Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences

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• csirac2 · Feb 4, 2015 · Recommends

  Mary L Boas "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" [1] has absolutely been my favorite and most-used maths text in the 9 years since graduating uni. It's like a reference manual of just about all the non-CS (i.e. continuous/non-discrete) mathematical…

  on “A Software Engineer’s Adventures in Learning Mathematics” ↗
• _corbett · Nov 10, 2010 · Recommends

  Mary Boas' "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" is also excellent, I'm using it for a course I'm teaching. At a level where a student is comfortable with calculus it presents an overview of the many areas needed to make graduate physics courses accessible.…

  on “Theoretical Physics, In Your Own Time” ↗
• ArtWomb · Oct 24, 2019 · Recommends

  Good list! I'd also add Mary Boas' Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences. A standard textbook for incoming students across disciplines and very accessible

  on “Ask HN: Are there books for mathematics like Feynman's lectures on physics?” ↗
• Hasz · Mar 26, 2020 · Recommends

  I would like to add one of my favorite mathematical "cookbooks" -- "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" by Mary Boas. Bad Integrals? Tensor Analysis? Fancy functions and special polynomials? PDE tricks? Boas has solutions! Methods are practically explained and succinct. It's my favorite book to brush…

  on “Ask HN: How to self-study physics?” ↗
• bkcooper · Aug 25, 2014 · Recommends

  …tricky, because you will usually need more development in math in concert with the physics. The omnibus "engineering mathematics" type books will cover a lot of it but I don't really like them. Boas's Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences would be something I would look at. For more detailed looks at electromagnetism and quantum mechanics, I (and many others I know) really liked David Griffiths's textbooks. The Feynman lectures make an…

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• phonon · Dec 4, 2014 · Recommends

  …counting numbers to partial differential equations. It's also a delight to read. I would start that as a survey of mathematical concepts, and then move on to a good math engineering/physics textbook, like Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas

  on “Ask HN: How or where to begin learning mathematics from first principles?” ↗
• laxatives · Jul 6, 2015 · Recommends

  On a related note, Mary Boas's text, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences does a great job of giving you the necessary bag of tricks to learn all of undergraduate level physics (and probably much more) without diving too deep into any single topic. It should be sufficient to…

  on “Physical Intuition, Not Mathematics (2011)” ↗
• LatteLazy · Apr 8, 2020 · Recommends

  …intergals, Maxwells Equations are actually really intuitive and quit beautiful. I was lucky that the maths course I was on covered those a few weeks before we started electrodynamics. Plus I had Mary Boas Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences which teaches this material (and Greens theorem etc) very well.

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• LatteLazy · Jun 5, 2023 · Recommends

  …student do with all these books? I did my U/G & Masters in Physics in Exeter UK. We used only 1 actual textbook (University Physics by Young and Freedman, about 45USD new). I bought 1 more by choice (Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary Boas) because I needed some help there and the lecturer was weak. But all the actual information I needed was covered in lectures, tutorials etc. Assignments were class specific and produced…

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• infinet · Nov 10, 2025 · Recommends

  …of mathematicians! From the list, I have only read What is Mathematics? by Courant, which is a well-known and excellent book. I’d add Princeton Companion to Mathematics as a more advanced version, and Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary Boas as a more detailed alternative to What is Mathematics, to the list. Other titles on the list, such as those on probability or linear algebra, are perhaps less well-known.

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• no_one_ever · May 15, 2018 · Recommends

  Was a physics student. IMO the best book you can drill questions from is Boas' Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences. It offers fairly succinct yet comprehensive overviews of various fields of math. I still have my copy sitting at home. It is considered an essential textbook for any physics student. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Methods_in_the_Ph...

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• eointierney · Sep 1, 2021 · Recommends

  …stuff. Before going back to college to do Maths and Physics I went out to the local university to get advice as to how to study the subjects. I was told to get Feynman's Lectures ((in)famous) and Boas' Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences (extremely terse but excellent). I did, tried my best, and in retrospect still think they were taking the piss. And yet, when I went back to university a year later, there were so many ideas and intuitions…

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