Transferring to Physics - Math texts?

blue powder

So I'm doing a general science degree, but would like to transfer into physics as a major. I'm fairly comfortable with a lot of physical concepts, but my math is relatively weak, and I'll be taking a few math units to catch up on this.

during the Christmas break I'd like to get a head start and learn some of the math, or get a rough idea/revision from years ago.

so basically are there any books you guys would recommend on this subject? Also any advice on physics/math concerning studying and experiences with learning the material?

thanks in advance!

SilverCat

I'm in my 3rd year of physics in university at the moment, i don't know so much about how uni works in america (assuming thats where you are) but the first year of the course for us was a crap load of maths, which i liked because thats actually the part i'm good at.

But most of it was just lots of types of differentiation/integration in the first year. Second year consisted of a bit of matrices, vector calculus and more differentiation/integration, you never stop with that but as a whole, less maths in the 2nd year.

Third year that im going into now has apparantly no maths, bar what you use in all the otehr modules anyway.

I don't know what parts you are interested in but you will have to do a lot of vector work, mechanics is a core module, and if your bad with vectors like i am i suggest working on that a bit.

As for texts i didnt use any for maths because the lecturers put all their notes online for us to use and they were very good but there is a great first year physics textbook that everyone bought and was essentially the bible for first year. I'll look around for it and tell you the title in a bit.

Kistra

How much math have you taken?

A physics degree will likely require calc 1-3 and diffeq. What books you use to review will depend on where you are in that sequence.

Sir Headless VII

You could always look ahead to what courses you will be taking and read the books you'll be using for them. Being prepared beforehand is always a good idea. As for advice just find a good group of people to do assignments with (not copy from, do them together) that is by far the best way to learn and not go crazy.

romanqwerty

What level is your maths at the moment? I know exactly how you feel, i'm studying physics too and the maths courses are by far the hardest for me. Contact the course administrator or past students from the course to find out what the course text is and just work through that.

Advice: Learn how to use Matlab/Mathematica/Maple. I use it all the time to compute different things and it just make life a whole lot easier. Additionally wolfram alpha's Differentiate() and Integrate() functions have a option to show steps, which can be really useful when trying to learn how to deal with a difficult integral.

Edit: Yeah, alot of textbooks can be optional, especially for maths. Your first year physics one is not. It will weigh like 3 tonnes but it is worth it. I still use mine to go back and look things up that i've forgotten.

blue powder

I can do basica calc and basic algebra.. so i have experience with 2x2 matrices, and basic integration and differentiation. vectors i have never done before but i know i'll be required to..

like i said, i've found some rad physics text books which i've used for this year (i did a physics unit based basically on the concepts with very little math).

i'm basically looking for something that's really easy to learn from, straight to the point with worked examples etc.

thanks for the advice so far, guys!

physi_marc

This book is expensive, but VERY worth it. It's a bit light on examples, but it's very well written. It's simple and clear and I still use it as a reference (I'm just starting my PhD in physics).

SinWithSebastian

The Arfken-Weber Math. Methods for physicists is also pretty solid.

shadydentist

Just curious, how do you do a physics unit with very little math? My (engineering) physics department requires 4 semesters of math before you're allowed in the program.

nuclearalchemist

Riley Hobson and Bence is a good book too, it covers everything very thoughoughly. I saw that Boas and Arfken and Weber was also on the list that people gave to you. I am in my second year of graduate school in phyics, emphasis on High Energy Physics. For just general undergrad physics, what you need to know is:

Calculus 1 for everything, since all of the rest of math is based upon it.
Calculus 2 for the series and such, you will be chanting "to first order" a lot in later physics.
Calculus 3 probably the most important calculus, for vector calc. You NEED to know this shit.
DiffEq is also important, especially mixed with Calc3. Eventually, you are going to be doing nothing but solving differential equations is going to become a past time of yours.
Linear algebra is also very important to physicists, especially when you get to taking quantum mechanics. If you really get deep into quantum theories, then you not only need a heavy background in linear algebra, but also in group theory/abstract algebra.

As for books, Boas was suggested, and for undergrad level stuff I would go with that.

Boutros

Back when I took my introductory physics courses we used Halliday and Resnick, but afterwards my school switched to Serway. They were similar and both pretty good, and were used for intro classical, E&M, and elementary modern physics. These are books for which you need to know some calculus, but the differential equations are solved into integral forms for you.

For upper division stuff, we used Griffiths for E&M and quantum. Griffiths is awesome and you should check out his books even if you don't use them for your classes. We used some awful book for Classical Mechanics that was apparently pretty standard, but the author was dead and the most recent edition was made in the mid 80s and was impossible to learn from. Can't remember the name of the author, but it had a red cover because it came from hell.

Honestly you might learn your math faster and better from your physics classes than your math classes. I had to learn an entire semester worth of Linear Algebra in about 2 weeks of second semester classical mechanics. When I later took Linear it was a joke. And I learned more calculus of vector fields and partial differential equations in the first month of E&M than I did from my "Applied Analysis" class which was really advanced engineering mathematics or something but it had a stupid name.

blue powder

Rad thanks, guys! Over here we just need to do math units simultaneously as our physics units. Both obviously of appropriate and complimentary content i guess.

blue powder

Oh yeah, a mate of mine said he could hook me up with "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering 3rd Edition" by K. F. Riley.

Is this book any good or not specific enough to physics relative to the other books out there?