My Physics Learning Roadmap

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This post records the roadmap and resources for my physics learning, with the goal of understanding the conceptual structure of modern physics as a non-physicist.

For the mathematical background used in physics, please refer to my math learning roadmap.

My Physics Learning Roadmap

These help build intuition about the overall structure of physics. They are not meant to be read linearly.

  • The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. I,II,III The New Millennium Edition. The online version is available here but I prefer to download a PDF version from zlib
  • The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe — Roger Penrose
  • Princeton Companion to Physics But according to its project website: https://pctp.online/ It won’t be published ubtil 2029.

Stage 1 — Core Physics

This stage covers the five fundamental pillars of modern physics.

  • Intorduction to modern physics:

    University Physics with Modern Physics, 15th Edition (Hugh D. Young, Roger A. Freedman) downloaded via zlib

  • Classical Mechanics:

    John Taylor — Classical Mechanics

  • Electromagnetism:

    • David Griffiths — Introduction to Electrodynamics

    • Fawwaz Ulaby & Umberto Ravaioli — Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics

  • Quantum Mechanics:

    • David Griffiths — Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

  • Statistical Physics / Thermodynamics:

    • Daniel Schroeder — An Introduction to Thermal Physics

  • Relativity:

    • Taylor & Wheeler — Spacetime Physics

Stage 2

  • Quantum Mechanics:

    • J. J. Sakurai — Modern Quantum Mechanics

  • Quantum Field Theory:

    • A. Zee — Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell

  • Quantum Computing:

    • Quantum Computation and Quantum Information — Nielsen & Chuang

  • Condensed Matter Phycics:

  • Modern Condensed Matter Phycics - Steven M. Girvin and Kun Yang