Is This the Ultimate Guide for Teaching Yourself Physics?

[zaazeemaa]

I'm pretty bored (in high school) and have been interested in physics for a long time , so i searched the web on teaching my self physics and came across this article ( http://www.squidoo.com/garagephysicist ). I'm wondering if it's a good guide or a steaming pile of crap or maybe you have a better idea. Thank you in advance.

 

[atyy]

It looks fine to me. Halliday and Resnick was a book I read a long time ago, and although I haven't read the "Demystified" or "For Dummies" books carefully, I've glanced at them, and they seem at the least ok, and possibly quite good. I think the only problem is that books are expensive, so if you can get them from a library that would be better.

Recently, the classic lectures by Feynman have become freely available at http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/ or http://www.feynmanlectures.info/flp. These have a few mistakes, and I think the view on quantum mechanics might be considered a little idiosyncratic nowadays. Nonetheless these are unparalleled for showing a good way to think about physics. You will probably not understand much in these lectures the first time you read them, so dip into them a little, go and learn from a more standard textbook, then come back again, many times.

 

[micromass]

I'm pretty bored (in high school) and have been interested in physics for a long time , so i searched the web on teaching my self physics and came across this article ( http://www.squidoo.com/garagephysicist ). I'm wondering if it's a good guide or a steaming pile of crap or maybe you have a better idea. Thank you in advance.

I would start by learning calculus, it'll make physics much more interesting. Go through Lang's first course on calculus. After that, you should go through Halliday and Resnick.

 

[homeomorphic]

Avoid that classical mechanics book they mentioned (Thornton and Marion), unless you prefer nasty equations and moving symbols around to having physical insight and a real understanding of the subject (make no mistake, the subject doesn't HAVE to be all about nasty equations--that is the author's fault, completely). That's my only comment. Can't comment on the rest.

 

[AlephZero]

If you really want to learn physics, look here: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/theorist.html

Warning: nobody said this was going to be quick, or easy.