Scientific Reading

[ed84c]

I think this is in the right category, I apologise if it isnt.

 

I would just ask people to talk about

-science books the have read

-They would like to read

 

and general discussion about scientific reading.

 

I will start

 

2 of the latest books I have read are; Black holes a travellers guide (which I believe I have now read 16 times because its so good)- which I urge people to read, its light and also throws in some formulas for good measure).

Also; In search of shrodingers cat, which is really an introduction to physics, chemistry, and of course the quantum, and later it gets more involved into QED.

 

Another one I found in the attic is HUGE it has all the constants and formulae and data for physicians, chemists, mathmaticians and engineers. Its green and mine is 56th ed. '75-'76. I cant quote the no. pages because its arranged into sections and subsections; the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

 

Anybody seen those books?!

 

I intend to read and would be greatful to have feedback on;

 

1. Teach your self books: Calculus (to feed my obsession with the subject...)

 

2.It must be beautiful: Great equations of modern science.

[pulkit]

1. Teach your self books: Calculus (to feed my obsession with the subject...)

 

I hope the origins of your interests in calculus are purely mathematical and not realted physics and chemistry. I say that because both subjects employ calculus as a mere tool, and the want of a deep understanding of physics/ chemistry often prevets you from treating calculus as anything more than that.

 

On its own calculus is indeed a very beautiful subject, but I always feel that a good teacher / guide will go a long way to enhance that beauty .......

[ed84c]

mathamatical

[pulkit]

How much have you done in school/college ?

[NavajoEverclear]

pulkit, you really from India? how is that country doing by the way? looks pretty impovershed from the national geographic mags . . .

[ed84c]

How much have you done in school/college ?

 

0

[ed84c]

i have done a few interactiv online lessons, that were pretty good tho...

[Dave]

Have a look at my calculus threads in the Analysis forum.

[bloodhound]

India contributed a lot to modern mathematics, most people fail to realise that. including the introduction of 0, negative numbers, as well as that they were one of the first mathematicians to recognise the existance of square roots of negative numbers. Arab mathematicians did a lot of mathematics as well. One of the most famous indian mathematicians was probably Ramanujan. I read his biography "The man who knew Infinity". He was almost completely self taught. He came to England as he sent a letter to "Hardy" with a few examples of his work. He was a fellow of the Royal Society

 

"Littlewood was asked to help teach Ramanujan rigorous mathematical methods. However he said ([31]):-

 

... that it was extremely difficult because every time some matter, which it was thought that Ramanujan needed to know, was mentioned, Ramanujan's response was an avalanche of original ideas which made it almost impossible for Littlewood to persist in his original intention.

 

"Ramanujan had an intimate familiarity with numbers, and excelled especially in number theory and modular function theory. His familiarity with numbers were demonstrated by the following incident. During an illness in England, Hardy visited Ramanujan in the hospital. When Hardy remarked that he had taken taxi number 1729, a singularly unexceptional number, Ramanujan immediately responded that this number was actually quite remarkable: it is the smallest integer that can be represented in two ways by the sum of two cubes"

 

His notebooks are really famous.

 

there are quite a lot of entries for ramanujan in mathsworld.

"

[ed84c]

without being rude or a hypocrite i would be greatful to people if they answered the orignal question in the thread , cheers, Ed

[Dave]

He also found this rather impressive-looking formula for pi:

 

[math]\sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^k(4k+1)[ (2k+1)!!]^3}{[(2k)!!]^3} = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^k (4k+1)[ \Gamma (k+\frac{1}{2})]^3}{\pi^{3/2}[\Gamma(k+1)]^3} = \frac{2}{\pi}[/math]

[bloodhound]

yeah. he has loads of formulas for those: heres one of them

 

[pulkit]

I have had a 2 1/2 year relation with calculus in which the first 2 years were spent in learning the basics and getting through with them. It was only later that I realized how diverse a field it becomes once you get into the depths of it. At first everything is nice and good with just 1 variable and you get into limits, diffrentiation, integration (definate and indefinate), differential equations and everywhere graphs turn up a lot (my favorite part). But then this is where I personally stopped enjoying because after this things started to get quite so difficult and arbitrary with multiple variables and stuff like that pouring in......... Incidentally the last 6 months all that I used calculus was for quantum mechanics (again you need an extreme knowledge of calculus to solve the Schrodinger equation even for the most basic situations as the harmonic oscillator).

 

The fact that you have no knowledge of calculus is good so that you can strat with such teach yourself stuff but just be carefull not to get caried away with stuff, because calculus will ALWAYS leave you with a feeling that you still have some knowledge missing. Weirdly enough the more advanced you into maths the more you tend to reach back to explain the basics (perhaps you can't appreciate this at the present moment).

 

 

 

pulkit, you really from India? how is that country doing by the way? looks pretty impovershed from the national geographic mags . . .

 

There is a great social divide between rich and poor India. Most people I have known through out my life have nothing to do with that impoverished look of India you hold in your mind (Living in a metropolitan helps), they are quite well to do infact, many can easily afford to get their children college-educated even in the US without schorlarships. In fact I often wonder why they always have to project India like that, they acctualy never focus on the "wealthier" side.

[LucidDreamer]

I recommend "Thinking Physics" by Lewis Carroll Epstein because it’s a totally new approach to learning physics. The book is comprised entirely of illustrated problems that are explained in a way that you really begin to understand the "why" of physics. Its not a hard read at all but some of the problems will even stump a physicist.

[pulkit]

The physics book by Resnick and Halliday (I hope i spell their names correctly) is a real legend around here.

Its supposed to be simple enuf for a 9th grader to understand and have topics diverse enuf and given in enuf detail to keep you referring to it throughout your high school physics.

[bloodhound]

Richard Feynmans' "QED, a strange tale of light and matter"(or something similar" is an excellent book.

[ed84c]

The physics book by Resnick and Halliday (I hope i spell their names correctly) is a real legend around here.

Its supposed to be simple enuf for a 9th grader to understand and have topics diverse enuf and given in enuf detail to keep you referring to it throughout your high school physics.

 

what are you insinuating

[pulkit]

what are you insinuating

 

Not insinuating anything......

 

Just trying to say that its a very well written book, exceptionally well in fact.

 

But at the same time, I must admit I don't consult to too many books so I havn't acctualy consulted it myself.