Schools Question about pre-university studies

  • Thread starter Thread starter strider
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Studies
AI Thread Summary
A new member on a physics forum, eager to enhance their knowledge before starting university studies in physics, seeks advice on study focus and introductory physics books that do not require calculus. They express a desire to strengthen their high school math foundation first. Experienced members suggest that learning calculus is essential for understanding physics and recommend self-learning it, as it is manageable. They emphasize that mastering calculus and physics concurrently may be challenging, and reviewing high school material could be a more effective approach in the short term.
strider
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hello all, PF really is a great resource of physics, I'm glad to be part of the forum now. :approve:

I'm 17 years old and now I'm waiting the start of classes at my university (obviously I chose physics :-p), so now that I have free time for around 3-4 months I want to improve my knowledge to achieve better results in the future.
What should I focus on? I'm thinking about studying high school math because I haven't a good base yet but firstly I would like to see opinions from more experienced students.
What are the best "introduction to physics" books without use of calculus?

Thank you and sorry for my English mistakes, I'm not good with this language.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
strider said:
What are the best "introduction to physics" books without use of calculus?

Why do you want books without calculus?
If you don't know calculus,I think you should self-learn it,like me. Calculus is not so difficult. :wink:
 
adjacent said:
Why do you want books without calculus?
If you don't know calculus,I think you should self-learn it,like me. Calculus is not so difficult. :wink:

Because I would like to start reading now but I'm not sure if I can learn calculus in so little time.
 
If that's the case, you probably can't learn physics w/o calculus in the same time. Colleges consider these courses about the same amount of work.

I like the plan of reviewing what you learned in high school better.
 
TL;DR Summary: I want to do a PhD in applied math but I hate group theory, is this a big problem? Hello, I am a second-year math and physics double major with a minor in data science. I just finished group theory (today actually), and it was my least favorite class in all of university so far. It doesn't interest me, and I am also very bad at it compared to other math courses I have done. The other courses I have done are calculus I-III, ODEs, Linear Algebra, and Prob/Stats. Is it a...
Yesterday, 9/5/2025, when I was surfing, I found an article The Schwarzschild solution contains three problems, which can be easily solved - Journal of King Saud University - Science ABUNDANCE ESTIMATION IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT https://jksus.org/the-schwarzschild-solution-contains-three-problems-which-can-be-easily-solved/ that has the derivation of a line element as a corrected version of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein’s field equation. This article's date received is 2022-11-15...

Similar threads

Replies
102
Views
5K
Replies
10
Views
623
Replies
5
Views
2K
Replies
16
Views
2K
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
7
Views
3K
Replies
26
Views
5K
Back
Top