Reddit mentions of Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering: A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding Engineering Mathematics by John bird. It's available for free download on gen.lib.rus.ec. It has tons and tons of fully worked examples and covers just about everything from 1+1 to laplace transforms.

You will probably want to develop a more conceptual approach to mathematical problem solving after you are done with it, but you will cross that bridge when you get there. Just in case you are curious about what that even means you can find Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering for free on genlib too. This is not the book you're looking for right now though.

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!

Riley Hobson and Bence, also Riley Hobson and Bence and maybe Riley Hobson and Bence...
this book has been my bible for the last few years and contains every single piece of maths I have needed for the last few years and, from what I've heard from those further into the course, will last a long time.

Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering is an excellent book that covers most topics you will ever need for your undergrad degree.

Try Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering: A Comprehensive Guide. There is also a neat student's solutions manual available. It has all of the material you will need, although problem difficulty is not really its strong point.

Frankly I did really badly and I got a B so you shouldn't worry that much, the curve can be pretty good.

For me the main issue was there was lots of computational math I hadn't seen. It says in the course description they'll teach you these things during the course, but at least when I took it they barely taught anything.

So be prepared to look up some math on your own if you don't have experience in computational multivariable calculus, linear algebra, or ODEs. I haven't personally used it, but I'm told Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering is a good reference for all the math that could possibly show up during a physics based degree.

I feel the need to plug Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering by Riley, Hobson, and Bence. It covers a vast range of everything you're going to need with good examples.

Universities tend to accommodate not having dedicated the summer before first year to preparation: don't worry. They're not going to drop you in at the deep end and watch you struggle.

Being good with maths will never hurt in a physics degree, though. If you're desperate to do something, in your position I'd skim parts of the PH300 course in a book like RHB if you have one available. I wouldn't buy a copy just for that, personally, but your mileage my vary.

If computing is a large part of the course and you've never programmed before, another option would be to get ahead on that. I've never dealt with FORTRAN but a quick Google pointed out a lot of tutorials that might help.

Beyond that I'm not sure what to say: unless something else on (or off) the course really stands out to you, I'd peek at the maths and/or programming.

Riley Hobson and Bence similarly has intro chapters on mostly all of that.

I've found Riley, Hobson and Bence and Boas to be really good applied textbooks. The Bence is more of an introduction and the Boas goes more in-depth. If your morals are less than scrupulous then you can easily find a pdf of both online for free

This seems like an unauthorized pirate distribution of https://amzn.com/0521679710 ?

This kind of thing is not the purpose of this forum (for one thing, I assume anyone who really wants to get pirate textbooks can figure out how). Please don’t spam here.

Certainly this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-Engineering-Comprehensive/dp/0521679710

I have received recommendations for this book from several physics majors and alumni from several different universities. It is a rather thick textbook, but I think most of the chapters can be addressed independently at your current level, especially after this first year of yours. Write it down somewhere in a Google Doc, including the authors and that it's the third edition.

A book am using is Thomas Cala and it looks like a good book on it https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thomas%27+calculus+12th+edition&i=stripbooks&crid=348T2AR8JCUJA&sprefix=Thomas%27+Calculus+12%2Cstripbooks%2C187&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_19 .
Also try https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-Engineering-Comprehensive/dp/0521679710/ref=pd_ybh_a_19?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AH70YHCXP3QJKG2560EF

Second year UK undergrad here.

In my first year our maths course covered:

1. Lots of calculus including multiple integrals
   
2. Complex numbers
   
3. Ordinary differential equations
   
4. Basic linear algebra
   
   These mainly prepare you for thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Out of all of it I would say the calculus is by far the most important.
   
   If you can get your hands on it, I found this book greatly useful (you only need bits of it): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-Engineering-Comprehensive/dp/0521679710
   
   Feel free to reply if you have any questions.

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. :)

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.

Are you sure it's not Advanced Engineering Mathematics?

Anyway, although engineering is beyond the "layman" level and requires understanding "technical" things, consider Riley, Hobson, & Bence.