Some useful Physics Books

nesf

Just a few books I've found useful over the years in different areas.

Optics:

"Optics" - Hecht
It's not cheap but it provides a very solid foundation in optics, both basic and relatively advanced. It's an essential read for anyone wanting to study optics in a more advanced manner.

Applied Maths:
"Advanced Engineering Mathematics" - Kreysik
This book covers ALOT of topics, and provides examples for each. It doesn't give you proofs, but it is very useful as a reference guide to many mathematical tools and their usage.

Mechanics:
"Quantum Mechanics" - Bransden & Jocaine
Comprehensive, if a little dense in parts, useful for a background in more advanced quantum areas.

"Classical Mechanics" - Chow
A solid mechanics primer, it covers most of the important areas, and sets one up for tackeling more advanced topics down the line. Definitely a necessary read for anyone looking at taking Classical Mechanics as a full theoretical subject at third level.


Hope the above can be of use to someone

John

A good FREE starter textbook (first year physics or for people like me who only use a tiny bit of physics) is available to download at Light and Matter

dudara

My favourite few

"Classical Mechanics" by Chow
Excellent fundamental text

"Modern Quantum Mechanics" by Sakurai
Thorough advanced quantum mechanics book, suitable for final years/postgrad level

"Modern optics" by Fowles
Small paperback book, but great handy reference and cheap

"Electromagnetic Fields" by Wangness
Everything you'll ever need on EM theory

"Thermal Physics" Kittel and Kroemer
The one book that I'll never ever sell. Worth its weight in gold. Statistical mechanics treatment of thermal physics

"Solid State Physics" Kittel
Yet another great textbook from Kittel, this time on the related subject of solid state theory

nesf

dudara wrote:

My favourite few

"Thermal Physics" Kittel and Kroemer
The one book that I'll never ever sell. Worth its weight in gold. Statistical mechanics treatment of thermal physics

A fantastic book I agree Well worth it's (quite hefty) price tag. Can't believe I forgot it on my list...

Woden

Two fairly essential physics books typically if we needed the answer we could find it in one of these

Introductory Nuclear Physics - Krane

Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles - Eisberg and Resnick

and the fundamental one i went back to when i was going wtf

Fundmentals of Physics 6th Ed. - Halliday, Resnick and Walker

ApeXaviour

I would appreciate if this was made a sticky..

bcKay

One of my 'keepers' is Physics with Modern Physics by Serway (I call it my bible)

Ferrioxide

University Physics is a great book as well. Handy as theres a bit of everything in there.

emu-addict

good books on physics? ANYTHING written by richard feynman.

Son Goku

emu-addict wrote:

good books on physics? ANYTHING written by richard feynman.

He is brilliant, but only if you want to reach a certain level.

And his explanation of Tensors isn't the best in my opinion.

Son Goku

For General Relativity:

Begin with Bernard Schutz's fantastic book "A first course in General Relativity."
Presumes very little. Even though he says Special Relativity is required, he basically teaches it to you in the first two chapters.
The requirement is an understanding of Vector calculus.

If you wish to continue study after this get "General Relativity" by R. Wald.
Hard, but it brings you up to date. The questions are a real challenge.
It also contains an introduction to Quantum Gravity. However, do not try to learn GR from it. Read Schutz or an alternative first.

Once you know General Relativity, the book by Ta Pei Cheng is good for modern Cosmology.
Develops Physical intuition for General Relativity and is incredibly up to date on cosmology.

For Quantum Mechanics I recommend only one book.
There are countless books devoted to basic quantum mechanics, but many of them are basically the Schrödinger equation with a few "example wavefunctions". Furthermore, none of them discusses the Rigged Hilbert Space which actually underlies QM.
If you want to know the actual foundations of QM then I recommend Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Ramamurti Shankar.

EDIT: I hope the links aren't considered advertising.
EDIT2: Just in case they are I got rid of them, they were links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, where the books could be bought.

misty floyd

Could you recommend something that explains vector calculus? cheers

apostata

Hello,

This may be classified as a naive question, but I'm looking for a good starter book on Quantum Physics. I'm not enrolled in school - it's purely out of conceptual interest. As a neophyte approaching QP from this point of view, could anyone suggest a good starter text? I find that, regarding this subject, I'm either forced to choose between a book that is 50% formulae or 50% new-age gobbledy-gook. I'm hoping that, somewhere, someone has written a book that sets out to illustrate the concepts in a straight-up (if not engaging) fashion.

Many thanks in advance,

Matt

kevmy

apostata wrote:

Hello,

This may be classified as a naive question, but I'm looking for a good starter book on Quantum Physics. I'm not enrolled in school - it's purely out of conceptual interest. As a neophyte approaching QP from this point of view, could anyone suggest a good starter text? I find that, regarding this subject, I'm either forced to choose between a book that is 50% formulae or 50% new-age gobbledy-gook. I'm hoping that, somewhere, someone has written a book that sets out to illustrate the concepts in a straight-up (if not engaging) fashion.

Many thanks in advance,

Matt

Thats a bit of a tough ask. To avoid hand-waving arguments in QP you prob need a good bit of maths. I don't know your level of maths. I did Quantum Mechanics in 3rd year college I found the maths difficult. I found the Quantum Mechanics one mentioned in the 1st post good but then I had 2 and a half years of maths and physics behind me. If don't want to know anything about the Schrodinger Eq. or wavenumbers then your probably best of trying a book from a respected scientific author who is writing a book for the masses. I don't know any offhand as I didn't approach it from that angle.
The problem with some of these is than they may seem a little new- agey in their explanations simply because the maths proofs are horrible (and trust me it is unless your one of the few that way inclined).

apostata

kevmy - thanks for the reply - it's more helpful than you think. Although my maths are not excellent (read: artist), I actually find Schrodinger et al very interesting. Understand what your saying about the "new-agey" language of the mass-market stuff. I suppose I'm searching for a middle-territory that may not exist (yet).

Son Goku

Jesus, I'm dreadful for never checking the stickies. Tell me your level of maths and I'll tell you a book that suits your level.

In physics, there's always a book that suits.

apostata

Son Goku - my math level (for all intents and purposes) is college-level. Again, I'm an artsy-type, but I'm a quick learner if the text is well-written. Hope this isn't too vague.

Son Goku

apostata wrote:

Son Goku - my math level (for all intents and purposes) is college-level. Again, I'm an artsy-type, but I'm a quick learner if the text is well-written. Hope this isn't too vague.

David Griffiths "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics". See if you can get it from a library. It's ridiculously expensive.

This is actually a book with the Maths and all.

With regards to books which don't have the maths in full detail, but aren't "New Agey", it is unfortunate that the best one is in dutch "Kwantummechanica, Het Spectrum".

In English however the best is "Introducing Quantum Theory" by J.P. McEvoy. It's only about twelve canadian dollars off amazon.ca. By far the best book in English if you don't want to read the maths.
(The only one that talks about the interpretations correctly.)

apostata

Son Goku wrote:

David Griffiths "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics". See if you can get it from a library. It's ridiculously expensive.

This is actually a book with the Maths and all.

With regards to books which don't have the maths in full detail, but aren't "New Agey", it is unfortunate that the best one is in dutch "Kwantummechanica, Het Spectrum".

In English however the best is "Introducing Quantum Theory" by J.P. McEvoy. It's only about twelve canadian dollars off amazon.ca. By far the best book in English if you don't want to read the maths.
(The only one that talks about the interpretations correctly.)

Thanks for the suggestions - coincidentally I know a little bit of Dutch, but probably nowhere near as much as I would need to grasp "kwantummechanica". I will definitely check out McEvoy's book and go from there. Thanks again.

tak

"Solid State Physics" Kittel
Yet another great textbook from Kittel, this time on the related subject of solid state theory[/QUOTE]


You cannot be serious.

Just look at the part on crystallography, where he starts using terms a few pages before he provides a definition of them.
Kittel has a lot of useful tables of elemental property data.
That is about it.

Tak.

fluppet

There's a new introductory Statistical Physics book written by three TCD lecturers that I found good - it's a lot clearer, but more basic than Kerson Huang's book on the subject. Advanced undergradate level. Classical and Quantum Statistical Mechanics, Numerical Simulation, etc. It's not perfect (and there are several typos in it), but as the Kittle book was mentioned and it's new so people might not have heard of it before, I thought I'd just tell you about it. 'Elements of Statistical Mechanics' by Sachs, Sen, Sexton (published by Cambridge Uni Press, who also have a new graduate level book out on the same subject).

Apiarist

"Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You" by Marcus Chown, ISBN-13: 9780571235452 .

This book is very easy to read even for non-physicists. There are no equations or diagrams in the book. And it is not dumbed down, just narrated very well.

I thought Gravitation by MTW would have been mentioned. Brilliant, supposedly the best (the best I've read [half read], which isn't a lot to be honest) on general relativity. Only requires a small bit of knowledge in basic vector analysis and simple partial differential equations. And google provided the knowledge of any maths that I couldn't understand throughout (I'm in leaving cert, thus don't have college level maths).

KnifeWRENCH

Woden wrote: »

and the fundamental one i went back to when i was going wtf

Fundmentals of Physics 6th Ed. - Halliday, Resnick and Walker

Ah good ole Halliday, Resnick & Walker - I regularly find myself going wtf? and this book nearly always sets me right!

Can anyone recommend a good textbook for Thermodynamical & Statistical Physics? Our lecturer told us to get Statistical Physics by Mandl but tbh I don't find it that great. It's a bit tough going at times and doesn't make much effort to make the subject interesting.

I'll see if our library has a copy of that book by Kittel mentioned earlier, but I'd like other suggestions in case it's not available.

Burnt

General Reference

Handy when you just can think of that equation, in particular if working in industry,
Carl Nordling & Jonny Osterman; Physics Handbook for Science and Engineering.

Adaptive Optics
The Bible, John W. Hardy, Adaptive Optics for Astronomical Telescopes start
here then work on to more others; not cheap to get a hold of though.

Lasers

A E Siegman, Lasers, readable, reliable and comprehensive, The Book.

+ 1 for E. Hecht Optics, C. Kittel Introduction to Solid State Physics , Wilson & Hawkes Optoelectronics: An Introduction

NeoSlicerZ

Doing a course in Quantum Electronics and the course book is Photonics, Optical Electronics by Yariv. My background is Electronic Engineering, could anyone recommend a book to help me understand it? Find myself going "wtf" too much.

gordo.sands

University physics. Young and Freedman. Great for the non-specalised stuff

daragh8008

Woden wrote: »

Two fairly essential physics books typically if we needed the answer we could find it in one of these

Introductory Nuclear Physics - Krane

Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles - Eisberg and Resnick

and the fundamental one i went back to when i was going wtf

Fundmentals of Physics 6th Ed. - Halliday, Resnick and Walker

Quantum physics Eisberg & Resnick, highly rate it! 5 stars

Introduction to solid state physics by Kittel, poor purchase 1 star keep shopping any one else find this text a confusing mess?

transylman

daragh8008 wrote: »

Quantum physics Eisberg & Resnick, highly rate it! 5 stars

Introduction to solid state physics by Kittel, poor purchase 1 star keep shopping any one else find this text a confusing mess?

Agree. Physics of semiconductor devices by Sze is probably the best book in the area.

Bodicea

The book that first got me into physics (15 years ago) was Isaac Asimovs X stands for unknown. He was great a making things seem so easy to understand and a great book for the young or complete beginners.

I know the more advanced among us would scoff...but nobody explains e.g. the properties of water and light quite like him and I've read practically every physics book I ever came across.. Its such a shame he's out of print.

sponsoredwalk

I wonder has anyone heard of Walter Greiner & his 14 (I think) book course
on theoretical physics? Just found out about them, they look unbelievable!
Here is the first in the series & you can google the rest but as far as I can
see on amazon & from reading about them the books come jam packed
with worked examples following the textual discussion.
There are no problems at the end of the sections but you can always just
work the worked example before reading the solutions & there appears to
be plenty! I'd love to hear anyone's experience with these baby's!

As for recommendations, well to self studiers I'd recommend the A.P.
French M.I.T. books because they come with solutions to the problems. I'd
also recommend the Manchester Physics series due to the inclusion of
solutions. Another huge bonus is that the chapters have like 20 challenging
questions instead of 120 ones of varying degree, I always feel ancy if I
skip some

My thinking is that you could go from undergraduate to graduate using
the A.P. French series, the Manchester physics series, David Griffiths series
Wangsness E&M, Desloge Classical Mechanics, Goldstein, Shankar QM,
Schultz GR, Peskin/Schroeder. Obviously I haven't read most of these &
there's probably more than this but they all look great from reading up on
them like crazy! Someday!

Books like this & this make me cry

in a good way

raah!

I'm gonna add my vote for David Griffith. His book on electrodynamics is one of the best I've ever read. It covers the maths to a very good level, often doesn't go into proofs but always gives a good intuitive grasp of the maths involved. Nearly every question I've had or apparent paradox I've encountered in the topic of electrodynamics had been anticipated by him in the book. He had taught the course for up to 40 years before after all!

His enthusiasim for the subject also comes across very well and the book is very enjoyable to read.

KnifeWRENCH

Definite +1 on Eisberg and Resnick's catchily titled "Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles." Excellent text, covering everything you need to know about.....well, atoms, molecules, nuclei and particles!

I also found Dunlap's book "An Introduction to the Physics of Nuclei and Particles" quite useful. Our 3rd year course on Nuclear & Particle Physics was basically that book from beginning to end.

As for electromagnetism (a most hated area of mine) I can't comment on Griffiths book but the years below me who used it all seemed rather impressed with it. We used Cheng's "Field Waves and Electromagnetics" and quite frankly it may aswell have been written in Ancient Hebrew for the amount of sense it made to me.
One electromag book I can wholeheartily recommend though is Daniel Fleisch's " A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations". It's short and sweet, does exactly what it says on the tin and comes with many helpful worked out examples. And it's a small book, so quite cheap too!

nunu123

hi, this has nothing to do with physics books and stuffs, but i was wondering about leaving cert physics. do you know which experiment question are mechanics experiments and which experiment question is a heat experiment question etc etc???

Brillantstar

Hi
I am interested in purchasing this book. If any one is selling it please contact me.
Real World Physics - Textbook & Workbook Set
Thank you

Morbert

I have combined the links from the previous sticky threads (here and here). It still needs a little updating but it's a good start.

I will update the list as people post suggestions in this thread.

For normal people

---

Sixty Symbols (Physics)
Periodic Videos (Chemsitry)
Numberphile (Mathematics)
A great set of short youtube videos produced by the University of Nottingham with compelling and concise explanations of principles in physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

The Theoretical Minimum
Lectures on the heart of theoretical physics from one of the fathers of String Theory, Leonard Susskind. I cannot recommend these lectures enough.

MIT Open Courseware
"MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity."

How Stuff Works
"HowStuffWorks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, is the award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works. Founded by North Carolina State University Professor Marshall Brain in 1998, the site is now an online resource for millions of people of all ages."

Physics for Future Presidents
"Professor Richard A. Muller. Physics for Future Presidents The most interesting and important topics in physics, stressing conceptual understanding rather than math, with applications to current events."

Feynmann (Douglas Robb Memorial) Lecture Series
"Chosen by the New Scientist - best on-line videos 2007. A set of four priceless archival science video recordings from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) of the outstanding Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman - arguably the greatest science lecturer ever. Although the recording is of modest technical quality the exceptional personal style and unique delivery shine through."

Feynmann: The Character of Physical Law
Feynmann's Cornell lectures.

What if?

How does quantum mechanics change our description of reality?
A series of short, accessible videos by string theorist Brian Greene on quantum physics.


For students and the fearless

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Physics StackExchange
The definitive resource for any technical questions you might have.

Physics Forums
For a more casual environment than StackExchange

PhysicsWorld
Institute of Physics Magazine

Britney Spears's Guide to Semiconductor Physics
The name says it all.

Eric Weisstein's World of Physics
Eric Weisstein's World of Chemistry
"Eric Weisstein's World of Science contains budding encyclopedias of astronomy, scientific biography, chemistry, and physics. This resource has been assembled over more than a decade by internet encyclopedist Eric W. Weisstein with assistance from the internet community."

HyperPhysics
"HyperPhysics is an exploration environment for concepts in physics which employs concept maps and other linking strategies to facilitate smooth navigation."

LearnersTV
A collection of online resources.

Harvard Quantum Field Theory Lectures
"Professor Coleman's wit and teaching style is legendary and, despite all that may have changed in the 35 years since these lectures were recorded, many students today are excited at the prospect of being able to view them and experience Sidney's particular genius second-hand."

Khan Academy
"Start learning now."

Nanohub
"nanoHUB.org is the premier place for computational nanotechnology research, education, and collaboration. Our site hosts a rapidly growing collection of Simulation Programs for nanoscale phenomena that run in the cloud and are accessible through a web browser. In addition to simulation devices, nanoHUB provides Online Presentations, Courses, Learning Modules, Podcasts, Animations, Teaching Materials, and more. These resources help users learn about our simulation programs and about nanotechnology in general. Our site offers researchers a venue to explore, collaborate, and publish content, as well. Much of these collaborative efforts occur via Workspaces and User groups."

Particle Physics from the Beginning
Annotated Chronological Bibliography of the Key Papers.

On Quantum Theory
Compelling article on the minimalist interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Morbert

Added two links:


How does quantum mechanics change our description of reality?
A series of short, accessible videos by string theorist Brian Greene on quantum physics.

On Quantum Theory
Compelling article on the minimalist interpretation of quantum mechanics.

roosh

The Problem of Time: Quantm Mechanics versus General Relativity by Dr. Edward Anderson.

This book is a treatise on time and on background independence in physics. It first considers how time is conceived of in each accepted paradigm of physics: Newtonian, special relativity, quantum mechanics (QM) and general relativity (GR). Substantial differences are moreover uncovered between what is meant by time in QM and in GR. These differences jointly source the Problem of Time: Nine interlinked facets which arise upon attempting concurrent treatment of the QM and GR paradigms, as is required in particular for a background independent theory of quantum gravity. A sizeable proportion of current quantum gravity programs - e.g. geometrodynamical and loop quantum gravity approaches to quantum GR, quantum cosmology, supergravity and M-theory - are background independent in this sense. This book's foundational topic is thus furthermore of practical relevance in the ongoing development of quantum gravity programs.
Google Books (https://books.google.com.my/books/about/The_Problem_of_Time.html?id=qi4OtAEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y)

CtevenSrowder

Mary Boas - Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences. Gives you all the Maths background you need!

Capt'n Midnight

Some get you started books that you'll want to keep.

K A Stroud - Engineering Mathematics and Further Engineering Mathematics.

Simple no nonsense 'teach your self by working through them' maths books. Highly recomended for STEM courses.

Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Modern Physics, - Schaum's Outlines vary a lot in quality. This one is a hit. So many classic experiments , with values. Contents : https://www.mhebooklibrary.com/doi/book/10.1036/9780071367899?contentTab=true

Capt'n Midnight

Materials for the Engineering Technician - Higgins 

It explains a lot about the properties of metals. Intersting reading for the layman/laywoman too

take everything

No love for Landau and Lifshitz Mechanics? It's a while since I've looked at it, but it's a concise, beautifully written look at Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics. Of course, it's only really appreciated after you know the material. 😝

Tough going the first time around but it's so easy to appreciate the development of the argument when you're more familiar with the material.

Has anyone mentioned Jackson Electrodynamics yet. Does anyone actually like or find that book easy?

Kleppner and Kolenkow for Newtonian Mechanics is nice: it's not perfect, but it gives a thorough insight into Newtonian Mechanics and special relativity.

University Physics, as mentioned, is a nice foundational, general-purpose Physics text.

I liked that Kreyszig mathematical methods book mentioned above. Covers an awful lot including Fourier Analysis/Complex Analysis and the usual diffEQ/vector calculus stuff.

Can't really recommend any QM/diff geom/GR books; just used notes but Sakarai was recommended for QM. Griffiths is more elementary.

For anyone interested in combinatorics, Bona's A walk through Combinatorics is a decent text. Nice section on graph theory.