very useful resources for anyone interested in math/physics

InquilineKea · 05-10-2007, 09:59 PM

It's amazing how much an interested high school student can learn in the course of a few hours by doing the right google searches. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of guides to some of the best posts around.

Don't forget:
(a) use the collegeconfidential search engine. there are many many informative threads in the past. if you really don't want to register, google site:talk.collegeconfidential.com [thing you're looking for], or site:mathlinks.ro [], site

hysicsforums.com []

http://www.physicspost.com/topics.php?topicId=10

"So You Want to be a Physicist" series

http://cosmicvariance.com/2005/12/20...aduate-school/

http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/03/29...a-grad-school/

http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/10/16...aduate-school/

thoughts on undergrad research:
http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandsci...on_undergr.php

Thoughts on AP Calculus:
http://myrtlehocklemeier.blogspot.co...gh-school.html
=>
http://www.physicsforums.com/archive.../t-115452.html

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EPGY-related links:
Master List of EPGY/Multivariable-Related Links
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more resources:
http://www.oplink.net/~adrian/math_induct_ex.htm
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com
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Suggestion for google searches: use site:.edu to restrict searches to universities. http://www.math.(universitydomain).edu is very helpful. if you want to restrict to particular university, you can do that. Frex, site:math.caltech.edu.

Summer programs: SSP, HSHSP, RSI, SSTP (google is nice)
http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/linka4.htm
Math Camps:
http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html
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What is math about?
What exactly does "totally rigorous" mean in a proof?
==
Caltech vs. MIT for engineering:
Caltech vs MIT for engineering

Top threads in Caltech forum:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...ort=replycount

Top threads in MIT forum:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...ort=replycount

best generic advice I've ever read:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...89#post1132889

==

Forumers with very insightful old posts to read: (I'm biased =P)
randomperson
Ben Golub
sakky

InquilineKea · 05-10-2007, 10:24 PM

Something I often noticed:

- sometimes, it's better to ask math/science related questions in a forum with one person famous for his math/science knowledge, rather than a forum that is specialized for math/science. "Stupid questions" in specialized forums aren't usually as "stupid" in a forum where fewer people are into math/science (just make sure that the person is a reliable source of information). A thread about, say, RSI would be somewhat cliche here (where RSI alums have already answered question after question on RSI), whereas if you post a thread about RSI in another forum with fewer RSI alums, they may be more enthusiastic in replying to your posts (often in depth as well). This also tends to apply for a lot of math/science questions as well.

You might also be interested in the "diffusion of responsibility" phenomenon - people are more likely to volunteer information when they see themselves as the only potential sources of such information in a particular forum. A math/science enthusiast in a gaming forum might answer virtually 100% of math/science related questions in that forum - he may have developed a reputation for donig so - but a math/science enthusiast in a forum full of math/science enthusiasts is less likely to do so. Or you could just try posting the same thread in all of the forums. I've tried it before, and it's interesting what results come out.

- use Facebook. Search for groups labeled as "RSI" or "HSHSP" or "SSP" or any other summer program you're interested - and private message someone. It's amazing how much advice you can get out of that. (and inside knowledge too)

InquilineKea · 05-10-2007, 10:40 PM

Remember - not all advice is the same. Be sure to distinguish between the relevant/irrelevant and reliable/unreliable sources of information

List of competitions:

http://www.venturescholar.org/resour...itions-hs.html

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Interesting website on unschooling:
http://learninfreedom.org

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Search for AP self-study (there is plenty of advice on it in these boards).

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going beyond high school level:

http://ocw.mit.edu
http://www.math.caltech.edu . you can learn A LOT from other class webpages as well - this is just one example.
There is a way to obtain university-level textbooks for free (BitTorrent).
http://arxiv.org/ (research journals)
http://scholar.google.com

InquilineKea · 05-10-2007, 11:00 PM

http://www.planetmath.org
http://www.math.wolfram.com
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

What are the best online resources for scientific data?
http://ask.metafilter.com/52046/What...cientific-data

InquilineKea · 05-10-2007, 11:56 PM

finally, it's fairly useful to get anecdotal information from people in the fields
http://scienceblogs.com/

InquilineKea · 05-11-2007, 01:04 AM

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/

=> very useful for self-study in Calc AB, Calc BC, linear algebra, differential equations, and multivariable calculus

sigurros · 05-11-2007, 01:07 AM

Nice series of posts. I will have to take some time into looking into all the links.

InquilineKea · 05-11-2007, 01:12 AM

Thanks.

Holy crap, I accidentally mis-inserted the wrong link. I inserted http://www.oplink.net/~adrian/math_induct_ex.htm when I really meant to insert http://fsc729.ifreepages.com/links.html.

I'll mention http://www.physicsforums.com/index.php once again - it was mentioned above, but not explicitly in name as an excellent resource. PhysicsForums, CollegeConfidential, and Art of Problem Solving are the most active of the academic forums.

==
Not as relevant, but still extremely useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

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Better list of summer programs (most recognized by MIT):
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/...programs.shtml

==

Not as relevant, but I can't resist leaving this gem out:

http://www.edge.org/q2007/q07_index.html
http://www.edge.org/questioncenter.html

InquilineKea · 05-12-2007, 08:06 PM

http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=33967

iostream · 05-12-2007, 08:46 PM

why this isn't mentioned in the "list of competitions" link i have no idea, but there's the USAPhO series of contests which ultimately leads to the us physics team/international physics olympiad...

having been on the us physics team twice (and possibly going to IPhO this year), i would be happy to answer questions about physics contests.

ChaosTheory · 05-12-2007, 09:05 PM

Free books: http://freescience.info/index.php.
AoPS - #1 competition math resource: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/index.php
Advanced Physics Forums: http://www.advancedphysics.org/forum/

iostream · 05-12-2007, 09:40 PM

um chaos, clear your PM space so i can send you the second half of my message.

InquilineKea · 05-13-2007, 12:32 PM

Wow, I can't believe that the link neglected the Physics Olympiad (even though it had every other major competition).

USAPHO:
http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm

InquilineKea · 05-13-2007, 01:00 PM

AP Preparation:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com (you can register as a teacher for FREE free response questions in the past - and for scoring commentary on past FRQs)