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I'm not sure if best but certainly the most enjoyable and entertaining: For the love of physics. I absolutely envy people who have been in Walter Lewin's classes.


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8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics is Amazing. Walter Lewin makes the bizarre properties and mysteries of the universe come alive in the classroom.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-classical-...


Hands down best: David Goodstein, CalTech, "The Mechanical Universe" physics series on YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=XtMmeAjQTXc

Hands down best: David Goodstein, CalTech, the 'Mechanical Universe" physics series on YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=XtMmeAjQTXc

This was beautiful.

I'd mention the Feynman Lectures on Physics too.


Sure - like I said, it's hard for me to say what my favorite is without naming a category, but since we're on the topic of Electromagnetism I'll stick to physics and recommend 1) Introduction to Elementary Particles by Griffiths (best into to standard model in particle physics) and 2) QED by Richard Feynman. QED btw is very well done and literally shows you the 'algorithm' behind standard particle physics and does so in a clear and unambiguous manner - really an amazing work by Feynman.

MIT OCW used to host their undergrad introduction to Physics lectures by Prof Walter Lewin which are pretty great. It was pulled down in 2014 but you'd definitely be able to find copies on Youtube.

The best lecture series I have seen till date ( and I have seen lectures by top professors across great institutions in multiple countries) is Classical Physics by V. Balakrishnan from IIT Madras, India [1]. Only people who have thought about concepts deeply over a lifetime can deliver such truly delightful lectures. If you have an hour to spare, just listen to the first lecture [2] and it will profoundly impact your outlook on science (and physics in particular)

[1] https://archive.nptel.ac.in/courses/122/106/122106027/

[2] https://youtu.be/Q6Gw08pwhws


Ditto the Feynman lectures recommendation. Those were incredible icing on the cake of my undergraduate physics course-load, adding significant intuitive meaning and understanding to a subject with much potential but that's taught in a very try manner most of the time.

I'd recommend starting here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/#physics

In my experience these are some of the best online courses you can watch to learn physics. Personally, I would look into the trying to watch the lectures from Walter Lewin--Walter is a fantastic orator and has a really great mad-scientist persona that is really captivating. Some additional archived lectures can be found here: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34001 and here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/archived-physics-courses...

I got my minor in physics from NYU many many moons ago (yes I'm getting old), but I found that the MIT lectures and OCW materials went way beyond the NYU coursework in both breadth and depth. I watched these lectures and worked through the lecture notes & assignments for Physics I, II, III, Quantum I, II, and several others in addition to digging into the Mathematics lectures / content. I found this material to be the most helpful out there. I'll also point out that I emailed the professors (Lewin, and others) and was pleased to receive a warm and helpful response on several occasions. I hope these are as helpful for your learning as they were for mine.

Once, you are able to complete the video lectures here, OCW has a massive amount of content for some of the more advanced courses that aren't in video format. In my experience, going through these video lectures and some of the mathematics lectures should set you up well to be able to comprehend even the most advanced content across field theory and string theory.

Cheers!


"The Mechanical Universe" ... now you are talking about peak of pedagogical achievement that TV ever scaled.

My other favorite would be Brian Harvey's lectures although it never made the TV

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhMnuBfGeCDNgVzLPxF9o... (this is about scheme, not statistical mechanics)


Has to be The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Hyperphysics is a delight. I've worked in the physical sciences for years but keep going back to refresh myself on the basics. I always learn something again for the first time.

It also included great multimedia (images, audio, video, animations). I remember myself spending hours watching all kinds of physics animations.

If I have to choose one book, it would be Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker.

I came across this Physics textbook in Junior year in High School.

Before reading this book, Physics, and Science in general, was merely "better subjects" for me, and tools to top the class, frontiers where I could excel, and by remembering formulas.

This is the first time when reading something was really, truly fun.

This was the first time I had the pleasure in learning.

My whole outlook towards learning changed. Learning should be fun. And this has served greatly in my life.

This book not only made Physics enjoyable, but instilled in me a lifelong attitude of fun in learning and expecting fun in learning.


If I wrote "A must read for every physics student" then it felt more like duty. But actually it is fun to read the Feynman lectures because they are so inspiring. One of those rare books that are written so well that it becomes fun to study - even such abstract things like physics.

Few scientists have a talent to present abstract things as well as Feynman. Daniel Kahneman and Sigmund Freud, whose lectures are also a pleasure to read, come to mind.

I couldn't read the Feynman lectures for my courses though (we followed the Berkeley physics series), but when ever I want to refresh my mind or find a nice way to explain things to students, these are a swell reference.

I still prefer the printed version though because of its nice layout with images and drawings in the margins.


Another vote for The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Probably the closest thing to "the" textbook on physics out there.

These are what originally got me into physics. For physics enthusiasts who have exhausted most pop physics content but aren't looking to get a full degree, there isn't much better than Susskind's lectures.

There is a joke in physics that the best textbook on any topic is the third one you read.

I'd suggest "The Mechanical Universe", which was an excellent series of video lectures developed at Caltech in the that covers undergraduate physics.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8_xPU5epJddRABXqJ5h5...

It was created in the '80s and broadcast on PBS and it still holds up well today.

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