What's the best way to refresh and expand knowledge of math sufficient to understand theoretical physics?

It's been many years since I graduated from college. Although I had taken math though integral calculus, virtually all of that knowledge has evaporated over time. Recently, I have become passionately interested in what has been going on in theoretical physics and cosmology.

There are many great books out there that have been watered down so that the non-technical public could enjoy them. However, I'd like to get to the point where I can hold a conversation with a physicist and be taken seriously; to speak their language (math) and be able to more fully enjoy the topics at great depth.So what is the best way, for someone who is technically minded and a visual thinker, to rapidly refresh and expand math skills and be able to "see" more precisely the issues at had in quantum mechanics, m-theory, etc.? A PhD is out of the question for a variety of reasons. Thus far, it seems that the "Idiots Guide To..." books are in the lead.

They are surprisingly well written and succinct. Asked by amygdala 55 months ago Similar questions: refresh expand knowledge math sufficient understand theoretical physics Science > Math.

Similar questions: refresh expand knowledge math sufficient understand theoretical physics.

Physics Like you, I took a fair number of math courses in college, well beyond calculus and into partial and ordinary differential equations. I also took a variety of physics courses that are, today, sadly outdated. I admire your desire to bone up in the area.

I've harbored similar thoughts from time to time. I have a number of friends who are scientists, so I think I can offer some insight. Here are my thoughts on what to do: First, if you want to converse with physicists at more than a cocktail-party level, you need to read the current journals to understand what research is currently being done, who is doing it and where (half of what scientists talk about is people), and what's new and exciting in the field.

There are several levels of periodicals, and you can jump in at whatever level you like. First, there are publications for the general public. The best of these is Scientific American, which has articles written by real scientists rather than journalists.

The articles aren't dumbed-down too much, but do lack the real theoretical meat that appears at higher level journals. Second would be the journals for the general scientific community: Nature and Science. These are the two dominant publications, one is US and the other UK (I forget which is which).

They cover fields from physics to botany to pharmacogenomics, but generally carry a good mix of the most important developments across the board. These are peer-reviewed journals, and include the real science, so you definitely need to understand the math to get the point. Third are the specialist scientific journals.

These cover smaller and smaller slices of the field. (In college, I was fond of reading the "Fibonacci Quarterly", a whole journal devoted to articles on the Fibonacci series and similar integer series. ) Even practicing scientists can only keep up with the articles in a handful of these journals, so I suggest that you skip this level, or just focus on one journal in you special area of interest.As for books to bone up on the math, there are two types.

First are textbooks. Sadly, the math required in physics these days requires a dozen undergraduate and graduate courses.It would be extremely difficult to teach it to yourself by reading textbooks, but that's what you would need to do. If you want to take this road, which is not an easy one, take a look at the physics curriculum at schools like MIT and CalTech.

See the courses that are required for advanced degrees in your selected field, buy (or borrow from the library) the books, and work through them (including the problem sets!) Frankly, this would take years to do properly, but you could probably pick up enough in a few months to get a good grounding in your specific area of interest. Here's another thing to consider. Practicing scientists today work in incredibly narrow fields of research.

Most of the hard math is done by computers. Scientists who sit around and chat don't generally break out the graph paper and start to write equations for one another. Frankly, they do this only with members of their own labs, when discussing specific projects that they're working on, or with collaborators on those projects.

Science these days, especially physics, is complex enough that most physicists don't deeply understand what their colleagues do, except at a somewhat superficial level. As a lay person, I think you'd be well-served by reading Science and Nature, understanding 50% of the physics/math, and reviewing a few graduate level math texts when an article you come across is over your head. I'm not trying to be condescending -- far from it.

Just practical. I hope this makes some sense to you! Best of luck!

Conocimiento's Recommendations Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos (Pure and Applied Mathematics (Academic Press), 60. ) Amazon List Price: $88.95 Used from: $59.50 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 4 reviews) If you've only been through calculus in college, this is where you'll need to start! .

Schaum's Outline series, online resources; Reviews of Modern Physics Schaum’s Outline series has helped a lot of folks. They have lots of exercises, especially recommended for linear algebra. Here’s a site that looks promising: Visual Calculus The above was found in this page of links to free online textbooks and resources.

Also take a look at MIT OpenCourseWare,and more resources at Wikipedia. Reviews of Modern Physics: Not generally recommended for learning the math (although you may get lucky) but more for the sake of becoming aware of what math is relevant for current physics. You may also glean some clues about how the math matters, which will motivate and guide your study.

Look in a university or large public library. Best of luck! A_scientist's Recommendations Schaum's Outline of Linear Algebra Amazon List Price: $17.95 Used from: $7.59 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 22 reviews) Schaum's Outline of Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists Amazon List Price: $18.95 Used from: $6.45 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 6 reviews) .

There is one book which I'd have to recommend.... I have a couple of physics degrees, and one thing which I was fortunate to learn relatively early on was that the physics and the maths, whilst related, after different things. In order to understand a great deal of physics it's necessary to have a good knowledge of particular areas of mathematics, but these aren't physics. I'm assuming that you mean is that you want some way to refresh your maths and get to the point where, whatever area of physics you're presently interested in, you can understand it in more of less the same way as a competent physicist, rather than that you want to read a particular book which will bring you up to speed with physics.

The book which all physicists at my undergraduate university swore by (the first edition was brand new at the time) is Riley, Hobson and Bence, a book which I cannot recommend highly enough. It's not an immensely technical maths book and wouldn't impress many professional mathematicians but it's rigorous enough and really fills in a lot of background in a great many areas very efficiently. You don't necessarily want to read all of it, but can cherry pick those chapters which you want to refresh/learn to fill in the gaps.It has great visual examples unlike any of the competing texts, is concise and is extremely clear.

If you're interested in a concise overview of all of physics (as of last year) then Penrose's masterwork bear's reading. I hope that helps... Sources: Experience Quintus's Recommendations Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering: A Comprehensive Guide Amazon List Price: $55.00 Used from: $9.35 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 9 reviews) The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe Amazon List Price: $25.00 Used from: $13.95 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 132 reviews) My pair of recommendations, depending on precisely what you want..

1 I'm going to watch this question, I'm really interested in the answer as a long time lay person physics buff. It won't matter what the answer is, I know that already - my poor math skills are God's way of keeping me from designing weapons for the Pentagon - but I'll still try whatever the best recommendation turns out to be! .

I'm going to watch this question, I'm really interested in the answer as a long time lay person physics buff. It won't matter what the answer is, I know that already - my poor math skills are God's way of keeping me from designing weapons for the Pentagon - but I'll still try whatever the best recommendation turns out to be!

" "My wife doesn't understand math. Should I be worried?" "how can you become better at math" "anybody good with math" "Best book on Theoretical Physics? " "I don't understand how to solve this math problem?

My wife doesn't understand math. Should I be worried?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.