Best Textbooks for Physics and Calculus: Share Your Recommendations!

[mathwonk]

"thinking physics" for laypersons.

 

[Daminc]

Do you mean:

Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality
by Lewis Carroll Epstein

 

[mathwonk]

i don;t remember, but it was an informal paperback used at dukes TIP summer program for bright junior higha nd high school kids.

it seems the author had a nice smile and wore a cap.

there were questions like: if you are riding in a truck and have a jar of flies, will the flies br forced up against one side of the jar?

 

[mathwonk]

more good books on advanced calculus:

by dieudonne (foundations of modern analysis),

by loomis and sternberg (advanced calculus)

by nickerson, spencer and steenrod (advanced calculus).


all out of print, which says something about the state of education today in US.

 

[PrinceOfDarkness]

I started studying a book on mutlivariable calculus/linear algebra a few days back and I have already started to like it a lot:

Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Forms: A Unified Approach by John Hubbard and Barbara Hubbard

I especially enjoy reading the margin notes, sometimes I find something which I didn't know before.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

more good books on advanced calculus:

by dieudonne (foundations of modern analysis),

by loomis and sternberg (advanced calculus)

by nickerson, spencer and steenrod (advanced calculus).


all out of print, which says something about the state of education today in US.

by sternberg you mean shlomo sternberg?
if indeed it's him, then this book can be downloaded here:
http://www.math.harvard.edu/~shlomo/

 

[Sir_Deenicus]

by sternberg you mean shlomo sternberg?
if indeed it's him, then this book can be downloaded here:
http://www.math.harvard.edu/~shlomo/

I <3 you :!) :!) :!)

 

[mathwonk]

thanks for the link, loop qg, that is a great service to the math learning public. that book recreates for you what an honors undergraduate calculus course was like at Harvard in the 1960's.

In fact they probably still teach this course there, (math 55) but I do not know what book they use.

the other two books mentioned above (Dieudonne, Spencer et al.) were also used formally or informally for the same course, as was Fleming's functions of several variables.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

don't thank me, thank this column:
http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues/2004-10-15/mathcorner/index.html

 

[GauriA]

Hello,
I am planning to take some Entrance Exams for an Msc. in Physics in Indian Institute of Technology and some other universities.

Could you suggest some good books to study undergraduate Physics from for the following topics:

1. Solid State Physics
2. Thermodynamics
3. Electronics

Thanks

 

[hypermorphism]

I started studying a book on mutlivariable calculus/linear algebra a few days back and I have already started to like it a lot:
Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Forms: A Unified Approach by John Hubbard and Barbara Hubbard
I especially enjoy reading the margin notes, sometimes I find something which I didn't know before.

I second this book, as it does a good job of unifying theory with application. The margin notes are a nice touch. For a more rigorous approach, use Spivak in parallel with this one.

 

[fourier jr]

more algebra books

theory of equations & galois theory:
-- polynomials by edward barbeau
-- theory of equations by james uspensky
-- the skeleton key of mathematics by littlewood (not just for algebra)
-- field theory & its classical problems by charles hadlock
-- galois theory by artin

modules & ring theory:
-- noncommutative rings by herstein
-- a 1st course on noncommutative rings by lam

i also just got dummit/foote's general algebra book. it looks pretty good; i like how it has lots of discussion, unlike hungerford's

 

[fourier jr]

what does everyone think of ivan sokolnikoff's advanced calculus? i can't find any info on that anywhere. i'll just have to find it at a library i guess.

 

[Erzeon]

Is shankar's "Principles of quantum mechanics" suitable for a high school student who has only a basic understanding of calculus(able to derive e^x, ln(x) and sin/cos, and antidiff. the same stuff) and physics (eg F=ma and not much more)?

 

[Son Goku]

Not really, I think you'd need a good solid grounding in Classical Mechanics first.
Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, Poisson Brackets, e.t.c.

You might also want some experience with Linear Algebra and Vector Spaces.
And possibly some techniques for solving ODEs. (So that you can appreciate what Hilbert space is)

 

[Erzeon]

Bah :( Guess it's just best to just wait till uni to start learning physics.