Ottahhh

You know, for someone claiming to withhold superior scientific knowledge, you have pretty bad spelling. Anyway, on topic: All of your statements are incorrect and lack common logic, I do not know of any magnet that can enable travel at the speed of light nor produce "free" electricity.

Well, quite a contrast of opinions here! I would like to note that I have not stated that I'm going to steer away from my standard schooling. Frankly, I think the fact I'm trying to learn more about science out of school suggests the complete opposite. Just because I want to learn more about a field of science, it doesn't mean I'm going to disregard my standard schooling. I want to learn more about physics just as a large portion of my peers want to go out and get drunk in an attempt to display an ounce of maturity by drinking alcohol which to be sincere, I think is pathetic. My schooling doesn't take up all the 168 hours in a week. As an insomniac, I don't sleep much and to be honest, I want to utilize the time I have from not sleeping on something productive anyway and my keen interest in physics is a perfect opportunity. Going off on a slight tangent, let's say that school takes up 6 hours of my day. I probably spend around 2 hours doing school work everyday, 2 hour doing other stuff, 5-6 hours for sleep, put that all together and you get 16 hours which leaves me a void of 8 hours. I've spent a year or two spending this time on computer programming, but I wish to move onto other stuff (obviously, physics). You are close to the truth, but not quite. Your assumption on my math skills is relatively accurate, from doing computer programming and writing simple game engines, I have learnt a substantial amount of math skills involving algebra, geometry and a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of trigonometry, but I am in no way an expert in either of these fields. Your speculation regarding my knowledge of physics however, is not quite as accurate. I've already done quite a bit of reading on Wikipedia pages etc. I have an understanding of protons, neutrons, electron, quarks, the composition of an atom, the basic laws of physics such as Newton's laws of motion and some other stuff which is currently slipping my mind. But still, I'm a beginner, and my goals stay constant.

This is the kind of response I was looking for. I will look into these books and I'll drop you an email when I look into these books etc. As for the other responses, I appreciate your opinions as well, I will keep what you've said in mind, however, I like to learn things on my own as well as at school.

Hello! I'm a 14 year old with a huge interest in physics. At my current age we aren't really learning much about physics at school, but I really want to get into it. I'm pretty beginner with physics as I've never really learnt it, but as I said, I want to change this. I want to learn physics in a way that I could approach astrophysics later on as primarily, space is my big interest. I am prepared to buy books as at school, I have long lunchtimes and break times which I could use as an opportunity to read, learn more and at the same time, makes things more fun for myself. I consider myself fairly literate so I'm not too fussed about the level of English knowledge involved. For example, I don't want books recommended that are aimed for someone who's just learning physics for exams and using books for revision etc. I want to be able to learn about the raw fundamentals of physics as well! The maths behind it and all that stuff interest me as well. I'm not incredible at maths so I would like something that brings it in slowly, but at the same time, contains the actual stuff, not just shortened down for the sake of simplicity. I know the specifications I mentioned above are a bit specific, but I just want to get into it properly, not just at a glance. Any books you recommend do not have to be consice. By all means, recommend a massive, lengthy book, I will still read it. Thanks in advance Ottahhh

Hello! My friends Dad recently decided to buy him a 'meteorite' off ebay. It is around the size of a tennis ball and when he first told me, I was a little bit sceptical to say the least, but never the less, I felt it would be interesting to see if it is so. At first glance, I noticed instantly that it held resemblances to a stony-iron meteorite, I was pleasantly surprised! For a start, it has plenty of fusion crust, I very hopeful sign that it is indeed a meteorite. It also has a number of cracks around its crust but is by no means falling apart which suggests it has hit Earth at such force that it would of caused the aforementioned cracks. We then thought we would ask a science teacher at our school if we could borrow some magnets to test it for a magnetic field which would indicate iron. We managed to get some magnets and what do you know? Magnetic field. The odd thing is, the magnetic field isn't as strong as I expected it to be which leads me to think that the iron (if there is any) has been formed in compound with another element, but has still got a bit of its magnetic field left. We don't exactly want to send it off to a university or anything to get tested by their professors as we actually want to do tests our self. Our school has given us permission to use a number of school supplies such as chemicals, microscopes and a bunch of other stuff so we can do so. The reason for posting here is that we want some suggestions as to what tests we could do to check for numerous things within the supposed meteorite such as nickel, silicon and anything else that would help us determine the contents of the 'meteorite'. As I said, we have access to a lab, supplies and other tools to help us but we do not have all the fancy stuff that many professional identifiers have. I do not have any pictures as of yet, but tomorrow (Friday) I will be able to take some, but we also want to start some basic testing tomorrow so all suggestions are highly appreciated. Josh, 13.

Thanks for the really helpful reply! I actually live in the South East, a county called Hertfordshire to be exact, but the festivals you mentioned sound awesome, I may have to go next year. The books you suggested also look good, I may buy both of them, by all means, pleae suggest more, I will probably spend up to 30-40 pounds on books as I am going to Cornwall for a week which is a lot of driving, so books are good! Regarding GCSE questions being dumbed down, I know what you mean, I've the liberty to look at some past chemistry papers, and they're indeed simplified. Seems as if I were to go in depth regarding a question asking the about the process of ionisation by saying about electronegaitvity/electropositivity relative to the periodic table would render useless an infact be considered unrelated! It's silly!

Thanks for all the fast replies. If I were to look in to buying some books, are there any books you'd recommend, I want make sure if I spend some money on a book it would be at least somewhat suitable for me. Thanks again! Josh

Hi, Im 13 and I'm wondering how I can go about learning getting into astrophysics. What should I learn before hand? Where can I learn the aforementioned? I'm no where near the educational year where we learn astrophysics and physics in general so I don't have a massive understanding of a lot of things and my teachers are often to lazy to help me learn this advanced stuff and they tend to suggest I 'Revise my knowledge of atomic structures' which I already know about anyway. Im just starting to do GCSE's and I'm already ahead of my class. While they're trying to comprehend the basic idea of Protons, Neutrons, Electrons etc. I have a solid knowledge of ionisation, isotopes etc. So this is why instead of spending my time revising the chemistry I already know, I want to move onto something that I have a much greater interest in. I may of rambled on a bit, but nevertheless, I hope you can understand my position and my frustration with these limitations in school so I hope you can help! Many thanks, Josh.