how to learn undergraduate physics
I'm going to create a place where I can talk about physics- mostly how to learn physics since I'm NOT rewriting my notes onto html.
So I will just nerd out about my favourite recourses and textbooks since nobody I talk to gives a SHIT and I need to place this somewhere.
rant: learn maths first
So in your first year of most degree courses you're just going to learn some very surface level classical mechanics, thermal physics and electromagnetism. For some reason some random particle physics and quantum mechanics will be thrown in there too.
A fair amount of what you learn in first year will be coverage of basic concepts you may have learnt in school.
I have a feeling that the degree programme would be massively improved if your first year was just a year of mathematics, so you could learn all the mathematics you need for the entire degree and THEN go onto physics. I have this view because a lot of what you cover each year will be limited by the mathematics you have learnt so far: only for you to be retaught concepts using the more mathematical tools available in future years.
I suppose many people would feel scammed if they went through the first of three years of physics and had learnt nothing about physics. Perhaps this is also why some random quantum and particle physics is chucked into first year. To be fair maybe the particle physics can belong in first year, but the quantum I learnt in first year was just some basic phenomena which demonstrate it and thats it.
maths to learn
Basically just do the first 20 chapters of Riley Hobson Bence and you will be okay. Honestly I need to find time to cover what I've been learning in my class in this book. A lot of exam questions and assigned problems will be taken from this book by the way: it is a pretty standard textbook.
So basically make sure that you understand vector calculus very well.
quantum textbooks
alistair I.M. Rae - VERY GOOD
Griffifs - good exercises to go through
MIT 806 - Been using this in third year and it's amazing. Cannot speak for the earlier courses though
electromagnetism
Grant & Phillips - pretty nice, earlier chapters are taught at a higher level than they were taught during my course since we didnt have the mathematical techniques available to us yet.....
Jackson - Been going through this. Apparently a graduate level textbook (?) anyway its very nice.
everything that doesn't get its own category (AMAZING GEMS)
Blundall and Blundall - Your introduction to StatMech, amazing. Dream couple.
Oxford Solid State Basics - amazing condensed matter textbook, very accessible. Made me not hate the chemistry in physics.
Goldstein - Classical Mechanics - I really want to go through this graduate level mechanics textbook. I've used parts of it during my degree but they always reference high level maths derived in earlier chapters which I never got the chance to do. I just had to look at the diagram and say "I trust you bro", I want to go through it! :(
Martin Shaw -Nuclear and Particle physics - basic particle physics, was good for exam I guess?
J.P Friedberg - Amazing Plasma physics book.
Nielson and Chuang - Good quantum information theory book!!!