rutski

I just occurred to me to chime back in and mention that all of those books are pretty expensive, and buying all of them would probably cost well over $1,000; maybe even closer to $2,000. But, if you have a library near by then you can get all of them for free. Even if they don't have them at your local branch, that local branch will probably be well enough connected to the world's inter-library loan system that they will be able to put in a request to nearby university libraries and have the books shipped in for you. The definition of "nearby" here usually means about ~1,000 miles. With inter-library loans like that you only get a given book for a handful of weeks, but it's better than nothing. One idea is to order them all from the inter-library loan system, skim through them a bit, and then based on that decide which 2 or 3 are worth putting down money for.

It's a "fact" huh? Could you provide some evidence for this "fact?" All of the major schools out there accept home schoolers, even with no high school grades to show whatsoever: Stanford: http://www.stanford....ome_school.html MIT: http://mitadmissions...pare/homeschool Columbia: http://www.studentaf...r/home-schooled Caltech: http://www.admission...ng/homeschooled ... and the list goes on and on. MIT almost accepted me as a homeschooler; to repeat, no high school grades were required. Though I didn't get accepted, the reason was lack of SAT scores, not lack of high school grades. I got a call back from the admissions directory with an apology, saying that they were on the verge of sending me an acceptance letter, but that they couldn't due to the fact that I didn't have SAT or ACT scores on file with them. He said with a wink that I should take the SATs and few SAT subject tests on the next testing date, and then resubmit my application for the nearest next semester. I ended up going to a good liberal arts school by the name of Sarah Lawrence College instead, which didn't have the strict SAT requirement. It's really just standardized test scores that provide the main barrier for entry. High school grades can be ignored if you play your cards right, and it's not that hard to do. I stand by my statement that focusing less on schoolwork in favor of focusing more on self-motivated interests is a viable option. Though I will add the colleges look at such a student best when the student takes that strategy to the extreme rather than just moderately. Though actually, why has the matter of college and grades entered into this thread at all? Ottahhh originally posted asking for concrete advice on how to get started studying physics, but instead he got two attempts to gently steer him back to his schoolwork, and then some advice about not talking to strangers, and now a back-and-forth about whether or not grades are important. I think this thread is starting to get derailed, I almost feel guilty about hitting "submit" on this message you're reading now, but I've already written it, and I can't quite bring myself to just scrap all of this text. This is the last I'll write on anything not directly related to the the post's title, which stated subject, which is "How to get into physics as a teenager." Are you seriously asking this question of a 14 year old who's asking for advice on how to get started? I doubt he knows any physics at all yet, and with math he's probably solid on algebra and a bit of basic geometry, but not much beyond that (I'm open to being corrected on either of those points). I wouldn't expect much more at that age, though with the level of motivation he seems to have I would expect that he'll shoot pretty far ahead in the next 2-3 years.

It's instant messenger handles on Skype or AIM that I've always swapped with people in the past, not emails; needless to say, anything that could be called a "lesson" or "tutoring session" needs to be done in real time as opposed to on a forum. I never said "email" in my original post, if you'll notice. It just kind of got slipped in there, and I repeated it afterward

It's better to give real smiles, and to avoid the sort of people or situations around whom or in which you would feel the need to fake smile. I would prefer to befriend neither, and to go find a person who is genuinely cheery.

I've know about that essay for years, definitely a +1 from me as well. Those general problems aren't confined to the math classroom though. They exist in one form or another in English, Chemistry, History, Art, and probably even PE too. Primary schools suck the soul out of just about everything. Colleges do too, in my opinion, though to a lesser degree.

Now that I think about it, I'm not at all surprised that a fresh account popping up and immediately offering to swap contact information raises suspicion. I suppose I can't say much to really defend myself, but I'll try anyway I'm a reject from physicsforums.com looking for a new science forum to call home. They grew to dislike me there on PF as a result of my being on the wrong side of a certain... umm... "heated debate" about education; and due to a few other things as well. I've been lurking here on scienceforums.net for about a week now, and Ottahhh's post was just the first one that I felt I could productively respond to. I really do enjoy tutoring friends and acquaintances when I can, free of charge. Besides being fun, it's personally useful in that teaching helps me to better develop my own understanding of a subject. So, yeah, I throw myself out there whenever I see someone who I think might take well to an offer of a few free math or physics lessons. It seems appropriate when a poster doesn't yet have access to the classes they would want, but is nonetheless motivated and desperately curious to dive into things; that seems to be Ottahhh's case. I did this sort of thing a few times on physicsforums.com, and on two of the four instances it turned out being extremely productive for both me and the student. Though I will admit that it definitely does raise suspicion when it comes from a completely fresh account. Take it as you will, I suppose. He doesn't have to email me. Or he can email me from a fake address. It's all good with me.

You say that you want material that is not shortened down for the sake of simplicity, and so by definition that will be material that uses advanced mathematics. It is important to point out that the real blossoming of physics as a subject of intensive study happened in the Enlightenment era, with the discovery of Calculus, and the subsequent rapid advances made in mathematics. Without advanced mathematics all you'll get is books with fuzzy general statements about how "energy takes different forms" or about how "space and time bend and wiggle," but without any detail, because the detail is all in the mathematics. Mathematics is the language of physics in the same way that English is the language of novels. The novels we give to children feel like children's novels specifically because they use only basic English. Likewise, the physics that beginners are given feels like beginner physics specifically because it avoids advanced mathematics. If you want the "real stuff" when it comes to physics (including astrophysics) then at the very least you will need to know some calculus, vector calculus, and a little bit of linear algebra too. If you want to give yourself a good education in such things then you'll have to seek out books for that make heavy use of advanced mathematics. It might be hard to get book suggestions, since no responsible teacher would suggest books which are so far beyond your current mathematical ability. But I'm not a responsible teacher, so here's a preliminary list: (1) "Calculus, 4th edition" by Michael Spivak (2) "Vector Calculus, 6th edition", by Marsden and Tromba (3) "University Physics with Modern Physics, 13th edition", by Young & Freedman (4) "Fundamentals of Physics (Extended), 9th Edition", by Halliday & Resnick This list is lacking a good introductory calculus text, but I actually don't know of any, so perhaps I'll leave that as a blank for other posters speak more on. Personally, I learned basic calculus from a private tutor, and then jumped directly into more advanced texts like Spivak. However, I've seen colleges use texts like: (5) "Calculus of a Single Variable, 9th edition" by Larson & Edwards (6) "Calculus, 7th edition" by Stewart (7) "Calculus: Early Transcendentals, 7th edition" by Stewart I know that the introductory calculus course at Columbia University in New York uses one of the books by Stewart, and a university which I attended briefly used Larson & Edwards (though I wasn't actually in the course). So, note that I can't speak on whether or not texts 5, 6, and 7 are actually any good, since I've never had the chance to look at any of them; I just know that they're out there. Lastly, teaching is somewhat of an interest of mine. If you would be up for some lessons over instant messenger, then I could possibly help get you started with calculus and some a bit of calculus-based physics. If you're good with algebra and you understand the concept of a ratio then I could show you around some basic derivative calculus. If derivatives go well then integral calculus and calculus-based physics could be potential subjects as well. I sent you a private message here on the forums with my contact info, if you choose to take me up on that offer that's how you can get in touch. P.S. I disagree with Genecks and ajb. I would put it out there that it's definitely an option to do the opposite of what they advise, namely to ignore your schoolwork and focus instead on your self-motivated interests. I actually dropped out of school at exactly your age; though for me it was to pursue software engineering, which ended up working out great.