Help an Aspiring 13yo Physicist Further Their Knowledge

[unixunited]

I'd be careful about those books. The problem is that I've seen lots of people in these forums read those books and then come up with I think are strange and bizarre ideas about what physics is all about. The other problem is that Hawking doesn't do a good job of separating "Stephen Hawking the physicist that understands black holes better than you ever will" and "Stephen Hawking the person that wonders about the universe and whose speculations are not any better than yours."

It's really unfortunate that Carl Sagan and Issac Asimov are no longer with us.

They do explain several important topics in simpler terms. Even though they are also geared toward non-scientists, they still make a good and fun read. It's easy to differentiate between the real groundbreaking concepts and his imagination. Imagination is the most important thing however, in my opinion.

And too bad Einstein is also not with us anymore as well.

 

[Shea Tesla]

I'd be careful about those books. The problem is that I've seen lots of people in these forums read those books and then come up with I think are strange and bizarre ideas about what physics is all about. The other problem is that Hawking doesn't do a good job of separating "Stephen Hawking the physicist that understands black holes better than you ever will" and "Stephen Hawking the person that wonders about the universe and whose speculations are not any better than yours."

It's really unfortunate that Carl Sagan and Issac Asimov are no longer with us.

Yepp, these kind of book are what triggered my interest in physics, but I want to get beyond that non-scientists fascination and delve into the real thing. I actually got interested in understanding physics more deeply after reading Brian Green's 'The Elegant Universe' and immediately afterwards reading Lee Smolin's 'The Trouble with Physics'. These books seem equally valid to me, even though they present completely different ideas, because I don't fully understand them and just think, if I had only read one of those books I'd have completely accepted it as fact. I haaaate that, so now I'm going to understand. I don't want to be a just physics historian or enthusiast; I want to be a physicist. (:

Oh, and I absolutely adoreee Carl Sagan! I've read all his books.

hadsed, I was actually reading about programming in Wired a little bit ago and was very interested! From what I read, it seemed like it could improve critical thinking, problem solving and logic kind of like math does? Does anyone elsthink this is something that could help me enough that I should look into it more?

 

[Shea Tesla]

Also, what do you guys thing of something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486691934/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[General_Sax]

It's difficult to find textbooks though, we can't afford a lot of the books I would like to get, and the library has nothing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent_file

 

[unixunited]

hadsed, I was actually reading about programming in Wired a little bit ago and was very interested! From what I read, it seemed like it could improve critical thinking, problem solving and logic kind of like math does? Does anyone elsthink this is something that could help me enough that I should look into it more?

Programming is a brilliant way to improve your logic, critical thinking, and creativity. Looking at your previous posts I think you'd be a good programmer. Since you want to understand everything and how it works, computer science is also a good area to study.

Being my main area of focus, I can give you some good advice. If you want to start off easier then maybe go with the Python language, it's very beginner friendly.

If you're up for a challenge (which you seem to be) you could definitely start with C or C++.
http://www.cprogramming.com/" is a great place to learn online for free, and there are numerous video tutorials on other sites. If you choose C/C++ it will be more difficult but you will benefit much more down the road. But you won't regret it and you'll be glad years later.

Most would suggest learning C++ first, as C tends to be very cryptic, and most example C code is archaic to the untrained eye.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1598633600/?tag=pfamazon01-20 at a very good price. This was the 2nd or 3rd book I read over C++, and I'd say it's one of the best for starting out. After you've learned C++ and if you are curious about more of the C language a good reference book is "C In a Nutshell."

Another thing is to learn the environment you are programming in. If you run a Windows operating system, get to know the structure of the files, learn the commands in command prompt, explore how processes and services work, etc...
For Macs it's another story...
And UNIX/Linux same goes, but it's a steep learning curve.

Sorry if I've veered too far off from the original topic.
If you or anyone has any more questions just ask, I like to answer questions about this stuff.

 

[qspeechc]

Also, what do you guys thing of something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486691934/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Hi Shea.

I don't think you are quite ready for this book yet, judging by the table of contents (I haven't read it).

I am not sure how much math you know, but the first thing you need to do is finish your high school math: algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and pre-calculus. There are physics text-books that are written for students that do not know any calculus, however, the ones I know are dull and poorly written. I have done some digging around and it seems Giancoli's Physics: Principles with Applications is a decent physics book that does not use calculus, but I have not read it. If you buy this book please get an earlier, used copy, because the price of the new book is ridiculous. I think you can get such copies here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131021532/?tag=pfamazon01-20
Most often new editions of popular text-books do not add much to or significanly improve upon previous editions, publishers do this so they can extract as much money as possible from students; this may prove something useful to keep in mind for your future purchases. In fact, the quality of text-books often declines with new editions.

Then you should start a study of calculus. Among the zillions of text-books that can be recommended, two of the most popular are the books by Stewart and Thomas. At first you will only need the material covering calculus of one variable. Needless to say, I recommend you find an old copy that is selling for cheap, and preferably a hardcover, because these books are invariably bloated.

After you have studied calculus of one variable you can start with calculus based physics. I recommend you get an old copy of Halliday and Resnick:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/047134530X/?tag=pfamazon01-20
or Alonso and Finn, but from a review on amazon.com it seems the new edition of this book has also been dumbed down, so perhaps you should get their three volumes of Fundamental University Physics, if you can find it reasonably priced.

If you are eager to start learning physics you can get the Giancoli book now. However, there is not much to be gained, I think, by first doing physics without calculus, so if you have the patience, learn calculus and then get one of the calculus based physics books. That should get you started.

By the way, you may find it useful to look for used books at this website: http://www.abebooks.com/