I'm taking a class called Mathematical Methods in Physics for, obviously, my Physics degree. The class structure at my uni is fucking atrocious. We get a total of about 20-30 minutes of lecturing PER WEEK on the course material and basically every student has to teach themselves. We have no textbook, we have a "tutorial" which is only useful AFTER you know the stuff.
to tl;dr it for you, I'm struggling on everything and barely managing to pass, but I want to know it really well. Anyone have any advice on how to really grasp these things? There a textbook for this class somewhere out there? What do?
You will need artful skill to win. Start with basic math. Find the smallest mathematical unit. Find the smallest sub-atomic physics unit. Then grow the tree from there.
Blake Hill
Post the part of your syllabus that covers the content in the course
Or if you dont want to, look on amazon for books and compare their table of contents to your syllabus. Buy it or find a copy online
You should already be able to teach yourself stuff, you are in physics baby, not engigay stuff.
Lincoln Long
Its the exact opposite way round mate. Maths are your toolbox, physics is the canvas.
Samuel Rivera
I'm taking Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences at my university as well. I have sympathy for you my dude, a lot of this shit is hard even with 4 50 minute lectures a week. The textbook is Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas. faculty.psau.edu.sa/filedownload/doc-4-pdf-0a187866618ca3049030ec5014860ae8-original.pdf What stuff are you on right now?
Isaiah Evans
Also check out this youtube channel : youtube.com/user/EugeneKhutoryansky It has lots of vids that can help you understand the geometric meaning of the things you're learning mathematically.
Joseph Green
im in same class, we use mary boas book. good stuff one of the best ive studied
James Lopez
sorry, i was at the campus. back now. pic is that part of my syllabus
ill give those a look, thank you!
we're doing SODE's rn
Isaac Brown
this looks dope. thanks for the suggestion
Samuel King
>Avoid Boas, Arfken but why
Christian Robinson
You should be fine with any elementary text on math methods in physics. You havent taken linear alg, diff eq, complex math? Thats all that is. Youtube/google searches will probably be sufficient honestly.
Im surprised math methods is a 201 class for you, its a 400 class here but the topics are more difficult.
Mason Lopez
yea haven't taken those. just my 3 calc classes. The hardest part is my questions dont match the format of some of the stuff i see online.
Daniel Murphy
Yeah thats an error by your uni. They shouldnt be requiring this class until youve taken at least ODE.
How much physics have you taken?
Notation and math "tricks" to make things workable play a non negligible role in physics unfortunately so I can understand the struggle
Anthony Stewart
Math 1-3. mechanics, E&M, thermo, waves, optics, special relativity, now this
Hudson Gray
Physics* not math. Lol. mb
Brandon Baker
Just use Paul's Online Math Notes. Mathematical Methods is usually a "cram course" to shove in the Calculus sequence and Differential Equations into a short semester. If it goes beyond ODE, look at the Veeky Forums wiki for books on PDEs and etc. and check out the course catalog for MIT to see what texts they use and get the PDFs for those texts. Also I saw your post in another thread. That didn't go unnoticed and I laughed at that.
Brody Gutierrez
Weird
Optics usually covers fourier, thermo and mech shouldve covered ODEs. Phys 3 shouldve covered complex stuff.
Luis Ramirez
>struggling in Mathematical Methods for Physics If you honestly can't teach yourself the content for this brainlet math course, you're not cut out for physics.
Sebastian Peterson
>Math is an art. >Physics is a skill. I tip my toppest of fedoras to you, sir.
Michael Taylor
those were just calc-based classes. like intros into those. i believe the more complex versions of those classes come up later
idk man. i peaked ahead and it's a bit weird but I'm seeing Diff EQ's solved with trig functions (nothing new so far), as well as infinite sums and some nasty power series stuff from Calc 2 so i have no real clue what is gonna happen there
So this was my first time finding out about Veeky Forums wiki and it's kind of overwhelming in a very positive way. Like everything sounds like it would be fun to look into, but how are the books decided upon? Are most of them supposed to be good for self-learning or to be used as practice/ a supplement to a class?
