Notes

The notes presented on this page are the result of years of experience in understanding the world of physics – a unique world in which mathematical beauty and power reign. Individual fields of physics often contain their own vocabularies, which can lead to misinterpretation of concepts to those outside of the fields, e.g. quantum particle “popping” in and out of existence, the “foam” of space-time. As such, I attempt to introduce all concepts and technical jargon by means of everyday terms, such that minimal misunderstandings occur.

Having undertaken my incorporated Master’s degree (MPhys) at the University of Manchester in Physics with Theoretical Physics, my notes will be marginally more catered to their course, however I have attempted to cater to other courses (and will continue to) by discussing around the subjects. If anything from your course is missing from my notes, please do let me know and I will include it – it is my aim to have a fully inclusive set of notes suitable for everyone.

I have written a short list of resources that I have found useful over the years in each section shown above, however there are a number of good books that cover multiple areas. Furthermore, there are also a number of very interesting, though not necessarily academically stretching, pop-science/sciencey books. Both of these are listed below.

Resources:

  • The Feynman Lectures on Physics
  • The Manchester Physics Series
  • Physics: A Student Companion – L. A. Kirkby
  • I do NOT recommend Young & Freedman. Buy it if necessary but otherwise avoid!

 

  • Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions – E. A. Abbott
  • Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea – C. Seife
  • A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes – S. Hawking
  • Bad Science – B. Goldacre
  • Build Your Own Time Machine – B. Clegg