I'll commend the added effort on this one and give it another once-over.

>Before the DC-X, nobody believed rockets could land themselves with precision and reliability.

I will have to mark this one with a big fat [citation needed]. Although I can't quite speak for the folks who worked rockets in the 90's, in principle I see little reason why seasoned experts would be inclined to think of the task as impossible. Intriguing perhaps, difficult certainly, but the problems involved in that kind of landing functionality are well-defined in the propulsion and control theory literature from which a solution must be derived.

What the DC-X provides is an important proof of concept - I see little benefit in trying to analyze how useful that design is relative to any other given one. Although, as a point perhaps of historical interest: there was a "Delta Clipper" full-size vehicle in the plans as a follow-on to the DC-X, with some rather familiar promises of low-cost access to space and large savings through reusability. Some things are just posters, some things become prototypes, and some things end up as something more - that's the reality of aerospace designs if not engineering designs in general. I do have to say that based on the studies I've seen from the 90's, shelving the Delta Clipper concept was definitely the correct decision at that time.

>At this point, reuse was likely not saving over a couple million per launch, as pre-B5 boosters were not optimized for reuse.

I would like to draw attention to a pattern of thought I've coined "the refinement fallacy." That is, the general assumption that the next version will iterate away the relatively fundamental problems with this one. Although the next version could certainly support improvements, it's easy to assume that such improvements will lead to radically different performance even when there is little evidence to support that that is the case. Bottom line: improvements and refinements do not by default resolve fundamental problems.

For the next segment, I'd like to start by collecting a couple of questionable assertions:

1.

>Musk said that reuse was 50% cheaper, however, by the end of this, it would likely be more accurate that the final pre-B5 reuse only saved up to 30%, and that was the expectation from B5.

2.

>Block 5 is the final version of Falcon 9. It is reportedly built for 10 flights with minimal refurbishment and 100 flights over its lifetime, although there is speculation that B5 will be used through 200-300 launches IF Starlink becomes a thing.

3.

>All of these help improve rapid reusability and the amount of times a booster can be used. it is likely only now, when B5 is being mass-produced (in rocket terms) and reuse is down that reuse of the booster can create cost saving with reuse being worthwhile. This is also the point where that 50% savings over making a new one can be reached, which would probably give up to 25% total cost reduction (this takes into account the costs of maintaining and using the ships and their respective equipment).

The problem with each of these claims is largely the source material: not what the average individual would describe as credible. The first and third claims seem relatively tame on their face - statements of economics and of the efficiency of a certain project. The second one is significantly more absurd - one that couples absurdly optimistic performance assumptions with associated claims of economies of scale. Generally, it's easy to make anything seem feasible if you take highly optimistic assumptions about future growth and best-case performance, and that can honestly be somewhat meaningless.

In truth, we have a credibility problem to address here. We don't have detailed financial information about a private company's business, so we have to look at the evidence we do have:

1. Significant economic benefit is claimed. It's not a bad first-order assumption to take such claims at face value, although it might not be a bad idea to have some degree of skepticism, especially if the company in question is known for hyperbole and showmanship.
   
   
2. Known financial results do not paint a particularly flattering picture. Incomplete a metric though this may be, very large and important efficiency gains would generally lead to a very healthy bottom line. This doesn't seem to really be the case at the moment.
   
   
3. Studies from other individuals external to the claimant on the viability of the approach. Although there is some contention here, the external studies largely seem to be far more reserved in their claims on economic benefit. Though individually there is some question of credibility, when many parties independently reach the same conclusion it might beg the question of, why? Although it is far from proof, multiple experts corroborating the same story do make a case.
   
   The lack of verifiable numbers, and the consistent rightward shift of the "next iteration will wave a magic wand and erase the problems" mentality is a key facet of the refinement fallacy approach to these topics. Although there is not exactly hard proof available one way or the other (which does leave lots of leeway for speculation), the partial evidence provided does provide sufficient room to warrant significant skepticism.
   
   >A common rebuttal to reuse and SpaceX making money is that ULA makes way more profits than SpaceX. While true, this statement does not take into account the lower prices that SpaceX offers compared to ULA and where that money is going.
   
   What is perhaps more meaningful here is the matter of structural profitability. Generally, more budget services do make a smaller per-unit profit than the more expensive units; the former makes up for the difference in volume. But more meaningful is the more fundamental factors: is the business, including its forward-looking development plans, funded primarily by its operating profits, or by an influx of external capital? Investment is always a staple of large capital expenditures, but there is a massive difference between supplementing a healthy business profit with some external cash for faster development and relying on that money to just keep on top of the current batch of tasks without clearly achievable milestones to turn the trend around (often depending instead on pie-in-the-sky promises of grand successes). One may ask, which do we actually see here?
   
   >Currently, SpaceX is the only launch provider with commercially viable reusable launch vehicles. But it won't be that way much further into the 2020s. Future competitors include: Blue Origin's New Glenn, ULA's Vulcan-Centuar, and possibly China and India.
   
   Launch vehicle reusability has been a long-pursued topic in well-developed space programs all over the world. That has been the case for many decades, it will continue to be the case for years to come. However, two things become quickly clear:
   
   
4. It doesn't mean that it will prove to be a value-added pursuit; they could just as well explore that option until it becomes clear that the benefits are not sufficient to implement it further.
   
   
5. It doesn't mean that the task is a priority; research and opportunities for potential improvement that may only materialize years or decades into the future are staples of the R&D core of space, but it's no guarantee that any certain approach matters sufficiently to emphasize it right now. For example - the detachable engine idea had long been theorized and explored in detail, and may even prove to be viable, but is a far lesser concern than many more immediate factors of rocket design.
   
   Bold claims about a radically different future generally are far too presumptuous, assuming a world of highly optimistic possibilities without sufficiently considering the more immediate (and generally more mundane) economic and political conditions under which they operate. Again, some things end up as just proposals or prototypes, some things become something more; what a different world we would live in if all the promises of the past decades came true. The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
   
   Sources
   
   Just me, but I do have a book recommendation: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics - a fairly elementary, but highly informative, book on the principles of orbital mechanics. Great both for learning the basics at an engineering (as opposed to hobbyist) level, and as a reference if you happen to work with the stuff on a daily basis.

I'd like to give you my two cents as well on how to proceed here. If nothing else, this will be a second opinion. If I could redo my physics education, this is how I'd want it done.

If you are truly wanting to learn these fields in depth I cannot stress how important it is to actually work problems out of these books, not just read them. There is a certain understanding that comes from struggling with problems that you just can't get by reading the material. On that note, I would recommend getting the Schaum's outline to whatever subject you are studying if you can find one. They are great books with hundreds of solved problems and sample problems for you to try with the answers in the back. When you get to the point you can't find Schaums anymore, I would recommend getting as many solutions manuals as possible. The problems will get very tough, and it's nice to verify that you did the problem correctly or are on the right track, or even just look over solutions to problems you decide not to try.

Basics

I second Stewart's Calculus cover to cover (except the final chapter on differential equations) and Halliday, Resnick and Walker's Fundamentals of Physics. Not all sections from HRW are necessary, but be sure you have the fundamentals of mechanics, electromagnetism, optics, and thermal physics down at the level of HRW.

Once you're done with this move on to studying differential equations. Many physics theorems are stated in terms of differential equations so really getting the hang of these is key to moving on. Differential equations are often taught as two separate classes, one covering ordinary differential equations and one covering partial differential equations. In my opinion, a good introductory textbook to ODEs is one by Morris Tenenbaum and Harry Pollard. That said, there is another book by V. I. Arnold that I would recommend you get as well. The Arnold book may be a bit more mathematical than you are looking for, but it was written as an introductory text to ODEs and you will have a deeper understanding of ODEs after reading it than your typical introductory textbook. This deeper understanding will be useful if you delve into the nitty-gritty parts of classical mechanics. For partial differential equations I recommend the book by Haberman. It will give you a good understanding of different methods you can use to solve PDEs, and is very much geared towards problem-solving.

From there, I would get a decent book on Linear Algebra. I used the one by Leon. I can't guarantee that it's the best book out there, but I think it will get the job done.

This should cover most of the mathematical training you need to move onto the intermediate level physics textbooks. There will be some things that are missing, but those are usually covered explicitly in the intermediate texts that use them (i.e. the Delta function). Still, if you're looking for a good mathematical reference, my recommendation is Lua. It may be a good idea to go over some basic complex analysis from this book, though it is not necessary to move on.

Intermediate

At this stage you need to do intermediate level classical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and thermal physics at the very least. For electromagnetism, Griffiths hands down. In my opinion, the best pedagogical book for intermediate classical mechanics is Fowles and Cassidy. Once you've read these two books you will have a much deeper understanding of the stuff you learned in HRW. When you're going through the mechanics book pay particular attention to generalized coordinates and Lagrangians. Those become pretty central later on. There is also a very old book by Robert Becker that I think is great. It's problems are tough, and it goes into concepts that aren't typically covered much in depth in other intermediate mechanics books such as statics. I don't think you'll find a torrent for this, but it is 5 bucks on Amazon. That said, I don't think Becker is necessary. For quantum, I cannot recommend Zettili highly enough. Get this book. Tons of worked out examples. In my opinion, Zettili is the best quantum book out there at this level. Finally for thermal physics I would use Mandl. This book is merely sufficient, but I don't know of a book that I liked better.

This is the bare minimum. However, if you find a particular subject interesting, delve into it at this point. If you want to learn Solid State physics there's Kittel. Want to do more Optics? How about Hecht. General relativity? Even that should be accessible with Schutz. Play around here before moving on. A lot of very fascinating things should be accessible to you, at least to a degree, at this point.

Advanced

Before moving on to physics, it is once again time to take up the mathematics. Pick up Arfken and Weber. It covers a great many topics. However, at times it is not the best pedagogical book so you may need some supplemental material on whatever it is you are studying. I would at least read the sections on coordinate transformations, vector analysis, tensors, complex analysis, Green's functions, and the various special functions. Some of this may be a bit of a review, but there are some things Arfken and Weber go into that I didn't see during my undergraduate education even with the topics that I was reviewing. Hell, it may be a good idea to go through the differential equations material in there as well. Again, you may need some supplemental material while doing this. For special functions, a great little book to go along with this is Lebedev.

Beyond this, I think every physicist at the bare minimum needs to take graduate level quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics. For quantum, I recommend Cohen-Tannoudji. This is a great book. It's easy to understand, has many supplemental sections to help further your understanding, is pretty comprehensive, and has more worked examples than a vast majority of graduate text-books. That said, the problems in this book are LONG. Not horrendously hard, mind you, but they do take a long time.

Unfortunately, Cohen-Tannoudji is the only great graduate-level text I can think of. The textbooks in other subjects just don't measure up in my opinion. When you take Classical mechanics I would get Goldstein as a reference but a better book in my opinion is Jose/Saletan as it takes a geometrical approach to the subject from the very beginning. At some point I also think it's worth going through Arnold's treatise on Classical. It's very mathematical and very difficult, but I think once you make it through you will have as deep an understanding as you could hope for in the subject.

It's great that you want to study particle physics and String Theory! It's a really interesting subject. Getting a degree in physics can often make you a useful person so long as you make sure you get some transferable skills (like programming and whatnot). I'll reiterate the standard advice for going further in physics, and in particular in theoretical physics, in the hope that you will take it to heart. Only go into theoretical physics if you really enjoy it. Do it for no other reason. If you want to become a professor, there are other areas of physics which are far easier to accomplish that in. If you want to be famous, become an actor or a writer or go into science communication and become the new Bill Nye. I'm not saying the only reason to do it is if you're obsessed with it, but you've got to really enjoy it and find it fulfilling for it's own sake as the likelihood of becoming a professor in it is so slim. Then, if your academic dreams don't work out, you won't regret the time you spent, and you'll always have the drive to keep learning and doing more, whatever happens to you academically.

With that out of the way, the biggest chunk of learning you'll do as a theorist is math. A decent book (which I used in my undergraduate degree) which covers the majority of the math you need to understand basic physics, e.g. Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics and Electromagnetism. Is this guy: Maths It's not a textbook you can read cover to cover, but it's a really good reference, and undoubtably, should you go and do a physics degree, you'll end up owning something like it. If you like maths now and want to learn more of it, then it's a good book to do it with.

The rest of the books I'll recommend to you have a minimal number of equations, but explain a lot of concepts and other interesting goodies. To really understand the subjects you need textbooks, but you need the math to understand them first and it's unlikely you're there yet. If you want textbook suggestions let me know, but if you haven't read the books below they're good anyway.

First, particle physics. This book Deep Down Things is a really great book about the history and ideas behind modern particles physics and the standard model. I can't recommend it enough.

Next, General Relativity. If you're interested in String Theory you're going to need to become an expert in General Relativity. This book: General Relativity from A to B explains the ideas behind GR without a lot of math, but it does so in a precise way. It's a really good book.

Next, Quantum Mechanics. This book: In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a great introduction to the people and ideas of Quantum Mechanics. I like it a lot.

For general physics knowledge. Lots of people really like the
Feynman Lectures They cover everything and so have quite a bit of math in them. As a taster you can get a couple of books: Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces, though the not so easy pieces are a bit more mathematically minded.

Now I'll take the opportunity to recommend my own pet favourite book. The Road to Reality. Roger Penrose wrote this to prove that anyone could understand all of theoretical physics, as such it's one of the hardest books you can read, but it is fascinating and tells you about concepts all the way up to String Theory. If you've got time to think and work on the exercises I found it well worth the time. All the math that's needed is explained in the book, which is good, but it's certainly not easy!

Lastly, for understanding more of the ideas which underlie theoretical physics, this is a good book: Philsophy of Physics: Space and Time It's not the best, but the ideas behind theoretical physics thought are important and this is an interesting and subtle book. I'd put it last on the reading list though.

Anyway, I hope that helps, keep learning about physics and asking questions! If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask.

Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.

First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.

It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.

One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.

If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.

Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.

Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!

Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.

If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.

Hope this helps, good luck!

> code things into real life seems like a blast

It is! :-) And it's so easy compared to starting with a bare microcontroller.

> 0 experience whe nit comes to working with hardware

Kits usually explain a bit about resistors and such, but I'd strongly recommend to also pick up a beginner electronics book. These are simple and fun to read! :-)

• Getting started in electronics
  
  
• Notebook doodle style, super simple. Not only for kids despite the electron smileys showing you how electricity works. Electronics in an intuitive fashion, from winding a coil around a nail to build an electro magnet to simple circuits (and beyond).
  
  
• Practical electronics for inventors
  
  
• Still an easy read, but more background info :-)
  
   
  
  > sensors and motors and stuff
  
  > laserpointer
  
  Laser modules cost $0.15 or so at Aliexpress, Servos $1... Everything is so inexpensive it's great to build all sorts of crazy machines ;-)
  
  
   
  
  > What arduino
  
  Most guides and books will probably talk about the UNO. You can get a compatible board for around $3, but a Nano also works in the same fashion and sits nicely on a breadboard.
  
  For the UNO, you have all sorts of modules/shields, but there's nothing you can't hook up to one of the smaller boards.
  
  Also order an ESP8266 based board, like the $3 Nodemcu or D1 Mini. The ESP8266 has wifi built in and can run stand-alone, as it's a microcontroller with more memory as the UNO/Nano :-) But it's 3.3v, has only one analog input, and it's a bit more work when starting out.
  
   
  
  > What
  
  You could get a kit if you would like all sorts of sensors and modules.
  
  The Chinese starter kits are super cheap ($22 with UNO compatible, $26 with MEGA). As Aliexpress links often trigger the spam filter, search for 1207150873 or 32543887265.
  
  The differences are subtle, some kits lack the ultrasonic sensor (<=$1), etc.
  
  What's also a LOT of fun is a 2wd robot car kit, you can get them for $15 or so. Two geared motors, dual H-Bridge, put an Arduino + Ultrasonic sensor on it, and with ten lines of code, it will be an obstacle avoiding car or line follower ;-)
  
   
  
  These kits usually don't have great instructions. If that's what you want, get the official Arduino starter kit, or something from Sparkfun, Adafruit etc.
  
  The Arduino site, instructables, and all kind of blogs have examples for almost every module/sensor/device you can find :-) Find a good guide, such as t
  h
  [e](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYutciIGBqC34bfijBdYch49oyU-B_ttH
  )
  s
  e, and see if that would work for you.
  
   
  
  The only down-side when going with the compatible Arduino boards: You will have to install a different driver manually (oh noes).
  
   
  
  If you don't have one already: A soldering iron.
  
  I know, when starting, soldering sucks. You want to do everything on a breadboard, reservable. But I found out way too late how great and time saving soldering is once you use a decent soldering iron ;-) Most will recommend something like FX888D or better, but a $15-$20 adjustable soldering station can work as well for the occasional soldering job. And there's a soldering comic :-)
  
   
  
  A multimeter is a must-have as well. $3 ones work for simple resistance and voltage readings. For high voltage / high current tasks, they might burst into flames and double as fire-starter, ideal in the cold winter time.
  
  Part testers for $15 can be neat, they identify parts (is this a NPN or PNP transistor... or something else?).
  
  Cheap regulated $20 power supplies can be nice as well.
  
   
  
  Edit: Bunch of capacitors, resistors, transistors (Bags of 100-500 for $1-$2 via ebay), and whatever sensors you need ;-)
  
   
  
  
  Sorry for the long post :-) It's always difficult to tell how much experience and equipment someone already has.

Yes, it was posted already, but not in this way. I want to post THIS to them making them think they are going to that article.

Well for starters, there will never be "one Christian nation". It is as big of a war in the country (on a much smaller scale of course) than what other religions around the world are fighting about.

That's the first thing that got me on my way to where I stand now after growing up a Christain. I lost my faith when I couldn't fathom all the religions all over the world. I read today in Sagans Pale Blue Dot there is something like 1000 religions world wide (1996 standards too). I am not sure if this includes tribes as well. Any religious person that is questing their faith too, should at least try Sam Harris: Letter to a Christain Nation. Its a very short read, I had the audio book and it was less than 2 hours. And if that intrigued you enough, then try one of the many other great books on the subject. Or about astrology. Carl Sagan is always great to start with. That is unless of course--if you ever had doubts. We are not here to convert, but to send the peaceful message of letting us be free spirits without ridicule or persecution. And remember this, more Atheists are made from reading the Bible (and not making sense of the fallacies). Knowing what science has taught us about the Universe and our small existence in it. And what is now known no longer a theory--Natural Selection. You can keep changing the ideals for what religion now allows compared to beginning of it's origin. Or you can give in. It is the wave of the future, the free mind thinkers.

Question Everything!

Free thinkers are intelligent enough to question what we feel in our heart is NOT the answer. We learned our morals from our upbringings and treating others as you wished to be treated, and that includes not just judging without knowing the facts. We are not afraid to conform to what we know is right. Like agreeing with what 93% of all scientist now agree on...or 67 of the known Nobel Prize winners. That will admit of course. They all agree that not knowing enough to know the answer does not require conforming to religion, because it's not the answer. Even if you were to say you are a Secular Diest, you're not renouncing God, you're just seeking the answer to attest your final faith if that is you don't eventually move to the dark side...I mean free side.

Read another book. Be open minded and realize

Signed

ATHEIST!

Okay, you're definitely at the beginning. I'll clarify a few things and then recommend some resources.

1. Places to buy components: Depending on where you live in the world, the large component suppliers are almost always the way to go, with smaller suppliers like Adafruit/Sparkfun if you need development boards or specialised things. I buy almost exclusively from Digikey -- they have $8 flat shipping to Canada, which typically arrives the next day, with no customs fees. They have some sort of agreement in place where they cover these costs. This *always* saves money over going to my local stores where the prices are inflated. It's crazy how cheap some things are. If I need a few 2.2K 1206 resistors for a project, I just buy a reel of 1000 because they are so cheap.
   
2. "Steer a joystick with an app" Do you mean connect motors to it and have them move the joystick for you? You're going to want some sort of microcontroller platform, along with a motor controller and way to communicate with a smartphone app. You mention you know C++ so it will be easy to switch to C. This is both true and false. Programming for microcontrollers is not the same as programming for computers. You are much closer to the hardware, typically manipulating many registers directly instead of abstracting it away. Each microcontroller vendor has their own tools and compilers, although *some* do support GCC or alternatives. You mentioned PIC, which is a line of microcontrollers by a large company called Microchip. There are 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit PICs, all at different price points and with hugely differing capabilities. Selecting the microcontroller for a project can be half the battle sometimes. Or, like me, you can just go with whatever you have on hand (which is usually MSP430s or PIC32MX's)
   
3. A lot of people will recommend the book The Art of Electronics. It's decent, but it's not for everyone. Some really like the conversational style, others don't. Many people who want to get into microcontroller programming and embedded development want to skip over the fundamentals and just get something working. For those, I point them to Arduino and let them on their merry way. However, if you actually want to learn something, I highly recommend buying an actual microcontroller development board, learning the fundamentals about electrical circuits, and programming in actual C with actual IDEs.
   
4. As far as resources go, again it depends on your actual goal. Whenever I want to learn a new tool (like a PCB layout software, or a new IDE) I always start with a simple project. Having an end point to reach will keep you motivated when things seem complicated. Your controlling a joystick with motors is a great starting point. I would buy a development board, Microchip PICs are popular, as are ST32s, and MSP430. It doesn't really matter that much in the long run. Just don't tie yourself too hard to one brand. Then pick up some stepper motors, and a stepper motor control board (grab one from Sparkfun/Adafruit, etc). Get yourself a breadboard, and some breadboard jumpers, a cheap power supply (there are tons available now for cheap that are pretty decent), and then jump in head first!
   
5. I highly recommend the book Making Embedded Systems by Elecia White, once you've covered the basics. It's a great way to learn more about how professionals actually design things. For the basics, you can watch *EARLY* EEVBlog videos (anything past around video 600/650 he gets progressively more annoying and set in his ways, another topic entirely, but the early stuff is decent). I'd also recommend picking up your choice of books about the fundamentals -- Electronics for Dummies, the aforementioned Art of Electronics, Making Embedded Systems, The Art of Designing Embedded Systems, and even stuff like Design Patterns for Embedded Systems in C. Again, it all depends on what your goal is. If you want to do embedded design, then you'll need to focus on that. If you're more into analog circuits, then maybe check out The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design. Either way, grounding yourself in the fundamentals will help a LOT later on. It will make reading schematics way easier.
   
   I feel like I've gone off on a few tangents, but just ask for clarification if you want. I'd be happy to point you towards other resources.

I did learn all of this stuff from experience. Honestly, I had a little bit of a tough time right out of college because I didn't have much practical circuit design experience. I now feel like I have a very good foundation for that and it came through experience, learning from my peers, and lots of research. I have no affiliation with Henry Ott, but I treat his book like a bible . I refer to it just about every time I do a board design. Why? because it's packed with this type of practical information. Here's his book. I bought mine used as cheap as I could. At my previous job, they just had one in the library. Either way, it was good to have around.

So why should you care about electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)? A couple reasons:

1. EMC compliance is often regulated by industry and because a product requirement. The types of tests that your product has to pass is dependent on the industry typically, but in general there are tests where bad things are injected into your board and tests where they measure how noisy your board. You have to pass both.
   
2. EMC compliance, in my opinion, is very well correlated with the reliability and quality of a product. If a product is destroyed "randomly" or stops working when the microwave is on, you're not likely to have a good opinion of that product. Following guidelines like the one I did above is the path to avoiding problems like that.
   
3. EMC design is usually not taught in schools and yet it is the most important part of the design (besides making it perform the required product function in the first place). It also is very hard to understand because many of the techniques for improving your design do not necessarily show up on your schematics. Often, it's about how well your layout your board, how the mechanical design for the enclosure of your board is considered, etc.
   
   Anyways, it's definitely worth looking at and is a huge asset if you can follow those guidelines. Be prepared to enter the workforce and see rampant disregard for EMC best practices as well as rampant EMC problems in existing products. This is common because, as I said, it's not taught and engineers often don't know what tools to use to fix it. It often leads to expensive solutions where a few extra caps and a better layout would have sufficed.
   
   A couple more books I personally like and use:
   
   Howard Johnson, High Speed Digital Design (it's from 1993, but still works well)
   
   Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics (good for understanding just about anything, good for finding tricks and ideas to help you for problems you haven't solved before but someone probably has)
   
   Last thing since I'm sitting here typing anyways:
   
   When I first got out of college, I really didn't trust myself even when I had done extensive research on a particular part of design. I was surrounded by engineers who also didn't have the experience or knowledge to say whether I was on the right path or not. It's important to use whatever resources you have to gain experience, even if those resources are books alone. It's unlikely that you will be lucky and get a job working with the world's best EE who will teach you everything you need to know. When I moved on from my first job after college, I found out that I was on the right path on many things thanks to my research and hard work. This was in opposition to my thinking before then as my colleagues at my first job were never confident in our own ability to "do EE the right way" - as in, the way that engineers at storied, big companies like Texas Instruments and Google had done. Hope that anecdotal story pushes you to keep going and learning more!

1. Definitely. Personal experience: I have less than a year of industry experience and was offered a position starting at $59K + full benefits + stock options in from a fairly large commercial aeronautics company in TX.
   
   
2. Maybe not those skills specifically, but hiring managers will be very impressed (and maybe intimidated) by "nuclear operator" and military experience in general. I was friends with a nuke guy similar to you who was in my aerospace program and he's miles ahead of me in terms of opportunity.
   
   
3. Nope, as long as you go to a top 50 (hell, even a top 100) institution you'll be fine and won't be at any sort of disadvantage. I know you're riding the GI bill and can probably go to an expensive private institution like Embry-Riddle (barf), but I urge you to instead choose a university that will make you happy as a person, located in a city that has lots of fun stuff to do.
   

• NOTE: you might want to investigate whether your choice of university has a good VA program (esp. since it sounds like you were discharged for medical reasons). I was friends with a few Navy guys that developed macular degeneration from working around diesel motors on ships, and the VA office at their university sucked which kind of made everything else suck.
  
  

4. Brush up on algebra, trigonometry, vector calculus, and classical physics, and you should be solid. I recommend purchasing this book as it covers nearly every topic taught in an undergraduate engineering program, plus you can use it to prepare for the FE exam if/when you decide to take it.
   
   
5. The best advice I can give you is to get hands-on experience while attending school. Any respectable astronautics program will certainly have a rocketry, robotics, and/or satellite group, and I strongly encourage you to join at least one of those groups. Learn how to weld, put subsystems together, code, and most importantly learn what it actually means to work in a group of engineers under a deadline.

A couple of recommendations:

First, there are the classic Forrest Mims books they are the quintessential beginner level books. Radio Shack used to sell them. They are very introductory and tend to be rather brief for easy consumption. I'm not a huge fan of the style personally but others LOVE them a lot. Many many many hobbyists and engineers got their start with these books.

Another option I like a lot is Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd Ed. by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. This book is a great beginners book that will take you nicely into circuit theory and things like that. Not as advanced as an academic tome but advanced enough for you to learn a good amount and establish a solid foundation.

Lastly, there is the very advanced Art of Electronics 3rd Ed. by Horowitz and Hill. This is the classic introductory text for engineers and hobbyists alike. It is very math heavy but you will have a very very good understanding of what's going on.

One non-book recommendation is the AllAboutCircuits online textbook tutorial. It is pretty well enumerated and detailed, though it is a bit lacking in sample problems. A great free resource that you can start learning now.

Beyond this, once you get a solid foundation. You can start focusing in specific areas like digital, power, precision measurements, etc.

I don't know what's going on in this thread. One poster is giving you useless advice about just "trying hard and keeping at it" (as if that's at the root of this issue), one poster saw an opportunity to vent about his personal frustrations and project them onto you (your supervisors are tools, they only care about promotions!), and yet another one decided to pitch in with a useless comment about some random exam they have tomorrow.

So let me give you a level-headed comment that might actually prove useful to you.

First off, you took zero math courses during your undergrad. There's your first problem. Geophysics is what happens when the concept of an inverse problem takes on the shape of an academic discipline. It's a very mathematical and physical subject.

Ideally, you should have completed all of single- and multi-variable calculus. You should have completed a course in linear algebra. You should have completed a course on differential equations (both ordinary and partial), and you should have a solid "signals and systems" course under your belt. Additionally, it'd be very useful if you had a (mathematically-oriented) course on probability and statistics, though this isn't strictly necessary at all, the preceding courses should suffice for 95% of the stuff you need to know.

That about concludes the mathematical side of things. Now let's be real. I just listed about 2 years worth of mathematical coursework, split over at least 5 quarter or semester courses. You're not going to be able to catch up with that.

My solution: get a "Mathematical Methods for Physics/Engineering"-style textbook. There's a few on the market, such as Boas' famous book. That one doesn't start at your current level though, so I don't recommend purchasing it.

The one book that fits the bill for you, and that I'd strongly recommend you purchase is Riley, Hobson and Bence's "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering", Cambridge University Press. Get the latest edition (the 3rd). If you're in the US, the book will set you back about $60 on Amazon, or $50 on Bookdepository. Don't buy the cheap, crappy international edition. This book is massive (1300+ pages). Skip the chapters on quantum operators, group theory and representation theory. Work through the rest. Alternatively, an equally good book, though more concise, is "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering", the 2nd edition by Weltner, Weber and other authors (it's a Springer book). This one really builds you up from scratch, which is great for a beginner like yourself, but hardly has any exercises. If you're really, really short on time, get Weltner et al. If you think you can put in the work and time, definitely go for the Riley/Hobson/Bence book. Also, definitely think about getting a Schaum Outline on Precalculus to quickly get up to speed on some fundamentals (a physical copy will only set you back $14 on Amazon). Seriously, this might prove very useful to you. Don't get the e-book editions,though. They're badly formatted.

That's at least 1000 pages of dense mathematics. If you're confident you're determined enough to get through it, that should be a good stepping stone to start from.

Next up is the physics. Get a University Physics textbook. I'm a big fan of Young and Freedman's University Physics, though you could consider Manfield's Understanding Physics as well as it might be more accessible to you. Study through the sections on mechanics (statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials), electromagnetism and waves (especially the waves section).

At this point you should really consider getting up to speed on signals and systems. Especially seeing as you're working with stuff like SEISAN (which is basically applied signals & systems theory). The one book that stands out, big time, is Lathi's "Linear Systems and Signals, 3rd edition". This text is amazing for self-study. It's incredibly expensive though. If you can't spare the money, there's a pretty cool little book that's freely available and unlicensed, written by prof. Chi-Tsong Chen from Stony Brooks. You will find it here, titled Signals & Systems: a Fresh Look. It even has a brief section on seismometers.

From here on out, ask your supervisors etc what books they'd suggest that specifically deal with geophysics/seismic stuff. I could recommend you a few if you're still interested after reading this daunting wall of text.

Let me know!

I remember doing 2 years of almost solid maths, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, solids, materials etc. It was so uninspiring that I started teaching myself programming (C++) and playing around with 3d graphics (ah, good old days when Quake was the shit!)
I got good grades, but I was not a model student. So, although my 3rd and 4th year focused on 'mechatronic' subjects, I graduated not really knowing what a transistor was or how to solder anything. I was a decent programmer though.

Luckily, I got a job with a really patient, knowledgeable guy who helped me fill in the gaps. I coded stuff, but he explained how the hardware worked, I sometimes understood (or pretended, and when I couldn't figure it out later we went over it again).

I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

So here's what worked for me: (eventually :) )

• Get a practical grasp of basic electronics. Thevenin and Kirchoff and all that are important, but ...
  
• No matter how good the book/teacher, the best way to learn something is to actually DO IT.
  
• Learn C or C++
  
  So, as far as practical stuff goes:
  
  Start basic.
  
  
• Get a LED. Turn it on or off with a switch. Make it brighter. Make it dimmer.
  
• Use a transistor/FET in the switching circuit.
  
• Use a GPIO / micro controller to turn it off and on.
  
• Make it turn on for 1 second, off for 1 second. Repeatedly.
  Bonus
  
• Make the duty cycle dependent on a trimpot / variable resistor
  
  Get More Practical:
  
  
• Get an old printer.
  
• Take the stepper motor out of it. (Don't throw anything else away yet)
  
• Make a circuit to drive the motor from GPIO/ microcontroller
  
• Figure out how to make the motor turn. Both ways.
  
  
  
• Make an assembly where the motor drives a "crane arm". You can make it a rotating crane or a linear crane arm (eg, like how the printer heads move). You may need a gearbox.
  
  
• Hang a small weight (load) on the crane.
  
  
• Figure out how to make the crane move from/to a certain position. With minimal load movement.
  Bonus:
  
• Figure out how to move the crane from/to ANY position with minimal load movement.
  
  Old computer power supplies are great if you are on a budget.
  

I'm no physicist. My degree is in computer science, but I'm in a somewhat similar boat. I read all these pop-science books that got me pumped (same ones you've read), so I decided to actually dive into the math.

​

Luckily I already had training in electromagnetics and calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra so I was not going in totally blind, though tbh i had forgotten most of it by the time I had this itch.

​

I've been at it for about a year now and I'm still nowhere close to where I want to be, but I'll share the books I've read and recommend them:

• First and foremost, read Feynman's Lectures on Physics and do not skip a lecture. You can find them free on the link there, but they also sell the 3 volumes on amazon. I love annotating so I got myself physical copies. These are the most comprehensible lectures on anything I've ever read. Feynman does an excellent job on teaching you pretty much all of physics + math (especially electromagnetics) up until basics of Quantum Mechanics and some Quantum Field Theory assuming little mathematics background.
  
• Feyman lectures on Quantum Electrodynamics (The first Quantum Field Theory). This is pop-sciency and not math heavy at all, but it provides a good intuition in preparation for the bullet points below
  
• You're going to need Calculus. So if you're not familiar comfortable with integral concepts like integration by parts, Quantum Mechanics will be very difficult.
  
• I watched MIT's opencourseware online lectures on Quantum Mechanics and I did all the assignments. This gave me what I believe is a solid mathematical understanding on Quantum Mechanics
  
• I'm currently reading and performing exercises from this Introduction to Classical Field Theory. . This is just Lagrangian Field Theory, which is the classical analog of QFT. I'm doing this in preparation for the next bullet-point:
  
• Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. Very math heavy - but thats what we're after isnt it? I havent started on this yet since it relies on the previous PDF, but it was recommended in Feynmans QED book.
  
• I've had training on Linear Algebra during my CS education. You're going to need it as well. I recommend watching this linear algebra playlist by 3Blue1Brown. It's almost substitute for the rigorous math. My life would've been a lot easier if that playlist existed before i took my linear algebra course, which was taught through this book.
  
• Linear Algebra Part 2 - Tensor analysis! You need this for General Relativity. This is the pdf im currently reading and doing all the exercises. This pdf is preparing me for...
  
• Gravity. This 1000+ page behemoth comes highly recommended by pretty much all physicist I talk to and I can't wait for it.
  
• Concurrently I'm also reading this book which introduces you to the Standard Model.
  
  ​
  
  I'm available if you want to PM me directly. I love talking to others about this stuff.

/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.

Non-core/Pre-reqs:

Mathematics:

Calculus.

1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.

1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.

1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.

More discussion in this reddit thread.

Linear Algebra

3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.

3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.

Differential Equations

4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.

G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans

G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow

More discussion here.

Numerical Analysis

5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires

Chemistry:

1. General Chemistry, Pauling is a good, low cost choice. I'm not sure what we used in school.
   
   

   Physics:
   

   
   2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
   
   

   Programming:
   

   
   

   Introductory Programming
   

   
   Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
   
   

2. Learning Python, Lutz
   
   
3. Learn Python the Hard Way, Shaw -- Gaining popularity, also free online.
   
   

   Core Curriculum:
   

   
   

   Introduction:
   

   
   

4. Introduction to Flight, Anderson
   
   

   Aerodynamics:
   

   
   

5. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Fox, Pritchard McDonald
   
   
6. Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Anderson
   
   
7. Theory of Wing Sections, Abbot and von Doenhoff -- Dover book, but very good for what it is.
   
   
8. Aerodynamics for Engineers, Bertin and Cummings -- Didn't use this as the text (used Anderson instead) but it's got more on stuff like Vortex Lattice Methods.
   
   
9. Modern Compressible Flow: With Historical Perspective, Anderson
   
   
10. Computational Fluid Dynamics, Anderson
    
    

    Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
    

    
    

11. Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, Cengel
    
    
12. Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Hill and Peterson
    
    

    Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
    

    
    5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
    
    5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
    
    

13. Airplane Aerodynamics and Performance, Roskam and Lan
    
    

    Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
    

    
    3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
    
    

14. Mechanics of Materials, Hibbeler
    
    
15. Mechanical Vibrations, Rao
    
    
16. Practical Stress Analysis for Design Engineers: Design & Analysis of Aerospace Vehicle Structures, Flabel
    
    6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
    
    
17. An Introduction to the Finite Element Method, Reddy
    
    G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
    
    G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
    
    G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
    
    

    Electrical Engineering
    

    
    

18. Electrical Engineering Principles and Applications, Hambley
    
    

    Design and Optimization
    

    
    

19. Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design, Nicolai and Carinchner
    
    
20. Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, Raymer
    
    
21. Engineering Optimization: Theory and Practice, Rao
    
    

    Space Systems
    

    
    

22. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications, Vallado
    
    
23. Introduction to Space Dynamics, Thomson -- Dover book
    
    
24. Orbital Mechanics, Prussing and Conway
    
    
25. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, Bate, Mueller and White
    
    
26. Space Mission Analysis and Design, Wertz and Larson

Your spelling and grammar need a lot of work, especially around the website. Clear spelling and grammar allow the reader to understand what you are saying. You can have the best story in the world, but if no one can understand it you won't get far.

Working on your spelling will also help to create an air of professionalism. People are entrusting you with their finances when you ask them to buy your comic online. Proper spelling and grammar will help you seem dedicated, trustworthy and serious about your series and its readers.

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White are a nice and easy to read introduction to things you should or should not be doing grammatically. As you write, try to read the sentences out-loud to yourself as a narrator would. Make sure they still make sense and are easy to understand even when spoken out loud. Most desktop office software has spellcheck included, along with most web-browsers. Even if you can't get Word, there's a program called "Open Office" that you can download for free, and it works the same way. See if you can hire a friend to check over your writing for you after you have finished your own edits.

I don't intend to be overly harsh, but I don't want to be disrespectful by mincing words with you either-- the artwork is poorly executed and generic looking. It's not the worst art I've ever seen, but you could be doing a lot more. Anatomy, perspective, composition design, character design and paneling are all things that you need to work on, and it's great that you're getting experience by doing this comic. Just do as much reading as you can (go to the library in addition to looking up tuts online) and get as much practice as you can get. I think that doing something like life drawing would help you a lot with your action poses...Have you seen the different things on the sidebar?

Digital Calipers are really cool to own.

There's that book POCKET REF which is interesting, it has all sorts of information in it, lots of specific reference tables and whatnot.

If he likes to make his own projects, a gift card or shopping spree on adafruit might be cool, you could help him get set up with kit for a new project that he otherwise wouldn't do.

If you're best friends, why not do something cool together? Spend a day at the museum (maybe there's an air and space one near you), go on a wilderness adventure, stuff like that. Experiences and memories often last longer than gifts.

A really nice pen or pencil perhaps - many people like Rotring I think - you can check out /r/edc for some pretty examples. The brass and titanium machined models are extremely nice looking.

There are also some very cool rubik's cube like puzzles if he's interested in mechanical things that would make good desk ornaments - like the mirror cube or the ghost cube.

I like my leatherman style PS as an everday multitool. It doesnt have a knife so I can carry it in schools, government buildings, on planes, etc. and I've found it extremely useful. It's also the first thing I grab when I take apart something I shouldn't be on my desk.

You could also get him a high-end fidget spinner. Again, /r/edc has many different nic-nacs that they like to play with.

On the pure electronics side, I have gone through a lot of allaboutcircuits.com, but not all of it. I bought a "wee blinky" a while back as a simple soldering exercise before I was comfortable enough with soldering to trust myself on more expensive components, and when I realized that I had no idea how it worked I did some research. I quickly found this link http://www.falstad.com/circuit/e-multivib-a.html and the site has some fantastic applets of other circuits that I found very useful in quickly understanding how they work. It is much more useful to me than a simple circuit diagram at this point. I also picked up a used copy of this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071452818/ref=oh_o03_s02_i00_details on the cheap, which is generally reviewed well other than it containing a lot of mathematical errors. I am comfortable enough with the math to work through it myself if I need to be sure of something, so that was not a concern for me. At some point I might pick up the "The art of electronics", but costs more than I want to spend right now.

On the projects side I have the Arduino Cookbook, which has been handy for helping me pick out projects to bite off from the comfort of my couch. It also has given me a good sense for what can be done in general and how much effort is involved. Obviously I keep an eye to the discussions here, and I also have spent time looking over the Arduino pages. "Interfacing With Hardware" (http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/InterfacingWithHardware) has some really good stuff linked from it. I look at the stuff John Boxall is doing at tronixstuff. I keep an eye on the make blog, and stuff on ladyada.net. I also look at any interesting Instructables I come across. I suppose I regularly scan most of the popular online channels for this stuff.

Other than that, I have just been biting off projects with no particular end goal in mind. I pick a component I want to get some experience with, get one, and do something with it. Then I pick something else and repeat. I have an assortment of parts on order from taydaelectronics that should arrive mid to late this month. When they get here I will experiment with them for a few weeks, and then order some more different things. Right now I am very much in exploration mode.

Edited for typos, and completeness.

Saff and Snider is great for applied complex analysis. In my opinion it strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and rigor for a first course on the subject.

Visual Complex Analysis is another good choice, but it might be a little more advanced than what you're interested in.

The first half of Lang might also be a good choice, but Lang takes a slightly more formal, proof-based approach.

I've also skimmed through Brown and Churchill, which looks quite good but is prohibitively expensive.

Finally, you can find many cheap (~$10) books on the subject by Dover. The only one I've looked at is Knopp, which is quite formal and light on computation, but might be a good supplement. Here's another Dover book with outstanding Amazon reviews.

Complex analysis is both very elegant and very useful. Best of luck with your class!

Griffiths is the go-to for advanced undergraduate level texts, so you might consider his Introduction to Quantum Mechanics and Introduction to Particle Physics. I used Townsend's A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics to teach myself and I thought that was a pretty good book.

I'm not sure if you mean special or general relativity. For special, /u/Ragall's suggestion of Taylor is good but is aimed an more of an intermediate undergraduate; still worth checking out I think. I've heard Taylor (different Taylor) and Wheeler's Spacetime Physics is good but I don't know much more about it. For general relativity, I think Hartle's Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity and Carroll's Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity are what you want to look for. Hartle is slightly lower level but both are close. Carroll is probably better if you want one book and want a bit more of the math.

Online resources are improving, and you might find luck in opencourseware type websites. I'm not too knowledgeable in these, and I think books, while expensive, are a great investment if you are planning to spend a long time in the field.

One note: teaching yourself is great, but a grad program will be concerned if it doesn't show up on a transcript. This being said, the big four in US institutions are Classical Mechanics, E&M, Thermodynamics/Stat Mech, and QM. You should have all four but you can sometimes get away with three. Expectations of other courses vary by school, which is why programs don't always expect things like GR, fluid mechanics, etc.

I hope that helps!

I'm assuming you're looking for things geared toward a layman audience, and not textbooks. Here's a few of my personal favorites:

Sagan

Cosmos: You probably know what this is. If not, it is at once a history of science, an overview of the major paradigms of scientific investigation (with some considerable detail), and a discussion of the role of science in the development of human society and the role of humanity in the larger cosmos.

Pale Blue Dot: Similar themes, but with a more specifically astronomical focus.


Dawkins

The Greatest Show on Earth: Dawkins steers (mostly) clear of religious talk here, and sticks to what he really does best: lays out the ideas behind evolution in a manner that is easily digestible, but also highly detailed with a plethora of real-world evidence, and convincing to anyone with even a modicum of willingness to listen.


Hofstadter

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: It seems like I find myself recommending this book at least once a month, but it really does deserve it. It not only lays out an excruciatingly complex argument (Godel's Incompleteness Theorem) in as accessible a way as can be imagined, and explores its consequences in mathematics, computer science, and neuroscience, but is also probably the most entertainingly and clearly written work of non-fiction I've ever encountered.


Feynman

The Feynman Lectures on Physics: It's everything. Probably the most detailed discussion of physics concepts that you'll find on this list.

Burke

Connections: Not exactly what you were asking for, but I love it, so you might too. James Burke traces the history of a dozen or so modern inventions, from ancient times all the way up to the present. Focuses on the unpredictability of technological advancement, and how new developments in one area often unlock advancements in a seemingly separate discipline. There is also a documentary series that goes along with it, which I'd probably recommend over the book. James Burke is a tremendously charismatic narrator and it's one of the best few documentary series I've ever watched. It's available semi-officially on Youtube.

I can recommend you a few things, speaking as a CS/EE double major :)

• Hands on skills are quite important. Learn how to solder, use a DMM, strip wires, etc. There's a lot of tutorials on Youtube and such that show you how to solder well,etc. Watch them and practice.
  
  
• If you're still in school, you may want to consider taking a intro EE course as an elective or similar. If you're not in school but have the time and money, you may want to consider taking a few classes at a nearby college (ie. community college). Alternatively, get a few books/online tutorials and such and self study. I believe MIT OCW has a quite a few EE courses available.
  
  
• Books wise, i recommend the following: Beginning Arduino, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Arduino Cookbook (excellent refference book). Website wise, I recommend t ro n i x s t u f f.
  
  
• Start with the basics. This includes both theory (understanding and applying Ohm's Law) and practice (building actual circuits). Play with the Arduino and LEDs, motors, servo, ultrasonic sensors, etc. Follow tutorials for these BUT know WHY certain things are done in a given way and the reason those things are done. For example, understand why you need a resistor(s) when using LEDs.
  
  
• Once you have the basics down (ie. how to hook up and drive a motor), start a small project. I personally recommend something like an obstacle avoiding or line following robot as it's quite cheap, lots of online help available, easy to understand, etc. Read my post here for more details.
  
  
• Equipment wise, you'll need a few things. Take a look here: http://redd.it/1hoc03 You don't need everything on that list, but get the basics like resistors, capacitors, wires, general purpose PNP/NPN MOSFETs, etc. Then get a few sensors (ie. ultrasonic sensors, photo detectors, temperature sensor, etc) and a few other useful things like shift registers, LCD, piezo buzzer, etc. Also, check out this from /r/electronics.

You sound like a great audience for the series I recommend to everyone in your position: Lenny Susskind's Theoretical Minimum. He's got free lectures and accompanying books which are designed with the sole purpose of getting you from zero to sixty as fast as possible. I'm sure others will have valuable suggestions, but that's mine.

The series is designed for people who took some math classes in college, and maybe an intro physics class, but never had the chance to go further. However, it does assume that you are comfortable with calculus, and more doesn't hurt. What's your math background like?

As to the LHC and other bleeding-edge physics: unfortunately, this stuff takes a lot of investment to really get at, if you want to be at the level where you can do the actual derivations—well beyond where an undergrad quantum course would land you. If you're okay with a more heuristic picture, you could read popular-science books on particle physics and combine that with a more quantitative experience from other sources.

But if you are thinking of doing this over a very long period of time, I would suggest that you could pretty easily attain an advanced-undergraduate understanding of particle physics through self-study—enough to do some calculations, though the actual how and why may not be apparent. If you're willing to put in a little cash and more than a little time for this project, here's what I suggest:

• Pick up a book on introductory physics (with calculus). It doesn't really matter which. Make sure you're good with the basic concepts—force, momentum, energy, work, etc.
  
  
• Learn special relativity. It does not take too long, and is not math-intensive, but it can be very confusing. There are lots of ways to do it—lots of online sources too. My favorite book for introductory SR is this one.
  
  
• Use a book or online resources to become familiar with the basics (just the basics) of differential equations and linear algebra. It sounds more scary than it is.
  
  
• Get a copy of Griffiths' books on quantum mechanics and particle physics. These are undergrad-level textbooks, but pretty accessible! Read the quantum book first—and do at least a few exercises—and then you should be able to get a whole lot out of reading the particle physics book.
  
  Note that this is sort of the fastest way to get into particle physics. If you want to take this route, you should still be prepared to spread it out over a couple years—and it will leave a whole smattering of gaps in your knowledge. But hey, if you enjoy it, you could legitimately come to understand a lot about the universe through self-study!

I took a look at your previous posts, here some pointers.

First: Basics.

• Formatting - make your text readable by using paragraphs. Press Enter TWICE to make a line break on Reddit - else most people will just skip over your posts.
  
• Use proper grammar and sentences - e.g. a slash doesn't belong in your story ("restaurants/fast food places"). Use an "and" or "or" instead.
  
• Spellcheck - "resturaunts". If you want people to read your stories you have to do them the favor of proofreading your own posts. At least use Word, LibreOffice or Google Drive to write your stories, they have a spellcheck built in.
  
• Make it a story. Think of books; a book never starts with "Alright. So a little backstory" and then goes on to excuse that "The backstory is longer than the actual story, sorry." Instead start the way a tale would be told. Start with action or at least an image that the reader can see and feel.
  
• Use written language, not spoken language and style. Cut out words like "alright", "so", that are mere oral filler words and shouldn't appear in written text (unless appropriate). Words that don't add meaning should not be in your writing.
  
  Second: Writing.
  
  
• Story flow. Honestly I don't understand your last story. There are too many breaks in continuity and too many unnannounced location and character switches.
  
  > Mom walks up to me and says I looked a little disoriented, and I just say its nothing. I don't know why, but that creeped me out.
  
  What creeped you out? Your mom's asking you? Or the events before?
  
  
• It would be good if you read some more fiction and try to look out for basic writing standards. Again line break, this time for dialogue. Dialogue without line break is very hard to read.
  
  > "Hey! I thought it would be fun to go see a movie, so we are going to the 10 o'clock showing of the new star trek movie tonight. I can't wait to see you and your brother again." He said. "Wow. Okay..." I said. Not even a hello or goodbye.
  
  much easier:
  
  > "Hey! I thought it would be fun to go see a movie, so we are going to the 10 o'clock showing of the new star trek movie tonight. I can't wait to see you and your brother again." He said.
  
  > "Wow. Okay..." I said.
  
  > Not even a hello or goodbye.
  
  Lastly: Make us hear and feel things. Give us a chance to feel what you feel
  
  > When I hear tapping. And then water. Then, without warning, the toilet flushes in a bathroom that has always been manual flush. I hear walking, she shadows, the lights flicker, and I hurry up to wash my hands and get out.
  
  This should be three or four paragraphs rather than four sentences. Where does the tapping come from? How loud is it? How did you notice it first?
  
  What does "And then water" mean? You heard water flowing somewhere? You saw water on the floor, running into your stall?
  
  You hear WALKING and you tell us nothing about it? Silent? fast? did you see feet? Did it sound like bare feet or hard soles?
  
  You need to paint a picture that we can see, hear, smell and touch.
  
  That is the actually my main point: How to format your writing and spellcheck should be the minimum and are required for any story to be worth reading. Learn that, there is no way around it. Look at stories you like and see why they are good - your formatting should never be in the way of your story.
  
  But what you need to practice is to paint that picture. Try to sit down and describe one simple mundane thing. Try to describe, as in-depth as possible, what it feels like to sit on your chair. Describe the scene you see out of your window - not just "there's a house", instead make that house visible for someone thousands of miles or hours away. Try to describe what your mother's footsteps on the corridor sound like. Where are they? How does the volume change? Are they hurried or does her heel strike the floor hard? Are they louder if she carries heavy objects?
  
  When you are able to do that you can take the stories you wrote and develop them from a summary of your experience into a full-blown story. Tell the tale, and of course feel free to add some more fiction to make it creepier. Maybe you did see feet, or maybe you did hear something soft rubbing along the window or door or maybe even your stall. Don't limit yourself to "reality".
  
  tl;dr (1) Learn proper formatting - simply by reading more and by trying to figure out when and where it works and when and where it doesn't. Look at a book or story you enjoy and see how the paragraphs are layed out. Also get yourself a copy of Strunk & White. (2) Practice painting that picture (in all senses, not just visually). Then you will get places :)

There are a lot of good suggestions in here, but I'm wondering if any of them are really applicable to what you want to do. An electrodynamics book like Griffiths will come at magnetism from the perspective of field and/or tensor mathematics. A solid state book like Kittel or Ashcroft and Mermin would come at it starting from a phenomenological perspective and moving into things like local moments and band structure. I'm guessing here, but it seems like what you want is more of an idea of the interaction of magnetism and materials or observable phenomena. Either of those approaches would get you there, but it wouldn't be the most direct approach and it would be a lot more work than you need to put in if that's all you want. They would also both require a lot more math than it seems like you're really comfortable with, and both topics are complex enough that physics/chemistry/MSE students struggle with them without good instructors (and sometimes even with them).

Instead of starting with any of those, I'd suggest you look at some lower level, phenomenology and observation based works. Nicola Spaldin's Magnetic Materials: Fundamentals and Applications might be a good place to start. It's pretty low level: I think a motivated undergrad could deal with it after taking a year of freshman physics, but I think that's what you want, at least to start with. It gives a good overview of different kinds of magnetism and the different kinds of magnetic materials, as well as field generation and detection.

Incidentally, if you decide to be a masochist and go with a solid state book, I think Ashcroft & Mermin is a better text than Kittel. Kittel spent 50 years and eight editions trying to fit the new developments in the field into the book without making it significantly thicker, so Ashcroft has a narrower scope but covers what it does have in more depth. I find the writing style clearer and more accessible as well.

Here is an actual blog post that conveys the width of the text box better. Here is a Tufte-inspired LaTeX package that is nice for writing papers and displaying side-notes; it is not necessary for now but will be useful later on. To use it, create a tex file and type the following:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tufte-latex}

\begin{document}
blah blah blah
\end{document}

But don't worry about it too much; for now, just look at the Sample handout to get a sense for what good design looks like.

I mention AoPS because they have good problem-solving books and will deepen your understanding of the material, plus there is an emphasis on proof-writing when solving USA(J)MO and harder problems. Their community and resources tabs have many useful things, including a LaTeX tutorial.

Free intro to proofs books/course notes are a google search away and videos on youtube/etc too. You can also get a free library membership as a community member at a nearby university to check out books. Consider Aluffi's notes, Chartrand, Smith et al, etc.

You can also look into Analysis with intro to proof, a student-friendly approach to abstract algebra, an illustrated theory of numbers, visual group theory, and visual complex analysis to get some motivation. It is difficult to learn math on your own, but it is fulfilling once you get it. Read a proof, try to break it down into your own words, then connect it with what you already know.

Feel free to PM me v2 of your proof :)

While I understand the desire to make something and see the fruits of your labor, true understanding will come best through reading and research. I mean, you could start making circuits of someone else's design and then play around with the arrangement and values of components, but at best you are really just generating a case-by-case feel of how a particular circuit operates. Doing some calculations with many sets of hypothetical circuits (rather than building a bunch of circuits and playing around and taking measurements) will be a much more efficient way to really get understanding of how these things work.

I would recommend the discrete electronics bible, Horowitz And Hill's The Art of Electronics as well as Malik's Electronic Circuits. (Edit: actually, it's been a while since I've used these books and I can't remember what scope they really cover. I know Malik is a little more advanced and concentrates on state devices like diodes and transistors. Really, a basic engineering circuit analysis textbook might be best)

You should also check out this java applet. It is surprisingly powerful and gives a really good general idea of what electronic components do ('visually' and numerically)

Not sure if you've played then, but haven't: Kerbal Space Program is the best way to get an intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics. If you like to play God you should also try the Universe Sandbox, and if you want a really really hardcore space sim you should play (or wait, it's still in alpha) for Rogue System.


As for actual books, OpenStax recently published their free astronomy book, and it's quite good for an introduction. From there, it depends entirely on what you're interested in, there's literally a universe's worth of information about
Astrophysics,
Astrochemistry,
Astrobiology,
Astrometry and
Orbital mechanics (for the aspiring galactic navigator),
Cosmology,
Planetary geology and
Cosmochemistry (careful, these last two lead to geology and meteorology which are equally disastrously addictive fields!)


Also, feel free to follow NASA's, ESA's, and JAXA's blogs. And spend a minute each morning checking the astronomy picture of the day.


Just don't end up llike me and annoy all your friends.

This is a really good question and I'm not sure why exactly you were downvoted. I suspect the elephant in the room is that it's a question but it needs some in depth thinking rather than shitposted to the bottom in two minutes.

As for reading material, I'd go for paper every time myself.

Practical Electronics for Inventors 3e has a lot of nice analog material that's easy to get into and well explained: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/

It doesn't hit digital at all until about 70% of the way into the book and is in very small chunks of information you can read and think about for a bit. It's huge and cheap for what it is.

You will come out of it with "yay I managed to design a common emitter RF amplifier and filter" rather than "yay I connected to an LED to an arduino and it's flashing!"

Well worth the investment IMHO as one comprehensive and well written text.

After a dive into analog, the best thing is experimenting. Nothing quite works exactly how the textbooks say it does.

Shigley's is great for learning how to design and why you design the way you do. It's the book I used in college and still reference at work. I'm not so sure it'd be great for a novice engineer. For a more practical approach, I'd recommend a few below (not necessarily in this order):

1. Machinery's Handbook - This is regularly seen as the [mechanical] engineer's bible. It has nearly everything you'd need to know for design. Most of the machinists used this in a shop I used to work in. Nearly every engineer in my current job (and there are a hundred or more) have a copy of this at their desk.
   
2. Pocket Reference - This is kind of (loosely) like Machinery's Handbook but much more broad. It covers a little bit of everything from engineering, to vehicle maintenance, to plumbing. I like it for it's all-around information.
   
3. Handyman In-Your-Pocket - this is by the same author as #2 but is tailored to the building trades. I also have this but I haven't used it much yet. Not because it's not useful, just because I haven't gotten around to it.
   
4. Marks' Standard Handbook for Mech. Engineers - I have an old copy of this book from the 80s, I believe, that my dad gave to me. It is also on the same order as Machinery's Handbook, but instead of covering EVERYTHING, it goes into more depth about the topics it does cover. If I remember correctly, it covers topics ranging from how to make a weldment to how to design a power generating steam boiler and turbine.
   
5. Solutions to Design of Weldments - This is a new one to me. I recently went to the Blodgett Welding Design Seminar and this was one of the reference materials they handed out. I had a few text book sized design guides by Omer Blodgett that I've often used, but this one seems to take all of the info from those books and condense it down to a handbook. Best part is that it's only $3.50 for a copy and I think (but I'm not sure) that it ships for free.
   
   A nice free reference manual that includes all sorts of design equations is the NCEES reference handbook. I used it back when I took my FE exam (the first exam you take before you become what's call a "Professional Engineer" in the US). It's a nice PDF to have around, though it doesn't go into a lot of explanation as to what the equations are.
   
   A few web resources I use are: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/, http://www.roymech.co.uk/
   
   I'm sure I'll think of some more and, if I do, I'll update this post.
   
   Hope that helps.
   
   

The Machinery's Handbook. A bit expensive but very practical. Older editions are cheaper and pretty much just as good.

I also like the idea of good quality safety glasses (ANSI Z87.x), but would recommend safety shoes over safety boots. If you are the type of engineer who is mostly at a desk and occasionally goes down to the shop floor, your feet will thank you. There are many kinds that are "office appropriate" but still have the full safety certification.

It's a fun hobby. Biggest learning curve is learning how to code. I didnt know a thing when I first started but the arduino community (link below) is really helpful with the process. They will even go over code you've written if your having issues.

Arduino community forum:
https://forum.arduino.cc

Book for learning arduino program language:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1430247762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jqgLBbP544HBT

A good starter kit. Comes with alot of goodies like the program used to write the code and compile it, the arduino itself, super sonic sensor, DC motors to name a few as well as data sheets for each piece:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EWNUUUA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_krgLBbN85GPHF

Book recommended to me that helps with the more complex builds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UrgLBb7STEDSA

My first project I made/wrote was to make a couple LEDs blink in specific intervals. May not seem like much but like I said, biggest learning curve is learning to program the arduino itself.

Good luck

Arduino is a great learning tool and to go from idea to finished project is quite fast. I definitely recommend starting with arduino and see if you like it. If you continue, you'll find that you have to purchase an arduino for each project you start, which can get quite expensive, or you'll be ripping apart old projects to get the arduino.


I purchased arduino and a few shields, but I felt like I really didn't know how everything was working electronically. I really enjoy programming, learning about electronics and making devices, so I decided to stop using arduino and just use the atmega microcontroller, which is the MCU that arduino is based on.


If you wanted to go this route then I would suggest buying an AVR ISP mkii programmer and downloading atmel studio. It's much easier to program the chips than any other method I've tried. Less fiddling. If you have experience in C programming then it will be really easy.


This is the best beginners tutorial I've found for atmel AVR:
https://www.newbiehack.com/


This book is an excellent follow up to that tutorial:
http://www.amazon.ca/Make-Programming-Learning-Software-Hardware/dp/1449355781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398472387&sr=8-1&keywords=make+avr+programming


A good book on electronics - 1000 pages:
http://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

digikey.ca or .com has lots of parts and next day shipping for $8.


how to make an arduino on a bread board:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone


Breadboard, Schematic and PCB layout software
http://fritzing.org

Soon you'll be etching PCBs at home

Here's a list I composed a couple months back. Hope it helps.

Beekeeping - Getting Started

1. Look for and join a local bee club or association
   
2. Verify keeping honey bees is legal on your property
   
3. Verify your allergy, or not, to bee stings
   
4. Shadow a successful Beekeeper for a keeping season to learn. They should have no issue explaining how they run their hives, and what their survival rate is year over year. Buy some protective gear to aid in your menteeship. Get bees the next season.
   
5. Start with two hives and one nuc, if possible. This will allow you to compare hive strength and give you some spare parts.
   
6. The old adage, "ask X beekeepers, get x+1 answers" is shortsighted. Beekeeping is made up of what the biological tendencies and behaviors are for the bees -vs- what our human preferences and goals are when keeping bees. An answer doesn't always match your goals. A biological fact will help you manage your expectations.
   
7. Always know what your time is worth. When learning, building equipment, caretaking for the bees... Please know how to valuate your time. It may not be best to "start from scratch".
   
8. If someone says "I don't have varroa mites" or "I didn't see any mites", question this immediately. Knowing how to calculate your mite load percentage, as well as manage mites, is critical to being a successful Beekeeper.
   
   
   
   --Video and Channels--
   
   University of Guelph Beekeeping Channel- A digestible lesson style format for beekeeping of all levels. Very logically made and of high quality.
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3mjpM6Av4bxbxps_Gh5YPw
   
   Devan Rawn
   https://www.youtube.com/user/devanwatchesvlogs
   
   Jason Chrisman
   https://www.youtube.com/user/creekroad1
   
   Michael Palmer
   https://www.frenchhillapiaries.com/videos/
   
   NY Bee Wellness Group (many visiting speakers of all types. Tons of great material)-
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iM0M1_IwQPIKSpdMnCLjQ
   
   David Haught (Barnyard Bees)
   https://www.youtube.com/user/davidhaught84
   
   Alcohol mite wash-
   https://youtu.be/oiu_dIZu7Uk
   
   --Book Resources--
   
   Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping, 2013, Revised
   [Book was written before United States approval of Oxalic Acid as a pesticide in 2015]. An essential text used in college for the "why's" and "how's" of beekeeping-
   https://www.amazon.com/dp/1878075292/
   
   The Beekeeper's Handbook- https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801476941/
   
   Wicwas Press Bee Books-
   http://wicwas.com/
   
   
   --Educational Beekeeping Websites--
   
   Honey Bee Health Coalition
   https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/
   
   Bee Informed Partnership
   https://beeinformed.org
   
   Bee Culture Blog
   http://www.beeculture.com
   Bee Culture Recommended Resources and Papers
   https://www.beeculture.com/approved-website-resources/
   
   Randy Oliver's Scientific beekeeping! I think the site needs some format polishing, but the content is great. The resource here are invaluable.
   http://scientificbeekeeping.com
   
   Eastern Apicultural Society-
   A wealth of previous years conference presentations as well as Master Beekeeper training/certification
   http://easternapiculture.org/conferences/eas-2018.html
   
   Michigan State University Pollinators-
   Do you live in the northern US? You may find a lot of helpful info here:
   https://pollinators.msu.edu/resources/beekeepers/
   
   
   --Equipment--
   
   Mann Lake
   
   Kelley
   
   Dadant
   
   Pierco
   
   Aacorn
   
   Shastina Millwork
   
   Blue Sky Bee Supply
   
   Maxant
   
   Betterbee
   
   

Coax publications! Their books are decent, I wouldn't say the best, but decent. I'm 2/3rds the way through studying for my Advanced as well and I've found it very helpful. Nice thing with their books is access to a practice exam site that got me through my Basic Qualification exam.

Full disclosure I have a computer engineering degree and have a pretty strong background in electronics as well, so I'm able to fill in some gaps. I've found a couple of errors or gaps in the edition I'm studying from. So I'd possibly recommend some supplementary material. Good book for electronics if that's the area you're struggling with is The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill: https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542256671&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+electronics

Beyond that study and good luck! I'm hoping to take my test early 2019. Been distracted with getting my HF station up and running.

I would always recommend people start with 'The Compleat Meadmaker, by Ken Schramm'. This has been the meadmaking bible for a very long time. You can find supplementary information about staggered nutrient additions, pH buffering compounds, new sanitizers, etc online in various articles and forum sites. Of course, understanding your ingredients can also be very good for any brewer, and water is a huge ingredient. So besides the other element series book 'Yeast' by Christ White and Jamil Zainasheff I highly recommend 'Water' by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski. For those of us making mead in Ferndale, our water is a very key ingredient which comes to us from an underground aquifer treated by the city of Ferndale, and is of very high quality (even compared with the high quality water from the City of Detroit). Understanding honey is a huge area of study. There are many classic textbooks on honey and honey-hunting by Eva Crane that are considered primary sources (but these can be prohibitively expensive for most mazers, and honestly, Ken's book does an awesome job of summarizing her contributions, as well as other historical information about meadmaking, honey, etc). I feel a basic understanding of beekeeping can be highly instructive for meadmakers, and so I recommend that you get your hands on some beginner beekeeping books, e.g. 'Beesentials' by L.J. Connor and Robert Muir and/or the 'Beekeeper's Handbook'. A solid background in wine or beer-making doesn't hurt, either, and there are multitudes of books I can recommend to you on the subject of beer specifically (this is my homebrewing background). My two absolute must-haves for beer brewing are 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels and 'Brewing Classic Styles' by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff. Learning to brew beer can help you if you decide you want to try your hand at braggots.

Thank you! In Pennsylvania last winter there was roughly a 50% die off for hobbyists, so I figured I’d start with 1 hive to focus on and learn as much as I can from and hope for the best. I was ecstatic to find they did well.
You can do it! You just have to take the leap. Find a location, buy materials for 2 supers, buy your necessities, buy your bees, and, most importantly, buy a good bee book (I highly recommend The Beekeeper’s Handbook by Diana Sammataro) and start learning as much as you can as soon as possible. My father-in-law has been farming for almost 2 decades, and he jokingly commented last summer that I know more about bees after a few months than he knows about cows after X number of years. It was funny and a compliment, but you need to know bee behavior and be able to recognize what this buzzing super organism of thousands of bees is trying to tell you.
Just do it! Get started! It’s a highly rewarding hobby, and the tangible fruits of your labors are delicious haha.

Oh, and never let your smoker go out when the bees are starting to get pissy. Just trust me on that one.

First, congratulations on having written something. Many of us end up thinking about ideas and never taking the time to get them down. My critique is rather heavy in tone, but I want to be clear: that doesn't mean your piece is without merit. Keep writing.
I think you can safely call the piece fiction.
Your grammar is generally fine. That's based on a quick read-through. Your best friend here is a copy of The Elements of Style.

"An" instead of "a" in the last sentence, paragraph six. That sentence is also a rather long, clunky fragment. I don't mind fragments, especially if they have a certain punch to them. This fragment does not. Avoid it and others like it.
The only other grammatical change I'd recommend is in paragraph five: "They would've to do..." While "would" and "have" do combine to make that contraction, it feels out of place with the infinitive "to do." Instead, try, "They'd have to do..."

It's difficult to critique something both unfinished and this brief. I will say that the opening is generic and uninteresting. It strikes that unpleasant balance of being unimaginative and over-reaching. Your idea, when you start writing about it, is more engaging. Would you consider shaving the first few paragraphs down to one or two? Alternatively, you could open with a very short (I'm talking 1-2 sentence) exposition on the technology.
I hope that is helpful.

Learning electronics is a lot like music. There is an insane amount of information, but if you get an economic working knowledge under your belt, you can really do some amazing things. In order for you not to get lost in the rabbit hole, I will provide you these methods of learning practical hobby electronics.

First, is simply just a suggestion. There are two "domains" of electronic thinking and analysis: digital and analogue. Fuck analog right in its dumb face. The math used in analog is fucking super duper hard, and analog circuits are prone to interference problems. Digital is where you want to be. It's vastly simpler to use programmable digital parts, and analyze digital circuits. Don't get lost in AC equations of capacitor, or the god damned transistor equation (seriously, fuck that. )

Okay here is how I learned hobby digital electronics:
First buy this, and go through all the examples in the workbooks. When you learn electronics you 100% HAVE TO DO HANDS ON LEARNING! DONT LEARN IT FROM A BOOK! MAKE CIRCUITS!
https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-Electronics-Learning-20-055/dp/B00GYYEL8I

At the same time, read this (which is a good topical explanation, and free):
http://jacquesricher.com/NEETS/

And buy and read this (which is an EXCELLENT formal introduction into the physics):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

Also you are going to learn how to program, which is an entirely different topic. Programming and hobby electronics make you a master of the universe, so it's worth it. I learned programming in the electronics domain and it was awesome. I made a microcontroller FM synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvuzTK3Dzk

So basically, the way I learned programming in general was self-teaching with books. Again, you have to do it hands-on. Actually complete the examples in the books, and you'll be fine.
First, learn procedural c programming using C primer plus. Buy an older version so it'll be super cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0672326965/ref=sr_1_3_twi_pap_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827790&sr=1-3&keywords=c+primer+plus

Next, learn Object oriented programming using head first java. They do a great job of tackling OOP, which can be a difficult thing to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827860&sr=1-1&keywords=head+first+java


You're overwhelmed because they're deep topics. But, seriously, its the most fun shit ever. You'll love learning how to do it.

• Aerodynamics: Anything written by John Anderson. Specifically Fundamentals of Aerodynamics is a good general text. I have every book he's written and they're all pillars of excellent teaching. If you're just looking to get started, I teach incoming freshmen from his Introduction to Flight book which is very easy to pick up regardless of your level of knowledge.
  
  
• Jet Propulsion: Aircraft Propulsion by Saeed Farokhi. Don't let the name scare you away. This book is my engine bible. He's an excellent professor and his book is a labor of love.
  
  
• Rocket Propulsion: Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton & Biblarz is the standard and is the reference I keep on hand for rocket data and theory.
  
  
• Aircraft Design: Jan Roskam's Aircraft Design Series (8 books) contain an amazing wealth of information and serve as a 'cookbook' for aircraft design. Some of the information is dated and it's not always easy to read, but it's the only place you'll find a lot of the information. As a second reference, I keep Nicolai's Fundamentals of Aircraft & Airship Design Part 1 on hand as well. It's very easy to read and I feel it's superior in approach and presentation to Raymer's Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach which is what I originally learned from.

Wow, thanks fro the great answers /u/crb3 ! Really interesting stuff.

Number 3 I'm going to read through really slowly again to try to makes sure I get it all. Reverse protection diode makes sense. I think I can leave it out since I am using only 9v DC from the wall wart so it'd be hard to get it backwards like a battery. It seems like increasing the value of C3 would allow a larger reservoir of power and less sag?

One question, why does it matter it it is a 0.1 uF MLC cap vs some other type of capacitor, i.e., What desirable properties are exclusive to MLC?

This is exactly what I has hoping for. I'm slowly working through this book now to get a better understanding of this stuff, but practical explanations like the ones you provided are really interesting and provide an awesome supplement to what I have learned so far from the text book!

Next step is the breadboard to try some of this stuff out!

During the satellite pass, the direction that you ideally should point it at is constantly changing.. At first the ideal direction at near the horizon where the satellite first appears, then over an arc in the sky until it hits the other horizon disappearing below the rim of the earth. So it can be, worst case, at position that are ultimately 180º opposite in the sky over a period of 10 or so minutes.

The actual direction is determined by the orbital mechanics of the satellite (which can be calculated with a computer but it's a hot mess if you don't have STEM-level math). With this you'd use that data to control the azimuth and elevation of the antenna under robotic control from the computer. The math is algebra, geometry, trigonometry plus calculus. I can point you to the math but it may not mean much.

http://web.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/AERO4701/Course_Documents/AERO4701_week2.pdf

http://www.space.aau.dk/cubesat/documents/Orbital_Mechanics.pdf

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics

This last book is my "go-to" partly because it's relatively easy and because it's the book I learned orbital mechanics with when I was a "rocket scientist" working at this place.

LOL it's fascinating that they are serving a different web site outside the US. Not surprising but fascinating to see.

• First you determine the orbital ellipse from the satellites "orbital elements"; the GOES uses a "polar orbit" - you have to get the actual specific elements
  
• Then you determine the approximate time when you are interested in viewing it from your particular position on the earth
  
• Then you determine the range of times when the satellite is actually viewable - this then enables you to know what the ellipse is in space that defines the satellite's position during that time
  
• From that you can then do a coordinate transform from that ellipse in the sky to a local earth-referenced coordinate frame for your position on the earth
  
• And then using that, you can drive a "mount" for your antenna similar to a telescope with an Az-El or Equatorial mount. The actual coordinate transform differs depending on the mount you are using. Az-El is probably the more intuitive to a newbie (though it's not ideal for actual astronomy - an equatorial is better because it removes a degree of freedom (which gives more accuracy) required to track an orbiting object or an object in the sky).
  
  Instead of that you can get by by being "close enough" to cover most of the path. That's typically what people do. You point at the mid-point of the path and try to catch the extrema of the path in the antenna "side lobes".
  
  When you see people asking about the edges (top or bottom) images being noisy and not being right, it's usually because these extremes and the gain of the antenna doesn't have enough gain in the side lobes to assure noise-free reception using a fixed pointing direction or with the amount of directionality the antenna has.
  
  This is part of why simpler, less directional antennas can sometimes give better results because they receive over a broad range of angles than a direction antenna like a parabolic.
  

Quite literally, it means change of velocity. When people talk about "needing enough dV to get somewhere," what they mean is that, they need enough fuel to get there. I'm going to use arbitrary numbers right now because I'm too lazy to look up the actual ones, and simple is better anyhow.

Lets say you have a craft in low kerbin orbit. You want to go to the Mun. You're currently traveling 2300 m/s. In order to intercept the Mun, you need to be going 2900 m/s. Once in the Mun's sphere of influence you're traveling at 800 m/s, and you need to burn retrograde until you're traveling at 200 m/s to achieve orbit. The opposite is true to achieve escape velocity, and then once you escape, you're traveling 3000 m/s and need to reduce your speed to 2700 m/s for your periapsis to allow re-entry to kerbin.

(Again, these numbers are ball park, not exact).

So, the dV you need to get to the Mun's SoI is 600 m/s (from 2300 to 2900). A capture burn is 600 m/s, and an escape burn is 600 m/s. A final burn for entry is 300 m/s of dV. So, the total dV your ship needs in this scenario to go for the whole trip is 2100 m/s of dV.

Now, this does get a little more complicated when in an atmosphere, because you'll burn more fuel trying to escape than you would in a vacuum. Also, the effect of gravity on your craft is going to change the efficiency of your rocket depending on how much vertical and horizontal velocity you have at various points of your burn. When people say they're building a ship with ideal dV, what they typically mean is "I did the math and found that if I manage to fly the most optimal flight path available to use my fuel the most efficiently, I need enough fuel to perform dV burns at various points in the trip totally this number." The math behind all these variables gets a lot more complicated, and if you really want to nerd out, "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" will help you to understand what the hell is going on just a bit better. I like that book because it has the math, a brief explanation, and diagrams all in one package. You'll learn all about various transfer types too!

...or you can just download mods that do the work for you, like many people! Or, you can just wing it and hope for the best like even more people! I mean, worst case scenario it's time for a rescue mission, right?

Some of the books on my shelf:
The Beekeeper' Bible, How to Keep Bees and Sell Honey, Beekeeping for Dummies, Natural Beekeeping, The Backyard Beekeeper, The Beekeeper's Handbook.

I think the best bang for your buck, and certainly the one that helped me most, is The Beekeeper's Handbook, 4th Edition. It includes the most recent available data on pests and diseases (although I think I noticed that microscopic images of 2 diseases were reversed... I have to check that again). It discusses, in a really straightforward, textbook-like style, castes and life cycles of bees and their pests, 4-season best practices for management, all the way up to honey extraction and marketing. It mainly deals with Langstroth hives, which is typical. Other styles are introduced, however, and people who are interested can find additional resources.
Natural Beekeeping is a good complement, as it deals strictly with organic beekeeping. Even if you can't go totally organic (I live near non-organic orchards, so it's a joke for me), it's wise to know what options exist so you can do what you can.
Beekeeper's Bible has some great info about early beekeeping and bee symbolism, along with some recipes for foods and salves - but most of that is pretty easily researched online.
I hate anything "For Dummies", How to Keep Bees is pretty outdated, Backyard has good info but feels like it's shilling for a certain supplier and I don't think the math works out for using 8-frame hives instead of 10-frame.
tl;dr This: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Beekeepers-Handbook-Fourth-Edition/dp/0801476941/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334286109&sr=8-1]

As a student, I can recommend "Practical Electronics For Inventors, Fourth Edition" by Paul Scherz, accompanied by the occasional youtube video and reddit question :)
You can buy it from Amazon here

I havent read any others, so I cant compare the quality, but you can go through it like a book and be able to understand everything. You may run into some problems in the real world that requires some fairly advanced calculus, which the book doesn't cover. (It does cover where to apply it, just not how). It is really extensive (1256 pages on my desktop e-reader), so if you have an idea for something specific you want to build, there might be something more efficient out there :)

I would think that not a lot of electronics books, if any, explain the math in full, so I would suggest that you find an online source for whatever specific piece of math you've run into. I can recommend Kahn academy.

Good luck :)

Hey there! Welcome to the hobby!
For reading, I recommend Practical Electronics for the Inventor. If you're brand new and want something a bit less dense, the Make series is a good place to start.
The box you've got looks a lot like a component kit a friend of mine gave me. He tried the electronics program at ITT before they went under and this is what they gave him. It's got some nice stuff in it and it's great for a beginner.
Now, you want to know what's in there? Google is your best friend. Everything has an identifying code on the side. Punch that into the search bar and 90 percent of the time you'll find everything you need to know about it. It's tedious, but it's the way of things.
Good luck and have fun!

Audio Books are your friend, like seriously pick up something to listen to.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman


The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character


The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene


The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene


Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration by Michio Kaku

Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time: Great Discoveries by Michio Kaku


The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind (This one I recommend on the highest degree, personally I have read it 3 times)


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe by Stephen W. Hawking


Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan


Contact by Carl Sagan


Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan

All these books I've listened to or read, and I recommend all of them some more then others, I have tons more about Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Biology, Cosmology, Astronomy, Math etc. But I'm to lazy to list all of them here.

Glad to see you're approaching this from the correct angle. We get this sort of question here all the time, but it's usually "how do i electronics" and they get upset when they find out math is involved.

Definitely follow the math up through precalc, calculus, and differential equations. Learn Laplace transforms if you have time. You'll also want to explore physics pretty far, much of it will apply when you least expect it. Electronics is a mix of applied physics and chemistry. Finally you'll want to learn some thermodynamics. Understanding heat transfer and energy will be pretty useful. For all of these, I would just hunt down some college textbooks and some related Schaum's outlines.

While you're doing that, make sure to dabble in electronics to keep you focused. Build up some assembly, soldering, and possibly circuit layout skill. Definitely find this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957

Let me add, that I bought this game back in 2012... Looking at my email receipt:


>Aug 6, 2012 19:29:07 EDT | Transaction ID: 0XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

>Hello Derfherdez,

>You sent a payment of $18.00 USD to Electro Chango S.A. de C.V.

So, yes it was worth $18 USD back then, and it sure is worth that today. At the same time I've gifted about 5 copies of this to friends/family over the years so I've spent way more on KSP, and it's totally worth it.

If you have ever seen the right stuff, Apollo 13, or even been inspired with the idea of the next frontier... This is an incredible buy. It's realistic enough that it's nothing retarded like pressing 'F' to pay respect, but enough that people here have even bought books like Fundamentals of Astrodynamics to get a better idea on how things 'work'.

The game will challenge you in ways that nor mindless button masher ever will. And maybe, just maybe inspire people to take us to that next great leap for mankind.

10/10 I'd buy this game over and over.

Get the demo, build a rocket, try to get it to do something, then get the game before the sale runs out!

Not sure which version of the TV series you are getting, but on my DVD copy, at the end of each episode they have either Carl or Anne Druyan (his wife) giving an "Update Since Cosmos Was Aired". These were filmed somewhere close to 94 when he passed, so they're still a bit out of date from today, but still nice to see him realize some of the fascinating discoveries since.

Edit: If you enjoyed Cosmos, I'd highly recommend Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. It's pretty much a sequel to Cosmos, where Sagan contemplates the far future, and some of the possible means for mankind to explore the universe.

Well, electronics is a huge field, and especially if you're going to get into software radio, basic fundamentals of amplifiers and modulation techniques is a must. Don't get discouraged though, internet is abound in information.

Here are some books that may help to start:

The Art of Electronics

Especially if you can get the used Cambridge Low Price Edition. Either way, it's a good book for fundamentals, a classic too.

This book is ok:

Communications Receivers

For general electronics knowledge, some undergrad EE textbooks are solid gold.

Here's one that's great:

Circuits, Devices and Systems

Edit:

Another excellent resource for folks dabbling in electronics are these free simulators:

Paul Falstad's Circuit Simulator

Hades

The above are great before one gets to dip into SPICE.

I'm sorry if this is not what you asked, but if you have at the very least high school or ideally some university level knowledge of math it sounds like Fundamentals of Astrodynamics might be at least part of what you are looking for? It's focus is orbital mechanics and maneuvers in space, including interplanetary trajectories. While i have not finished it, it is so far really good and widely used. Bonus points for being really cheap. Although again, you do need math to really appreciate this book. Without going through the math you can still learn some things from it, but i am not sure if this book would still be that fun to read.

I have two recommendations:

http://www.amazon.com/Differential-Equations-Scientists-Engineers-Mathematics/dp/048667620X/

This is an excellent survey that saved my bacon as a physics BS student transitioning to graduate PDE in math. The text is clear and divided into easily consumable lectures. It's also available for $10, a bargain.

http://www.amazon.com/Partial-Differential-Equations-Action-Universitext/dp/8847007518

This is the book I would recommend as a "second pass" through PDE. If you pursue the subject as a graduate student, this will give you information necessary as you transition to applying real analysis and basic functional analysis ideas to solving PDEs. It has a very holistic approach, but uses a lot of ideas and tools that I didn't see until graduate school. It's a great self-study (but definitely higher level than Farlow), and would be an excellent book to convince your graduate level PDE teacher to give a two semester course from(assuming they were of a more cooperative disposition).

The FE is actually pretty easy with like a 75% pass rate. I took the test two years after graduation with about two weeks of studying and passed (mechanical engineer with a strong gpa).

You HAVE to get the official reference manual. You get this in the actual test and the more you are familiar with it the easier it is to find the relevant equations. That's like half the test--plugging numbers into the relevant equation. I used this review book and felt it did a good job.

Good luck and don't sweat it. Study through the main sections and make sure you understand basic math and physics.

Modern Recording Techniques for actual audio. Professor was a wealth of information, so we used a lot of handouts, but he did give us a recommended reading list:

Assistant Engineer's Handbook

Mastering Audio

Master Handbook of Acoustics

personally, i found having a copy of Practical Electronics for Inventors laying around super useful, as it explains circuits and what different diagram symbols mean and how to build basic circuits - awesome if for some reason you need to troubleshoot a piece of gear or you're just curious about what's going on under the hood

If cost is a concern for your prototype, there's OSH Park. They pool and panel orders and make the boards at a place in Illinois I believe. I haven't used them yet, but will be placing an order in a couple days. For layout help, you might ask on the EE stack exchange site or the Sparkfun forum. Before laying out your board, be sure to set the design rules in your software to those from whichever fab you select. Here's a comparison of boards ordered from OSH Park and two other inexpensive options.

The Art of Electronics has a section on board layout, and there are a bunch of application note PDFs out there from semi companies:

• Circuit Board Layout Techniques (from Op Amps for Everyone)
  
• PCB Design Guidelines
  For Reduced EMI
  
• Using Decoupling Capacitors
  
  These guides are specific to certain microcontrollers, but still have good info:
  
  
• System Design Guidelines for Stellaris Microcontrollers
  
• Getting started with STM32F10xxx hardware development
  
  As someone who recently transitioned a prototype from Arduino/breadboard to a custom board, I'd also suggest you take a look at ARM if you aren't tied to Atmel. The performance for STM32 and Stellaris chips is great considering the cost, and they are almost price competitive with PIC and Atmel chips. TI has a Stellaris launchpad board now, and ST has several cheap eval boards. There is a gcc toolchain for ARM, and the MikroE ARM compiler is a reasonably-priced commercial option (demo up to 8k program space).
  
  What software are you using for layout?

The original Cosmos book by Sagan might be good here. If your friend likes that, follow up with The Pale Blue Dot.

If you want to to give your friend a taste, direct him to the Sagan Series, specifically, part 3: A reassuring Fable.

Your friend might also benefit from seeing Science Saved My Soul.

As a noob, I've been reading and acquiring a lot of beekeeping books lately. Here are my thoughts:

"Homegrown Honey Bees" by Alethea Morrison is a nice introductory book that is loaded with photos. It's definitely a gentle intro book more than a reference book.

I really love "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping" by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. It covers all the basics and teaches a treatment-free approach. I was put off by the Beekeeping for Dummies book, which repeatedly recommends prophylactic use of chemical treatments.

After that I'd recommend a good reference book that has hive management diagrams, such as "The Beekeeper's Handbook" by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.

If you're interested in top-bar hives, I would get "Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health" by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell, and "The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives" by Christy Hemenway. Backyardhive.com has a great DVD on top-bar hive management.

If you want to geek out on beekeeping history, "The Archaeology of Beekeeping" by Eva Crane is legendary. It's sadly out of print and very expensive to buy. I found it at the library.

I do highly recommend Genome by Matt Ridley and A History of God by Karen Armstrong. It looks like Before the Big Bang might be a great idea too.

However, I'm noticing a bit of redundancy in your stacks and don't want you to get bored! In the presence of the other books, I would recommend Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale in lieu of The Greatest Show on Earth. (Although, if you're actually not going to read all the other books, I would actually go the other way.) Similarly, I would probably choose either to read the God Delusion or a few of the other books there.

Other recommendations: how about The Red Queen by Matt Ridley, and The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes? These occupy niches not covered by the others.

The popular expositions on cosmology all look supremely awesome, but you should probably choose half of them. Another idea: read just The Fabric of the Cosmos by Greene, and if you love it, go ahead and learn mechanics, vector calculus, Electrodynamics, linear algebra, and Quantum Mechanics! Hmm...on second thought, that might actually take longer than just reading those books :)

What you seem to be not understanding is that using a simulator is far and away the quickest, easiest, and because it is completely free, the cheapest way to learn how rocket science really works. Using a simulator will save you countless hours when it comes to making a rocket over just shoving some chemicals into a tube and crossing your fingers. And speaking of fingers, it just might save you some of them, too. Because people do lose fingers playing with rockets.

Since you seem to be familiar with electronics, I'll make a comparison with LTSpice. Instead of spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on a parts library and expensive test gear you test all of your designs on a tool that is completely free.

This isn't gatekeeping. It is exactly the opposite. It is enabling.

As to sources to learn, one of the best resources is linked right in the sidebar:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

There is even a copy available on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/RocketPropulsionElements8thEditionByOscarBiblarzGeorgeP.Sutton

This is also something that gets mentioned almost daily in discussions here. Pretty much any thread on motor construction has referenced it.

And has already been mentioned numerous times in this thread, Nakka's website is
pretty much the de-facto standard when it comes to sugar propellants. But seriously, any google search on sugar propellants should bring that up so it really shouldn't even need to be said in the first place.

I started with circuit bending. I took a student-taught class as part of the Oberlin College ExCo, which is the Experimental College, where any student can teach a class for a single credit, provided they can demonstrate to a faculty panel that they have something to teach and a plan on how to teach it. That got me started on instrument building, and also on circuit design. I worked on that as a hobby for several years, until eventually I was friends with some people who were getting into Eurorack manufacturing: the 4MS crew, when they were still in Austin. Ralph and Dan encouraged me to move from bending (and breaking) toys into creating circuits, and gave me a few good starting tips (and copies of a few Forrest Mims books, which are absolutely invaluable). Another year or two after that, I was talking with Mickey, and he mentioned that he had the good problem that his modules were selling too fast, and he was bored of soldering, and wanted more time to design. I piped up quick. "I know how to solder! I'm very good at it." The second part was a lie. It's true now, though! Everything more advanced that I know about circuits I've learned from Mickey, the internet, and a bit more book learnin', especially from The Art of Electronics. I told the story of getting started on the pedal (which was my first commercial pedal) elsewhere in this thread.

The biggest hiccup was finding ROHS compliant vactrols! But we're cool on that now. Thanks, XVIVE!

I saw it followed pretty religiously in aerospace and I'd guess that automotive does too, as I believe SAE was heavily involved with creating them (not positive though).

My current job (industrial components) uses them as a guide and reasonable starting point but is not bound to them.

Other companies I interned at just drilled to whatever size was available and hoped it worked.

It really depends on how critical the components are, how regulated the industry is, and how likely you are to get sued. If a component fails, "I followed best industry standard and practices" holds up a lot better in court than "I guessed and it seemed to work". There are a ton of other tolerance standards and about 1500 pages of Machinery's Handbook is largely devoted to them. It's worth browsing through some time, it's really mind blowing how standardized everything is. They seem simple but there are at least 100 pages devoted purely to dimensions on bolts.

OK, you seem like you are trying to learn, and are asking questions, that is a good thing, and even if someone cringes at your terms, that's OK, you have gotten some good links for the terms and how to use them. Don't be put off.

Now I am going to recommend you see if you can get The Art of Electronics 3rd ed and Learning The Art of Electronics, get the ones with the gold covers. They are expensive, but you will learn huge amounts by working through the Learning book. When I was teaching college labs, I would recommend students get these books (2nd ed at the time). You can find all this information online, and you can learn it that way, but these books are excellent and well worth the cost if you can pull it together.

Hey, good luck on this! I made the opposite swap: studied physics as an undergraduate, then studied mathematics in grad school. I'm now a professor in a math department, though I still do some (mildly) physics-related work. Since nobody else has answered yet, I'll say what I can:

1. You're certainly not too old - there are plenty of stories of people getting started in research at a much later age. The most likely problem is that you'd be graduating around 30-33, then probably moving for a postdoc, then probably moving again... and throughout that, you won't be making tons of money. For some people, that isn't a problem. For many people (including me), that can be a frustrating way to live. Of course, this all depends a huge amount on your partner.
   
   
2. Research is everything! But I think you're really asking two questions: do you need research experience, and do you need physics research experience? For the first, most schools take plenty of people without undergrad research; even at top physics schools, very few people have done meaningful research before. So don't worry too much on that front. Of course, the subject does matter, and this will certainly matter for your application. For some areas of physics, you'll just be a bit behind. For other areas, you'll be a lot behind. Think about that when discussing your research in the application.
   
   
3. This is the standard electrodynamics book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Electrodynamics-Edition-David-Griffiths/dp/0321856562/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
   The amazon page also suggests a quantum book and a mechanics book; those seem pretty reasonable choices as well. With respect to the math, the background for doing physics research is quite different from what most math majors get. Physicists do a lot of PDEs, ODEs, calculus of variations, and differential geometry. This is pretty serious stuff.
   
   
4. This is a pretty broad subject. What is your math background like? In any case, from a day-to-day perspective, doing mathematical physics often just means doing mathematics...
   
   
5. I have no idea what this means.
   
   
6. Are you in the US? Many schools have undergrad research programs. Many big labs also hire lab techs. This can be a good warmup, but of course requires relevant skills.
   
   
7. Maybe. Chances of getting a faculty job go down with grad school ranking, but they aren't exactly 100% even at e.g. Princeton, and aren't 0 even at the bottom. I'm a pretty cautious person myself, and probably wouldn't have gone to grad school if I knew more about the job market.
   
   
8. Sure. There are practice tests out there; you can see how you're doing. The physics GRE isn't trivial, but it isn't "hard" the same way research is hard. It is just a tricky exam. This is also probably a reasonable way to show people that you've picked up some physics; in that sense it might be more important (and useful) to you than it is to most applicants.
   

Check out some documentaries, it will give you stuff to think about. Vanishing of the Bees, Queen of the Sun...I believe both of those are on Netflix.

One of my favorites is Nova's Tales from the Hive...check on YouTube, there was a high-res version in three 20-ish minute parts. These crazy film makers put surgical cameras on bees! It gives you a great perspective of things from the bees' POV.

Edit...Here are links to the best version!
Part one: http://youtu.be/SjfJVYC_TJg
Part two: http://youtu.be/8Qx_f3ZIrwo
Part three: http://youtu.be/fM_fcVCRKew

Another great book, although very scientific, is the Beekeeper's Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/The-Beekeepers-Handbook-Diana-Sammataro/dp/0801476941).

I've been meaning to read Honeybee Democracy but haven't gotten around to it. In fact, I'm going to get on Amazon and see if there is a Kindle version right now. (Edit: yay, there is! There wasn't the last time I looked: http://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Democracy-Thomas-D-Seeley-ebook/dp/B0046A9M68/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405486484&sr=1-1&keywords=Honeybee+democracy)

I'm also going to come back and edit with links...edited to add, I did 😊

I highly recommend this book for prep. I took the FE in October using this as a review and passed, after being out of school a couple of years. This book just covers the morning session. For the afternoon session I would just review your thermo, heat & mass, and design class notes. Also, thinking about buying the equation manual. It was super helpful knowing exactly where equations were while taking that test. They also have topic outlines for the exam on the NCEES webpage. I would also get the practice exam NCEES sells, that was really the only prep I did for the afternoon session. Keep in mind that the test is electronic now, not written, so review materials might vary.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great if you are just finishing school, because everything will still be fresh.

Talking about one universal electric field is counterintuitive. While RRC is technically correct, (EM fields do obey superposition, and are defined throughout all space), this is semantics and detrimental to learning if you are not an expert. Unfortunately, this is reddit, where semantics are the most important aspect of a post. There ARE individual electromagnetic fields. If you want, you can say that these all add together to form one giant universal field, but why would you (considering most drop off to ~zero in a relatively short distance)? When it comes to the universal aspect, think of the electromagnetic force as being universal.

To get to the questions.

1. Not really. Electromagnetic fields are somewhat mathematical constructions. In fact, you can't actually measure an electric or magnetic field; you can only measure it's influence (the force it produces). I have always been taught that sources create electromagnetic fields. That is, distributions of charged particles create electric field, and current distributions create magnetic fields (these are static fields). In electrodynamics, electric and magnetic fields exist simultaneously. So much so, that they depend on one another. This all comes from Maxwell's equations. Maybe modern interpretation says that the electric field is more fundamental than charges, but I have never heard this before, and it is definitely not what they teach in university. This may be some more advanced and therefore subdued theoretical stuff.
   
   I can't actually DEFINE a GENERAL electromagnetic field in a common definition. I can only tell you that there are a set of partial differential equations that define how EM fields behave (Maxwell's equations, Lorentz force law), and solutions to these equations are electromagnetic fields.
   
   
2. Do not think of electric fields in this matter. It isn't incorrect to say that there is a universal electromagnetic field, but it is not very insightful. It's better to think that charged objects create these fields, which affect other charged objects.
   
   
3. Generally speaking, if there was no charge in the universe, there would be no electromagnetic fields. Again, you are confused with electromagnetic theory terminology. I recommend picking up a copy of Griffiths book on electrodynamics if you are interested in the subject matter.
   
   
4. Yes. Classically, mass creates gravitational fields, while charges create electromagnetic fields. If two charges are placed near each other, they will experience an electromagnetic force, with it's strength and direction determined by the particle's position (as a function of time) and charge. Masses are similar, except the force is the force of gravity.
   
   Also, light does not propagate THROUGH electromagnetic fields. Light IS propagating electromagnetic fields. Light is known more generally as electromagnetic radiation, and it is simply energy that propagates in a wavelike fashion out to infinity, generated from the motion of charged particles.

Read read read and experiment!

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336 is one of my favorite books that explains in great detail the workings of components, without getting overly mathematical. (Math is critical in understanding the behavior, however.)

Then get a basic scope/dmm (or get access to a lab) and build circuits to exercise your knowledge. It won’t work on the first couple tries, but google is your friend, and thats when the learning really materializes — when you understand why something didn’t work, and when you understand how to fix it.

Youtube is a great reference too. Here are some channels I’m subscribed to. Good luck!
https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew
https://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo
https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnEngineeringTeam
https://www.youtube.com/user/sutty6
https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

>practice practice practice. Take those practice exams.

where are these practice exams? i only know of 1 (and the free one someone gave me where they already paid the $50 from when they took it) all the others just make claims that its "FE exam material"


>hardest part was the general section for me, ChemE part was long but quite a bit easier.

yeah the material i am using is the https://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336 the subjects in it, at the very least, FELT like my uni courses. this practice exam i am taking is NOTHING like it. once i look at the solution, it is really easily solved, except, the equation they used isnt even in the FE reference manual, nor ones i even recall back in school. an example is the definition of work in terms of pressure and volume. i forgot the exact question of that form so i had to look it up.... except... they conveniently left that one out. (the w = ∫pdv one)

>don't over think it, lots of people are in the same situation (and still pass)

yeah i hear online that the cutoff to pass is somewhere in the 60% range. of course,there is no proof of this as the committee doesnt share it. but i mean, its a $200+ test.... i cant really see myself going to take it while my confidence level is so low after this practice exam....)

Buy yourself of copy of the art of electronics. Pick one or two topics from that book every day and read about them. It covers pretty much every aspect of EE without going into an insane amount of detail. Use that to narrow your focus once you find something that really interests you. EE is a huge area of engineering and you’re not gonna like all aspects of it but the art of electronics is a great start.

The Art of Electronics https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521809266/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_FeY5BbNKDNXSF

Edit: to add on to this. Adafruit has a ton of more entry level friendly tutorials and stuff. Find a component on their store and they’ll have tons of projects and tutorials using those components. They don’t get much in to how it all works. You’re going to have to read for that. Kahn academy is pretty good at explaining stuff too.

Wow, I'm seeing a lot of "I studied the reference manual the night before" comments. I think I may be the only one who studied for the damn thing!

I'd say go ahead and study still. You are paying $100 and will commit a day to an 8 hr test, and you do not want to go through that process more than once. I'll go ahead an assume you are civil, where pass rate is 72% overall and 68% for those that choose the other section. You don't want to be the 30% that has to take it again.

You may have heard this already, but what you'll need three things:

$76 The FE Review Manual. This is the review text nearly everyone uses to study for the test. It covers every subject, works out the problems, and has a practice exam. I'd strategize by looking through the book and working on what you feel you are weak in.

$24 NCEES FE Reference Manual or free download here. This is a the book they will provide you during the test. It has many formulas. It's important that you study with this beside you so you are familiar with the layout and organization of the book. You'll be flipping through it during that test. Now, I noticed that this book really has everything you need, and can even deduce a few things without having studied.

$14-$25 Calculator of your choice, it's restricted so here's a list . I used the Ti-36X Pro because I am more familiar with Ti's and the learning curve was better. Study with the calculator beside you and only the calculator you will take with you to the exam. How to do inverse sin? How to do matrices (oh yeah, these calculators will find determinate, solve systems, and so many other things for you, you just have to find out how).

Apart from that, find videos on youtube for topics you are having difficulty in.

There you have it, my two cents. You will hear often that it is an easy test, but I've heard that from people that have failed the test too (Yeah, trust me I question their train of thought). You are taking an admirable initiative in choosing to study for this test. Good luck and best wishes!

Complex analysis, my friend. If you can understand even the basics intuitively it can smooth out a lot of the higher classes. I like Needham's Visual Complex Analysis but I've been told it's not a good introduction. I'm not really sure what would be, but you might want to look at Introductory Complex Analysis by Silverman (Dover books are cheap and awesome).

Graph theory certainly wouldn't be too bad either. It's actually pretty fun and has applications in programming and algorithms. Dover publishes this book which I expect would be excellent to read at work (pretty basic, moves slowly). Same goes for linear algebra if you can find a book on it (look for one with "matrix analysis" in the title).

Learning advanced set theory or category theory will probably not be useful at all. (*ducks*).

The Lively Art of Writing is absolutely amazing. It's enjoyable to read and the techniques can really help you write well. It gave me a great understanding of how to write a persuasive essay.

After that, Elements of Style is also an excellent reference on the finer points of writing, and can help you clear up some confusions you have.

I'd recommend working through The Lively Art of Writing first, just to put some practice and thought into how to communicate effectively. The second book is more for polish, but nevertheless still very good.

It sounds like you’re looking to be a spacecraft orbital analyst, or a mission analyst and trajectory planner as we call them at my company.

If this is your dream, choose aerospace engineering and choose a school that has a strong focus on space, because some are better for aircraft. CU boulder is a great example of a school that invests just as much if not more in their space systems research.

You want to start looking into spaceflight dynamics and astrodynamics. The best book for this would be “fundamentals of astrodynamics” by Bate, Mueller, and White. That book is a classic, it’s almost 50 years old but it’s the gold standard of this field. And it’s cheap as hell. You can find it here:

it’s only $15 with prime one day shipping!

I also highly recommend looking up beginner videos on YouTube to supplement the text. Once you have the basics down (orbit and conic geometry, rocket equation, etc) I’d download NASA GMAT (it’s free) and start waking through some tutorials on that software. If you go to college for engineering, usually the school will have STK (systems tool kit) available for free download as well. Both softwares are used heavily throughout the industry.

And play kerbal space program, it’s a fun way of learning and visualizing some of this stuff.

There's definitely something to be said about being self-employed. If you can pull it off, being your own boss is probably pretty liberating. I was actually having a conversation with my roommate last night about work and money, etc. He graduated college a few months back with a 4-year degree and now he's making $30k/year at a job he already hates after working there for a month. It does suck to feel like a pawn of the system - you work for pennies while other people profit immensely off of your productivity. So going freelance might ameliorate that problem for you.

In regards to printing PCBs, yeah, that's electrical engineering. There's a book my EE friend made me buy that you might find useful for that endeavor: Practical Electronics for Inventors. Though that link to American Amazon might not be the best based on your usage of the word "flat." I've been working my way through a different one - Essentials of Computing Systems, which I've found pretty cool. Starting with NAND gates (in a hardware simulator) it has you build up a fully functional computer, which you then write software for. Pretty cool stuff. For context I'm a 23 year old chemical engineering graduate who's 2 years into a 7 year MD/PhD program. So lots of tests left to take and reports to write for me at least.

A wonderful source for those that want to know questions better: Naive Lie Theory by John Stillwell

(Google excerpts)

This book is a wonderful read and it jumps into quaternions very early on. It really helps one learn about them and other spaces. Is also a remarkably Easy to access book on Lie Theory — (basic calculus, linear algebra only real read. Having seen group theory before is nice, but not necessary)

I’m about half way through and just love it.

Also, somewhat related, Visual Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham is a ridiculously good and powerful book.

(Google excerpts)

Anyone that has to interact with complex numbers should read at least the first two chapters in my opinion.

maybe check out this book and see if you can do a little better with it. it still has math, but you can't really get around all of it: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336


you at least have to be able to do some ohms law and some basic calculations. A lot of other things have seemingly impenetrable calculus behind them but I've found a lot of the time you can just read a data sheet and they'll give you some simple formulas that you can just plug into that work well enough. You don't need to know how they came up with the formulas, just plug in your parameters and go.


You should go on youtube and watch some videos of people repairing amps. there's lots of good ones and you can pick up a lot of stuff through osmosis. also check out EEVblog.


lastly, instead of messing with your nice guitar amp, build a cheap one yourself and mess with it. there's tons of schematics online you can use and it's pretty fun to build one. I put this one together and I really like it: http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html You can buy all the parts from digikey.com

Electronics is both easy and hard. The easy parts are following a schematic and plugging existing circuits together. This is usually much easier with digital electronics since all the electronics are doing are turning the current on and off or bringing the voltage high or low. The hardest part is making sure you connect all the wires correctly, and most devices are protected, and voltages are low, so crossing wires won't fry the device (though LEDs are easy to burn out). You can get very far with this "lego" mindset to circuit design. If you want to understand how current flows through an electrical network, and why resistors need specific values, how analog circuits work, and why digital signals need certain components like capacitors, then you'll need to invest more time in understanding electrical theory. This book is really good for that: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

Sorry that other people are being harsh critics, but yeah man. Respectfully, a couple of these are pretty overpriced.

Thing is, most people would rather buy a new book from the store than buy a used book for barely less than retail. I suggest you lower the prices, especially keeping this in mind:

Astrodynamics sells new for $17: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Dover-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486600610

Propulsion sells new for $25: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Thermodynamics-Propulsion-Philip-Peterson/dp/8131729516/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526807320&sr=1-2&keywords=mechanics+and+thermodynamics+of+propulsion+2nd+edition

Your edition of COE 3001 sells new for $113: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Materials-James-M-Gere/dp/1111577730/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526807508&sr=1-2&keywords=mechanics+of+materials+goodno and it's also not the current edition

Best of luck. And if you find someone looking specifically for the current edition of the Mechanics of Materials book, please send them my way!

I think it depends what kind of PDEs you're going to be doing really. If you're just looking at physicsy things like Laplaces equation, the heat equation and the wave equation then a methods book might be good. My personal choice would be this one but there is a lot of choice out there.

If it's a slightly higher level PDEs course (doing stuff like method of characteristics and conservation laws) then either this dover book or this book were the two recommended texts for my upper undergrad course on PDEs. The second is also recommended on a grad course I'm doing come september, and has loads of material in the book.

If you could give some more details of the course I could probably help you pick one of these easier. :)

Totally get it. I have had these moments myself. The world IS huge but more important, we are tiny. Very very tiny. Read Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. If you think you’re tiny compared to the Pacific, just imagine how tiny we are compared to the rest of our galaxy... or our universe!

Once we come to acceptance of our existence, we can come back down and live our life with a purpose to love and help each other. Think about how insignificant every war ever fought on earth is to the rest of the universe. But if we can help make each other’s lives better, that’s pretty cool.

You have to "bootstrap" somewhere. At the VERY bottom is generally NOT a productive or practical way to do it. We used to have a joke in EE school: "If want a good laugh, ask a physicist to design a circuit for you". The reason it's funny is they'll start designing from quantum mechanics or Maxwell's equation as they usually don't ever learn all the tricks we have in EE to "short-circuit" the process.

Basically start with analog circuits (Ohm's law) for DC, advance to AC and then to circuits and systems. You can go deeper but at the start frankly most people will get wrapped around the axle and give up first.

Everything from Grand Unification up to your iPhone is built on approximate models with assumptions that are not strictly correct all of the time if ever. In electronics you have circuits bounded by Quantum Mechanics and Maxwell's Equations as "actual physics". You can't actually use these for 99% of anything practical so these are not the best starting points.

Instead you use approximate models like Lumped Equivalent Model (which is what resistors, capacitors and inductors are: that resistor in your hand - it's not real - just an approximation). But you don't really want to learn that up front.

However if you want a reference that goes into the physics of electronics I'd recommend The Physics of Information Technology. Not cheap so borrow it from a library first.

But ONLY use it when you get that itch to naively dig into the physics for a quick dip or overview or orientation. Otherwise use regular electrical engineering (EE) intro analog circuit textbooks or something like Horowitz' Art of Electronics

Unless you have a physics or engineering degree TPIT will still go straight over your head mostly (the author is an MIT professor and he relatively gentle by BSEE/BS Physics standards on the math but it's brutal if you haven't had several years of university math).

Pocket Ref by Thomas Glover (Amazon link)

Basically a small handbook of all kinds of useful reference data, especially engineering and automotive related (need to calculate the pressure drop of a given fluid through a pipe of a given diameter flowing at a given speed? Need to re-jet a carburetor? Determine the maximum safe loading of a soft pine floor vs. an oak floor?) in addition to miscellaneous data (zip codes, how to perform CPR on babies and small animals, major poison and burn centers for your region of the US, names of various groups of animals like hamsters and crows). I got these as gifts for my groomsmen, since I prefer to give "useful" items like tools and books.

For basic (non-electronic) electrical stuff, I've heard good thing about the Navy's training materials, but I haven't read it myself.

For electronic circuits, I recommend The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill. They just came out with a new version that's apparently more focused on modern digital circuitry (microcontrollers). This is the book that I used when I was learning analog circuits; it gives good descriptions of things like resistance/reactance/impedance, LCR circuits, transistors, oscillators, op-amps and other amplifiers, as well as RF circuits. I think my edition also covered some 7400 series logic and ancient microcontrollers.

Your post has too little context/content for anyone to give you particularly relevant or specific advice. You should list what you know already and what you’re trying to learn. I find it’s easiest to research a new subject when I have a concrete problem I’m trying to solve.

But anyway, I’m going to assume you studied up through single variable calculus and are reasonably motivated to put some effort in with your reading. Here are some books which you might enjoy, depending on your interests. All should be reasonably accessible (to, say, a sharp and motivated undergraduate), but they’ll all take some work:

(in no particular order)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (wikipedia)
To Mock a Mockingbird (wikipedia)
Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design
Geometry and the Imagination
Visual Group Theory (website)
The Little Schemer (website)
Visual Complex Analysis (website)
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos (website)
Music, a Mathematical Offering (website)
QED
Mathematics and its History
The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics
Proofs from THE BOOK (wikipedia)
Concrete Mathematics (website, wikipedia)
The Symmetries of Things
Quantum Computing Since Democritus (website)
Solid Shape
On Numbers and Games (wikipedia)
Street-Fighting Mathematics (website)

But also, you’ll probably get more useful response somewhere else, e.g. /r/learnmath. (On /r/math you’re likely to attract downvotes with a question like this.)

You might enjoy:
https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/2mkmk0/a_compilation_of_useful_free_online_math_resources/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mathbooks/top/?sort=top&t=all

The Synopsys book club has a list of EE/CS books that are either the clear standouts in their topic area or at the very least a good presentation of the material.

Two less theoretical books you might also be interested in, depending on what you are looking for:

The Circuit Designer's Companion by Tim Williams is a good overview of the practical aspects of turning a schematic into a working circuit. Grounding, how to choose the right type of cap/resistor/inductor, EMC, etc.

Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz is similar to the Art of Electronics but is written at a more introductory level. It includes a lot of the important small details that either aren't covered in EE coursework or tend to get muddled in the slog through theory and are therefore easy to forget.

Best way to get back into EE stuff is to build some projects! Hackaday and EEVBlog are your friends, as are Sparkfun, Futurlec, and Digikey.

> how much are they?

Yes, you could spend all 9k of that without even blinking. Whatever you spend, expect to double that cost with tooling and things to make your machine do all kinds of different work.

> what are the best manufactures

It's a bit of a mixed bag. If you're looking to buy new, your basic choices are new Asian import or old iron. Standard Modern is Canadian, Emco and Lion is European, and I believe Monarch and Hardringe still make lathes every now and then - all for between $16 and $80k, way out of your price range. CNC won't talk to you unless you're into the 5 digits either.

South Bend is made in Taiwan now, along with Grizzly, Precision Matthews, Baileigh, and others - mostly from the same factories with different paint jobs. They are pretty good machines and can get you started. But the other option is finding an old lathe on Craigslist or through an industrial dealer and getting that going again. A lot of them are still very precise machines that need a little TLC, and if you're diligent in your search, you could end up with an amazing machine for practically scrap metal prices.

> Is it possible to get it down a flight of stairs?

You can get anything down a flight of stairs, whether it's usable at the bottom is the harder question. Unless it's a hobby size lathe, you're not going to be carrying it down. They get really heavy very fast. But with proper precautions, ramps, levers, come-alongs, and chains, people have safely lowered machines weighing half a ton and more into their basements. How much of that you're willing to attempt is on you.

> how easy are they to use

I won't lie, there's a steep learning curve, and you'll never know everything. First step is to get [Machinery's Handbook] (http://www.amazon.com/Machinerys-Handbook-29th-Erik-Oberg/dp/083112900X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449544732), look it over, and as confusing as that thing is, it is commonly referred to as THE BIBLE. Otherwise, become a sponge and lurk forums, watch youtube videos, and read up.

If I were you, I'd get as much machine as you can afford, keeping one eye on the used market. Also, I'd look into getting a mill as well, then you'll be practically unstoppable in the shop.

I would highly recommend Art of Electronics. I've read dozens of books on this category and it is by far my favorite; useful both for initial instruction as well as later reference. Yes, it is expensive, but IMHO is well worth it.

The other book I'd recommend is "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Scherz and Monk. Best breakdown of capacitor types and applications that I've seen. Link here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071771336

It's best to learn by doing, but sometimes those kits don't cut it. Like others, I recommend toying with a breadboard, but I also think getting your hands on these books will also help. They're beginner's books, are easy to follow, and have some interesting circuits to play around with. Additionally, there is a tiny bit of theory in it. If you want to go hardcore into the theory without having to do much math, go for the electronics bible, Horowitz and Hill.

Sweet. I think the best curriculum to approach this with, assuming you're in this for the long haul, would be to start with building a good understanding of calculus, cover basic classical mechanics, then cover electricity and magnetism, and finally quantum mechanics. I'm going to leave math and mechanics mostly for someone else, because no textbooks come to mind at the moment. I'll leave you with three books though:

For Math, unless someone else comes up with something better, the bible is Stewart's Calculus

The other two are by the same author:

Griffith's Introduction to Electrodynamics

Griffith's Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

I think these are entirely reasonable to read cover to cover, work through problems in, and come out with somewhere near an undergraduate level understanding. Be careful not to rush things. One of the biggest barriers I've run into trying to learn physics independently is to try and approach subjects I don't have the background for yet: it can be a massive waste of time. If you really want to learn physics in its true mathematical form, read the books chapter by chapter, make sure you understand things before moving on, and do problems from the books. I'd recommend buying a copy of the solutions manuals for these books as well. It can also be helpful to look up the website for various courses from any university and reference their problem sets/solutions.

Good luck!

> I gotta look at some orbital mechanics books

If you really want to go through with that I highly recommend "Introduction to rocket science and engineering". It goes reasonably into depth but is still accessible with a decent highschool math and physics background. Besides orbital mechanics it covers the basics of pretty much all aspects of rocket science (history, thermodynamics, orbital mechanics, propulsion elements etc.) It is a bit pricey though, you probably want to find it somewhere cheaper.

If you're a bit more advanced (primarily in math) you could also checkout "Fundementals of astrodynamics" which is nice and cheap or "Orbital Mechanics for engineering students" if you really want to make it your job.

I am a mechanical engineer by trade but I am really interested in spaceflight and orbital mechanics so in the past months I have been catching up with those books.

It's a big topic, and rocket engineering can't be summed in a reddit post. Buy yourself some books.

If you want more knowledge on the design and analysis of rockets, get a copy of Rocket Propulsion Elements By Sutton. (http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063371&sr=8-1&keywords=rocket+propulsion+elements) - You don't have to buy the newest edition, thermodynamics hasn't changed.

I believe for vehicle design the best reference is SPAD (Space Propulsion Analysis and Design) (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Propulsion-Analysis-Design-Website/dp/0077230299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063423&sr=8-2&keywords=space+propulsion+analysis+and+design) - Wow, that's more expensive than I thought.

Both books are intended for upper level college courses so you will need to learn other stuff too - like thermodynamics. But if you are interested in the subject then It will keep you motivated to learn the prerequisites as you go.

To start, learn the rocket equation, if you don't know it already. It is easy to do your first order analysis with just that, and add ~1km/s for air + gravity drag. Also, Wikipedia has an astounding amount of information. /u/danielravennest Wrote this wikibook, I haven't read it myself but he is always raving about it so you might find it useful.

Feel free to PM me. I am currently the lead engineer on a small bipropellant in-space propulsion system which is in early development.

EE yes. If you can EE than you can program. Taking a few CS courses will teach you the finer points of programming. But if you want to play with hardware than EE is the way to go.

Between EE and CS, both types learn programming. Focus on EE if you are thrilled by hardware. Focus on CS if you love logic puzzles and high level abstractions. FYI EE pays more and you can always get a programming job with an EE. The reverse is not true.

(Although I have to say that most EE's I know are terrible programmers. But that doesn't seem to stop them.)

I think a book that would be perfect for you is
The Art of Electronics
. The first half is all basic electronics. Then it gets into logic circuits and finally simple computer circuits.

One nice thing about this book is that the chapters are very well organized. So if you don't want to learn everything there is to know about transistors, just read the first few pages of the transistor chapter and the move on.

• Shigley's is my go to for any machine component calculations
  
• Engineering Materials by Budinski is pretty good for material information and selection if you can get how full of themselves the authors are
  
• BASF Design Solutions Guide (PDF link) is a pretty good resource on designing things like snaps, fits, ribs, etc. and other things related to injection molding design.
  
• Machinery's Handbook is just incredibly useful for anything involving fits, threads, etc.

It's all calculable, but quicks starts needing a lot of math once you include orbit changes and air resistance.

An easy start is to determine your desired orbit's dV requirements, then plug your engine's Isp into the rocket equation to determine its propellant-mass fraction. Then you can use the weight of the engine plus fuel tanks and payload to estimate the fuel required to reach orbit in an ideal rocket.

There are quite a few online calculators like this one, that give you a sense of what order to calculate things and the terms to look for in equations.

If you're really interested in deeply understanding the maths behind launches and orbital mechanics, I can recommend this book which is a commonly used aerospace engineering text: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics.

I had purchased this book to brush up on the general stuff since EE/CompE wasn't as versed in the general mechanics stuff. I liked it and passed. The Computer stuff seemed trivial in 2011.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591263336/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can see if I still have it but I remember selling a bunch of stuff to half priced books a few years ago.

edit: Found it!
Seems like most of it is pseudo code and excel manipulation.
Part of it may just be picking up a language and sitting down and getting comfortable with it. I know from my friends who ended up not specializing in CompE they hated programming because they took fortran or something ancient so C/C++ is a little friendlier since it can be read more easily.

edit 2: I bought this book for $48 back in 2011 why is it worth $200 today?

I would recommend Introduction to "Elementary Particle Physics" by David Griffiths

Its generally considered a higher-level undergrad book, but as a PhD student I still look at it from time to time, especially if I want to teach a specific subject. He will review the SR and Quantum for you, but at a level that you'd want to have seen it before. There's calc and a little bit of linear algebra, but at such a level that you could learn them for the first time through this text (assuming you've had SOME Calc before)

From there, the next level is sort of "Quarks and Leptons" by Halzen and Martin, which people are generally less excited about, but I enjoyed it.

After that, the top standard that even theorists seem to love is "High Energy Hadron Physics" by Martin Perl, where there are parts of that text that I still struggle with.

https://learn.sparkfun.com

https://learn.adafruit.com

This is not Arduino specific though there is a chapter on it but it's a very good how to reference book: Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/

It's sort of like getting a $20 textbook except with less theory and more about how to do various things, what parts to use, etc.

There's also a free textbook here that is pretty good:

• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/
  
• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/

assuming you have all the fundamental physic, you can start with the textbook from allaboutcircuits's textbook. A introduction to electronic book. It is about 2000 pages covering all basics of electronics. I think it is a great read and easy to understand, written for beginners.


After that you should read Make:AVR programming. It is quite enjoyable read and I read it in 2 sitting. A computer engineering book specifically targeting microcontroller. And as the name imply, it is about 8 bit AVR which is easily the most popular arduino variant. It covers a lot of detail on microcontroller basics and underlying electronic concept and working principles.

To supplement the above book, read a atmel datasheet on one of their microcontroller (atmega328 is a good choice).


For optional knowledge you can try Make's Encyclopedia Of Electronic Components It basically covers all electronic components and introduce you to it. I didn't like too much because you cant read it as a book but should use it as a reference to a particular component you are interested it. It is a great way to broaden your scope on what components is available to you.


Then for the advanced stuff you can read the The Art of Electronics By many it is consider the holy grail of electronic textbook. But I think it is difficult to read without an formal EE education.

This looks like a good book

http://www.amazon.com/MAKE-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-3

This IS a good book but deals with advanced theories.


http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-16


And this looks pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Circuitbuilding-Yourself-Dummies-Ward-Silver/dp/0470173424/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769941&sr=8-21


Go to the book store, pick up some books. Go the the library and see what they have. Pick up old radios and junk off of the street take them home and pull them apart but be careful of the capacitors, if you dont know what a capacitor is then read one of the above books.

Look on craigslist for free electronics and start taking them apart. Be careful of anything that uses Alternating current, anything that plugs into a wall deals with large voltages so be sure to start small.

Personally, I think the best place for a lay-person to start getting a technical grasp of electronics is from the "Navy Electricity and
Electronics Training Series" (NEETS) modules. The modules don't always describe the electrical behavior in a rigorous physics/engineering based way, but instead, they provide more practical explanations and applications. The best part is that they are freely available here.

As a next step, the standard go-to book is The Art of Electronics, which while it is a little pricey, covers a greater breadth of topics at a greater depth.

edit: typo.

1st year super keen physics student here. I'm particularly passionate about plasma physics and I'm doing a research project this semester as well as an extension to my physics course in that field. I've already ordered a copy of Chen's 3rd edition, and have a hard copy of Fusion Physics as well as a library copy of Griffith's Electromagnetism (only 2nd edition though; worth getting the new one?)

Anyone have suggestions for texts/resources for physics along the same lines?

Cheers!

I'm a fan of my old copy of Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, by Bate, Mueller, and White. It was, by far, the cheapest textbook I purchased for my Aerospace degree (~$7; Amazon has it for <$3 used) but it is one of the primary texts in the field--most other texts wind up referencing this 1970s book. I seldom reference it anymore, though. FoA primarily focuses on how to calculate the motion of a spacecraft. It covers the Patched conics approach, various basic maneuvers, and interplanetary trajectories. It also covers how to figure out the orbit of an object based on ground measurements as well as perturbations--how things like uneven gravity, solar wind, and magnetism can affect an orbiting craft.

I also have read some of the AIAA edition of Space Vehicle Design, but it is considerably more expensive. It goes over more advanced concerns for the design and operation of practical, real-world space craft. If you have the coin and are interested in such things then you could pick it up. I've found the AIAA editions of Aerospace books to be well written in general. That book is only really worth it, though, if you have enough money that you won't miss the $70+ to buy or if you need it for your degree.

I've also had some luck with MIT Open Courseware, but I don't see much on aerospace that would be terribly relevant to KSP.

I am a current EE student right now and saw you ask in another comment about book recommendations so I thought I would throw a few in:

• a frequently recommended electronics book is :Art of Electronics
  
• A frequently used (us included) electronics book is Microelectronic Circuits
  
  
• For introductory circuits we use (and i enjoy) : Fundamentals of electric circuits
  
  
• I am hoping to get through : Signal Processing and Linear Systems
  
  
• instead of the above the smartest professor I know recommends anything by : Oppenheim
  
  
• a couple good books for brushing up/learning engineering mathematics: Engineering Mathmatics and Advanced Engineering Mathmatics
  
  
  You should probably throw in some electromagnetic and semiconductor physics for good measure as well.

The Mis-Education of Mathematics Teachers made a huge impression on me, in particular its emphasis on content knowledge and the fundamental principles of mathematics. More recently, the following comment by Ian Stewart has persuaded me to put more emphasis on the visual aspects of the subjects I teach:

> One of the saddest developments in school mathematics has been the downgrading of the visual for the formal. I'm not lamenting the loss of traditional Euclidean geometry, despite its virtues, because it too emphasised stilted formalities. But to replace our rich visual tradition by silly games with 2x2 matrices has always seemed to me to be the height of folly. It is therefore a special pleasure to see Tristan Needham's Visual Complex Analysis with its elegantly illustrated visual approach. Yes, he has 2x2 matrices―but his are interesting. (Ian Stewart, New Scientist, 11 October 1997) (source)

I took and passed the FE exam this past April. Honestly the best way to prepare for the exam is to a.) be familiar with the reference handbook and b.) review most (not necessarily all) the subjects on the exam by doing practice questions from the FE Review Manual (it's the one everyone uses.)

I studied for a solid 3 weeks reading the review manual and had the reference manual by my side. It helps to know how the reference handbook is organized so that when you take the actual exam you don't have to keep flipping to the index.

Oh and get a TI36X PRO. It can solve derivatives, integrals, matrices, and a crapload of other things.

TL:DR Study the FE Review Manual by Lindeburg, know the reference handbook like the back of your hand, learn how to use your calculator.

I don't know of any decent online particle physics resources. But there are two good books at the undergraduate level I can think of Griffiths and Halzen and Martin

For superconductivity you want to learn many body quantum mechanics, ie non-relativistic quantum field theory. The most common recommendation is Fetter and Walecka, but I might consider Thouless to be superior on account of it being 1/3rd the length and probably only covers core topics. If you feel like dropping a lot of money, Mahan is very good, but also somewhat exhaustive. Might be worth having as a reference depending on how serious you get. I would get F&W and Thouless simply on account of how cheap they are.

I don't have any PDFs, but here is a good one you can get for pretty cheap. I used it as an undergrad and still refer back to it.

You might also try this Dover book.

Hope that helps.

Now that the 3rd edition has been published, used copies of the 2nd edition of The Art of Electronics is super cheap. I think this is the best intro circuits book for self study. Alternatively, I've really enjoyed Practical Electronics for Inventors too, and it covers more modern stuff (like it has a chapter on arduino). Both of these start with the basics, though Practical Electronics written for a more general audience so it is easier on the math.

For electromagnetics, I've heard Electricity and Magnetism is pretty good. It does cover some circuits stuff, but so much of circuits is about electronic components that you really need a dedicated circuits book to understand them.

The list provided by david is good, and I'm just going to point out two that are really good for understanding rockets and spaceflight:

One is Rocket Propulsion Elements, which I hear is great if you actually want to build your own engine. The other is Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, which helps to explain orbital mechanics, controls, and some other important facets of spaceflight like how we track a satellite from the ground.

I'm a sap for personalized gifts.

What about a nice, high quality monogrammed passport holder or wallet?

Also, I just ordered this handy book for some men in my life. I figure it's a good stocking stuffer and I sense they'll use it quite frequently!


Most of my Christmas List WL is for other people...the makeup and foot spa are for me though :)

Good luck!

Congrats. As an unemployed redditor searching desperately, it's good to know that even somebody with such little attention to grammar can get a job.

If you used capital letters as superfluously as you have above, and then went on to misuse apostrophes to indicate plural nouns in the same words, then there must be hope for a pseudo-grammar nazi such as myself.

In closing, good luck, godspeed, and if you happen to get the jobs for which you're interviewing and they involve writing anything ever, check out this book.

...And if you don't get the job, care to pass on the employer's info?

I am using Conquering the Physics GRE as an overview, but I really enjoy anything from David Morin and David J. Griffiths for the level of questions and explanations (and in-book/online solutions manuals that go a long way towards showing you how to think like a physicist). But my "library" for preparing for the physics GRE is:

CM: Morin, Problems and Solutions in Introductory Mechanics and Introduction to Classical Mechanics

Gregory, Classical Mechanics for extra explanations and problems

EM: Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics 3e

QM: Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics 3e

Thermo/Stat.Mech: Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics

Kittel and Kroemer, Thermal Physics

Waves: Morin, on his website are ten chapters to what appears to be a Waves book in the making

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~djmorin/waves/

Atomic, Lab Methods: Conquering the Physics GRE and any online resources I can find.

​

If you email Case Western, they send a link to some amazing flash cards!

While the above is nice, if you are at all interested in rockets, get Rocket Propulsion Elements. Read it and love it, it is pretty much the bible of rocket engines and serves as a good foundation

Luckily it's never been easier to start learning electronics. I know you want hands-on experience but you gotta learn some theory first - I'd recommend a book like Practical Electronics for Inventors to learn the basics (some people swear by The Art of Electronics but it is not a beginners book, rather more of a intermediate-advanced reference). Then something like the Arduino Starter Pack that will start you on the path to building circuits!

Along the way, watching electronics tutorials and teardowns on youtube, and taking apart stuff to see how it works would also really help.

I had the same approach as you when I first started learning electronics; I'd recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. While it does explain just about every topic in great detail, it does so at a pace that's neither too slow nor too fast; you can easily skip the more technical chapters, and stick to the easy bits too.
However, if you want to do more than create simple signal clipping distortion pedals, I would suggest that you read the technical stuff as well, to learn what actually goes on in a circuit, and to understand how you might modulate your guitar's sound.

I think it is dependent on the field. For several areas in experimental astronomy you deal with extremely large datasets. Advanced statistical methods and 'machine learning' can be very valuable tools. Whereas for someone studying solid state experiment this would be a waste of time. Better time would be spent on learning the physical hardware and electronics and noise (I think, never done solid state myself). Although you would be surprised, I knew someone who was using neural networks for a project involving solid state and transitions.

As a whole, compared with theorists, you may want to develop a better understanding of statistics, computing/programming, electronics, hardware, and several fields I'm not thinking of. However which of those are most applicable depends on the work you are doing. Although a solid foundation in statistics is most likely useful for all scientists.

To add a text, The Art of Electronics is practically an experimental bible for many people.

I don't know about layman, but Griffiths Electrodynamics is a standard first text in university.

A good bit to have a layman's understand of is the following. These two Maxwell's equations:

>divergence E = non-zero (in general)

>divergence B = 0 (always)

(not sure how much of a layman you are, but divergence = triangle then a dot, see the first and second equations down in the table here, doesn't really matter what divergence actually means for this).

The first of these is a statement of the fact that there are electric monopoles (E=electric field), i.e. a positive or negative charge sitting all on its own. The second says that there are no magnetic monopoles (B=magnetic field). Which is to say that you can't have the north pole of a magnet without having a south pole next to it. This is a subject of some discussion, but no-one has detected one yet.

Another good thing about Maxwell's equations is that they were written down before Einstein discovered Special Relativity, but they are already correct in special relativistic terms. They tell us that we'd been studying and quantifying relativistic effects long before Einstein's work, we just didn't call these effects relativity, nor realise that the same sorts of laws govern the motion of massive objects rather than just electric and magnetic fields.

Okay, the ELI11 made it sound like the simplest approach would be best. The rocket equation link still applies.

As for canned aspects of orbital mechanics, Kepler's 3rd law and the Vis-Viva equation still apply.

More generally, I like braeunig for a website and Fundamentals of Astrodynamics for a textbook. It's probably best to look into exponential functions and Algebra (with an eye towards Calculus) as soon as possible, though.

Coming from a GeoSci background, you may have already used Callister, but if not, it is my most highly recommended textbook. Of all the textbooks. It is simply amazing. If you are beyond that already, the deeper book I would recommend is Meyers and Chawla which is also an amazing book, but much more difficult to get a handle on. Meyers and Chawla is what I learned from at the graduate level in Materials Engineering, and indeed it is quite heavy on the details and equations. That being said, when responding to almost all questions with regards to materials, the first place I look is Callister. The last time I used Meyers and Chawla was looking into the specific mechanisms and modeling methods for creep. If you get and understand M&C you will probably know more theory than anybody else at your knew job.

It is really about knowing how to do research and speak the language. For the language you can learn from basic MSE books like https://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-Introduction-8th/dp/0470419970 . One you learn the basics and lingo you can apply that to specific material groups.


ASM has some really good books on materials like stainless steels and there are tons of online resources https://www.nickelinstitute.org/media/1667/designguidelinesfortheselectionanduseofstainlesssteels_9014_.pdf


Even common materials like aluminum have so many different grades that you need a good understanding of when you use 3000 grade vs 6000 grade.


More specialized materials like ceramic matrix composites for example have their own dedicated literature and resources. Once you get really off the beaten path academic papers and journals are the only resource.

I'm sure we'd all be willing to help, but you need to ask better questions. I work in the telecommunications industry for a company that develops carrier networking products, and yet I've little idea what you're really wanting. So for now, I'll answer the question that you have asked, though I doubt you'll like the answer.

>So what I would like is some books that explain what parameters affect the energy consumption at the telecommunications infrastructure.

The parameters that effect energy consumption are resistance, capacitance, and inductance. As far as books on the subject? I don't know. Maybe The Art of Electronics?

Congratulations are in order, to you as well as lysa_m, shizzy0 and all the other helpful redditors here. It must feel really great to get over this hurdle!

I just wanted to add a link to the book of Tristram Needham, Visual Complex Analysis. As lysa_m pointed out, you are not the first person in history to find "imaginary" numbers baffling. You can read the first 5 or 6 pages of Needham's book online at the Amazon page above. There he outlines the history of the subject and explains some of the same points made in the comments here.

Think of it like a mountain lake and a river. Volts are like the lake. It is a bunch of stored water that potentially could do work. Once the dam is released the water can flow, like a river. Current, or amps, is like the river.


A battery has a certain voltage that you can measure. Once you put it into a circuit, or attach a load, that will pull a certain amount of current which you can measure.

Resistance is all the rocks and stuff that limit the flow of current, or the speed of the water flowing in the river.


Watch youtube videos, and read The art of electronics


Another good thing to remember is volts are pushed and amps are pulled.

Not fucking bad at all. There are a few changes I would make with pacing and a couple of minor spelling/punctuation mistakes, but I think this is quite a nice piece of writing with good voice that tells a story relatively well. This is the kind of thing that with a bit of editing can really be quite good. Forget about your SAT scores and college placement and all of that; keep writing. If you really want to master grammar and common usage, pick yourself up a copy of The Elements of Style and read it cover to cover.

Carpentry and Construction, 3rd edition by John L. Feirer and Gilbert R. Hutchings - Amazon link

Cabinetmaking and Millwork also by John L. Fairer Amazon link

Pocket Reference, 4rth edition by Thomas Glover - Amazon link, Reddit thread

All books will be instantly obvious as to why they are valuable when you first open them up and look inside. Do you want to know the books your favorite YouTuber/teacher would likely have had to learn to start their woodworking paths? These were them.

These aren't websites, but The Art of Electronics and its companion Learning the Art of Electronics are often referred to as learning resources, for good reason.

​

There are of course web sites that teach you electronics, but not on the level these two books, imho. If you don't want to buy books, then I'd recommend you to go watch bigclivedotcom and EEVblog, they have some great content. There are lots of other YT channels with similar content.

I would recommend the Art of Electronics (or the ARRL Handbook) if you are looking for more of a reference style text. Very thorough, but not something you would want to read front to back.

Assuming you have your circuits basics down, a good text to really start learning how to design circuits would be Microelectronic Circuits by Sedra and Smith which is your undergrad text on introductory analog/digital circuits. This one you can definitely read front to back (but it's big). And then if you really want to get into the thick of things, you could read Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits AKA Grey and Meyer which is your advanced undergrad/graduate text on analog circuits. There are many alternatives to these texts, but these ones are basically bibles.

Best online resource: All about circuits

Best Book: Art of Electronics

Best starting projects: Working with the basic stamp (though any other microcontroller kit would work just as well)

I can't help you with the French part but in America the standard is this. Most people refer to it as BMW for the authors' names. There might be translations of it; I don't know. It's actually a surprisingly fun read. The first few pages talk about Newton with a kind of religious fervor that you never see in a textbook. It's beautiful. Also, it's damn cheap.

My orbitals professor also wrote a more condensed pdf textbook which he gave just to us. It's actually more clear than almost any other engineering textbook I've used. If I can find it, I'll post it.

Both books include a fair amount of information transistor/structural level. LaMeres' is didactically one of the best books available on the topic and well suited for non-EE students. If you really want to beat the software engineers with a big electronics book, then I would rather recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors by Scherz and Monk instead which has good didactic quality and even covers digital electronics, programmable circuits and Verilog in sufficient detail.

Good idea. I did an "electronics for scientists" class from the physics department when I was an undergrad. Can't remember what book we used, I think it was by a guy at Duke University maybe. It was a good starting point, covering LRC circuits, transistors, and opamps.

Edit: It's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Electronics-Lloyd-R-Fortney/dp/0195178637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469462772&sr=8-1&keywords=Fortney+electronics

Horowitz and Hill is a really good reference. I have another book on my reference shelf, I think it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469455654&sr=8-1&keywords=electronics+for+inventors

Here is a great website with some circuits that are common building blocks of instrumentation:

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/

(see "Circuit Collection" link).

Finally, Linear Technologies has a free version of Spice called LTSpice that you can use for circuit simulation on Windows (hope I'm not violating any rules on commercial stuff; I just happen to use it and like it). If you use Linux, there is a package called gEDA that has a schematic entry tool and a version of Spice. I haven't used the Spice tool yet from that package, but it's probably good.

IMO you want Bate's Fundamentals of Astrodynamics.

I don't want to speak out of turn, as I wasn't alive at the time, but my professors claim to have learned everything on this bad boy. It's great for getting a grasp on the concepts and well worth the 15 dollar price tag even just to put on your shelf to sit there and look cool. I got it with that in mind and it's become my go-to. Admittedly, computational approaches have changed the standard regarding some of the info in this text but the core concepts are there and it makes the content approachable.

To become a beekeeper just buy the hives and bees (all that other stuff is really optional). Most states require you to register them.

To become a good beekeeper you should look for your local Beekeeping Assoc or Agricultural extension office and see what classes they offer and start taking them before buying anything. They will help you determine what you need, what works for your area and how to do things in a manner that you hopefully don't lose the bees.

There are no certifications required but there are some out there. The University of Florida has a 5 years Master Beekeeper Program is one. UF also offers 3 different Bee Colleges during the year in two places in the state, and the Caribbean. Local associations hold day courses and Ag offices have done longer multiple session training courses at least in Florida. Look in your area.

You can also start learning on your own. Start with something like The Beekeepers Handbook.

The best advice I can give you is find that local association and start there. They will have experienced beekeepers and be able to point you at local resources.

This question gets asked all the time on this sub. I did a search for the term books and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.


The end

PS - /u/DDE93 this list has all the links.

I found this book quite useful back in high school. I haven't seen/touched it in 10+ years, but the concepts have been tried and true for many many decades. It's math-based and is written by Air Force Academy professors. It definitely doesn't cover everything, but it can get you started in the right direction. It's also not too hard to grasp as far as concepts go, but knowing Calculus and the likes are going to make it fully understandable.

I forget the name of the book, but it's yellow. They have a great big one for the general part of the FE and they make smaller ones for the individual tests. I thought those were great study guides. Also, my university had a class to review the major subjects of the FE.

EDIT: General FE [book] (http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323889740&sr=8-1)

Electrical Engineering book

This is the book used to teach students entering into carpentry and building construction where I'm at in the US:

http://www.amazon.com/Carpentry-Building-Construction-John-Feirer/dp/0696110040

It not only tells you how but why things are built the way they are. It gives you a primer on not only carpentry and construction but also the tools used in the trades, how to manage construction schedules (when to have electricians, plumbers, finish carpenters, etc. scheduled to show up) and how to manage construction cost (when to use engineered lumber and when not to, how to plant landscaping to mitigate heating and cooling costs, how to position the build on the lot you have to best take advantage of Sun, wind, and on and on).

It's aim is to take a complete novice and provide them with enough knowledge to start in the construction trades. Having said that, it is a bit dated so a supplimentary book with updates on the things that have changed would be a good idea to get in addition to this one. Having said that, if there is one book the vast majority of carpenters and builders in the US have read, this is the one.

PS
I'd also get this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1885071620/

Excellent, thanks dude! I think I might actually have a copy of that FM kicking around somewhere, but who knows where it's at, so maybe it'd not a bad idea for me to pick up another. Also, if we're sharing good sources of info, look into picking up a copy of Thomas Glover's "Pocket Ref", it's tiny enough to keep in your bag, and I promise once you flip through the pages, you'll know what I mean when I say it's impossible to suggest that buying it was a mistake.

An op amp is a differential amplifier with an enormous gain, something along the lines of 10^(6)

This causes some interesting things, for instance, with input voltages above, say 1/1000 of a volt, it will act as a comparator, the largest voltage immediately sending the input high or low.

Because of this high gain, it is easy to construct a circuit for an amplifier that is determined by the ratio of two resistors alone, the gain disappearing entirely from the equations.

Op amps can also be used to add DC bias to a signal.

​

These are some useful resources

How to bias an Op Amp (MIT)

The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz (worth every penny)

Khan Academy's course on the subject

Best two:

• Practical Electronics for Inventors - a new version is supposed to be coming out in 2015 to correct the bugs in this book, there quite a few errors in the book, but its still a great read
  
  
• The Art of Electronics - an old college text book, out of print and hard to find, but a classic. I always considered this book to be a sort of the electronics version of "Joy of Cooking". You can find used copies sometimes at a decent price on Ebay. The new 3rd edition is coming out in April 2015, but its going to be a >$100 hardback textbook and its kinda pricey.
  

Practical Electronics for Inventors is an amazing book which covers the basics of essentially every aspect of electronics a beginner would need to know. Seems to have had a problem with poor editing but it's cheap (under $30) and still far better than anything else out there.

The Art of Electronics is twenty years old and is still pretty much the standard reference for practical electrical engineering topics. Some sections show their age but still incredibly useful. A new edition is supposed to be coming out eventually.

Ok the best place to start is always the bible of rocket science
https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248


also this is a great book about overall design

https://www.amazon.com/Spacecraft-Systems-Engineering-Peter-Fortescue/dp/047075012X/ref=pd_sim_14_19?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=047075012X&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

Other than rocket engines and structures it would be
https://www.amazon.com/Orbital-Mechanics-Engineering-Students-Aerospace/dp/0080977472/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0080977472&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Dover-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486600610/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486600610&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

After reading that book cover to cover you can branch into multiple aspects of aerospace engineering.

There are also less formal and fun books like https://www.amazon.de/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251
or
https://www.amazon.com/History-Liquid-Propellant-Engines-Library/dp/1563476495/ref=pd_sim_14_63?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1563476495&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

Materials science and engineering student here. If it's an intro to materials science type course, mwalsh2010 has covered most of it. Additionally, expect to index planes and directions in crystal structures, solid solubility, mechanical properties testing methods, phase percentage and lever rule calculations (under phase diagrams), phase transformation reactions (eutectic, eutectoid, paratectic, etc.), and various processing methods. You'll probably mainly study metals and ceramics since they're generally not as complex as polymeric and electronic materials.

This was the text book used in an intro course I took. I'm sure there's a torrent of it out there and should serve as a pretty solid resource.

Basic mechanical properties of materials.

If you would like more resources, feel free to PM me.

Book of proof is a more gentle introduction to proofs then How to Prove it.

​

No bullshit guide to linear algebra is a gentle introduction to linear algebra when compared to the popular Linear Algebra Done Right.

​

An Illustrated Theory of Numbers is a fantastic introduction book to number theory in a similar style to the popular Visual Complex Analysis.

The Horowitz/Hill bible is great, he's a physicist/EE. For some people, though, his interest in the physics isn't necessarily what they geek out on, and so for those people I'd suggest also Practical Electronics for Inventors.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

I found this book to be very easy for beginners to pick up and enjoy, and get started on building far more quickly.

These were the 3 I picked up.

This one seems to be the most popular, probably because of it's publication timeframe, 1971. Not too early, not too late.

This is an earlier textbook and is considered a classic at this point. Still useful.

While less popular (and more expensive), I found this one to be my favorite. Hard to say why, some combination of layout, examples, and teaching style. The fact that it was also published in my lifetime, unlike the other 2, might have something to do with it as well in terms of language, etc.

But take /u/The_Mother_of_Robots advice and don't do it. This is a slippery slope thick atmosphere in a deep gravity well. There is no Lagrange point, just the abyss.

I bought the official kit a few months ago and I finished all the projects.

• The kit contains a lot more components than you need to complete the projects. Lots of resistors, capacitors, temperature sensors and LEDs.
  
  
• The book doesn't explain much of the science. If you want to know more about the science I recommend this book.
  
  Its an good kit. It got me started but I really wanted more in depth explanations.
  
  Another great resource is Sparkfun. They sell kits which are very well documented and provide lots of other information

The link below is a book that is supposedly pretty helpful. I haven't used it myself but from what my friends have told me, its the best option. Plus, if you fail the exam (don't do that) they'll give you your money back. And its only 45 bucks, not 150 so much more affordable.

I'm in my senior year and this is the book our professors recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457224799&sr=8-1&keywords=FE+exam+Review

Assuming you’re a beginner, and are starting with little to no knowledge:

I bought the 3rd edition of the book called “Practical Electronics for Inventors” by Scherz and Monk it starts from the basics and you slowly build more and more complex and practical circuits.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eTs2BbXN9S1DN

Another fun on by Monk is “The Maker's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse: Defend Your Base with Simple Circuits, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593276672/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XVs2BbYMVJT5N

If you are looking for something more theory based (I wouldn’t recommend initially unless you’re just curious) there’s a whole slew of texts books depending on what exactly you’re interested in you can pick up for cheap at a used book store or on amazon.

Remember build slowly in the beginning until you get a good grasp on the content and have fun. Diving in too deep to quickly can overwhelm and kill morale.

Happy learning!

tl;dr: you need to learn proofs to read most math books, but if nothing else there's a book at the bottom of this post that you can probably dive into with nothing beyond basic calculus skills.

Are you proficient in reading and writing proofs?

If you aren't, this is the single biggest skill that you need to learn (and, strangely, a skill that gets almost no attention in school unless you seek it out as an undergraduate). There are books devoted to developing this skill—How to Prove It is one.

After you've learned about proof (or while you're still learning about it), you can cut your teeth on some basic real analysis. Basic Elements of Real Analysis by Protter is a book that I'm familiar with, but there are tons of others. Ask around.

You don't have to start with analysis; you could start with algebra (Algebra and Geometry by Beardon is a nice little book I stumbled upon) or discrete (sorry, don't know any books to recommend), or something else. Topology probably requires at least a little familiarity with analysis, though.

The other thing to realize is that math books at upper-level undergraduate and beyond are usually terse and leave a lot to the reader (Rudin is famous for this). You should expect to have to sit down with pencil and paper and fill in gaps in explanations and proofs in order to keep up. This is in contrast to high-school/freshman/sophomore-style books like Stewart's Calculus where everything is spelled out on glossy pages with color pictures (and where proofs are mostly absent).

And just because: Visual Complex Analysis is a really great book. Complex numbers, functions and calculus with complex numbers, connections to geometry, non-Euclidean geometry, and more. Lots of explanation, and you don't really need to know how to do proofs.

That is advanced physics for you. If it were easy, there would be as many people in physics lectures as something like business administration. Most topics won't stick the first, second, or even third time around.

As for electromagnetics, I could recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Electrodynamics-4th-David-Griffiths/dp/0321856562

Feel free to get an older addition.

I'm in the same boat. Most of the Arduino tutorials I see are aimed at hardware people. They tediously explain what an if () statement is but assume you know how to hook up a MOSFET.

I bought this book. I've not read it yet, but from what I've skimmed of it so far it seems pretty great -- just what I need. After that I think it's all about practical experience. Be ready to waste some money either damaging parts or buying the wrong parts. Luckily it's all pretty cheap.

What kind of robot do you want to make?

As an electronics engingeer, purchase a copy of "The art of electronics"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0521370957/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1321710457&sr=8-1

This book, although expensive, covers almost everything you would learn pursuing a degree in electrical or electronics engineering. Its a great bench reference book when you need it.

The trick is find an area of electronics that interest you. The Arduino is a great place to start.

Recipient A:

• Batman night light?
  
• Batman ice cube tray?
  
• Batman and Joker flash drives? Y'know, for teaching...files. lol.
  
• Ghibli slippers?
  
• Small filler Princess Mononoke items here and here.
  
• Batman nails?
  
  ___
  
  Recipient B:
  
  
• Camera lens mug?
  
• Samurai sword chopstick set?
  
• (By the way IIRC "Godlike" is a tabletop superhero role-playing game.)
  
• DC pint glasses?
  
• Everyone needs a Pocket Ref
  
• I was going to suggest another mug but there are too many to pick from
  
  ___
  
  Recipient C
  
  
• A tea-cup? It's a tea-related play on words from céad míle fáilte, meaning a hundred thousand welcomes.
  
• Maybe a less punny one?
  
• This Lamy fountain pen is slightly over-budget, but comes very highly rated. Mine is amazing.
  
• I am seriously so lost on what to suggest for him. I'm sure he has every book he wants, at least in a $20 price range. Stalk him and see if he has an Amazon Wishlist :P lol.
  
  
  Edited: to add fountain pen, I don't know why I didn't think of it, given that mine is sitting right next to me...

Sure!
This first one is the one I like the best:
Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
Spaceflight Dynamics: Third Edition
Introduction to Space Dynamics
They're all heavy on equations and there's a lot of overlap among them. I found the first one, Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, to be the most approachable.

I favor books over websites and youtube videos for most technical learning projects like this.

Practical Electronics for Inventors has been in one of my amazon wishlists for a while now, saved for when I decide to start tinkering more myself. It looks pretty decent and isn't uber expensive.

It's difficult to tell without seeing it, but "Learning the Art of Electronics" looks like a book to accompany "The Art of Electronics". If you're a beginner, The Art of Electronics might be a bit overwhelming. My recommendation as an absolute starting point is Getting Started in Electronics by Forest M. Mimms. It's old and used to be sold at Tandy, but it gives a really quick and simply overview of the basics, and you can get the 3rd edition here for free:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5jcnBPSPWQyaTU1OW5NbVJQNW8/edit

If you're still interested after reading Getting Started, it's probably appropriate to move on to either The Art of Electronics http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0H11CKC3J5KJMF8BHHA8

or the much cheaper Practical Electronics for Inventors (as mentioned elsewhere - 4th edition is out in April)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452851192&sr=1-1&keywords=practical+electronics+for+inventors

The guys over at www.circuitlab.com are building a really awesome, free, in-browser schematic drawing tool and simulator.

Practical Electronics for Inventors is also a good mix of theory and telling you what you need to know to make things blink.

http://www.amazon.com/Machinerys-Handbook-29th-Erik-Oberg/dp/083112900X

Any edition would probably work for what you need. The newest looks to be this 29th edition, but I've got an older 24th that I've used in the past. Whatever you can find cheaper and better quality! If you can't find it at the library, i would seriously consider buying your own copy. For me, ever since getting into this trade, i cant seem to find enough time in the day to absorb (and retain!) all the information out there to improve my own ability around the shop!

What are you mostly running? manual machines or any CNC?

this is absolutely great and has most everything you'll need to know. If you're ever ready to get super serious, this is the ultimate beekeeping bible.

White noise posting here.

Obviously not everything in there...but both do a really good job at pointing out not only typical circuits + intuition, but also on what common configurations of passives do and what they are used for. Sometimes you can look at some circuit and there are three or four resistors/caps/inductors that don't seem to do anything but touch the ground rail...figuring out what those do is very handy as well, and those links to a good job at helping you sort that out.

I thought of some books suggestions. If you're going all in, go to the library and find a book on vector calculus. You're going to need it if you don't already know spherical coordinates, divergence, gradient, and curl. Try this one if your library has it. Lots of good books on this though. Just look for vector calculus.

Griffiths has a good intro to E&M. I'm sure you can find an old copy on a bookshelf. Doesn't need to be the new one.

Shankar has a quantum book written for an upper level undergrad. The first chapter does an excellent job explaining the basic math behind quantum mechanics .

I bought this book and did all of the practice problems. You get a pdf manual to use during the test. You can download it from the NCEES website. It’s searchable and definitely helps to practice using it. I took mine in 2015 for civil so there may have been some changes since then. The university I went to offered review sessions that were open to non students. They weren’t free but were cheaper than most other options, maybe there’s a school near you that may offer them. Good luck.

This was what my prof used in college

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics (Dover Books on Aeronautical Engineering) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486600610/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0.eJAb3FG9KQ0

I liked it a lot, but that may have to do with him being an amazing teacher and not the book itself lol

If you're still in school, I would look at their library for review manuals first. I was able to find this: Lindeburg's Review Manual. In my opinion, this manual more than prepared me for the test because it is actually a lot harder than the FE.

Get the official practice test from NCEES and the official equation book. Use your FE calculator and the equation book every time you study.

It took me about 1 week to successfully study for the ChE version, and I thought it was rather easy. It helped that I was still a senior and taking a statics class, though. Don't stress. If you come from a good program (I'm from Pitt), you'll already have 80% of the knowledge somewhere in your brain.

FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam is what you'll want. It's pretty extensive and should allow anyone to pass.

Being out of school for three years means you should definitely give it a thorough read. For someone fresh out of school, it's not necessary. You'll pick it back up quick for sure though.

-----
-----

BOOKS

Children Electronics and Electricity books:

• "Electricity for Young Makers" by de Vinck.
  
  
• "Make: Easy Electronics" by Platt. (12 experiments)
  
  
• "Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity!" by Dahl.
  
  
• "Electronics For Kids For Dummies" by Shamieh. (13 experiments)
  
  Newbie Electronics books:
  
  
• "Make: How to Use a Breadboard" by Ragan and Culkin. (10 experiments)
  
  
• "Make: Electronics" by Platt. (34 experiments)
  
  
• "Make: More Electronics" by Platt. (36 experiments)
  
  
• "Lessons in Electric Circuits - Volume VI - Experiments" by Kuphaldt. (free book)
  
  
• Series "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" booklets by Forrest Mims. (download archives)
  
  
• List of books about 555-series Timer ICs on Wikipedia.
  
  Basic Circuit Theory books:
  
  
• "Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology" by Bird. (download old edition)
  
  
• "Introductory Circuit Analysis" by Boylestad. (download old edition)
  
  
• Series "Lessons In Electric Circuits" by Kuphaldt. (free books)
  
  
• List of books about Diodes, Transistors on Wikipedia.
  
  Analog Design books:
  
  
• "Microelectronic Circuits" by Sedra and Smith. (download old edition)
  
  
• "Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory" by Boylestad and Nashelsky. (download old edition)
  
  
• List of books about Operational Amplifier (OpAmp) ICs on Wikipedia.
  
  
• List of books about LM-series Analog Linear ICs on Wikipedia.
  
  Digital Design books:
  
  
• "Digital Fundamentals" by Floyd. (download old edition)
  
  
• "Digital Design: Principles and Practices" by Wakerly. (download old edition)
  
  
• "Digital Design: with Introduction to Verilog, VHDL, SystemVerilog" by Mano and Ciletti. (download old edition)
  
  
• "Digital Design and Computer Architecture" by Harris and Harris.
  (download old edition)
  
  
• List of books about 7400-series TTL Digital Logic ICs on Wikipedia.
  
  
• List of books about 4000-series CMOS Digital Logic ICs on Wikipedia.
  
  Digital Signal Processing books:
  
  
• "Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing" by Smith. (download or online)
  
  Computer Design books:
  
  
• List of books about
  6502,
  6800,
  6809,
  8080,
  8085,
  Z80,
  68000,
  x86
  processors on Wikipedia.
  
  
• List of books about
  8051,
  ARM,
  AVR,
  PIC,
  RISC-V
  microcontrollers on Wikipedia.
  
  Electronics Reference books:
  
  
• "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill. (download example chapter)
  
  
• "The Art of Electronics - The X Chapters" by Horowitz and Hill. Shipping in 2020.
  
  
• "ARRL Handbook" by various ARRL authors. (download very old edition)
  
  Historical books:
  
  
• "The Intellectual Rise In Electricity - A History" by Park Benjamin in 1895.
  
  
• "Electricity - It's History and Development" by William Durgin in 1912.
  
  
• "Bibliographical History of Electricity & Magnetism" by Paul Mottelay in 1922.
  
  
• "History of Communications Electronics in the United States Navy" by Linwood Howeth in 1963.
  
  -----
  -----
  
  

  MAGAZINES
  

  
  Current Electronics Magazines: (subscribe now)
  
  

• "Circuit Cellar"
  
  
• "Elektor"
  
  
• "Everyday Practical Electronics"
  
  
• "Nuts & Volts"
  
  Historical Electronics Magazines: (archives)
  
  
• "Electronics Today"
  
  
• "Everyday Electronics"
  
  
• "Popular Electronics"
  
  
• "Practical Electronics"
  
  
• "Radio Electronics"
  
  Historical Computer Magazines: (archives)
  
  
• "Byte" - 2nd group
  
  
• "Dr Dobb's Journal"
  
  
• "Interface Age"
  
  

• "Kilobaud"
  
  -----
  

David Griffiths' textbooks on E&M and quantum mechanics were easily the best textbooks I had as an undergrad. Clear, concise, refreshingly informal, and even a dash of humor.

Okay, I think i may have came across a great source for those who want to learn more about video.

Video Tutorials

Also some books I would suggest for those who are at least somewhat knowledgeable of electronics:

Active Filter Cookbook

CMOS Cookbook

Art of Electronics

​

I would also highly recommend brushing up on your math, if you want to build more advanced electronics. It's not impossible to learn, just take your time.

Maybe try applied math programs. Some of them seem to have astrophysics faculty https://www.princeton.edu/gradschool/about/catalog/fields/applied_mathematics/. You'll probably have an easier time getting in with your background and can take the math GREs. In a physics BS you would at least have the knowledge of these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X,

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Electrodynamics-4th-David-Griffiths/dp/0321856562/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396384599&sr=1-1&keywords=griffiths,

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Quantum-Mechanics-David-Griffiths/dp/0131118927/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396384599&sr=1-2&keywords=griffiths,

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Thermal-Physics-Daniel-Schroeder/dp/0201380277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396384625&sr=1-1&keywords=schroeder+statistical+physics.

The more you know from those books, the better. Although an applied math program, probably wouldn't expect you to have read all of them. Also try x-posting to /r/askacademia. I'm sure someone there could be more helpful.

Try a Pocket Ref. It's so packed full of amazing stuff. So much information, tables, charts, graphs, conversions.... super useful.

Thanks !

Astroynamics - I really like Battin's introduction to astro ( amzn.to/2Iu6Jhz ), and based my series on the 2-body problem on chapter 3 in that book. It's a lot like a math textbook so BMW's Fundamentals of Astro ( amzn.to/2zJBWe3 ) would be a gentler, on both the wallet and mathematical rigor, text.

Numerical methods - I've learned numerical methods from a bunch of different places so I don't really have a go to textbook.

Note: Those are amazon affiliate links to the mentioned books. Affiliate links are the main way I support the site (pay for hosting costs)