What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics - The Theoretical Minimum

This little book is a wonderful compact introduction the methodology of analytical mechanics. While not new to me, I thoroughly enjoyed this review of the action principle, the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation of the equations of motion, symmetries and conservation laws, and Poisson brackets. For those who think these fancy techniques are superfluous, and all mechanical problems can be solved with F = ma, the authors suggest setting up the equations of motion for the double pendulum. There is also a chapter on electromagnetic forces that touches on the mysteries of gauge invariance.

The one most regrettable omission is the proof that Poisson brackets satisfy the Jacobi condition: {A, {B, C}} + {B, {C, A}} + {C, {A, B}} = 0. A very clever, non-tedious proof can be found in Landau & Lifschitz "Mechanics". A consequence of the Jacobi condition is that if A and B are conserved quantities, so is {A, B}. In addition, I am somewhat fuzzy about the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and would have liked some enlightenment on this. But maybe that's asking a bit much.

Finally. an appendix derives the solution of the Kepler problem of motion in a potential V(r) = -k/r. Energy is conserved, and angular momentum too because this is a central force. But the authors omit mention that this force law is very special because it possesses an additional conserved quantity, the Runge-Lenz vector. See the excellent Wiki page for this.

Like most physicists, he doesn't understand theoretical mathematics. So he makes completely nonsensical statements about infinities in the real universe. Go for this book to lean how to do the calculations and ignore the rest.

This is an easily readable and very basic introduction into the ground stuff of theoretical physics.
It is a requirement for those that want to start in this branch.
This looks promising for the rest of the series.
Leonard Susskind has produced hundreds of hours of high quality lectures that are freely available on YouTube and are divided in more than ten series that run from very basic to very advanced.
At least the basic stuff will now be accompanied by high quality books.
The cooperation with Hrabovsky ensures readability for novices.

Unfortunately the Kindle edition is completely unreadable on my device because of the very, VERY small equations throughout the book -- practically everything that's not plain text is way too small to read, and it can't be scaled up along with the text. And it's a real shame, too, because the content seems quite well put together; unfortunately the issue is so damaging to readability that I had to return the book, despite the fact that I really enjoyed the first few sections I read -- imagine my frustration. I tried to read it on a Samsung Galaxy S3, which I successfully used to read several other books, including books about physics, statistics and maths in general.

First of all - the book just assumes that you have good background in mathematics (which I happen to have) so it is not beginner level and second it just skips over so many things making a mix of "let's do it like a professional mathematician" and "just take my word for it". Another thing - it doesn't really help understand the background of the final equations (and let you work your way up either intuitively or mathematically) nor does it give strict mathematical proofs of the reasoning... Could/should have been better... Try Feynman if you really want to get in the physics...

I would highly recommend this book to those wanting a solid footing in Classical Mechanics. There are plenty of specific dives into the details of Classic phenomena, with an eye kept on future lessons.

The first chapter seems to be about the fact that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction but the chapter did not say that in so many words. I have a degree in electrical engineering and I felt intimidated by the book. I had planned to give it to my grandson that hopes to go to engineering school next year but I was not comfortable with that decision after scanning this book. Yes, I have been out of school a long time but if I were writing this book it would be easier to read.

This is not another "popular" treatment, it is real physics. This little book is true to its name, it is physics and the math needed to master the minimum a student or amateur physicist needs to think about the physics world, read real professional papers and move forward in your understanding. I look forward to the next installment.

If you like and understand calculus, derivatives, and differential equations you'll like this book. If you don't, spend your money elsewhere. The authors did a good job explaining the math used in classical physics. I guess I was looking for a book that would discuss applications of classical physics. This was way more math than I wanted. Great review book if you want to brush up on college level mathematics.

When the preface of the book states "no equations", I put the book back on the shelf. This book doesn't take that approach. I'm just starting but so far it looks very good. You won't simply "read" this book; you'll need to "work" your way through it with notes and working on the problems it poses. Hopefully the result will be an expanded understanding of modern physics. I'll update my review when I finish the book.

This an excellent classical physics book. It explains many approaches that your typical University Physics textbook leaves out, including Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics, Symmetry, and Poisson Brackets. It also reviews the math necessary to carry out the physics problems.

To respond to earlier critism about the equations being too small to read on the Kindle Version, I can tell you that's now fixed.

If you press and hold a finger on the equation you want to see, an option bar will pull up. One of the options is a magnifying glass with a + in it. Press that and the equation will magnify to a more than readable, size- Gigantic actually.

Oh, the books great!

On kindle, the written functions are rendered as pictures and not as text. In this process of translation, most functions have been rendered unintelligible. And because the author of the book utilizes functions as both premise and proof, the corrupted functions make learning impossible.
I haven't examined the print version. If there are not these errors in it, I still wouldn't recommend it. The author writes as if he presumes that these ideas are self evident, and they are not.

The material in "The Theoretical Minimum" is a lot to swallow; lots of equations and lots of "I'll leave the rest to you". It is more like class notes without the answers. I have a degree in Physics from 50 years ago and I struggled.

A better and more interesting book is Isaac Asimov's "Understanding Physics" which is 3 volumes in one: (1) Motion, sound and heat; (2) Light, magnetism and electricity; (3) the electron, proton and neutron.

I never took physics and last did calculus 25 years ago. This book lost me after 10 pages. Endless equations and not nearly enough explanation. The reviews said it was a book that was good if you hadn't had physics, but this was not the case.

The formatting in the Kindle version of this book is atrocious. There are huge spaces that should not be there in the middle of the text, and many of the formulas are too small to read. This looks like a first draft submitted to the store, but it was apparently published in 2014, three years ago, and no improvement.

I spent a few minutes trying to find a link to "report a problem" recommending that the store pulls this book completely, until the formatting is fixed, but as I found no such link, I write a review instead.