What Are Some Unique or Lesser-Known Books on Mathematics and Physics?

[whyevengothere]

I would to know if anyone knows any books in mathematics or physics at any level :
-Which treat their subject in an unusual maybe even original ways?
-Treat topics rarely touched upon in standard ones?
-Any book that's not very known but which you regard as useful ?
-Whether this book is viewed badly or not doesn't matter.
P.S you can also specify in what's it's unusual.

 

[Rocket50]

In which topic (e.g. math, physics etc) and which level?

 

[whyevengothere]

Anything math or physics book for any audience but from which even someone who knows the subject can benefit from.

 

[porcupine137]

I would to know if anyone knows any books in mathematics or physics at any level :
-Which treat their subject in an unusual maybe even original ways?
-Treat topics rarely touched upon in standard ones?
-Any book that's not very known but which you regard as useful ?
-Whether this book is viewed badly or not doesn't matter.

hard to say
maybe some could be, for starters:

Visual Complex Analysis

Feynman Lecture on Physics

Srednicki Quantum Field Theory

Zwiebach A First Course In String Theory

Feyman&Hibbs QM and Path Intergrals

Zee Einstein Gravity In A Nutshell

 

[porcupine137]

Anything math or physics book for any audience.

HMm wow for any audience really opens things up.
I'll quickly add a few more then (there are lots more):

Feynman QED
Zee Fearful Symmetry
Penrose The Road To Reality

 

[Daverz]

Two books by William L. Burke: Applied Differential Geometry and Spacetime, Geometry, Cosmology.



Chalmers William Sherwin, Basic Concepts of Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006AX0TM/?tag=pfamazon01-20

B. K. Ridley, Time, Space and Things

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521484863/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Marvin Chester, Primer of Quantum Mechanics

Rucker, Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension

Mattuck, A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Many-Body Problem

 

[ModusPwnd]

Flatland is a classic and I think it is certainly unusual with its mix of science fiction, mathematics and victorian mores. A short and fun read, I think its staple of any math or science enthusiast.

 

[whyevengothere]

Two books by William L. Burke: Applied Differential Geometry and Spacetime, Geometry, Cosmology.



Chalmers William Sherwin, Basic Concepts of Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006AX0TM/?tag=pfamazon01-20

B. K. Ridley, Time, Space and Things

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521484863/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Marvin Chester, Primer of Quantum Mechanics

Rucker, Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension

Mattuck, A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Many-Body Problem

Since Sherwin's book is old ,is there a free e-copy online?

 

[Andy Resnick]

A few of my favorites (in no particular order):

Nye, "Natural focusing and the fine structure of light"
Lighthill, "Mathematical Biofluiddynamics"
Truesdell, "The tragicomical history of thermodynamics 1822-1854"
Nicholls and Ferguson "Bioenergetics 3"
Winfree "The geometry of biological time"
Slattery "Interfacial transport phenomena"

 

[dextercioby]

The science popularizing books by Y. Perelman, most of which have been translated to English.

 

[robphy]

A Course in Mathematics for Students of Physics (vols 1 and 2) by Bamberg & Sternberg
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521406498/?tag=pfamazon01-20

General Relativity from A to B by Geroch
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226288641/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Introduction to Applied Mathematics by Strang
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961408804/?tag=pfamazon01-20

and Bill Burke's books listed above.

 

[Daverz]

Since Sherwin's book is old ,is there a free e-copy online?

I haven't seen one.

If I'm reading https://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm right, if someone hasn't renewed the copyright, it's in the public domain. Otherwise, we have to wait another 42 years.

I was able to get a nice, cheap used copy from Amazon.

 

[NumericalFEA]

"Computational Geometry of Surfaces and Its Application to the Finite Element Analysis of Shells"
( by O. Axenenko and A. Tsvelikh )

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0646594044/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[whyevengothere]

Here's a one I just found online( it's free) : Radically elementary probability theory by Edward Nelson
https://web.math.princeton.edu/~nelson/books/rept.pdf

 

[SredniVashtar]

This is one book that looks original to me: Proofs from The Book. The MAA review linked on wikipedia's page can give you some hints on what makes this book special: http://www.maa.org/publications/maa-reviews/proofs-from-the-book-0

Another book (at layman level) that gave me the impression of being out of the ordinary is "The Book of Numbers" by Conway and Guy.

As for physics, this is one I am trying to find the time to read: "Physics for the Inquiring Mind" by Eric M. Rogers. Here's a Wikipedia biography of the author, in case you'd like to Archive it.

And then there's Taylor and Wheeler's "Spacetime Physics" (and its sequel on black holes which I have not read but looks as original as well). Pretty original expositions of special (and general) relativity concepts.

EDIT: Oh, yes, l almost forgot: "Street Fighting Math" from the OCW course with the same name.
I always wear my Ninja outfit when reading this one.

 

[whyevengothere]

Galitski V., Karnakov B., Kogan V. Exploring Quantum Mechanics A Collection of 700+ Solved Problems for Students, Lecturers, and Researchers-Oxford University Press (2013)

 

[TomServo]

The Geometry of Special Relativity and The Refrigerator and the Universe

 

[porcupine137]

"Inside Interesting Integrals" - Nahin