#92 overall
For the Love of Physics (Walter Lewin)
MIT OpenCourseWare
4 recommenders · 4 threads · recommended in 4 years, 2009–2024 · score 4.8
A video lecture series by MIT physics professor Walter Lewin, hosted on MIT OpenCourseWare, covering introductory classical physics from his 8.01 lectures. It is known for demonstration-heavy lectures aimed at building intuition.
Commenters call Lewin a captivating, clear teacher whose lectures make you feel like you are discovering physics alongside him.
Science & Engineeringbeginnerfreevideo lectures#physics#classical mechanics#walter lewin#mit ocw#introductory physics
Recommendations by year
20062026
I'd recommend starting here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/#physics
In my experience these are some of the best online courses you can watch to learn physics. Personally, I would look into the trying to watch the lectures from Walter Lewin--Walter is a fantastic orator and has a really great mad-scientist persona that is really captivating. Some additional archived lectures can be found here: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34001 and here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/archived-physics-courses...
I got my minor in physics from NYU many many moons ago (yes I'm getting old), but I found that the MIT lectures and OCW materials went way beyond the NYU coursework in both breadth and depth. I watched these lectures and worked through the lecture notes & assignments for Physics I, II, III, Quantum I, II, and several others in addition to digging into the Mathematics lectures / content. I found this material to be the most helpful out there. I'll also point out that I emailed the professors (Lewin, and others) and was pleased to receive a warm and helpful response on several occasions. I hope these are as helpful for your learning as they were for mine.
Once, you are able to complete the video lectures here, OCW has a massive amount of content for some of the more advanced courses that aren't in video format. In my experience, going through these video lectures and some of the mathematics lectures should set you up well to be able to comprehend even the most advanced content across field theory and string theory.
Cheers!
I've always found that you can draw a box with four squares. On the top are "can explain material to moms" "can't explain material to moms". On the side are "clear communicator" and "unclear communicator".
The intersection of "can explain to moms" and "clear communicator" is what makes a good teacher for me.
In school some TA's could explain to moms but were unclear communicators so they didn't make good teachers.
In my work there are fantastic communicators in the sales team, but their grasp of the subject matter is such that they throw around lots of industry vocabulary but wouldn't be able to explain it to moms. This makes them bad teachers.
Great teachers/professors always had both great communication and a mastery of the subject. From my time at MIT the perfect example of this type of teacher/professors was Walter Lewin for 8.01 classical physics.
I highly recommend watching his lectures at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/Cour... (the picture of him on the website says it all.)
edit: grammar.
MIT OCW physics--start with 'For the love of physics' then don't mention that video series again because it will get you cancelled. Then you can take MIT's quantum course. From there, PIRSA has a bunch of video courses available that will prepare you for theoretical physics. You'll need calc 1-2(3), linear algebra, differential equations, discrete math, real and complex analysis, and mathematical physics, which may include the discrete math and complex analysis as my coursework did. You'll need to read Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking glass, at least for cultural references. Most of what you need will be between PIRSA and MIT OCW. Khan Academy can help if you're not getting calc, but with CS you probably already have calc 1-diff eq and linear algebra.
Reading this gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
I can't imagine trying to teach 3rd graders binary using a standard method - I even have peers in college that struggle with it. Probably because it was just taught to them as something different - this weird language computers use, instead of them developing an intuitive sense for it. But whenever I try to explain it to them, or anyone else, I always try and explain it as "just like decimal, exactly what you already know."
The Socratic method really is much more interesting and captivating for students. For example, Walter Lewin's physics lectures (Which are well worth watching, even if you're not taking a physics class), which I'm currently watching to "supplement" my actual physics class in which the professor stares at the board and rambles.*
*Not to say that his lectures are the Socratic method - that's probably not feasible with a lecture hall of hundreds of students. But the way he teaches makes you feel like you're discovering everything again along with him.
Depends on what you want to learn about, a degree in astrophysics or aeronautial engineering prepares you for many different possible jobs. I'm in a somewhat similar situation, maybe this will help:
(DISCLAIMER: I am not an aerospace engineer by training)
Calculus:
You'll definitely need to be very comfortable with single variable calculus and vector calculus up to partial derivatives, vector calculus integrals (Green, Stokes, Gauss) will definitely help. I wouldn't learn that from a book, try MIT's OCW, there is a calculus course covering all that. Learn the basic about ODEs, and be comfortable around PDE notation.
Linear Algebra:
In some sub-disciplines such as control and signal processing you'll also need to be very comfortable with linear algebra, so that all those matrices and stuff don't get in the way when learning modern control/DSP. I definitely recommend Prof. Strang's course in OCW for this. Try to at least be comfortable with simple ODEs before starting it. Linear algebra also helps a lot with Physics.
To get more into lineal algebra maybe you can read Linear Algebra Done Right if you want to learn more about Hilbert Spaces, and then maybe Shilov for tensors... those two books should be optional...
Software:
You don't need to be fast or maybe even know how to solve complex integrals in pen and paper. Try to complement learning calculus, differential equations and linear algebra with learning Matlab/Simulink and Mathematica. I can't even find a word to emphasize how much Matlab/Simulink is used in aerospace engineering...
Dynamics:
Learn classical mechanics, lots of it. Be confortable with rigid body dynamics in 3D. This is the best reading guide I know about, oriented to game development, but also useful for simulation and control: http://chrishecker.com/Physics_references Code simulators, visualizations, etc... Know what rotation, nutation and precession are, when and how they happen, etc...
From that list I have read a little of Goldstein and some Symon. If you find this books too hard, don't follow the guide but instead jump directly to the Feynman lectures (if you want to read) or Physics I from OCW (Prof. Lewin course, really really good).
Physics II from OCW can also help, maybe.
Space:
Once you are not scared with simple problems from all the previous subjects and can solve them, and can understand complex ones you should have no trouble following the first chapters (about dynamics, orbital and attitude maneuvering, etc) of some classical but real space books, for example:
SMAD by Wertz, a really classical book for space engineering courses. You should really be able to read it cover to cover but its not a very specific book and more oriented torwards missions management. Sometimes it gets boring because of it lack of details. http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Space-Dynamics-Aeronautic... http://www.amazon.com/Spacecraft-Dynamics-Control-Practical-... http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Spacecraft-Dynamics-Control-Mar...
You can also browse here: http://astrobooks.com/ and see if you find something particularly interesting. I really would like to recommend a more engaging approach and less boring books, but this is the best that I can come up with now.
After you can comfortably read the first chapters of those space books you should really choose what to focus into. Dynamics, Simulation, Finite Element Analysis, Mechanics/Thermal engineering, Signal Processing, Control... then learn the basics of that discipline and then try to apply it to space exploration or spacecraft design. Each of this disciplines would need their own reply and reading list I guess... some require more physics than rigid body dynamics, like fluid dynamics or thermodynamics, electromagnetism, etc...
Also, as usual, try to have fun but still be disciplined about reading/learning.