Reddit reviews Physics, Volume 1

I know the university I'm headed to is using University Physics. I have a PDF of it, if you want it. It basically covers all the fundamental physics using calculus, so I would definitely regard it as a post-IB book.

I've heard many say that Resnick and Halliday's books are the best out there. They are perhaps a bit old, but seem to be the favorite among undergraduates.

If you want a more intuitive understanding of physics, then The Feynman Lectures are a must. He covers some material that requires knowledge of undergraduate level physics, but a lot of it I've found to still be enlightening. The intuition you'll get is invaluable.

So when you say "up the ante" do you want to

(1) Read about more exotic topics in general (ie. like popular books, videos, etc.)
(2) Read a rigorous textbook about physics.

If you enjoying teaching yourself, here are some undergraduate classical mechanics textbooks:

http://www.amazon.com/Physics-1-David-Halliday/dp/0471320579

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mechanics-Daniel-Kleppner/dp/0521198216

You'll need to know calculus and vectors, which might be difficult to learn simultaneously with the physics.

I'm not trying to bash option (1) either; learning about topics in general is exciting and will motivate you to learn more.

Then I would recommend physics for game developers. What may be more beneficial than a book dedicated to physics for games is an introductory physics text book.

I know that the following one is good but there are literally hundreds of them. http://www.amazon.com/Physics-1-David-Halliday/dp/0471320579. Check either used bookstores or ebay and you can pick one up cheap.

Once you have a basic understanding of Newtonian mechanics it will be a lot easier to move onto physics for games where you have to worry about things like collision response and making sure your simulation is stable.

Try looking on the course webpages such as for CS 31 and CS 32. Attempt to do the problems before learning the material for CS 33. This will test your understanding and solidify what you already know. Some of their homework problems are extremely challenging, but in most cases, the homework problems will not change from year to year that much. This means that if you start now, you will be done with the homework by the time you get here. This is awesome because your grade for these classes are all from your homework. The textbooks used for these courses are RHK, K&K, and Feynman.

While you're at it, you might want to start learning linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, vector calculus, and partial differential equations.

Source: I graded homework for CCS Physics.

I did NOT mean at ALL that it is impossible to compress matter. And hopefully that is not why I was downvoted, because that would be dumb : ).

It is INCREASINGLY difficult to compress matter past a certain point, for the reasons I stated above. Certainly neutron stars approach that threshold due to intense gravity from a relatively large mass (>1.5 solar masses usually), in a relatively small volume. As such, their environment is quite exotic. However, the maximum density in observed neutron stars is ~8×10^17 kg/m^3 . In the core, there is likely a quark-gluon plasma rather than hydrogen plasma and so what I said earlier applies here, about extreme compression changing nuclear chemistry because of the massive increase in kinetic/potential energy in the system.

The Feynman lectures are really NOT written for introductory students. I use them occasionally to remind myself of certain things, but to be completely honest, there are far better textbooks out there that do a lot better job of TEACHING material rather than displaying it in a grandiose fashion : ). An example is this, (vol 1 & 2).

I find Griffiths textbooks, both the elctrodynamics and quantum, did an excellent job of presenting material and building upon previous knowledge.

http://www.amazon.com/Physics-1-David-Halliday/dp/0471320579


Srsly this book contains all the Physics you will need until grad school.