The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics

I was a biology major as an undergraduate and was required to take general physics with lab. Upon graduation I enrolled in a Masters program in physiology and was shocked at the math and physics details of some of the topics! It was necessary to relearn and integrate topics of chemistry, mathematics, and physics; a very humbling endeavor! I had to do this mostly on my own! With much persistence I successfully completed the Masters program. The Masters program cast me into an unexpected world of integrated topics where mathematics, chemistry, and physics were interacting with each other in ways that were not apparent, to me, as an undergraduate. At this point I decided to pursue the Doctorate in the area of Molecular Biology and landed in a Chemistry Department in which my thesis advisor was a Physical Chemist during research on the solution conformations of protein molecules! The demands of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and their interrelationships reached a peak! I was panic-stricken but persisted by accepting the theories and their applications by mostly cobbling together the literature and relying on careful experimentation and data analysis! During this time it was possible for me to look at much of the classic work that had been done involving different formulations and the interrelationships of the chemistry, mathematics, and physics as applied in the world of macromolecules! Again I was successful in completing the program and received the degree; but there was always something missing! The thing that was missing, for me, is found in the book The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics by Leonard Susskind. Unfortunately for me, this is years after struggling with the more general formulations of Physic mostly on my own. The reason that this book is appealing is that it introduces material that is found in treatises written at a more advanced level in the space of a few pages and includes tractable exercises. However, one should not assume that no effort is required! The book will require some familiarity with math and physics which the author introduces throughout the book. The reward at the end of the book is an appreciation of the more general formulations of classical physics which are invaluable to physical scientists in general. You end up being in a better position to interpret later, the atomic and/or molecular nature of current physical science research and the associated technology. Yes there are errors in the original publication; many of which would not be easily recognized. However, there is an errata which can be downloaded. I made the indicated corrections which fall in both the major and minor categories. After reading and doing some of the more challenging exercises in this relatively brief book, I thumbed through some of the books that use the methods found in Susskind's book. The time spent reading Susskind's book is worth the effort! The criticism can be made that the book doesn't include the modern Quantum Physics that followed Classical Physics! This point should not be dismissed. However, one should not forget that the formulation of Quantum Physics is couched in the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formulations of Classical Physics. The Hamiltonian formulation of Classical Physics is key to the formulation of the modern Quantum Physics and should not be taken lightly. The book by Susskind gives one a head start in absorbing the more abstract concepts of Quantum Physics! If you are interested in the classical concepts of energy and their formulations in the Quantum World, this book is worth considering! Additional good news: A Quantum Mechanics Volume, by the author, is in the works and scheduled to be released in early 2014.

The "Theorical Minimum" was the name of the exam that applicants had to pass in order to enter the theoretical physics department of the Kharkov Physicotechnical Institute headed by Lev Davidovich Landau. L. D. Landau, along with A.I. Kitaigorodskii, is also known to have written a serie of four great popular science books presenting general physics to young people, "Physics for everyone" (which happens to be the name of Leonard Susskind's blog too...). I'm wondering if "The Theoretical Minimum: what you need to know to start doing physics" couldn't be the first book of a follow-up to "Physics for everyone". I've studied physics in university but I've stopped before starting working on a PhD. That was more than ten years ago and I needed to earn a living but I still loved science especially physics. One day I've discovered the Leonard Susskind's Theoretical Minimum courses on Youtube and Itunes and I was litterally astonished by them as they are exactly what I was looking for: not courses for advanced undergraduate students, not popular science presentations devoid of any technicity (theoretical physics without maths is an empty shell: theoretical physics is about creating mathematical models of the physical world) but courses for people like me who knew some maths and physics at one point of their life and that want to learn the concepts of theoretical physics. Each course is made of about ten lectures, each lectures lasting about two hours. Watching these is quite time consuming and time is sparse if you have a job and a family. Also the courses were sometimes a little sketchy or not quite well organized (especially the first run... the second run is a lot better). The material simply had to be reworked and layed out on paper. George Hrabovsky felt these were necessary too so he contacted Leonard Susskind and voila, we now have a book, the first of a whole serie, the one about classical mechanics. I knew about some of the material in the book. In the quantum mechanics (QM) courses I followed I learned about least-action principle, Lagrangians, Hamiltonians (fundamental in QM) and Poisson brackets (their siblings, commutators, are also fundamental in QM). The problem is that these notions and their purpose didn't make sense to me. I wasn't told or I didn't have time to realize their conceptual power and that they could be used in classical mechanics: use of Lagrangian formalism to understand the double pendulum, use of Poisson brackets to determine the behavior of a charged rotor in a magnetic field. Also I wasn't told about Noether's theorem (relationship between symmetries and conserved quantities), Liouville's theorem (well perhaps in statistical mechanics... I'm not sure) or the importance of gauge fields (vector potential field is one) but that may be because I wasn't taught to be a theoricist. Here Leonard Susskind's a guide who shows us the elegance of all these concepts and prepares us to a voyage to quantum physics and field theories.The book shows the coherence of these concepts, it structures the reader's mind (if he makes the proper efforts by doing the exercises: doing exercises are necessary to learn and understand). George Hrabovsky brought us a great contribution by making the text more accessible (in the videos the student is assumed to know about calculus and general physics) and whipping out ambiguities. The book isn't entirely self-contained though (for example total differentials or Taylor series are used without these notions being introduced... just search "Taylor series" and "total derivative" in Wikipedia) but George will provide some support to the reader in his web site. Theoretical Minimum - Classical Mechanics isn't another popular science book. It's a book that you'll have to work through a bit but it's a book that will structure your perception of our physical world. This book is the first of a serie that could become somehow the theoretical physics equivalent of Feynman's Lectures. You won't become a theorical physicist just by working through this book and the ones that will follow (have a look at a Quantum Field Theory textbook and you'll see). However if you are interested in physics (not only theoretical) the book will tell you about the concepts used in physics, how physicists manipulate them, how physicists do math and what makes physicists tick. I really hope that this book will be translated in many languages.

This 220 page 6 x 8.5 little text is packed with valuable nuggets, and does NOT shy away from advanced math. This book is based on the popular Stanford, online and YouTube "adult ed" lectures and is targeted at scientists and "amateurs" who missed physics in undergrad but are still interested. NOT a "popular" physics book with a bunch of fluffy, non substantial speculation about membranes, stings, fractals, superpositioned states and multiple universes! Has real, tough, solid content with a LOT of advanced formulas, including tensors and many partial derivatives. You CAN "get" these with supplemental study, but the pace of the 11 lectures included is fast enough to leave you behind very quickly if you're rusty in math. I teach ordinary differential equations to non engineers at classpros dot com, including Psychologists interested in the latest progress in nonlinear dynamical systems as applied to neurons, behavior, etc. This book is a real GEM as an intro to those topics, without "dumbing down" the content for a "lay" audience. If you love reading populist texts on quantum physics, etc. this wonderful book will take you all the way from classic upwards, with the requisite math, and will provide a great foundation for really getting what's going on in the more advanced areas. Unfortunately, the math will scare lots of folks off, but please, don't be one of them! The 11 lectures included are: 1. Classical Physics, 2. Motion, 3. Dynamics, 4. Multiple Particle Systems, 5. Energy, 6. Least Action Principle, 7. Symmetries and Conservation, 8. Hamiltonian Mechanics, 9. Phase Space Fluid and Gibbs-Liouville, 10. Poisson Brackets, Angular Momentum, Symmetries, 11. Electric and Magnetic Forces. There also is an appendix on Central Forces and Planetary Orbits and "math interludes" on Trig, Vectors, Integrals and PDE's. NOTE that only classical mechanics are covered here, HOWEVER circular motion and momentum are covered, and if you've seen the "Feynman" approach to QED ( QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter ), you know that even advanced Physics grad students were astonished that Richard was able to use "clock metaphors" and circular momentum to explain Quantum math and mechanics that normally take a grad student 3 years to master! Nothing is covered in a LOT of depth, for example there's little on computational complexity, but the theory of information conservation is touched on briefly as the "most fundamental of all physical laws" -- the cyclic "memory" of where we start and end! The REALLY COOL thing is that the authors don't talk down to us, they assume that just as "amateurs" can discover new stars in Astronomy, non-college types can also make great new contributions in Physics! No fooling, no tongue in cheek. Seems like a revolutionary view from Stanford types, but perhaps they've seen the future of distributed, non-brick and mortar education for real! At under 20 bucks this is a MUST HAVE even for HS students in my humble opinion. GREAT GIFT for a bright grandchild for their 18th birthday as well! This is such an original math refresher too, that I'm guessing a lot of folks will also use it to brush up on applied math. By page 60 we're already at differential equations-- so hang on to your saddle! Library Picks reviews always buys the books we review and has nothing to do with authors, publishers or Amazon, our focus is exclusively on the ROI of Amazon buyers.

This is actually partly a review of the math that you may have learned in high school and as a freshman in college (or from an advanced placement calculus high school course), plus the classical dynamics from a moderately advanced college physics class. The physics begins with the traditional Newtonian approach that is covered in high school and in freshman physics, but then proceeds to the more advanced concepts of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches used in classical mechanics, quantum mechanics and relativity theory, although the applications in this book are limited to classical mechanics. The aim of the book is to show what you need to know to start doing physics, but not necessarily to make you a full-fledged physicist. I have the required math and basic physics background, but no background in the sort of classical mechanics covered in the book. I found the book interesting and recommend it, with some reservations, to someone like myself with the proper background. However, I definitely do not recommend the book for anyone without knowledge of trigonometry, vector analysis and basic calculus, plus knowledge of freshmen physics as I feel that the book is likely to be just too overwhelming for them. I enjoyed the book and it definitely did clarify a lot of things, such as: Noether’s correlation of symmetry and conservation laws (which is discussed and derived in the book), and the basics of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches to mechanics. My reservations were that Professor Susskind sometimes just states concepts and equations without what I felt was a sufficient introduction. Also, and even more importantly, while the problems of chapters 1-7 are given in the website listed in the book, there are no solutions to the more difficult problems of the later chapters. This would be OK if the book were used for a formal class, where the teacher could discuss these problems, but I found it more than a bit frustrating not to have them provided for a self-study book.

The Theoretical Minimum is an introduction to the methods of classical physics without relativity. It tries to assume no prior knowledge and work from practically nothing up to a complete undergraduate overview of the material. This is a challenging task and if the reader has some mathematical background it is partially successful. The boook is split into 11 lectures starting with some fairly basic material where the reader is familiarized with how to define and set up the equations of motion for a physical system. Basica ideas in calculus are introduced intuitively and the authors slowly start building up to vector concepts, energy and eventually into Lagrangian Dynamics. I would say the first third can be followed without too much difficulty. The authors then start to go from problems like basic differentiation to problems in functional analysis and the calculus of variations which would be a challenge to the most gifted novice to say the least. The authors discuss symmetry properties of physical systems and then get into Hamiltonian Dynamics. The authors attempt to show the correspondence between the two but this material is challenging for those who dont already know it and I honestly dont believe can be followed by a reader who is not already well versed in physics and fairly sophisticated math. Changing coordinate systems and introducing the coriolis effect is an example of the authors going over the readers head- I'm not sure coriolis is even discussed in an undergraduate education. The authors then go into more heavy math with Poisson brackets and their use- they discuss how they are useful mathematical idea that corresponds to the Hamiltonian. The authors end with Electricity and Magnetism which introduces vector field concepts and some relationships between divergence and curl for electromagnetic fields. This is a difficult book, much of it went over my head. I didnt work through many of the problems as I didnt have time nor probably the toolkit but I am sure that for those not well versed in physics and math, this book quickly becomes hard to digest. I think its much more of a refresher course for those who once knew the materials. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be "all the classical physics you once knew but forgot". But instead this is advertised as accessible to the layman and an approachable overview to classical physics for the interested student. I think that is a stretch unfortunately.

The book was in better condition than described.

I must first thank Dr. Susskind for all his efforts throughout the years in helping non-physics majors come to grasp with the twist and turns of modern physics. I have been priviliged to sit through several of his continuing ed classes at Stanford and it never ceases to amaze how clear and straightforward he makes it all be. The mists part, the true meaning of all these physics concepts build and what was once fuzzy popularized mumbo-jumbo becomes a solidly built and beautiful mental toolkit with which one can actually start thinking for oneself about modern physics. Dr. Susskind is a world class physicist of genius proportions. And I dont say this lightly, I usually think most folks (including some very famous/popular scientists) are not all that. I consider Isaac Newton a genius, also Darwin and a few others. But not many. Dr. Susskind makes it into my short list in spades. As Dr. Feynman once said "If you cant explain it to somebody with a high school degree, you dont understand it yourself." (paraphrased from memory... :-) ...) And boy, Dr. Susskind CAN explain it. He teaches you all the math you need to know and takes you on a fantastic ride. This book is aptly named: it is the absolute minimum you need to know to start talking and thinking intelligently on these matters. Don't get me wrong, it is not a walk in the park. That minimum is not small. This is the real deal - no fluff, no hand-waving and no spiritual-new-agey Quantum misinterpretations. By the end, you will truly get it if you apply yourself. I eagerly await the release of the next book, on Quantum Mechanics. I've sat through the lectures and they were fantastic. Yes, Quantum Mechanics is weird but nowhere near as crazy as "educational" TV shows portray it. I felt great relief in realizing that the world does in fact retain sanity. Once again, a fantastic gift to all of us. If you care about science and/or physics. Do buy this book... And any other upcoming books in this series... Also watch his lectures online... You will have a much improved mind in the end. You will know how to think as the greats do. And then its only up to you where you will take it... :-) Enjoy! - Andre

A long time ago, maybe 60 years or even more, two Soviet physicists, Lev Landau and Evgenyi Lifschitz put together a multi-volume "course in theoretical physics." The Course included classical mechanics, classical field theory, quantum mechanics and several other topics. All potential research students at the justly famed Moscow State University Physics Department had to pass a comprehensive exam based on the L&L books. They were very hard texts, but incredibly rewarding because they showed how Landau, one of the greats of the 20th Century thought. This book by Susskind and Hrabowsky feels to me as if it is written in the same style. Difficult, but rewarding. There's no pandering to the reader; none of the nonsense Stephen Hawking felt compelled to write in which he justified the utter lack of equations in his popular book by saying that every equation would cut the numbers of readers in half. But it's my belief that laymen and women with a modest background in calculus and some fluency with algebra will zip through the book and come out far better prepared to be intelligent citizens in twenty-first century America, dominated by science and technology, than if they had read one of the genuinely popular (meaning non quantitative) books that pass themselves off as science for the layman. If you care about, are interested in, the foundations of physics, this is a good place to start. If you discarded the Hawking books after a couple of chapters, this is a good book to kindle your interest. It's worth the modest effort to read it and think about it. And if you are majoring in physics at the university level, or if you're a beginning graduate student in physics, this book deserves a place on your bookshelf right next to Dick Feynman's majestic three volume set that was "intended" as an introductory course for CalTech freshmen. I hope Susskind and Hrabowski have a similar book on Quantum Mechanics in the works. It will demystify that exciting field, and probably replace all of the psychic quantum books written by new agers who haven't a clue about real physics.

Best book on physics insights.

Ausgezeichnete populär wissenschaftliche Physik Literatur, die zudem spannend geschrieben ist, gibt es zur Genüge; allerdings passen diese Bücher naturgemäß, wenn es um Details moderner physikalischer Theorie geht, bestenfalls werden Aphorismen bemüht, wie das berühmte Gummituch auf dem ein schwere Kugel ruht, um die Raum-Zeit Krümmung nach der Relativitätstheorie zu veranschaulichen. Das kann auf die Dauer unbefriedigend werden; diese Erfahrung teilen offenbar auch andere; jedenfalls gibt es da zum Beispiel das Continuing Studies Program der Stanford Universität, das interessierten Nichtakademikern die Gelegenheit bietet, spezielle Kurse zu hören, die aber durchaus akademischen Ansprüchen genügen. Diese Kurse wenden sich unter anderem an all jene, die bereits einmal ein Studium absolviert haben, dann diverse Jobs ausgeübt haben, um am Ende wieder den faustischen Drang zu verspüren, zu hören “...was die Welt im innersten zusammenhält...“. Leonard Susskind hält in diesem Rahmen seit 2011 Vorlesungen zur Theoretischen Physik und ist von diesen 'Studenten' regelrecht begeistert, denn ihr Interesse gilt nicht Kursnoten oder Prüfungszulassungen, sondern allein dem Verständnis des Themas. Auf Grund dieses Erfolgs und vieler Anfragen, die Susskind per email erreichten, hat er nun gemeinsam mit George Hrabovsky beschlossen, die Vorlesungen in Buchform zu veröffentlichen. Der Titel 'The Theoretical Minimum' hat seine eigene Geschichte, er bezieht sich auf das 10 bändige“Lehrbuch der theoretischen Physik“ von Lew D. Landau und E.M. Lifschitz; der Geschichte zufolge war Landau ein prätentiöser Physiker, der nur 'Kandidaten' in seinem Seminar zuließ, die ein gewisses 'Theoretisches Minimum' beherrschten, um festzulegen, was dieses umfassen sollte, wurde das erwähnte Lehrbuchwerk verfasst; allerdings sind diese Bände extrem anspruchsvoll, sie sind eine regelrechte Summa aller Methoden der Theoretischen Physik der 50iger Jahre. Demgegenüber ist Leonard Susskinds 'Theoretical Minimum' ein recht freundliches Werk, in dem in knapper Form das Wissen zusammengefasst wird, das notwendig ist, um modernen Physik – as is – verstehen zu können. Der vorliegende (erste) Band enthält 11 Vorlesung zur Klassischen Mechanik, es umfasst die übliche Newtonsche Mechanik, genauso wie die Lagrangesche Formulierung, der Behandlung von Erhaltungsgrößen und ihre Relation zu Symmetrien, sowie der Hamiltonischen Formulierung der analytischen Mechanik. Eingeflochten in den Text sind mathematisch 'Auffrischungen' zum Thema Vektoren, Differentiale einer und mehrerer Variablen, sowie Integrale. Das Bändchen ist wahres Vergnügen. Die Themen werden flüssige, mit der notwendigen Strenge und Korrektheit, aber ohne unnötiges formales Beiwerk, abgehandelt. Die Darstellung ist originär und atmet den Geist eines großen Physikers. Die Susskind Vorlesungen wurden auch als Videostream ([...]) aufgezeichnet, so dass man die Buch- Kapitel mit den Vorlesungen vergleichen kann, die sich gegenseitig tragen, da die Darstellung – entsprechend dem Medium – variieren und sich so gegenseitig ergänzen. Der bisherige Erfolg berechtigt zu der Hoffnung, dass auch die weitere Kurse (Quanten Mechanik, Relativitätstheorie etc.) und Buchform erscheinen werden.

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Il libro è bellissimo, sia per l'approccio progressivamente più intrigante e challenging, che per i contenuti. I primi capitoli sembrano sin troppo banali. Poi però va avanti con semplicità su argomenti di fisica teorica fondamentali. Ti guida a capire che tutte le forze dalla gravitazione alle interazioni tra particelle, e qualsiasi forma di energia, anche termica o magnetica, alla fine sono descrivibili con una semplice forma in termini solo di energia cinetica e potenziale. Meccanica classica pura, ovunque. Resta fuori la meccanica quantistica, che credo sia parte di un altro libro. Io sono ingegnere meccanici e certe cose un po' le conosco, ma la fisica teorica è un'altra cosa e x me i contenuti del libro rappresentano una novità per la gran parte. Poi la fisica così spiegata con leggerezza e profondità allo stesso tempo è senz'altro intrigante

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