<p>I never took physics in High School and I'm a senior. I want to be either a mechanical engineer or electrical engineer. I plan to self-study physics and I wanted some suggestion on which books I should use, or websites.</p>
<p>Anyone want to help me? D:</p>
<p>If you’ve taken Calc then I’d just hit up amazon and look for the highest rated physics book out there. Then buy one edition old to save $$$.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth I had University Physics by Young & Freedman and thought it was pretty decent.</p>
<p>You could even try looking at AP Physics C review books for less theory and more on how to actually do problems.</p>
<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t even bother looking at the physics ahead of time. Engineering programs do not assume that you have had physics already, and as such, you would be perfectly fine just starting from scratch when you get there.</p>
<p>Try Physics by Resnick and Halliday. And the University Physics is Marvellous.
All the best</p>
<p>Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Giancoli (pretty decent), but i would suggest learning Calculus before you try to learn physics. Physics without Calculus is just a bunch of equations that don’t really make sense, Calc unites everything.</p>
<p>Also if you want to major in Engineering you will have to take a couple of Calc based physics course in school anyways.</p>
<p>Learn calculus first. If you already had calculus, I would suggest do problems from Irodov Problems in Physics (watch out, they are way more difficult than any problems from halliday&Resnick, but if you can do them, usual freshman physics is a joke).</p>
<p>faraday, you really think that a kid who has NEVER had physics before is going to be able to dive into the more difficult book? That is somewhat ludicrous.</p>
<p>I found Halliday & Resnick somewhat hard even with some AP physics C experience lol
or maybe I just suck.</p>
<p>@yg7s7…You don’t suck for sure. Some people find it hard. But the theory is very good. Read it like Harry Potter!!!</p>
<p>to boneh3ad:</p>
<p>Well my opinion is I will always hold the OP in high esteem (unless he notes otherwise). If he already had calculus, Irodov is a perfectly reasonable choice given he buys the solution manual and supplements it with a good textbook (Introduction to Mechanics by Kleppner/Kolenkow is very good, Halliday Resnick is decent but the problems in there can get quite dull). In fact, halliday Resnick employs very little calculus (if ever) in the problems.</p>
<p>IMO, the main difference between Irodov/ Halliday Resnick is not so much the theory, but rather the amount of math employed, and how interesting the problems are. Irodov will consistently have interesting problems that challenge you, and increase your physical insight, while Halliday resnick problems will make you compute mindlessly for a lot of the time (very few problems are indeed interesting and challenging).</p>
<p>Another thing is Irodov problems is freely available in pdf format on the web.</p>
<p>PS: the question of which book to use has more to do with his math level than his physics level. I very much rather learn physics the “right” way the first time, with multivariate notation and rigorous derivation as well as limiting cases of the formula employed (an approach used by Kleppner&Kolenkow).</p>
<p>Another book suggestion would be Physics for scientists and engineers by Tipler… it has better problems than Resnick Halliday, and I like its notation a lot better. On the other side, it does not require as much thinking as Irodov.</p>