Classical Are there advanced brain teaser books for physics beyond first-year principles?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RPinPA
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Books Physics
AI Thread Summary
Jearl Walker's "Flying Circus of Physics" is highlighted as an effective study tool that challenges students' understanding of elementary physics principles through thought-provoking questions. The discussion notes that the book remains in print and seeks recommendations for similar works that present deceptively simple physics problems. "Thinking Physics" by Lewis Carroll Epstein and Keith Kendig's "Sink or Float" are mentioned as comparable resources. Additionally, Yakov Perelman's books published by Mir are suggested as suitable for those looking for brain teasers in more advanced physics topics like relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics.
RPinPA
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Messages
587
Reaction score
329
Many years ago in school, we used Jearl Walker's Flying Circus of Physics as a study tool. The physics principles covered are elementary, things you see in first-year physics. And yet he manages to ask questions that really test your understanding of those principles and your confidence in applying them. It's an incredibly powerful teaching tool.

I just checked Amazon and am glad to see this book is still in print. Are there other books in a similar vein that people recommend? That is, deceptively-simple physics questions?

Though this book, as I recall, requires only first-year physics as I said, I wonder if there are similar books of "brain teasers" for more advanced subjects such as relativity, E & M and QM.
 
  • Like
Likes Lord Jestocost and Demystifier
Physics news on Phys.org
"Thinking Physics" by Lewis Carroll Epstein is a great book in a similar vein.
 
  • Like
Likes Lord Jestocost, ibkev, Demystifier and 1 other person
Keith Kendig's Sink or Float.

Yakov Perelman's books published by Mir are also similar.
 
  • Like
Likes kith
Thanks! Added to the wish list.
 
The book is fascinating. If your education includes a typical math degree curriculum, with Lebesgue integration, functional analysis, etc, it teaches QFT with only a passing acquaintance of ordinary QM you would get at HS. However, I would read Lenny Susskind's book on QM first. Purchased a copy straight away, but it will not arrive until the end of December; however, Scribd has a PDF I am now studying. The first part introduces distribution theory (and other related concepts), which...
I've gone through the Standard turbulence textbooks such as Pope's Turbulent Flows and Wilcox' Turbulent modelling for CFD which mostly Covers RANS and the closure models. I want to jump more into DNS but most of the work i've been able to come across is too "practical" and not much explanation of the theory behind it. I wonder if there is a book that takes a theoretical approach to Turbulence starting from the full Navier Stokes Equations and developing from there, instead of jumping from...

Similar threads

Back
Top