- #1
TheShrike
- 44
- 1
Hello,
There are quite a few subjects in pure mathematics and physics that I'm quite interested in, and I would appreciate any help with the search for textbooks on them. So far I have Goldstein's 'Classical Mechanics' and Humphrey's 'A Course in Group Theory'.
Some of these I list below:
I took Tensor Field Theory this semester just passed, and while we covered some things on tensors, then some special relativity and electromagnetism, we ran out of time for general relativity. I would like to find a textbook that covers general relativity, but perhaps also some of these other applications of tensors. I'm tempted to ask for a book that covers purely mathematical aspects of tensors, but I strongly suspect such a book would be very dry.
In my second year I took a course on Fluid Mechanics - I would like to know more about this, it was quite an interesting subject.
I also would like to know more about Electromagnetism - I've seen the name Griffiths thrown about a lot, but I've also come across quite negative comments about his books, so I'm not sure here.
In the realms of pure mathematics, I eventually want to be able to look at things like metric spaces and measure theory, and probably some topology or functional analysis as well. While these topics probably appear in some form or other in physics, I've found that I understand them much better when I've had some exposure to a pure maths treatment. This occurred to me in my first year, when I took Linear Algebra & Analysis. I really couldn't grasp what vectors were or how calculus was allowed to divide by zero before seeing how dimensions occur in vector spaces and how the concept of a limit works.
Some other topics I hope to read about some day are Set Theory & Logic, Category Theory, Complex Analysis and an axiomatic treatment of Statistics (although this probably comes under measure theory (I recently discovered Kolmolgorov's axioms on Wikipedia - fascinating!)).
I know that's a long list of things, but I do expect to spend many years on this. I always find there are more things to be interested in than I have time for (always wanted to find out more about psychology, for example). Anyway, I thank and congratulate anyone who manages to get though all this in advance. :)
(Some might note I've left out quantum mechanics - my MSci year (next year) will have quite a lot of quantum mechanics in it, so I'm not too worried that I'll miss out on it.)
There are quite a few subjects in pure mathematics and physics that I'm quite interested in, and I would appreciate any help with the search for textbooks on them. So far I have Goldstein's 'Classical Mechanics' and Humphrey's 'A Course in Group Theory'.
Some of these I list below:
I took Tensor Field Theory this semester just passed, and while we covered some things on tensors, then some special relativity and electromagnetism, we ran out of time for general relativity. I would like to find a textbook that covers general relativity, but perhaps also some of these other applications of tensors. I'm tempted to ask for a book that covers purely mathematical aspects of tensors, but I strongly suspect such a book would be very dry.
In my second year I took a course on Fluid Mechanics - I would like to know more about this, it was quite an interesting subject.
I also would like to know more about Electromagnetism - I've seen the name Griffiths thrown about a lot, but I've also come across quite negative comments about his books, so I'm not sure here.
In the realms of pure mathematics, I eventually want to be able to look at things like metric spaces and measure theory, and probably some topology or functional analysis as well. While these topics probably appear in some form or other in physics, I've found that I understand them much better when I've had some exposure to a pure maths treatment. This occurred to me in my first year, when I took Linear Algebra & Analysis. I really couldn't grasp what vectors were or how calculus was allowed to divide by zero before seeing how dimensions occur in vector spaces and how the concept of a limit works.
Some other topics I hope to read about some day are Set Theory & Logic, Category Theory, Complex Analysis and an axiomatic treatment of Statistics (although this probably comes under measure theory (I recently discovered Kolmolgorov's axioms on Wikipedia - fascinating!)).
I know that's a long list of things, but I do expect to spend many years on this. I always find there are more things to be interested in than I have time for (always wanted to find out more about psychology, for example). Anyway, I thank and congratulate anyone who manages to get though all this in advance. :)
(Some might note I've left out quantum mechanics - my MSci year (next year) will have quite a lot of quantum mechanics in it, so I'm not too worried that I'll miss out on it.)