Comment Best texts, chosen according to math level (Score 1) 485
If you can do basic calculus (differentiate and integrate), you will be able to handle the Mechanics text by HRK. You should also be able to understand the Electricity and Magnetism volume also.
If you want to delve further, the best quantum mechanics and E&M texts (IMHO) are by Professor David Griffiths of Reed College, Oregon. He knows how to present the material in an easy and straightforward manner. Unfortunately, to delve this deep you will need to understand differential equations- there is simply no way around this. Quantum mechanics really requires understanding basic linear algebra also- fortunately, Prof. Griffiths gives the basics of LA we need to know to understand QM in his text.
If you want to understand where all the equations in HRK come from, you could check out the Marion Classical Mechanics text, which is more formal (ie mathy). There are several other texts that are equally as good, but this is the one I used.
Thermodynamics comes in 2 flavors. Thermo for physicists, and thermo for everybody else- engineers, chemists, biologists, doctors, etc. The physics version has roots in both classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. In my opinion, there are NO good thermodynamics texts out there. In the end, thermo is nothing more than some dressed up statistical analysis, with a smattering of diff. eq. thrown in for good measure. Seems simple, in reality it is not, and is very difficult to grasp due to the combinatorics. Standard text undergrad text is the Kittel and Kroemer book, Thermal Physics . It helps to know a lot of little math tricks to understand thermo, and also when to properly apply approximations.
That being said, what about people who got up to algebra, and maybe trig, but not calculus? Well, these texts are not for you. I think the best texts in this genre are not the high school texts, but the college texts written for students not taking other related courses, such as calculus, etc. An example would be Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt . This book can be bought with a workbook, in the back of which are all the answers with explanations. This type of book is good because the math is kept to a minimum (mostly). Even so, you can still use basic arithmetic to explore various physics concepts, and then check your answers in the back of the book.
As far as the Hawking books go, I find it difficult to believe that laypeople actually understand where he is coming from. It is pretty heady stuff, and I know I didn't understand it the first time I read it (before I started taking physics courses). These books by "star" authors like Hawking tend to be very specialized books that concern themselves only with the subfield of the author- in this case, black holes and quantum gravity. If you want to understand how basic things work (like why we hit a terminal velocity, or how come things fly off a spinning disk, how does electricty work, etc), these types of books are not the ones you should investigate. I'd say that Hewitt book is much better suited- it goes over basic mechanics, basic electrostatics and magnetism, thermodynamics in the form of phase changes and entropy, and a dash of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. And it does all of this with a 1000x more pictures (not just diagrams!) than a Hawking book will.
Any comments on my choice of books?
