Other What Free Physics and Astronomy Books Can Enhance Your Cosmic Exploration?

[Greg Bernhardt]

Feel free to add your own links to free books. Let me know if there are broken links or copyright issues.

• A Brief Introduction to Particle Physics
• A Course on Thermodynamics of Materials
• A Full College Course in Thermodynamics
• A Text Book for High School Students Studying Physics
• http://www.beck-shop.de/fachbuch/leseprobe/9783527406012_Excerpt_001.pdf
• An Introduction to Many Worlds in Quantum Computation
• An Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
• Basic Physics
• Intro to Relativity
• Basic Principles of Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics
• Basic Principles of Physics
• Basics of Physics
• Calculus Based Physics
• Circuit QED — Lecture Notes
• Classical Dynamics
• Classical Mechanics
• http://www.lightandmatter.com/cp.pdf
• Consistent Quantum Theory
• College Physics
• Decoherence: Basic Concepts and Their Interpretation
• Discover Physics
• Do We Really Understand Quantum Mechanics?
• Dynamics and Relativity
• Einstein for Everyone
• Electromagnetic Field Theory
• Elementary Particle Physics in a Nutshell
• Elementary Particles in Physics
• Experimental Particle Physics
• Fields
• http://puccini.che.pitt.edu/~karlj/Classes/CHE2101/
• Fusion Physics
• How to Use Experimental Data to Compute the Probability of Your Theory
• Intermediate Thermodynamics
• Introduction to General Relativity
• Introduction to Quantum Noise, Measurement and Amplification
• Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry
• Introduction to the Time Evolution of Open Quantum Systems
• Introduction to String Field Theory
• Introductory Physics 1
• Introductory Physics 2
• http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/kintheory/kt.pdf
• http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/contents.htm
• Lecture Notes in Quantum Mechanics
• Lecture Notes in Particle Physics
• Lecture Notes on General Relativity
• Lecture Notes on Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
• Lectures on Heat and Thermodynamics
• Lectures on Particle Physics
• Light and Matter
• Many Particle Physics
• Modern Thermodynamics
• http://physicsdatabase.com/2012/04/26/motion-mountain-the-free-physics-textbook/
• http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/thouless/224A/
• Notes on Quantum Mechanics
• On Particle Physics
• http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/people/buffler/PHY1023H%20Buffler%20mechanics%20B.pdf
• Particle Physics Lecture Notes
• Perspectives in Quantum Physics: Epistemological, Ontological and Pedagogical
• People’s Physics Book
• Photons, Schmotons
• Physics Lectures
• Physics Study Guides
• Preparing for College Physics
• Quantum Dissipative Systems
• Quantum Field Theory
• Quantum Fluctuations
• Quantum Information Theory
• http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~pjh/teaching/phz7427/7427notes/ch3.pdf
• Quantum Mechanics
• Quantum Mechanics: A Graduate Course
• Quantum Mechanics: An Intermediate Level Course
• Quantum Notes
• Quantum Physics Notes
• http://www.physics.wustl.edu/~wimd/n540x.pdf
• Quantum Transients
• Relativistic Quantum Dynamics
• Relativity: The Special and General Theory
• http://physicsdatabase.com/2012/04/17/simple-nature/
• Solitons
• Special Relativity
• Statistical Physics
• String Theory
• Superspace: One Thousand and One Lessons in Supersymmetry
• The Basic Paradoxes of Statistical Classical Physics and Quantum Mechanics
• The Beginning and the End of the Universe
• The General Theory of Relativity
• The Origin of Mass in Particle Physics
• The Physics of Quantum Mechanics
• Thermodynamics and Chemistry
• Thermodynamics — Fundamentals and its Applications in Science
• The Small n Problem in High Energy Physics
• Understanding Physics
• Utility of Quaternions in Physics

Astronomy and Astrophysics

• A New Astronomy
• A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century, Fourth Edition
• A Simple Guide to Backyard Astronomy
• http://www.intechopen.com/download/books/books_isbn/978-953-307-423-8
• Astronomical Discovery
• Astronomy for Amateurs
• Astronomy To-Day
• Astronomy of To-day A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language
• Astronomy With an Opera-Glass
• Black-Hole Phenomenology
• Celestial Navigation, Elementary Astronomy, Piloting
• Elementary Mathematical Astronomy
• Elements of Astrophysics
• Encyclopedia of Astrophysics
• Exoplanet Observing for Amateurs
• Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars
• Great Astronomers
• History of Astronomy
• http://physics.sharif.edu/~cosmology-intro/references/Introductio%20To%20Cosmology%20Matt%20Roots.pdf
• Lectures on Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
• Pioneers of Science
• Primer Of Celestial Navigation
• Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Volume 1
• Observing the Sky from 30S
• http://missionscience.nasa.gov/sun/MysteriesOfTheSun_Book.pdf
• Star-Gazer’s Hand-Book
• Supernova Remnants: The X-ray Perspective
• Recreations in Astronomy
• The Astrobiology Primer: An Outline of General Knowledge
• The Astronomy of the Bible: An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture
• The Beginning and the End
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Sun
• The Geology of Terrestrial Planets
• http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/MARS/CONTENTS.HTM
• The Story of Eclipses
• The Story of the Heavens
• The World According to the Hubble Space Telescope
• The Zij as-Sanjari of Gregory Chioniades (June 27, 2009)

 

[SredniVashtar]

The Physics of Waves by Georgi

(Oh and The Feynman Lectures on Physics, but those are only for online reading)

 

[dextercioby]

Hi Greg, the 3rd link's broken. Please, delete it altogether, because a newer link on the same website leads to a scanned copy of a book under copyright. (Schutz - A first course in General Relativity).

There are other broken links:

• http://www.mhtlab.uwaterloo.ca/courses/ece309/lectures/pdffiles/summary_ch1.pdf 1
• http://www.mhtlab.uwaterloo.ca/courses/ece309/lectures/pdffiles/summary_ch1.pdf

This link here contains again a scanned copy of a book under copyright:
* Introduction to Quantum Mechanics - John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

 

[Sakamo]

Thanks, so many books.

Any priority on them?

Am just a begineer.
Top 10 would be great.
Like the David Letterman.

 

[PWiz]

Thanks mate!

 

[Meron]

Thank you very much.

 

[Max2718281828]

Thank you.

 

[ICantEven]

Thank you so much!

 

[Marjory Mendoza]

Thanks for the access to free books! I am just new here and I wish I should have know PF much sooner. I am sure this would benefit a lot of people especially the Physics educators and students. Thanks again!

 

[phion]

Introductory Physics 1

Introductory Physics 2

Introductory Physics 3

 

[jerromyjon]

Absolutely awesome! Glad I caught this thread on the homepage... off to work on calculus.Thanks a million!

 

[Cydeonix]

This isn't a textbook but science-lounge.co.uk is a new science revision website which is being built. It allows you to read topics as they complete them. Not all the syllabus is there yet but the ones which have been written up are quite helpful.

 

[LeninLennon]

Thanks for the links the books are cool, right now ejoying reading Discover Physics!

 

[J35T3R]

Thanks for the free books lol saved me a ton of time and money! :)

 

[Dopplerganger]

Thanks!

 

[Mordred]

Thanks!

While these two aren't free textbooks as per se, they do an excellent job covering differential geometry aspects in particle physics with a good section on relativity in the second link.

http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3328 A Simple Introduction to Particle Physics
http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1395 part 2

Linde included his textbook into the arxiv archive, though older it still has good info.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0503203.pdf "Particle Physics and Inflationary Cosmology" by Andrei Linde

This link is handy on GR, he covers numerous examples of varying metrics and various artifacts of coordinate choices.

http://www.blau.itp.unibe.ch/newlecturesGR.pdf "Lecture Notes on General Relativity" Matthias Blau

This site does an excellent job on simplifying various aspects of particles as point like and wavelike, he also has an excellent section on the Higgs field.

http://profmattstrassler.com/

 

[spino]

Thanks for the books. I've always loved reading books about physics.

 

[Owlcool]

Introductory Physics 1

Introductory Physics 2

Introductory Physics 3

Third link is broken.

 

[phion]

Third link is broken.

It's actually a download link. It should open by asking what directory you want to save it under.

 

[Borg]

It's actually a download link. It should open by asking what directory you want to save it under.

The link ends in .ps instead of .pdf like the others. I think that it's a typo and should be this:
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Class/intro_physics_3/intro_physics_3.pdf

 

[phion]

The link ends in .ps instead of .pdf like the others. I think that it's a typo and should be this:
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Class/intro_physics_3/intro_physics_3.pdf

.ps is a format Adobe Acrobat uses to "distill" a .pdf file. If you have Acrobat Distiller installed it should open without a problem.

 

[Borg]

.ps is a format Adobe Acrobat uses to "distill" a .pdf file. If you have Acrobat Distiller installed it should open without a problem.

Thanks. For anyone who doesn't have that, the pdf link that I posted seems to bring up the correct document.

 

[yango_17]

Modern Physics by Kenneth Krane
https://fisluisabraham.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/krane-k-modern-physics-3ed.pdf

 

[romsofia]

Introduction to LQG
http://www.cpt.univ-mrs.fr/~rovelli/IntroductionLQG.pdf

 

[Reveille]

Hey Greg, I didn't get all the way down but these:

• A First Course in General Relativity
• Age of Einstein
• Basic Concepts in Thermodynamics
• Basic Concepts in Thermodynamics Chapter 1
• Basic Physics
• Board Notes for Particle Physics

don't work anymore. There are probably more but like I said, I didn't get to try them all.

 

[davidbenari]

I have to add Richard Fitzpatrick's collection in case nobody has yet.

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/

 

[amankalra]

Thank you soo much :)
Much needed ;)

 

[Prastina kp]

Thanks a lot..happy to see so much of books on various topics

 

[mechpeac]

Awesome! Thanks for posting.

 

[rwm4768]

This might just be the greatest thread I've ever found. It will give me a chance to study some of the Physics I want to take but can't because my Engineering schedule makes it very difficult.

 

[smodak]

Landau Lifshitzs Online

<<Mentor's note: Links removed, as these books are still under copyright.>>

 

[Muhammad Imran]

Please add the perspective of modern physics by Arther Bieser book and solid state physics by M.A.Omer.

 

[Borg]

Please add the perspective of modern physics by Arther Bieser book and solid state physics by M.A.Omer.

You don't seem to understand. These are just links to books that are already free for everyone. Nobody is violating copyright laws and uploading books.

 

[vanhees71]

Are you sure that the links to LL are legal? I have my doubts... Copyright is a very complicated issue, I'm unable to understand with a poor physicist's mind. It's way more complicated than quantum field theory ;-))).

 

[Borg]

I was only responding to his request to 'upload' a book. I didn't perform a validation check on the existing links.

 

[vanhees71]

Sure.

 

[smodak]

I did not realize or thought that the links to the LL books may be violation of copyright. Mods, would you please remove them?

 

[Brain_storm]

Thank you so much it worked!

 

[knowseek]

Open Textbooks from Rice University

College Physics for AP Course
https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

College Physics
https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics

University Physics Volume 1
https://openstax.org/details/books/university-physics-volume-1

University Physics Volume 2
https://openstax.org/details/books/university-physics-volume-2

University Physics Volume 3
https://openstax.org/details/books/university-physics-volume-3

*Other subjects
https://openstax.org/subjects

 

[Nikhil Ghatnekar]

I think the link for Computational Physics with Python is broken too. Can I get ther link? will be a great help. Thanks

 

[Andreas Hepp]

It's more like applied physics, but I like the SimWiki a lot! introduction in simulation techniques with the numerics and physics supporting it.
Check it out if you like: https://www.simscale.com/docs/content/simwiki.html

 

[MaxiDream]

Thanks for the books..

 

[scottdave]

The US Navy's Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS) are training books, designed to aid in training Navy personnel with learning about electrical and electronic fundamentals. They have been approved for public release, and are available as PDF files. If you are getting started, learning about electricity and electronics (or just refreshing your memory), they are worth a look.

I have found them in various places across the Internet, but I like the way that Davidson College has a web page index of all 24 NEETS training courses, with descriptions and links to download each PDF file.NOTE. It seems that Davidson College is no longer hosting these. I found them at the Internet Archive:

https://ia600608.us.archive.org/35/items/NEETSModules/

 

[R_Sarav]

Is it legal to download these books?

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Thanks! downloaded the QFT one.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Is it legal to download these books?

Anything that has been put up here adheres to copyright policies. PF moderation is very strict about that. So, everything posted in this thread is legal.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Anything that has been put up here adheres to copyright policies. PF moderation is very strict about that. So, everything posted in this thread is legal.

That great news for everyone, especially for young/unexperienced beginners like me.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Due to the fact that I just realized wave-particle duality is outdated for 50 years this morning on this forum so i just want to make sure:

Are all the books here up-to-date? just trying not to waste my time again on out-dated concepts.

 

[vanhees71]

Well, if you'd through away all textbooks, even newer ones, on quantum theory that start with the usual introductory historical tale, there'd be no textbook left anymore. The reason is that it is very hard to find another way than the historical approach to start teaching quantum theory. Of course, one should always emphasize that the old quantum theory leads to wrong (and even qualitatively wrong!) pictures in students' minds, but on the other hand there's no way to understand quantum theory as a physical theory without a minimum knowledge about how the quite abstract formalism of QM came into being.

Of course there are attempts to avoid this didactical dilemma by not using the historical approach. One I love very much is

J. Schwinger, Quantum Mechanics - Symbolism for atomic measurements, Springer Verlag

The problem with this book, however, is that it is far beyond the beginner level. I don't think that one can understand quantum mechanics from using this book as the first textbook on the subject. However, if you have some familiarity with quantum mechanics, the epilogue chapter of this book is a must to be read. It's very clear about the physical meaning of the quantum formalism.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Well, if you'd through away all textbooks, even newer ones, on quantum theory that start with the usual introductory historical tale, there'd be no textbook left anymore. The reason is that it is very hard to find another way than the historical approach to start teaching quantum theory.

I AM WELL AWARED OF THAT.
I was actually asking more of a "do the have the knowledge up to date" rather than "do that not have the knowledge out dated) but since your post answered my question so this is just a small notification

Nice book for me 3 years later though.