I'm looking for some interesting calculus/physics problems to do

[mcnallyhamster]

Hello!

I'm new to physicsforums, and actually I'm kinda new to physics in general. I've recently switched my major to physics in college and I absolutely love it; this is what I've always wanted to do! I would love to do some complex physics/calculus related projects, not really in the sense of making anything, but more so in the sense of doing the math. I've taken general mechanics and am currently in electromagnetism - anything from these areas would be great. Don't worry about it being too difficult! I have to say that for some reason I'm especially interesting in magnetism and gravity, like in space. I don't know why... Anyway, thank you in advance for any suggestions! I've been going through problems in my physics textbook also but I'd love to do something anyone here recommends.

 

[micromass]

Well, if you're into difficult, but interesting problems then I would advice the following three texts:

1) "Electricity and Magnetism" by Purcell & Morin. The newest edition contains a wealth of soul-breaking problems. Don't worry, the exercises are star-coded, so you know beforehand whether a problem is going to be difficult or not.

That said, David Morin (the author of the book) has a website filled with many interesting physics and math questions: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/academics/undergrad/problems It has solutions as well!

2) "Calculus" by Apostol. You think you know calculus well? Apostol has a nice collection of problems which are not as easy as you think. Many require some ingenuity to solve and not just mechanical problem solving that usual calculus classes are famous for.

3) "Calculus" by Spivak. More theoretical and it contains a lot of very difficult exercises. I would say that even a PhD in mathematics might have difficult with some of these. It's a very well-written text though, so it's worth checking out nevertheless.

Enjoy!

 

[Lavabug]

You should be able to get a few good hundred hours out of halliday/resnick problems. Id work on at least all the mechanics and em problems in it before looking at purcell and kleppner.

Apostol is great all around for the math.