Review/refresher of college physics: textbook recommendations request

[1940LaSalle]

Largely what the title says. I'm a retired chemical engineer, but for my own re-education, I'd like to review my college physics courses. Those were more than 50 years ago, and a portion has slipped away from lack of need/use. So...how about recommendations for general (say, 200 or 300 level) physics textbooks? It would really be handy if such a book/books were available as free PDFs (yeah, I know...I'm cheap).

Thanks very much.

 

[fresh_42]

Largely what the title says. I'm a retired chemical engineer, but for my own re-education, I'd like to review my college physics courses. Those were more than 50 years ago, and a portion has slipped away from lack of need/use. So...how about recommendations for general (say, 200 or 300 level) physics textbooks? It would really be handy if such a book/books were available as free PDFs (yeah, I know...I'm cheap).

Thanks very much.

Hello and Welcome!

I don't know what 200 or 300 means, but Rice University has a couple of books. They are free, so it might be worth having a look.
https://openstax.org/subjects

As far as I can tell from the Mathematics section, they are written to provide a somewhat uniform level of education to bridge the gap between the large variety of high school levels and college, so that everybody has the same understanding to begin with deeper studies.

If you want to find texts on university level, I suggest to search for <name of the course> + pdf, for example
"(Introduction to) Classical Mechanics + pdf". The +pdf part in the search key makes sure you will find texts on university servers and not someone's homepage.

 

[jtbell]

general (say, 200 or 300 level) physics textbooks?

This confuses me. To me, "general physics" means (in the US) first-year college/university level, often (but not always) with course numbers in the 100s. A single textbook (or a pair of them) covers all major physics areas at an introductory level. A common one is Halliday/Resnick/Walker Fundamentals of Physics. For self study, older editions are fine and are cheaper second-hand than new copies of the current edition.

"200 or 300 level" to me means second- and third-year level. Different courses with different textbooks cover different areas: classical mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, ...

Here in our textbook forum you'll find separate discussions of textbooks for the various areas.

 

[Muu9]

https://oyc.yale.edu/physics

MIT OCW has many courses with notes

https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/teaching.html

 

[Mamta25]

Well, as you are looking for good textbooks to refresh or review college-level physics. Here below are some of the best textbooks for physics that I would like to suggest:
1. Halliday and Resnick - Fundamental of Physics
2. University Physics by Young and Freedman
3. College Physics by Serway and Vuille
4. Schaum’s Outline of college Physics
5. OpenStax College Physics

If you want a fully detailed study, then the best book is Halliday and Resnick.
For a simple and easy refresh, go for College Physics, and if you want a free online book, then OpenStax College Physics is the best choice. If you want to practice problems, then Schaum’s Outline is the best book.

I hope this will help you.