#990 in Science & math books
Reddit mentions of The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics
Sentiment score: 2
Reddit mentions: 5
We found 5 Reddit mentions of The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics. Here are the top ones.
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Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 2013 |
Weight | 0.85 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
Leo Susskind's The Theoretical Minimum: What you need to know to start doing physics was suggested in a previous post to addresss this question.
There's also a set of videos that originally inspired the book. Highly recommended.
I assume he's referring to The Theoretical Minimium.
You shouldn't jump face first into astrophysics. You should get a good background in the fundamentals of physics first, otherwise you're just going to get confused and frustrated. I recommend The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind, professor of physics at Stanford University. It's written in a way that's accessible and easy to understand.
Maybe The Theoretical Minimum by Susskind?
I think this is a fine place for the post, but you might also try /r/AskPhysics.
A good question is, how much time do you want to spend doing this? While anybody can learn math/physics deeply, it does take time. If you see this as being a Sunday hobby, you may want to stick with books that are aimed at a popular audience. Examples:
Books by Michiu Kaku and Brian Greene purportedly explain a lot of current bleeding-edge theory in simple terms. Popular interpretations of abstract mathematics are a little harder to come by. If you're interested in mathematics as a subject all to itself, you might start with Gowers' book Mathematics: a Very Short Introduction.
If you want to invest somewhat more time, I recommend you check out Lenny Susskind's "Theoretical Minimum" lecture series here. He's written an associated book on classical mechanics, and another on quantum mechanics. These lectures and books are directed towards self-leaners who have a mildly quantitative background, but have never studied physics deeply. However, I strongly recommend you familiarize yourself with calculus first.
The stuff in the "Theoretical Minimum" series might seem boring compared with the material aimed at popular audiences, but it's necessary background if you want to dig into those topics at a higher level. If you learn it, you'll be able to understand a much wider selection of sources on other fields of physics.
Best of luck finding something you like! You can always post back here if you're having trouble.