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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4060610 No.4060610 [Reply] [Original]

So I'm pissed off that my first two physics classes in College have been complete shit.

The professors are boring as fuck and don't know how to teach. They simply throw formulas at you and rush through the concepts.

Then, all the homework problems are just systems of equations, checking to make sure you can do your algebra.

There's no context, no history of the subject involved. It's just meaningless algebra.

\sci\, I'm desperate for some books on physics and chemistry that actually discuss the history, experiments, and concepts that make science what it is.

You know, I actually want to know how they derived the constants and equations that make physics so baffling.

I don't want anything too general, I'm not a 35 year old loser who spends his time on nova worshiping kaku. I know how to solve an integral.

Please recommend me some books

>> No.4060619

Take a history of physics/mathematics class.

>> No.4060627

>>4060610
>I know how to solve an integral
lmao well la-dee-dah

>> No.4060628

>>4060619
No room for that in my schedule and I feel like it would be too dumbed down.

>> No.4060634

Check your syllabus for the course textbook then hit up your campus library for it and other related texts.

>> No.4060636

>>4060627
ignore the troll
learn2metaphor

>> No.4060638

>>4060610

You will enjoy school more as you advance and the slower kids get weeded out. I assume this is your first term. Remember the instructors have to accommodate all students (regardless of mathematical/scientific background). It will get harder and better. Don't worry. However, you definitely sound like an arrogant cock.

>> No.4060645

Shitty teachers or not, "deriving those constants" is usually non-trivial and takes a few years of studies to understand. I think the English standard book series here is Landau-Lifshitz, although I haven't used that myself. I also think it's mathematically outdated, just like all the other physics books.

>> No.4060647

lol, is the class too hard or something? Take a history class instead or a literature class

>> No.4060659

>>4060645
I have a hard time grasping how something as old as math can be outdated. At the same time, I'm still weirded out by how the first editions of much of my text in EE fundamentals were originally written many decades ago.

>> No.4060663

A lot of book recommending going on here.
Anyway, >>4060645, thanks for your contribution

>> No.4060673

you're why this board is so bad.

you have to crawl before you walk, little shit.

>> No.4060675

>>4060659
/P/roject?
Anyway, yes, math can be outdated. For example, many things you just do in physics actually don't exist. Most prominent example: using a delta function in combination with the Riemann integral. The first one never existed, the latter one does exist, but not in combination with something like a delta function. Thanks to Lebesgue and Schwartz we now have very general mathematical theories when it comes to integration and functionals, but in physics you just don't use that - the old and wrong formalism is kept "because it works".
Another thing is the concept of a manifold, which is usually left out in physics. Spaces are mostly three-dimensional in introductory courses, to you don't even need to distinguish between space and dual space. This leads to very surprised faces when the first relativistic equation is written down, or when somebody tries to explain why bra/ket makes sense.

>> No.4060686

>>4060673
mad?
I just asked for some books and butthurt aspiefaggots like yourself choose to insult diction and tone over providing actual information to this board.

You can take your shit to /lit/ if you want to analyze language. But chances are you would be bad at that anyway, since you're such an aspie

>> No.4060726

The first to physics classes are just introductory courses. You hit the basics of kinematics and electricity. Physics 3 is where you learn the basics of Qm and relitivity. From there you get into the meat of the major. The hard stuff will come for sure. Make sure your know the basics well or modern physics will destroy you.

>> No.4062402

Yeah I was hoping to get some books suggestions but goddamn nitpicking... I read a lot of popular science books and they completely avoid equations and the history behind them. Finding authors that go into that stuff isn't easy and I have looked in the past.

>> No.4062493

>>4060673
but that's exactly what op is saying

he wants to walk but his teachers are making him run, running is pointless if you don't know the walking it derived from