What are your thoughts on self-studying Goldstein?

[rajsekharnath]

I am self studying Goldstein first chapter "A survey on the elementary principles", so far I have been enjoying it, sometimes he skips some lines while deriving a principle or so, therefore sometimes I get to PSE or Physics Forums to know the things I lack understanding in.
What are your thoughts on self-studying Goldstein? Is this book good for self-study?

 

[Vanadium 50]

You got plenty of advice last time; You seem to have disregarded it. Fair enough, but this is, as we called it in school "a self-limiting problem".

For me, I'd make the same comment as last time. Please don't make me type it in again.

 

[rajsekharnath]

You got plenty of advice last time; You seem to have disregarded it. Fair enough, but this is, as we called it in school "a self-limiting problem".

For me, I'd make the same comment as last time. Please don't make me type it in again.

I would not make you type again the "plenty of advice", and not "disregard"ing that "plenty of advice", I would say:

a)Reviewing what I learned in high school, it was just newtonian mechanics, shm and waves, electrostatics, electrodynamics, ray and wave optics, some modern physics including photoelectric effects, atoms and nuclei, semiconductors(for reference all at Resnick Halliday Walker level) and solving Irodov's Problems in General physics(the classical mechanics part), I scored 98 out of 100 in my final physics exam(although that does not matter and is silly to mention that here), so it just did not looked relevant to me to review the same high school stuff over and over again.
b)Getting ready to live on my own etc etc is not a problem but it does not seem relevant to get ready for that by practicing those things the whole day. However I also do not see the problem in studying some the stuff in advance of what I will be learning in college.

 

[Vanadium 50]

OK, can you prove the following? sin(54) - sin(18) = 1/2. After all, it's not even physics, not even calculus. Just trig.

 

[jtbell]

According to your previous posts, you're preparing for undergraduate physics. In the US, Goldstein is generally considered a graduate-school level textbook. Students normally study it only after introductory calculus-based physics (Halliday & Resnick level) and an upper-division undergraduate mechanics course (e.g. Marion & Thornton, or Symon).

 

[Vanadium 50]

Someone gave him the same advice when he was asking about Griffiths.
Oh wait...it was you.

 

[jtbell]

At least Griffiths is an undergraduate textbook, albeit not introductory undergraduate.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I used Goldstein in 8.06.

 

[rajsekharnath]

OK, can you prove the following? sin(54) - sin(18) = 1/2. After all, it's not even physics, not even calculus. Just trig.

I can do this, but I do not really know how to write math with latex yet, so I can describe by words
Sin(54)-Sin(18)=2Cos(36)Sin(18)
=2Cos(36)Sin(36)/2Cos(18)
=Sin(72)/2Sin(72)
=1/2

But I do not understand what does that prove.

 

[rajsekharnath]

According to your previous posts, you're preparing for undergraduate physics. In the US, Goldstein is generally considered a graduate-school level textbook. Students normally study it only after introductory calculus-based physics (Halliday & Resnick level) and an upper-division undergraduate mechanics course (e.g. Marion & Thornton, or Symon).

Ok, I get it. But does that mean someone at my level should not touch Goldstein? If so then I will be acting more carefully from next time and save everyone's time(including mine) from the next time.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The point is that many people struggle with trig and even algebra, and if you struggled too, it would be smart to clear that up before jumping 4 or 5 years forward. I'm glad you solved it, although the solution appears a bit Googly. Only you know how hard this was for you, but if you had difficulty, you will be much better served by getting your foundation set first.