(Part 3) Top products from r/AskScienceDiscussion

I'd like to give you my two cents as well on how to proceed here. If nothing else, this will be a second opinion. If I could redo my physics education, this is how I'd want it done.

If you are truly wanting to learn these fields in depth I cannot stress how important it is to actually work problems out of these books, not just read them. There is a certain understanding that comes from struggling with problems that you just can't get by reading the material. On that note, I would recommend getting the Schaum's outline to whatever subject you are studying if you can find one. They are great books with hundreds of solved problems and sample problems for you to try with the answers in the back. When you get to the point you can't find Schaums anymore, I would recommend getting as many solutions manuals as possible. The problems will get very tough, and it's nice to verify that you did the problem correctly or are on the right track, or even just look over solutions to problems you decide not to try.

Basics

I second Stewart's Calculus cover to cover (except the final chapter on differential equations) and Halliday, Resnick and Walker's Fundamentals of Physics. Not all sections from HRW are necessary, but be sure you have the fundamentals of mechanics, electromagnetism, optics, and thermal physics down at the level of HRW.

Once you're done with this move on to studying differential equations. Many physics theorems are stated in terms of differential equations so really getting the hang of these is key to moving on. Differential equations are often taught as two separate classes, one covering ordinary differential equations and one covering partial differential equations. In my opinion, a good introductory textbook to ODEs is one by Morris Tenenbaum and Harry Pollard. That said, there is another book by V. I. Arnold that I would recommend you get as well. The Arnold book may be a bit more mathematical than you are looking for, but it was written as an introductory text to ODEs and you will have a deeper understanding of ODEs after reading it than your typical introductory textbook. This deeper understanding will be useful if you delve into the nitty-gritty parts of classical mechanics. For partial differential equations I recommend the book by Haberman. It will give you a good understanding of different methods you can use to solve PDEs, and is very much geared towards problem-solving.

From there, I would get a decent book on Linear Algebra. I used the one by Leon. I can't guarantee that it's the best book out there, but I think it will get the job done.

This should cover most of the mathematical training you need to move onto the intermediate level physics textbooks. There will be some things that are missing, but those are usually covered explicitly in the intermediate texts that use them (i.e. the Delta function). Still, if you're looking for a good mathematical reference, my recommendation is Lua. It may be a good idea to go over some basic complex analysis from this book, though it is not necessary to move on.

Intermediate

At this stage you need to do intermediate level classical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and thermal physics at the very least. For electromagnetism, Griffiths hands down. In my opinion, the best pedagogical book for intermediate classical mechanics is Fowles and Cassidy. Once you've read these two books you will have a much deeper understanding of the stuff you learned in HRW. When you're going through the mechanics book pay particular attention to generalized coordinates and Lagrangians. Those become pretty central later on. There is also a very old book by Robert Becker that I think is great. It's problems are tough, and it goes into concepts that aren't typically covered much in depth in other intermediate mechanics books such as statics. I don't think you'll find a torrent for this, but it is 5 bucks on Amazon. That said, I don't think Becker is necessary. For quantum, I cannot recommend Zettili highly enough. Get this book. Tons of worked out examples. In my opinion, Zettili is the best quantum book out there at this level. Finally for thermal physics I would use Mandl. This book is merely sufficient, but I don't know of a book that I liked better.

This is the bare minimum. However, if you find a particular subject interesting, delve into it at this point. If you want to learn Solid State physics there's Kittel. Want to do more Optics? How about Hecht. General relativity? Even that should be accessible with Schutz. Play around here before moving on. A lot of very fascinating things should be accessible to you, at least to a degree, at this point.

Advanced

Before moving on to physics, it is once again time to take up the mathematics. Pick up Arfken and Weber. It covers a great many topics. However, at times it is not the best pedagogical book so you may need some supplemental material on whatever it is you are studying. I would at least read the sections on coordinate transformations, vector analysis, tensors, complex analysis, Green's functions, and the various special functions. Some of this may be a bit of a review, but there are some things Arfken and Weber go into that I didn't see during my undergraduate education even with the topics that I was reviewing. Hell, it may be a good idea to go through the differential equations material in there as well. Again, you may need some supplemental material while doing this. For special functions, a great little book to go along with this is Lebedev.

Beyond this, I think every physicist at the bare minimum needs to take graduate level quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics. For quantum, I recommend Cohen-Tannoudji. This is a great book. It's easy to understand, has many supplemental sections to help further your understanding, is pretty comprehensive, and has more worked examples than a vast majority of graduate text-books. That said, the problems in this book are LONG. Not horrendously hard, mind you, but they do take a long time.

Unfortunately, Cohen-Tannoudji is the only great graduate-level text I can think of. The textbooks in other subjects just don't measure up in my opinion. When you take Classical mechanics I would get Goldstein as a reference but a better book in my opinion is Jose/Saletan as it takes a geometrical approach to the subject from the very beginning. At some point I also think it's worth going through Arnold's treatise on Classical. It's very mathematical and very difficult, but I think once you make it through you will have as deep an understanding as you could hope for in the subject.

With respect to critical thinking and sort of lay-person evaluation of science, I think a lot of Kitcher's work on the evolution/intelligent design debate is really great stuff.

• "Good Science, Bad Science, Dreadful Science, and Pseudoscience"
  
  
• Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism
  
  
• Lots of things by Naomi Oreskes and/or Eric Conway are also good here. Their Merchants of Doubt is one of the best pieces of science journalism so far in the 21st century.
  
  
• "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change: How Do We Know We're Not Wrong?"
  
  As far as the basics go in general philosophy of science, I think Peter Godfrey-Smith's Theory and Reality is an excellent introductory text, and usually the base text that I use when I teach an undergraduate class on philosophy of science. It'll give you a good idea of what the history of the field looks like, and the shape of some of the major problems.
  
  Beyond that, in no particular order, here are some of my favorites:
  
  
• Philip Kitcher's Science in a Democratic Society and/or Science, Truth, and Democracy are both really great books, and deal with how to reconcile the value of science with other things that we might also value. Kitcher's a naturalist through and through, but he's also quite pluralistic in his thinking. Both those books tackle the question of what science is good for, what it isn't good for, and how we might go about integrating scientific expertise into an egalitarian society.
  
  
• Nancy Cartwright's A Dappled World. This is a very, very widely-cited classic, and a must-read at some point. I don't agree with her thesis, but it's an excellent book and is very well presented.
  
  
• Bas van Fraassen's The Scientific Image. Another classic that's been very influential. Again, I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he writes clearly and makes many great points.
  
  
• Stathis Psillos' Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth. A clear, cogent defense of scientific realism.
  
  
• James Ladyman and Don Ross' Every Thing Must Go. A spirited and unflinching defense of what philosophy as a whole should look like if it wants to take science seriously. It's not an easy book if you're not well-versed on physics, but it's one of my favorites.
  
  
• Eric Winsberg's Science in the Age of Computer Simulation. A great look at how advances in computation are changing what science looks like. This is a personal interest, but I still think it's a great book.
  
  
• Tim Maudlin's The Metaphysics Within Physics. A look at laws, explanation, and metaphysics from the perspective of physical theory.
  
  
• Michael Strevens' Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation. One of the best books on scientific explanation (and what makes it distinctive) around. Long, but worth it.
  
  
• Oppenheim & Putnam's article "The Unity of Science as a Working Hypothesis". Flawed, but on the right track. A good discussion of how the different sciences fit together.
  
  
• Jerry Fodor's article "Special Sciences (or: The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis)" a counterpoint to Oppenhein & Putnam, and another very influential article. I don't like Fodor very much, but it's a good piece.
  
  I could go on indefinitely with this, but that's probably more than enough to keep you going for a few years. As an aside, I also recommend that anyone interested in the philosophy of science take a look at Cliff Hooker's anthology The Philosophy of Complex Systems Theory. It's an incredibly wide-ranging look at some of the ways in which both philosophy and science are being shaped by complexity theory these days. It's really great.
  
  

Hi, throwing in my two cents that the best way to improve your reading/grammar and literary knowledge is to dive deep into anthologies and collections. Think of it as a sampling of the 'best of the best' and you are getting a taste of what is considered to be great. Also don't be afraid to pick up a piece of classic literature and think, "Good god, this was considered awesome?" That's ok. Some people don't like premodern literature. Some people LOVE it. Some people HATE it. Some people are all about cyberpunk angsty lit that's a product of our super modern society. Some love poetry...well, you get the picture. The beauty of an anthology is you can survey the goods -- and if you love something you read, odds are it's only a small selection taken from a much bigger book OR the writer is pretty prolific and if you like his style of writing, odds are you are going to LOVE the rest of his work.

Don't know where to begin? I recommend checking out some classics from overseas (which I use as a required book in my courses):

• Anthology of Japanese Literature compiled by Donald Keene
  This will take you from the world origin myth right up to Tokugawa period (from 794 to 1868) I'm partial to world origin myths and the Kamakura period. It's not easy to read but it's a good way to develop critical thinking skills and will broaden your world view!
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Japanese-Literature-Mid-Nineteenth-Representative/dp/0802150586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829264&sr=8-1&keywords=Anthology+of+Japanese+Literature
  
  
• Anything by a Japanese poet named Matsuo Basho. Feeling down in the dumps? Read a haiku.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Travel-Sketches-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441859/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829577&sr=8-2&keywords=Matsuo+Basho
  
  Ok, so I don't like premodern literature? ^Then ^check ^out ^the ^modern ^stuff!
  
  
• Check out this anthology of Modern Japanese Literature:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Japanese-Literature-From-Present/dp/0802150950/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=04S84RFJ5BQ76B3N06QT
  
  Also, to make yourself super cultured, start reading opera summaries and plays. That's right. Read them. Then go see them.
  
  
• 100 Greatest Operas and their stories is a great place to begin.
  
  Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Operas-Their-Stories-Act-/dp/0385054483/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397830047&sr=1-1&keywords=Operas
  
  
  TL;DR: Start reading! Collections and Anthologies are a great place to start.

There are a lot of good suggestions in here, but I'm wondering if any of them are really applicable to what you want to do. An electrodynamics book like Griffiths will come at magnetism from the perspective of field and/or tensor mathematics. A solid state book like Kittel or Ashcroft and Mermin would come at it starting from a phenomenological perspective and moving into things like local moments and band structure. I'm guessing here, but it seems like what you want is more of an idea of the interaction of magnetism and materials or observable phenomena. Either of those approaches would get you there, but it wouldn't be the most direct approach and it would be a lot more work than you need to put in if that's all you want. They would also both require a lot more math than it seems like you're really comfortable with, and both topics are complex enough that physics/chemistry/MSE students struggle with them without good instructors (and sometimes even with them).

Instead of starting with any of those, I'd suggest you look at some lower level, phenomenology and observation based works. Nicola Spaldin's Magnetic Materials: Fundamentals and Applications might be a good place to start. It's pretty low level: I think a motivated undergrad could deal with it after taking a year of freshman physics, but I think that's what you want, at least to start with. It gives a good overview of different kinds of magnetism and the different kinds of magnetic materials, as well as field generation and detection.

Incidentally, if you decide to be a masochist and go with a solid state book, I think Ashcroft & Mermin is a better text than Kittel. Kittel spent 50 years and eight editions trying to fit the new developments in the field into the book without making it significantly thicker, so Ashcroft has a narrower scope but covers what it does have in more depth. I find the writing style clearer and more accessible as well.

A great book about this subject is Understanding Molecular Modeling, by Daan Frenkel

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Molecular-Simulation-Second-Edition/dp/0122673514

Basically in order to understand molecular modeling you need to have a good understanding of thermodynamics (more statistical mechanics, but also classical thermodynamics).

For a good free resource on graduate level thermodynamics and molecular modeling I recommend Scott Schell's lecture notes (He is a professor at UC Santa Barbara)
Molecular Modeling Class Notes:
http://www.engr.ucsb.edu/~shell/che210d/assignments.html

Thermo and Stat Mech Class Notes:

http://www.engr.ucsb.edu/~shell/che210a/


edit to add more info:

Also- if you are doing free energy methods check out
alchemistry.org

Keep in mind that molecular modeling is a huge field with tons of methods, tons of open source and closed source software packages. More info about what specifically you want to do and what software you want to use would be helpful.
I use GROMACS to do molecular dynamics simulations, so if you have questions specifically about that I should be able to give some assistance.

Here's my rough list of textbook recommendations. There are a ton of Dover paperbacks that I didn't put on here, since they're not as widely used, but they are really great and really cheap.

Amazon search for Dover Books on mathematics

There's also this great list of undergraduate books in math that has become sort of famous: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/chicmath.htm

Pre-Calculus / Problem-Solving

• The Art of Problem Solving - Lehoczky/Ruczyk - in two volumes, both have full solutions available separately
  
  Calculus
  
  
• Calculus - Stewart - ignore the bad reviews, it's very clear and covers all of basic calculus well - it's just the book that most intro students use and as a consequence gets a bad rap
  
  
• Calculus - Spivak - this will take your understanding of calculus to the next level
  
  
• Calculus - Apostol - there are two volumes and they are very comprehensive, albeit difficult
  
  Linear Algebra
  
  
• Linear Algebra - Lay
  
  
• Linear Algebra Done Right - Axler
  
  Differential Equations
  
  
• Elementary Differential Equations - Boyce/DePrima
  
  
• Ordinary Differential Equations - Tenenbaum
  
  Number Theory
  
  
• Number Theory - Pommersheim for a change of pace and proof skills
  
  Proof-Writing
  
  
• Transition to Higher Mathematics - Dumas/McCarthy - helps to bridge the gap between "lower" and higher math
  
  Analysis
  
  
• The Way of Analysis - Strichartz
  
• Principles of Mathematical Analysis - Rudin
  
• Real and Complex Analysis - Rudin
  
  Complex Analysis
  
  
• Complex Analysis - Ahlfors
  
  Functional Analysis
  
  
• Functional Analysis - Rudin
  
  
• Introductory Functional Analysis with Applications - Kreyszig
  
  Partial Differential Equations
  
  
• Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers - Farlow
  
  Higher-dimensional Calculus and Differential Geometry
  
  
• Calculus on Manifolds - Spivak - for a modern take on multivariable calculus
  
  
• Differential Geometry - Kreyszig
  
  Abstract Algebra
  
  
• A First Course in Abstract Algebra - Fraleigh
  
• Abtract Algebra - Dummit and Foote
  
  Geometry
  
  
• The Elements - Euclid - for culture and for understanding where math has come from, plus it's still an awesome book after all these years; don't need to go through all of it
  
• Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries - Greenberg
  
  Topology
  
  
• Introduction to Topology - Mendelson
  
  
• Topology - Munkres
  
  Set Theory and Logic
  
  
• Introduction to Set Theory - Hrbacek/Jech
  
  
• Elements of Set Theory - Enderton
  
  
• Mathematical Logic - Kleene
  
  
• Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis - Cohen
  
  Combinatorics / Discrete Math
  
  
• Combinatorics - Cameron
  
  
• Concrete Math - Graham/Knuth/Patashnik
  
  
• Discrete Math - Biggs
  
  Graph Theory
  
  
• A First Course in Graph Theory - Chartrand/Zhang
  
  P. S., if you Google search any of the topics above, you are likely to find many resources. You can find a lot of lecture notes by searching, say, "real analysis lecture notes filetype:pdf site:.edu"
  

One of my favorites is cathedrals is science. It is great read that really dives into the personalities and motives of the scientists behind many of the paradigm shifts during the golden age of physics and chemistry

To start off, Spin Dynamics by M. Levitt. I actually started off with Protein NMR Spectroscopy by Cavanaugh/Fairbrother/Palmer/Skelton back in the day, but I am partial to Levitt insofar as an introduction. As I'm only now becoming old-school, Multidimensional Solid State NMR and Polymers by K. Schmidt-Rohr and H.W. Spiess.

There are fairly recent biological solid state NMR books out there, but most of them were written after I had gotten into the field. Should probably give them a read, but at the moment, can't really pick one to recommend.

Hawking's On The Shoulders of Giants

Gribbin's The Scientists

Smithsonian's Timelines of Science

There are also a ton of good historical books on almost every major milestone in physics - a few I enjoyed:

The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick

Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electric Field by Nancy Forbes

E=MC2 by David Bodanis

Quantum by Manjit Kumar

The Big Bang by Simon Singh

I can't link you to any histories of biology or chemistry, sorry, those aren't my areas of knowledge.

Many theories deal with inflation. They all fall under the umbrella of "inflationary cosmology." I am not a theorist but as far as I understand "big bang inflationary cosmologies" currently receive the most attention. String theory type theories and loop quantum type theories can both incorporate inflationary effects so its certainly not limited to the "classical big bang" model I detailed.

Beyond pages such as this I would say you could get a hold of this book, Modern Cosmology By Scott Dodelson. It is a good overview of modern cosmological models at the high undergraduate level. The math it presents is targeted at physic students in their senior year of undergraduate (my words, not the author) but that doesn't mean a non-physicist can't get anything out of it.

Psychology is the social science related to human behavior.

Quantum Mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with the behavior of subatomic particles.

I'm not sure that the two subjects could be further apart.

For quantum mechanics, there are a ton of popular books on the subject. If you can ignore some of the sillier Eastern Philosophical rantings this is a pretty good introduction to quantum mechanics for someone without much education in Calculus, Linear Algebra, or classical physics.

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Wu-Li-Masters-Overview/dp/0060959681

Anti Spy Detector & Camera Finder RF Signal Detector GPS Bug Detector Hidden Camera Detector for GSM Tracking Device GPS Radar Radio Frequency Detector https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S2ZK2YF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_tuZNDbGPVW2NG


I've tried several different brands but this is one i have on hand.

Two things, (1) I'm going to recommend mostly books and not textbooks, since you're going to read plenty of those in the future. And (2) I'm going to only focus on the area of cognitive psychology & neuroscience. With that being said:

Beginner:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales By Oliver Sacks

Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives By Dean Buonomano

Kludge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Mind By Gary Marcus

The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament By Robert M. Sapolsky

The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers By Daniel L. Schacter

Intermediate: (I'm going to throw this in here, because reading the beginner texts will not allow you to really follow the advanced texts.)

Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind By Michael S. Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry & George R. Mangun

Advanced:

The Prefrontal Cortex By Joaquin Fuster

The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness By J. Allan Hobson

The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning By Keith J. Holyoak & Robert G. Morrison

I like this question.

Beginner:

• Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (I don't like this text, but it's fairly accessible to beginners.)
  
  
• Auditory Neuroscience
  
  
• Musicophilia
  
  Student:
  
  
• Neuroscience
  
  
• MATLAB for Neuroscientists
  
  
• An Introduction to the Psychology/Physiology of Hearing (sorry, that was cheating)
  
  Expert:
  
  
• Principles of Neural Science
  
  
• Spikes
  
  
• Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics
  

Introductory Statistical Mechanics 2nd Edition, Roger Bowley


Whatever you are told to purchase by your instructor, buy this too.