Keen to learn more about physics

A high schooler from Canada writes:

I've always enjoyed science in school. In the past five months I have realized that I want to get to know science as intimately as possible and improve my mathematics. I was excited to be going back to school so I could learn more. However I was very disappointed- the material my teachers are currently going through is minimal. I have tried reading books but I find that i am incapable of understanding the mathematics it explains things in, or it jumps  quickly into something I kn1ow nothing about. I want so much to improve my math and learn as much about physics as I can while developing my thinking skills, do you have any recommendations? m i not intelligent enough to understand the books, or am
i choosing the wrong ones?

It is very possible that you are choosing the wrong books. If you are going into a university library and randomly pulling books off the shelves, the odds are that you are choosing books that are meant for researchers in a specific sub-field - I would expect these to be far too advanced for 99.9999% of high school students.

I sympathize with your disappointment with your high school science classes. My high school physics classes bored me to tears. It's a miracle that I ended up in physics (a great junior high school teacher and first-year university professor helped offset the high school experience).

It's great that you are so interested in science/physics/math. Yes, math is vital to understanding physics. You do need to know a fair amount of math to learn the details about most areas of physics. If you are super-keen about math, I recommend reading ahead in your high school math books. Once you have learned some calculus (especially integration) a much larger fraction of physics becomes much more accessible. As my high school calculus teacher used to say "Calculus is real math. Calculus is powerful math.".

If you don't feel like being too ambitious with math for now, there are some good popular physics books out there for some of the more fashionable fields (e.g. string theory, cosmology). Search the web for reviews that suggest the better ones.

Good luck with your studies!

Cheers,
David

Comments

[Aaron F.]

Have you tried talking to your physics teachers? I bet they could give you some great ideas on what to study, and they might be able to point you towards some more advanced aspects of the stuff you're studying in class.

[Sorin]

Im a highschool student also. I have been read some books that would probably interest you.

The Elegant Universe / Fabric of the Cosmos are both great books by Brian Greene which I started out with. They introduce physics, mostly theoretical physics to the average reader.. no math involved !

I am currently reading Shortcut Through Time by George Johnson, a book a bit more advanced on Quantum physics and Quantum Computing.

I share your feelings about school completely and if you want to email me for more info, or help on Quantum machanics, and also other fields of theoretical physics feel free to do so.

whiterabbit.90@gmail.com

[John, Doe]

I hatethese books!!!!!!!!

[yang wang]

i agree these books are for like retards, its a babys book. soooooooo gay haha