Fundamentals of Physics I: Mechanics, Relativity, and Thermodynamics (Open Yale Courses)

The famous mathematician William Thurston, in an article, wrote about the meaning of giving a proof for a theorem. The point was the following. "What is the meaning of giving a proof for a theorem? When I was a college student, I couldn't understand that we have to prove something even though we can fully understand it. Even now, I have such an attitude. What we want is not giving a formal proof, but understanding". After reading the article, I was deeply moved and my attitude also has changed. What we want is understanding! A lecture or a book is valuable only if it helps us understand. In this sense, R. Shankar's Fundamentals of Physics is a fascinating introduction to physics.The focus of this book is not to list basic facts of physics and give its explanations, but to help us understand what physics is from the scratch. Even though its style is rather philosophical and fundamental, it is informal, lucid, practical, concrete (several examples for each subject).If you have a firm understanding of calculus and calculus of several variables, then it will be very helpful for you to read the book. By firm understanding of calculus, I mean the full understanding of basic concepts in calculus, for example, the meaning of derivative and differentials in finding approximate solutions, not various techniques of integrations. If you are a mathematician, then you will find that the author understands calculus deeply and accurately. I have studied calculus of several variables, but the content of the final chapter on statistical mechanics using it was difficult for me. I think it was not because of mathematics, but because of physics.There are several classical introductory books on physics. Among them, I'd like to compare the book with the Feynman Lectures on Physics. I just read a few chapters of Feynman's book. But I felt that he was saying too many things, and so for many freshmen, it might be confusing and difficult. But Shankar's book is more concise and easy. He seems to try to guide as many students as possible. You can find his online lecture of the book. If you watch his online lecture, you will see that he always wanted to be assured if the students understood the lectures. For example, he loves to hear questions. In fact, the book is a fruit of the online lectures at Yale University. His online lectures are easier than the book in many parts. The online lecture and the book are complementary. I first saw the online lecture corresponding to each chapter, and next, I studied the chapter of the book. This learning style was very good to me.The followings are detailed appreciation.1. There are three chapters on rotational mechanics in the whole 24 chapters. Before I go through, I thought it might be boring. What I desperately wanted to know were the first principles, not its applications, as far as I know, rotational mechanics belong to the latter. But my anticipation was wrong. They were really fascinating lectures. In fact, 23 years ago, as a freshman in physics department, I studied physics 101. At that time, this part was just some listing of facts to be memorized. But the book was different in that it explains rotational mechanics very kindly, step by step, from the three laws of Newtonian mechanics and the definitions of torque and angular momentum. In the chapters, there are also good examples that make readers feel as much that they understood everything the author said. In a paragraph, the author says, "the center of mass is not a physical entity". This kind of sentences makes reader to think that physics is a really concrete subject so that, in principle, we can understand physics in every detail. In almost every section, there are such sentences.2. Do you know what a gyroscope is? It is a really amazing thing. How is it possible that the top does not fall? How can you explain it with ordinary language? Before I read the book, I didn't know what the physical principles of the gyroscope are. After reading, I still don't understand why the top does not fall. This is not because the book failed to give an explanation. I searched several books and websites. What I come to know is that the mechanism of the gyroscope can be explained by classical mechanics, but there is no intuitive explanation of it: mathematics can explain it, but physics of the level of everyday experience cannot. I was shocked from this realization. The mysteries are not only quantum mechanics, relativity, and chaos. There is another mystery near at hand: a gyroscope that is a something we can play with whenever we want (you can buy it in less than 10 dollars).3. In the chapters on waves, he explains the velocity of sound as a wave moving through a medium, air. The velocities according to different observers can be different. His explanation for that was very clear.4. But not all is well about this book. At some places, you would not understand what the author says until you see the online lecture, and vice versa. Reading the chapter on mathematical methods, I thought I would be able to explain more clearly than the author. The sections on the derivation of the wave equation, gyroscope, and statistical mechanics were hard to understand.5. Among this entire good lecture, what is the best lecture? I cannot choose one. I'd like to mention two parts, the chapters on fluid mechanics and on relativity. If you think fluid mechanics is uninteresting and relativity is confusing, then I recommend the book to you. You will find that fluid mechanics is really easy and interesting, and relativity is understandable even to lay people if you don't try to understand everything the author says but you believe there are perfect explanation for that somewhere in a book (maybe in library at heaven?) and just try to understand points.

EXPANDED EDITION is now available!!! This book now has over 300 original exercises! Answers are given for each of them, but not the solutions. It is always better to make an effort to solve the problem by yourself, than to look at the solution. With this great addition this book is now even more invaluable for self-learners and instructors alike. I don't know of any other physics textbook that can inspire students to choose physics as their major. Highly recommended!This book is a must-read for anybody interested in learning, or teaching fundamentals of physics. It is based on Professor Shankar's masterfully held course: Fundamentals of Physics I, available at Open Yale Courses website. This book preserves the unique spirit of Professor Shankar's superb teaching style, the style that makes watching his lectures as exciting and pleasurable experience as watching some great movie! Lot of essential material is expertly covered on these 446 pages: Newtonian mechanics, Oscillations, Waves, Fluids, Special Theory of Relativity, Thermodynamics, Statistical Physics, and useful chapters on relevant mathematical methods, as well as many solved examples. The book is extremely readable being stripped of all distractive colorful pictures that burden most of the standard textbooks today. It is written with utmost clarity and with original approach to presenting major topics in physics. As Richard Feynman would put it - no baloney in this book! The text is full of humor, which gives a glimpse of how exciting it is to sit in Prof. Shankar's class. The book is an excellent addition to the recorded course at Open Yale Courses website. The price of the book is very affordable. I hope the second volume, covering Fundamentals of Physics II, will be published soon too. In short - I highly recommend this unique book, written by one of the greatest living bards of the Art of Physics Teaching!Branislav DjordjevicTerm Associate Professor of PhysicsGeorge Mason University

This book is a good way to refresh your memory of concepts from the first year of college physics. Shankar is well known to many quantum mechanics students book from his textbook. He is a highly respected teacher with an online series on basic physics. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 16 on mathematical methods which is a quick summary of Taylor Series and complex variables. If you are familiar with this material, it is a nice relaxing read of old mathematical friends. The derivations for the series for e, sin, and cos are straightforward if you remember beginning calculus. Shankar quickly mentions Leonard Euler. If you do not know who Leonard Euler is or the significance of the formula attributed him please read Maor's e:the Story of the Number and then Nahin's An Imaginary Tale. The chapters in this book are approximately 20 pages long and usually can be read with about an hour of time. The chapters on rotational dynamics, simple harmonic motion, and waves are an excellent review of concepts that will be required for future study of basic quantum mechanics. There are three nice chapters on special relativity. The reader may also want to check out Collier's A Most Incomprehensible Thing. As stated elsewhere electromagnetism and quantum mechanics are planned in the second volume of this book. Be warned that the author inserts many jokes that are not that funny.