Best Physics Books for College Students Struggling with Calculus-Based Course?

[Llama77]

I'm taking a college physics course which is calculus based, I am doing awful in it can anybody recommend a good book that can break the topics down for me.


any help would be appreciated.

 

[Pythagorean]

give us more information. Is it a basic general course that covers Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, and electricity and magnetism?

what textbook are you using for the course? (author and title)

 

[Llama77]

Sorry about that Sir

It is a General Physics 1 class with Calculus for science majors. we use the book,

Fundamentals of Physics
7th edition by Halliday, Resnick and Walker:

ISBN: 0-471-98009-9 Its a custom edition for my school, but the same with just some stuff ripped out.


I am just having a lot of trouble

 

[Cyrus]

Try sears and Zemansky.

 

[Astronuc]

Sears and Zemanksy is good, but I would think Halliday and Resnick is pretty basic.

There are a number of good websites with fairly good explanations of concepts -

http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/GBSSCI/PHYS/CLASS/BBoard.html

More detailed is Hyperphsycis (I even bought the CD , which came with a very nice letter from Rod Nave. He's a really nice guy!) -

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

There is also the PF Tutorials sections with a broad range of Introductory and Advanced Physics tutorials which Greg and others have posted.
https://www.physicsforums.com/private.php?folderid=0

Please make use of the Homework sections.

 

[Llama77]

thank you so much, so the books like physics for dummies are a waste, at least i know that that one is/

 

[Astronuc]

thank you so much, so the books like physics for dummies are a waste, at least i know that that one is/

Physics is largely quantitative, in addition to the theory. Mathematics is the language of physics and it is necessary to have some amount of rigor. Finding a good book which goes through the math and relates the concepts and phenomena to the math is important. In the more advanced classes, understanding of calculus becomes important. It is essential that one be able to express a problem or phenomenon with the appropriate mathematical relationship, i.e. equation or set of equations.