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Originally Posted by Daradon
I wish there was more stuff like this for the initiated. This isn't a slight against anyone, people learn what they learn when they learn it, but for me I already knew most (all I think) of what was in the premiere episode (which is what I feared going in). I was crazy about space when I was young and studied stuff like that from mid childhood to late teens. But I always found in taking the next step you dove right into heavy math and physics and it got very dry very quickly and that always either intimidated me, or didn't leave me with enough to capture my imagination and I got bored.
It's a great series, and I wish there was more like it for people who want to start learning about the universe and science, but I didn't get much from it. While I imagine this was just a general overview and there will be more in the later episodes, I still think it's going to be light on stuff that's going to be of use to me.
I guess poster like Photon and such would have good places for me to go and check out.
I did really enjoy Neil's story about Carl though.
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Having done the first couple quantum physics and pure thermo courses it really boils down to the math after the introductory courses. Have you read Hawkings Classic books A brief history of time, the universe in a nutshell and the grand design?
After those books I dont know how much is outthere.
Something like Thermal Physics frome one third year physics class is pretty good at explaining from first principles and quantum theory how all of thermo dynamics is derived. I havent read it in 10 years but from what I remember you could follow along with out knowing all the math but you would definately need at least 1st year calculus and probably second year classes to get a good handle on it. Essentially you need to at least understand what partial differential equations are. You dont need to be able to solve them but knowing how they work helps.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=c0R7...s_similarbooks
On the modern physics side I think any introductory to modern physics book would be a good start and definately provides much better explanations on Lights wave/particle duality and the fun relativity stuff like time dilation. The Serway text book above would be a good place to start.
On the quantum physics side I think the best text is Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths. This one is pretty math based but really any beyond hawkings books in quantum physics is just math.
http://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Qu.../dp/0131118927
Here is a link to an excerpt of it to see if it is something you can get value out of.
http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/P...ty_Excerpt.pdf
So if you get through Serway (1st year Physics text). Then try tackling the other two I listed here.