Intro Physics What Book Helps Understand Electromagnetism and Quantum Physics Concepts?

AI Thread Summary
A neighbor interested in electricity and magnetism seeks to create a free energy device and is eager to learn through hands-on projects. The discussion revolves around finding a suitable book that balances basic math with conceptual understanding, particularly in quantum physics. "A Kitchen Course in Electricity and Magnetism" is identified as a potential resource, though it primarily uses classical physics and lacks depth in explaining phenomena like magnetism. The goal is to find additional materials that provide a conceptual overview without overwhelming math, allowing for deeper exploration of the subject. Suggestions for suitable resources are welcomed to enhance the learning experience.
physicurious
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So my neighbor is interested in electricity and magnetism. Well he's actually been watching youtube videos and thinks he can make some kind of free energy device. But anyways I thought it could be fun to do some real projects with him like playing with magnets, making a diy DC generator, and things like that. He is interested in understanding how electricity and magnetism actually works and does ask some really good questions. He has a very slight understanding of some quantum physics concepts with a hefty heap of pseudoscience in there.

So I've been trying to find a book we could work through that either has some projects in it or would be easy to learn some concepts and think of a project that involves them.
The problem I'm running into is that the books I'm finding either have absolutely no math in them or advanced high school/college level math.

I would like to find a book that has some math - but something really simple and basic. I think I'll need to walk him through some really basic math and would be nice to find a book with some relatively simple equations that are very easy to work with and see how they were derived. It would be nice to find something that slowly builds up basic math concepts as you work on projects or go through the book.

I stumbled upon A Kitchen Course in Electricity and Magnetism

This seems ALMOST exactly what I'm looking with just a few equations in it such as coulomb's law, Ohms law, lorentz force, etc.

The only downside is that it explains everything in terms of the bohr model of the atom and classical physics. Which is fine but he's really interested in what is actually happening ie quantum physics. What IS magnetism actually, electric charge, gravity, etc.

It's also a bit lacking with some of its explanations. For example it says magnetic fields are caused by electric currents. Which is a bit of a cop out since we know electric and magnetic fields actually cant exist without the other. And really gives no explanation to how a permanent magnet might work (ie unpaired electrons in the valence shell), even though use of permanent magnets are prevalent throughout the book.

So I'm trying to figure out if there's anything out there that is really basic like this but also maybe just has some basic tid bit in there about how some of this phenomena actually works on a deeper level but maybe just being conceptual at that point without any math.

Or perhaps something to supplement this book with so we can pick a concept and go a little bit deeper with it in another book - but again something that is more conceptual and light on the math.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you all have any suggestions I appreciate it. Cheers!
 
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physicurious said:
So my neighbor is interested in electricity and magnetism. Well he's actually been watching youtube videos and thinks he can make some kind of free energy device.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492656291/?tag=pfamazon01-20
 
Well, you should make things as simple as possible, but not simpler...
 
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vanhees71 said:
Well, you should make things as simple as possible, but not simpler...
I saw what you did there.
 
TL;DR Summary: Book after Sakurai Modern Quantum Physics I am doing a comprehensive reading of sakurai and I have solved every problem from chapters I finished on my own, I will finish the book within 2 weeks and I want to delve into qft and other particle physics related topics, not from summaries but comprehensive books, I will start a graduate program related to cern in 3 months, I alreadily knew some qft but now I want to do it, hence do a good book with good problems in it first...
TLDR: is Blennow "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering" a good follow-up to Altland "Mathematics for physicists"? Hello everybody, returning to physics after 30-something years, I felt the need to brush up my maths first. It took me 6 months and I'm currently more than half way through the Altland "Mathematics for physicists" book, covering the math for undergraduate studies at the right level of sophystication, most of which I howewer already knew (being an aerospace engineer)...

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