-2

I'm going to start a degree course in physics next year. So far in high school I covered some physics without calculus. I know that I will start everything from the beginning at university, but I would like to prepare in some ways. Then the question is: what should I do? Should I revise what I studied? Should I go head?

Can you suggest (from your experience) what should I do before starting a physics degree course?

PS In case you recommend to study some material, can you suggest a book?

user140619
  • 119
  • study calculus or pre-calculus if you aren't ready for calculus. Make sure you understand trigonometric functions, area, and volume. Vectors are extremely important. – DavePhD Apr 23 '14 at 15:44

2 Answers2

0

Books: (To further your textbook knowledge of Physics at the University level): Fundamentals of Physics

Problems: (To further your problem solving abilities): Problems in General Physics, Irodov.

Knowledge: (To further your knowledge of Theoretical Physics, this book unlike most other theoretical physics book is not for the layman, and contains advanced mathematics, covering every fundamental topic in modern physics): A Complete Guide To The Laws Of the Universe

These will suffice for a more advanced introduction to the topic.

Axiom
  • 1
  • I find it very hard to believe that a book, or even an entire shelf of books, would cover 'every fundamental topic in modern physics'. – Danu Apr 23 '14 at 16:06
  • 1
    Indeed, MTW's book on GR is 1000+ pages, and that doesn't even cover every topic in GR. – JamalS Apr 23 '14 at 16:08
  • Yes, what I meant by every fundamental topic was mostly a brief introduction (maybe even just naming the topic) to the most popular or interesting fields of theoretical physics, in which the reader may choose to expand upon their knowledge of a specific topic by selecting a more detailed book on that topic. – Axiom Apr 24 '14 at 22:36
0

The correct answer here is likely to vary depending on your country and institution as what is expected knowledge will change.

The best advice I can give is to have a good understanding of the basic maths. From a UK perspective I would recommend knowing the core A-level Maths pretty well (and preferably further maths too). For US people Wikipedia suggests AP calculus is roughly the same level. There are loads of books covering these topics probably your school notes\textbook will be fine.

From my memory of my physics degree I think the people who struggled most had a poor understanding of the maths paricularly further maths level. Although no knowledge was assumed, everything else is built on this so becomes much harder if you don't understand.

Personally I wouldn't bother with a more Physics related textbook. But this is more personal preference. If you really want something I would look and see if your university has a basic set text and look at this. My university recommended You & Freedman, University Phyiscs, which is decent enough. I think I looked at it less that 5 times during my course though so definitely not essential.

nivag
  • 1,840