What sparked my interest in physics and math as a high school student?

[ejflrs]

I'm just a junior in high school who's pretty fond of physics and math.

It started with astronomy, but I picked up a book on Relativity, and I just thought how amazing it would to be a part of this whole physics community.

Not here for homework or anything--I just want to learn. Hope you all are doing well!

 

[jedishrfu]

Welcome to PF!

There are some fine Relativity books available online.

One in particular is written by Ben Crowell and is available for free at his website:

www.lightandmatter.com/

 

[ejflrs]

Thanks! Pretty interesting stuff there.

 

[Fjarkonnun]

Welcome ejflrs! Great that you want to learn, great to have that motivation on your age!

Nice that you are interested in astronomy/cosmology, I love those topics as well! Do you watch Crash Course Astronomy on YouTube? It's a great introduction to the topics, hosted by Phil Plait. It has more than forty ten minute videos on topics ranging from the planets to dark matter and they are still being made. Another channel that is a bit more technical is PBS Space Time.

 

[ejflrs]

I don't think I've watched those before, thanks! Since I have all this free time this winter break I guess I can spend much time on those videos lol.

Another subject that I've recently got into is just theoretical physics.
Hopefully spending time on this forum will not only help me get the gist of it all, but also learn some of the mathematics behind some topics.

 

[Fjarkonnun]

I hope you'll enjoy the content ejflrs! I looked to my subscriptions list and found some other channels that are great as well (related to cosmology/astronomy):
- SciShow Space
- Amy Shira Teitel
- TheBadAstronomer

Theoretical physics is very interesting as well; I have watched almost every documentary available on that topic and a lot of lectures; I enjoyed them all but over time I started feeling like I was done with the baby food and ready to get something to chew on - I mean I would love to start learning the math. Feel free to let me know if you find something interesting!

 

[ejflrs]

Thanks! I'll add those channels to my list.

I haven't gone that deep into theoretical physics yet but Michio Kaku introduced me to string theory, and currently I'm reading a book called the Age of Entanglement--it is, of course, about entanglement but it also explains how many physicists (like Bohr or Einstein) developed their many of their early theories...but yeah, I'll be sure to share whatever else I find!

 

[mayalizette]

Hi. I'm new I and I already love the topics of discussions here.