Course of Theoretical Physics
Mechanics (Course of Theoretical Physics)
by L.D Landau · first published 1982
50% recommend44% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
A concise, dense treatment of theoretical physics' core, with one commenter praising its explanation of quantum mechanics. Widely cited as a standard graduate-level reference for working through physics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Modern physics requires rigorous mathematics. For a nonrigorous introduction/overview: - The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose If you want to actually learn almost all of physics at a high level: - Course of Theoretical Physics by Landau Note that Landau is extremely difficult. If you want to learn the math needed for modern physics (topology) in the context of physics, nonrigorously: - Geometry, Topology, and Physics by…
on “Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics” ↗…fill these knowledge deficits. Iterate. - If you want to become smarter in physics (the following advice is what a good friend of me gave who I really trust regarding this): Start with the 10 books of "Course of Theoretical Physics" by Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics Having read these books should (according to him) give you at least some very basic foundation of physics…
on “Will low and no code tools ever truly disrupt tech development?” ↗Leonard Susskind's The Theoretical Minimum is a favorite of mine. There's a series of lectures on Youtube that accompanies the books. Check out L.D. Landau's Course of Theoretical Physics if you're open to reading a textbook.
on “Ask HN: What is a good lecture series on physics?” ↗The C Programming Language Course of Theoretical Physics
on “Ask HN: Which non-fiction books had the biggest impact on you?” ↗…confusing and difficult to grasp, and it is indeed so. In that first chapter, however, I've found the most illuminating explanation of quantum mechanics I've ever read. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Cohen-Tannoudji#Selecte... EDIT: I just opened Landau's Mechanics Vol I, and here's what his colleague had to say about his writing and teaching style: "[These…
on “A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics” ↗Also Landau and Lifshitz, Course of Theoretical Physics.[1] Released to public domain on archive.org: https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/1dmxq7/our_beloved... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics
on “So You Want to Learn Physics (2016)” ↗…might find it a a really affordable price because they had licenses to print these books, and generally speaking, the MIR Publishers, Moscow, books. - "Problems in Mathematical Analysis", Demidovich. - "Course of Theoretical Physics", Landau. - "Problems in General Physics", Irodov. You'll note that there are "course" books and "problem" books in there. All the best,
on “Ask HN: Great resources for university calculus/physics?” ↗…things like steam turbines. Structure does sponataneously appear in a gas in thermal equilibrium, one can show this in a classroom experiment. Landau and Lifshitz vol 5 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics#...> is the standard textbook. There's an older copy on the Internet Archive <https://archive.org/details/landau-and-lifshitz-physics-text...>. (Having the background of L&L vol 9 makes a classroom…
on “Boltzmann brain” ↗On the graduate side: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics
on “Short Little Difficult Books” ↗Course of Theoretical Physics by Lev Landau, Evgeny Lifshitz was considered the gold standard at the graduate level, although not very pedagogical. It's better to read the particular books after one has already taken a course on the…
on “So You Want to Learn Physics (2016)” ↗On the topic of free introductory physics books, Landau's Course of Theoretical Physics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics) is available on archive.org, since the earliest editions are out of copyright by now: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22L.D.+Landa...
on “How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist” ↗I haven't read it, and it may be too advanced for this purpose, but Landau's books are generally held in extremely high regard and volume six of his Course of Theoretical Physics is on fluid mechanics. For what it's worth, volumes two and three cover electrodynamics and quantum mechanics, respectively.
on “There exists a classical model of the photon after all” ↗…current one (e.g., the Landau lineage) which leaves m alone. You won't find any "relativistic mass" in any decent source published since the famous theoretical minimum ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics ). There is a very good reason for this approach. In the simplest, most classic way of deriving the special relativity from the first principles, the 4-velocity is introduced before the 4-momentum. I.e.,…
on “Kilogram conflict resolved at last” ↗…pseudotensor, respectively), if the universe were finite." Wikipedia cites the Landau and Lifshitz physics textbook from the Soviet Union, Landau, Lev, Lifshitz, E.M. (1975). The Classical Theory of Fields (Course of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 2) (revised 4th English ed.). New York: Pergamon Press. pp. 358–397. ISBN 978-0-08-018176-9, for this statement. Some multiverse theories such as those mentioned in another comment posted before…
on “How big is the entire universe?” ↗It looks like the result of combining the first volume of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_Theoretical_Physics with SICP.
on “Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics” ↗