The Bangladeshi Thread

[akashdip]

guys if you are bored, kindly answer my question & help me out. relevant answers. not any crap.

[Sombre]

Akash, how did you like Hall and Knight's algebra book? I actually have the text as well and I found it painstakingly dry and dull but maybe I should give it another shot. Also, how are you able to juggle between so many different topics? I can understand studying "Higher Algebra" and geometry simultaneously but these two, along with a book like Spivak, seems insane. It's great since you seem to be able to pull it off but I'd be curious to know why. It would seem more logical to go through Hall and Knight & Geometry and then move on to Spivak, i.e, once one has dealt with "pre-calculus".

I think going through a harder classical mechanics text before thermo would be a better idea. I have Halliday & Resnick (Fundamentals...) and found it too long winded and perhaps even dumbed down. For classical mechanics, there's the Berkeley and MIT (this one's by AP French) Series and also "An Introduction to Classical Mechanics" by Kleppner and Kolenkow.

Are you applying to college for fall '13 or did you apply for this fall?

[hopeless1]

@eatyoualive-finally! you are alive! so which uni have u finalised or still waiting for Brown?

[akashdip]

@Sombre
i'm not a huge fan of hall & knight myself. but the book covers all the topics required for the time being, & a few more. besides the sums in it arent challenging enough. bernard & child triumphs in that matter. tbh i like both the books.
and i have completed algebra & geometry, the part thats required for high school, & some more. i just mentioned the names of the authors of the books i use. atm i'm concentrating on calculus. and really man! spivak seems to suck the life out of me! i'd choose thomas & finney over spivak any day. however, to be fair, spivak is more exahaustive than, afaik, all other calculus books. and its sums are also geared towards those who are in the higher end of the spectrum. so, in a sort of way, i like spivak too.
for classical mechanics, i like it the rigorous mathematical way. so, irodov's mechanics does fine for me.
and what do you mean when you say i should read higher level classical mechanics before i start thermodynamics? we've been studying thermodynamics since grade 10. i just wanted to learn some higher concepts from zemansky.
btw what are the 'Berkeley and MIT Series'? are the other topics like wave optics present in the series too? are they available for free download in pdf format? i'm asking 'cause i surely wont find them here in india.
thanks.

[Sombre]

I don't know how advanced your tenth grade thermodynamics class could have been. I've never used Irodov but around the time I needed a copy, I wasn't in India, so couldn't buy one.

Kleppner and Kolenkow is the book that MIT uses in the "honours" (it's not called that but they have a few variants of freshman physics and that's the one they used in the advanced class) mechanics class. It's on Scribd, so you can view it there and see for yourself.

I found the book by Bernard and Child (legal download) on a website called Archive. (not to be confused with arXiv) I really didn't find Hall and Knight to my liking. It was just statement after statement, examples and problems. I'd like something that while rigorous, is also more approachable. Is the one by Bernard and Child like that?

There are a few volumes of Physics books in the MIT series by AP French and another called the Berkeley Series. I can't remember who wrote it but it's by a group of different authors. I actually bought it in India for under Rs600. If I lived in India, I would've used flipkart or something to get the books.

[akashdip]

the thermodynamics in our syllabus is pretty easy. it covers the 1st law completely & the 2nd law a little bit(i wouldnt bother to mention the 0th law. its so... funny?). however i must admit, some of the problems from the 1st law can make you scratch your head for a while. basic problems from 2nd law though. this is our physics syllabus. the chemistry course covers all the 3 laws, and man, they have some difficult sums!
well, neither bernard & child nor hall & knight is 'more approachable' in the sense you mean it. sorry about that. but if you happen to be in india, you could definitely go for s. k. goyal's 'Algebra'. its good, well written, but a tad too easy imo.

[akashdip]

is it me or has every bangladeshi quit cc?

[amyharvard]

@akashdip,no I am here......I visit Bangladeshi thread everyday but nothing to post,lol
what about you? Howz life?

[ivyaspire]

Well, I'm not kidding. akashdip you shall start your post-doc study from now on !!

[akashdip]

@amyharvard life has turned pretty boring for me atm. nothing to do but study, study and study. dont even get time for piano recitals. nor soccer. damn.
@ivyaspire how i wish so man! how i wish so! all these school & iit-jee preparation are sucking the life out of me.

[amyharvard]

@akashdip,same here,nothing to do except to study but i still manage to go to gym and sometimes church,lol

[NPcomplete]

Hey guys sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been visiting schools over the break.

@akash: I am not a physicist myself but am happy to see your passion in the field. I am not much older than you are so do not expect me to give the best advice on this. Copy this list down somewhere. Some of the books are old, but I'm just saying they're the ones I use (used/will use).

The best textbooks for math/science are usually in German/Russian, but no one bothers to translate them because they are pirated so much. The books I have listed are American (one of them is British) so they are all in comfortable English. One of them is translated from Russian.

Here are the books:

Physics: Fundamentals of Physics by Resnick & Halliday
Electrodynamics: Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths
Electrical Engineering: Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering by Rizzoni
Chemistry: Chemistry: The Central Science by Brown, Lemay and Murphy
Thermodynamics: An Introduction to Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics by Stowe
Calculus I, II and III: CALCULUS by Larsen and Edwards
Probability and Statistics: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis by Peck, Olsen and Devore
Numerical Analysis: Introduction to Numerical Analysis by Dover
Probability Theory (emphasis on combinatorics): Introduction to Probability by Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis
Real Analysis: Introduction to Real Analysis by Bartle and Sherbert
Algebraic Topology: Algebraic Topology by Allen Hatcher
Microeconomics (without calculus): Principles of Microeconomics by Mankiw
Macroeconomics: The Macroeconomy Today by Schiller
Economics (with calculus and with both micro/macro) : Economics with calculus by Lovell
Accounting: Business Accounting I by Wood and Sangster
Introduction to computer science (Java): How to think like a Computer Scientist by Downey
Introduction to computing: Introduction to computing by Dave Evans
Psychology: Psychology by Myers

Akash, PM me if you need a copy of any of these texts. The first book out of all of these should be the calculus book with calculus I, II and III. Then you are ready to ace the rest of them. But math always should come first!

NP

[akashdip]

@NPcomplete my heartfelt gratitude for the info.

[akashdip]

no one has posted in this thread for almost 48 hours. and you guys blamd me for saying that this thread has gone dead?!

[amyharvard]

really this thread is dead........lets start posting,and make this thread alive once again.....