has buoyancy. The ball cannot tell that it is on a rotating frame; for all it knows, there is a gravitational field pulling it in the direction of the bucket's wall. It trys to "float" in the opposite direction. There is a similar thought experiment out there involving a...
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    Introduction to 'Real' Math (i.e. number theory etc,)

    "Fundamentals of Mathematics." By Moses Richardson. 1960's ed., Newer edition (70's, I think) in collaboration with Leonard Richardson (Moses' son, I presume.) Long out of print, available used through Amazon $14.95 or thereabouts. This book is described exactly by your request, and, as an...
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    Learn Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics without Calculus of Variations

    Does anyone know of a treatment of Lagrangian and/or Hamiltonian mechanics that would be accessible to someone who is (or was, about forty years ago) reasonably fluent in elementary calculus and Newtonian mechanics? I am less interested in a college textbook than in an overview a la Brian...
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    Equivalence Principle & Tidal Effects

    It is my understanding that the Equivalence Principle postulates that if I were standing in a closed room, I would not be able to distinguish whether the downward force that I felt was caused by (1) the presence of a massive body such as the Earth exerting a downward gravitational force or (2)...
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