What basic physics concepts do you suggest me to learn?

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If I want to move onto higher learning of physics. What general concepts should I definitely look into? I know I should look at:

Gravity,
Motion
Electricity, energy, magnetism
Thermodynamics

I've also look at some of Archimedes work but I'm not sure what else. Also, some suggestions of some physics books for beginners would be nice too. Thank you.

It seems to me that the first three semesters of physics in college were something like gravity/motion/mass/centrifugal force etc., then electricity and magnetism, and then light and optics.

Archimedes established the science of buoyancy. You might pursue some work in fluid mechanics of which buoyancy is a part.

ruveyn

<--- Doesn't know the difference between thermodynamics and a can of paint. Take him to the nearest pho restaurant though and he'll be alright.

This website has a rather good introduction of physics for beginners, with plenty of problems to practice.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/

There is also an introductory course in physics at Udacity. It's a bit more challenging than the physics classroom, and faster paced, but excellent. For a deep understanding of basic physics, these two websites studied together are probably best.

https://www.udacity.com/course/ph100

Good luck! Physics is fun if it is explained well.

At my Uni, semester one was mechanical and thermal physics
Semester 2 was electromagnetism, brief intro to relativity
intro astrophysics is optional and separate

2nd year you do thermodynamics & condensed matter, fields, astrophysics 2, quantum

I only did astro 3 in 3rd year

You need the right maths along with it. And there is biological physics and research topics.

Doesn't it depend where you want to go with it. What field you want to work in?
What excites you about physics?

Are you just doing this "for fun", or are you planning on actually going into physics as a career? Because there's a big difference! Also, any branch that particularly interests you?

For fun.

Heat transfer
Mass transfer
Circuits
Statics
Dynamics
Fluid Dynamics
Thermodynamics
Gravitation/Magnetism
Light


Those will give you a pretty good basis, they'll be pretty challenging to learn in any detail though, particularly if you're just doing it for fun...it'll take a lot of motivation lol (there's multiple thousand-plus page books on pretty much each of those topics, happy reading!) I'd probably recommend trying to google some websites for the specific topic, and see if you can get one that has various lessons broken up into sections. The main thing is to work out as many problems as you can, and work through solved example problems, if you truly want to understand the equations and principles behind the physics.

While you're at it I would suggest learning about things called "vectors" they can be really useful for pretty much anything.

I would suggest looking into fluids and the behavior of light (how it refracts and reflects, in mirrors, thin lenses, water, etc).

For fluids, just remember that buoyant force = density * volume * gravity constant (9.8 m/s^2 for Earth)
And for refraction, remember n1sinθ1= n2sinθ2, where n is index of refraction, absolute speed of light divided by speed of light in the specified substance.

I think learning basic atomic theory, whether that is through a chemistry text or a physics text, is quite necessary. Understanding how electrons work and how they fit in different energy levels and how this all relates to bonding is very important to understand hard-core quantum mechanics. I don't know how advanced of physics you are going to go on to, but if it's really, really advanced physics, learning the basics of crystal formation, molecular orbital theory, and solid-state structures also would be good to have. And you should familiarize yourself with radioactivity (e.g., difference between alpha and beta decay) and relativity.

Most suggestions already given were topics in a standard two-semester intro course in physics, where the first semester is Newtonian mechanics and basic thermodynamics and the second semester is electricity, magnetism, and optics. But since you said "advanced physics," that signals to me that you should be brushing up on the basics of modern physics, too. And I'd assume that you are quite gifted in math to be pursuing advanced physics, but even if you haven't had all of the math you need to do quantum mechanics, you don't need the math to learn the concepts. I have NVLD and have always struggled in math, but that doesn't mean that I don't know the conceptual material in advanced atomic physics/chemistry. As an example I use frequently, I may not be able to understand the Schrodinger equation itself, but that doesn't mean that I don't understand what the Schrodinger equation signifies and tells us.

And when it comes to physics, my best knowledge comes from atomic theory, and this is because I have had to take a lot of chemistry for my neuro degree. (And that's the area of physics, besides electromagnetism, that is the most important when it comes to neuroscience.) So, I can help you with texts in that area, if need be.

Start with Richard Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces" - if these are easy, try his "Six Not-So-Easy Pieces". If you still like what you're learning, he has a whole series of lectures.

what I recommend to you is:

first: learning Calculus (if you know negative numbers, fractions, logarithm, exponential and linear equations you can begin with)
I learned it with wikipedia+a nice computer graphing calculator (for understanding functions)+"Problemas y ejercicios de analisis matemático" from Editorial Mir (authors: Baranenkov, Demidovich, Efimenko, Porshneva, etc.)
And linear algebra (i learned with wikipedia+excersises).

Classes, Problems and book recomendations are in the pages of UBA (University of Buenos Aires) at the df (physics department) and dm (maths department).

Zorry for my bad english and for recommending you only things in spanish (well... the book of analysis original is in russian, i have a spanish version of it) ...

Ah... I remember: Berkley series, Feynman series, and Landau Series.

Math. Get the math out of the way while working on the introductory courses and then once you know the math start taking the more advanced courses that go more in depth and use that math.

The problem many physics students encounter is that they don't know the math well enough to do the physics and end up having to learn the math while they learn the physics. That is much, much tougher.

So make sure that you have a good understanding of calculus (at least two rigorous courses) and differential equations. If you don't make good solid A's, take them a second time. Then go on to vector analysis, abstract algebra, real analysis, and complex analysis. Again, if you don't get the understanding you want, take them again.

Once you have the math, you can concentrate on the physics. Without having to learn the math while you learn the physics, the physics is far easier. It also gives you a much better foundation for following the lectures.

Then get busy and take some good physics courses:
1) Two semesters of Classical Dynamics. (When I took classical mechanics, I already had all the math I needed. While the rest of the class was struggling, I had it easy. On the first exam, for example, there were 20 bonus points giving a possible top score of 120 -- I made 115 while the average on the test was in the 50s or 60s. I wasn't any smarter, but I knew the math.)
2) Modern physics (aka baby Quantum Mechanics). Don't confuse what you learned in the beginning courses with real physics.
3) Quantum Mechanics
4) Electricity and Magnetism

With all this, you will have an excellent foundation to start learning physics.