Second Year Physics Student's Guide to Self-Study: Lessons, Books, and More

[armin.hodaie]

hi,i am a second year student of physics.
i want to know what do a second year student of physics should study?i mean what lessons,books,etc?
our univercity professors can't teach well,and they make me CRAZY !
So i decided to study on my own...

 

[jtbell]

Does your university not have a list of courses that are required for a physics degree, and some indication of their sequence?

 

[armin.hodaie]

Of course i have the list,i want to know whether in other countries is different or not !
and also what books do you study in your UNI,maybe we are studying different books for the same course.i just wonder if there is better books for a specific course to study

 

[fasterthanjoao]

You can get some course notes here:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/#undergrad

This should give you an idea of what type of things are covered.

You might get more answers if you tell us what courses you're taking in second year, and telling us what textbooks are assigned/what you don't like about them. That way, people here can make recommendations of alternatives. There is no point in me recommending a book or notes for a second year course I took that isn't an option for you - rather, it won't help you get a degree. If you want to self-study over-and-above your standard curriculum, then things are a bit different.

 

[jtbell]

And the material covered in the second year probably varies from country to country, and even between universities in the same country (at least it does in the US).

 

[Jokerhelper]

I'm not in a position to give any advice on books, but here is what my 2nd year in physics would've been like had I decided to stick with it:

Physics 325 - Modern Physics II
Origins of quantum mechanics, a historical perspective. Concepts of wave mechanics and applications: atoms, molecules, and solids. Kinetic theory of gases; distribution functions; statistics of quantum gases with applications.
Course Hours: H(3-3)
Prerequisite(s): Physics 211 or 221 or 227; Physics 213 or 223 or 255 or 259 or 355; Mathematics 211 or 213 or 221.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for both Physics 325 and 209 will not be allowed.

Physics 341 - Classical Mechanics I
Forced and damped harmonic oscillations with real and complex numbers; anharmonic oscillators; central force motion and scattering; non-inertial frames; 2- and 3-body problems; applications of linear differential equations and complex numbers.
Course Hours: H(3-3/2)
Prerequisite(s): Physics 225 or 227 or 321; Mathematics 211 or 213 or 221.
Corequisite(s): Prerequisite or Corequisite: Applied Mathematics 307 or Mathematics 253 or 263.

Physics 343 - Classical Mechanics II
Rotating frames of reference; general rotations of rigid bodies; moment of inertia tensor; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics; potential theory and tides; perturbation theory.
Course Hours: H(3-0)
Prerequisite(s): Physics 341.

Physics 381 - Computational Physics I
Solution of problems associated with the analysis of physical systems, using digital computers, high level programming languages, and mathematical computation systems.
Course Hours: H(1 - 3)
Prerequisite(s): Computer Science 217 or 231.
Corequisite(s): Prerequisite or Corequisite: Physics 343.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for both Physics 381 and 499 will not be allowed.

Physics 397 - Applied Physics Laboratory I
Basic laboratory electronics, vacuum systems, and optical devices. Introduction to experimental control, data collection, and analysis. Fundamentals of error analysis and error propagation.
Course Hours: H(2-1T-3)
Corequisite(s): Prerequisite or Corequisite: Physics 223 or 255 or 259 or 355.

Applied Mathematics 307 - Differential Equations for Engineers
Definition, existence and uniqueness of solutions, first and second order equations with applications, series solutions about regular points and singular points, special functions. Laplace transform, systems of equations.
Course Hours: H(3-1.5T)
Prerequisite(s): One of Mathematics 211 or 213 or 221; and Applied Mathematics 219 or Mathematics 253.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for both Applied Mathematics 307 and 311 will not be allowed.

Applied Mathematics 309 - Vector Calculus for Engineers
Functions of several variables, chain rule and differentials. Vector calculus, line, surface and volume integrals, Green's, Gauss' and Stokes' theorems. Students will complete a project using a computer algebra system.
Course Hours: H(3-1.5T)
Prerequisite(s): Applied Mathematics 219 or Mathematics 114 and one of Mathematics 253 or 263 or 283.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for more than one of Mathematics 353, 381, and Applied Mathematics 309 will not be allowed.

One of:
Mathematics 311 - Linear Methods II
Vector spaces and subspaces. Linear independence. Matrix representations of linear transformations. Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. Students will complete a project using a computer algebra system.
Course Hours: H(3-1T)
Prerequisite(s): One of Mathematics 211 or 213 or 221.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for both Mathematics 311 and 313 will not be allowed.
or
Mathematics 313 - Honours Linear Algebra II
Diagonalization. Canonical forms. Inner products, orthogonalization. Spectral theory. Students will be required to complete a project using a computer algebra system.
Course Hours: H(3-1T)
Prerequisite(s): Mathematics 213 or a grade of B+ or better in Mathematics 211 or 221.
Antirequisite(s): Credit for both Mathematics 311 and 313 will not be allowed.

2 Non-science options

What about your courses?

 

[Pengwuino]

One of the standard upper division E&M texts is Griffith's E&M text and a standard upper division quantum text is his quantum text. However, as "standard" as the texts are, not all universities use them! From what I can gather, it's probably used by at least 50% of universities for the course, but beyond that, who really knows. Marion and Thornton's classical mechanics text is pretty standard as well.

However, this is definitely not "standard" in a sense that everyone uses it however. They may not even be the best texts! You'll find a number of texts at the same level but I think if you have to have an answer, those texts are as close as you'll get to some "standard"