What Makes The Physical World an Excellent Book on Fundamental Physics?

[smodak]

I am still on the first chapter but loving it so far.
The Physical World: An Inspirational Tour of Fundamental Physics by Manton and Mee
You can see a preview on amazon. Ignore the 1 star review - "too technical for me". I do not think the person reviewing it was the audience for this book. Yes it is technical (which is why I like it even more). But, everything in the book is derived from the first principles and steps are not skipped. Excellent and easy to follow. This is the book Susskind's books should have been.

I wish there were more books like this.

 

[Moayd Shagaf]

He reminds me by Penrose book Road To Reality, I'll buy it since I need book similar to this!

 

[smodak]

He reminds me by Penrose book Road To Reality, I'll buy it since I need book similar to this!

Road to Reality becomes terribly hard to read after the first few chapters. Hopefully, it is not going to turn out like that :)

 

[Daverz]

There's also A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439884463/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[smodak]

There's also A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439884463/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Yes, I own it - but have not read it yet.

 

[Demystifier]

The book by Manton and Me is great, but I found one wrong statement in it. On page 519 they say:
"John Bell showed that the EPR thought experiment implies that if quantum mechanics
is correct then there are correlations between measurements that cannot be explained by
any hidden variables theory."
That's wrong. The correct statement should have "any local" instead of "any". Fortunately, they make it correct at page 523.

 

[Daverz]

There's also this new monster book by Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford, Modern Classical Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVZ72QL/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I was alerted to it by the new preface to the 2017 printing of Misner, Thorne & Wheeler.

 

[smodak]

There's also this new monster book by Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford, Modern Classical Physics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVZ72QL/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I was alerted to it by the new preface to the 2017 printing of Misner, Thorne & Wheeler.

Yes, I have that one as well. They are very different books. Also the MCP book covers only classical. Plan to try and read it later.

You can find most of the contents of the MCP here
http://www.pmaweb.caltech.edu/Courses/ph136/yr2012/

 

[Buffu]

I am still on the first chapter but loving it so far.
The Physical World: An Inspirational Tour of Fundamental Physics by Manton and Mee
You can see a preview on amazon. Ignore the 1 star review - "too technical for me". I do not think the person reviewing it was the audience for this book. Yes it is technical (which is why I like it even more). But, everything in the book is derived from the first principles and steps are not skipped. Excellent and easy to follow. This is the book Susskind's books should have been.

I wish there were more books like this.

I am not judging but the title is a bit put off.

Did you read other chapters ? Especially the ones on Quantum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, how are they ?

 

[smodak]

I am not judging but the title is a bit put off.

Did you read other chapters ? Especially the ones on Quantum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, how are they ?

Still on the first chapter :)

 

[FourEyedRaven]

Still on the first chapter :)

Hi. Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but by now you have probably read the book, or at least read a lot more of it. What do you think of the book?

 

[smodak]

Hi. Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but by now you have probably read the book, or at least read a lot more of it. What do you think of the book?

Iirc it was pretty good but may not be for a first read. Good overview if you know a bit of the subject. Won't recommend for a beginner.

 

[FourEyedRaven]

The book looks excellent. For now I am just a tourist in physics and that book seems just about perfect for my own purposes.

Another great book, which corresponds roughly to the first 3 years of undergraduate physics, is "Physics - A Student Companion", by Lowry Kirkby.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1904842682/?tag=pfamazon01-20

These two books seem to complement each other very well to give an abbreviated exposition of most of theoretical physics. Thank you for the suggestion.