Study Resources

The Student Advisory Council aims to support students studying physics and a large part of students’ lives consists of studying! That is why we have created a comprehensive lists of study resources below.

Find our list of graduate comprehensive exam guides here.

General Physics Resources

Physical constants – https://physics.info/constants/

Unit conversion – http://www.unitconversion.org/

Physics Pages – https://physicspages.com/

Hyperphysics – http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/index.html

The Feynman Lectures on Physics – https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

Comprehensive physics reference – https://www.theoretical-physics.net/dev/index.html

Walter Lewin’s physics lectures – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEHVhv0SBMpP75JbzJShqw

MIT OpenCourseWare, physics courses – https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/

Light and Matter, open source introductory physics text – http://lightandmatter.com/lm/

Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics – https://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/

David Tong’s Cambridge lectures on theoretical physics – http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/teaching.html

Curlie physics web directory – https://curlie.org/en/Science/Physics/

OpenStax, peer-reviewed, open source, totally free online textbooks – https://openstax.org/subjects/science

Mathematics

Paul’s Online Math Notes, extensive notes on basic to advanced calculus and differential equations – https://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/

Wolfram MathWorld, “the web’s most extensive mathematics resource” – https://mathworld.wolfram.com/

MathPages, comprehensive web database of mathematics, with selected topics on physics and relativity – https://www.mathpages.com/home/index.htm

OpenStax, peer-reviewed, open source, totally free online textbooks – https://openstax.org/subjects/math
eMathHelp, providing online calculators from pre-algebra to differential calculations –

 

Classical Mechanics

Advanced Mechanics – Marion and Thornton

Dynamics and relativity, textbook/lecture notes – http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/relativity/stephen.pdf

Advanced mechanics, chaos theory, and special relativity, UC San Diego –  https://courses.physics.ucsd.edu/2019/Winter/physics110b/lectures.html

 

Electromagnetism and Electronics

Electromagnetism – Griffiths

A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, J. C. Maxwell – https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Treatise_on_Electricity_and_Magnetism

Electromagnetism, Relativity, and Wave Mechanics, Fitzpatrick UT Austin – https://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/jk1/Electromagnetism/index.html

“Why is Maxwell’s Theory so hard to understand?”, essay by Freeman Dyson – http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/em/dyson.pdf

 

Relativity

Dynamics and relativity, textbook/lecture notes – http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/relativity/stephen.pdf

Einstein’s lectures on relativity – https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/einstein/works/1910s/relative/index.htm

Einstein Light, webpage explaining relativity for the 2005 World Year of Physics – http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/

 

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Schroeder

Three term course on statistical physics, Caltech – http://www.pmaweb.caltech.edu/~mcc/Ph127/index.html

Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics lecture notes, UC San Diego – https://courses.physics.ucsd.edu/2010/Spring/physics210a/LECTURES/210_COURSE.pdf

Intermediate thermodynamics and statistical mechanics lecture notes, UT Austin – https://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/sm1/lectures/lectures.html

 

Quantum Mechanics

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths

Advanced quantum mechanics notes –http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/rrh/notes/aqm_notes_180112.pdf

Berkeley course on quantum mechanics – http://bohr.physics.berkeley.edu/classes/221/1112/221.html

Quantum Physics Made Relatively Simple, three lectures by Hans Bethe – http://bethe.cornell.edu/

 

Optics, Photonics, and Wave Mechanics

Fundamentals of Photonics, B. Saleh and M. Teich

Practical Raman Spectroscopy, an Introduction – Vandenabeele

Introduction to Optics; Pedrotti, Pedrotti, and Pedrotti

RP Photonics Encyclopedia – https://www.rp-photonics.com/categories.html

Web-based ray optics simulator – https://phydemo.app/ray-optics/simulator/

Resonances, Waves, and Fields blog – http://resonanceswavesandfields.blogspot.com/

Extensive discussion on linear and nonlinear waves – http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Linear_and_nonlinear_waves

Basic introduction to lasers – http://www.optique-ingenieur.org/en/courses/OPI_ang_M01_C01/co/Grain_OPI_ang_M01_C01.html

MIT video demo of lasers and optics – https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-006-video-demonstrations-in-lasers-and-optics-spring-2008/

 

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