Here are 100 books that Mathematical Physics fans have personally recommended if you like
Mathematical Physics.
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I hate nothing more than feeling uncertain about my views on an important topic. That’s why I cherish tools for thought that help me cut through the various confusions to which humans are prone. The sharpest tool we’ve got is modern symbolic logic, as it has been developed since the late 19th century. I’ve loved symbolic logic since I took my first logic class in college. I’ve been teaching Intro Logic for over twenty years at Princeton University, and I’ve published several papers and books that employ logic to try to gain clarity on philosophical issues.
This is a mathematics textbook unlike any other you have encountered before. Remarkably, there are no numbers—only structures, patterns, and arrows.
However, this book is not designed to teach you how to construct proofs. Instead, it offers a fascinating introduction to a new way of thinking mathematically.
In the last 60 years, the use of the notion of category has led to a remarkable unification and simplification of mathematics. Conceptual Mathematics introduces this tool for the learning, development, and use of mathematics, to beginning students and also to practising mathematical scientists. This book provides a skeleton key that makes explicit some concepts and procedures that are common to all branches of pure and applied mathematics. The treatment does not presuppose knowledge of specific fields, but rather develops, from basic definitions, such elementary categories as discrete dynamical systems and directed graphs; the fundamental ideas are then illuminated by…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I hate nothing more than feeling uncertain about my views on an important topic. That’s why I cherish tools for thought that help me cut through the various confusions to which humans are prone. The sharpest tool we’ve got is modern symbolic logic, as it has been developed since the late 19th century. I’ve loved symbolic logic since I took my first logic class in college. I’ve been teaching Intro Logic for over twenty years at Princeton University, and I’ve published several papers and books that employ logic to try to gain clarity on philosophical issues.
A true gem in the realm of symbolic logic textbooks, this book stands out for its crystal-clear explanations and elegant English prose. It’s my top recommendation for anyone coming from a humanities background or returning to academia after a break.
Tomassi’s writing makes symbolic logic both accessible and engaging.
Bringing elementary logic out of the academic darkness into the light of day, Paul Tomassi makes logic fully accessible for anyone attempting to come to grips with the complexities of this challenging subject. Including student-friendly exercises, illustrations, summaries and a glossary of terms, Logic introduces and explains:
* The Theory of Validity * The Language of Propositional Logic * Proof-Theory for Propositional Logic * Formal Semantics for Propositional Logic including the Truth-Tree Method * The Language of Quantificational Logic including the Theory of Descriptions.
Logic is an ideal textbook for any logic student: perfect for revision, staying on top of…
I hate nothing more than feeling uncertain about my views on an important topic. That’s why I cherish tools for thought that help me cut through the various confusions to which humans are prone. The sharpest tool we’ve got is modern symbolic logic, as it has been developed since the late 19th century. I’ve loved symbolic logic since I took my first logic class in college. I’ve been teaching Intro Logic for over twenty years at Princeton University, and I’ve published several papers and books that employ logic to try to gain clarity on philosophical issues.
Although I’m not a programmer, I couldn’t leave programming—a quintessential example of symbolic reasoning—off this list. For someone like me, with a background in mathematics and philosophy, this book provides a concrete look at how abstract reasoning can be applied in programming.
For programmers, it’s an engaging introduction to category theory. This is a brilliant example of interdisciplinary thinking at its best.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I have always had a fascination with science. It came not from school or college, where lessons were sometimes dull, but from books about the discoveries and the people who made them. After careers as a soldier and as a government statistician I felt impelled to spread the word by writing, or at least try. After 40 rejections, my first book – about James Clerk Maxwell – was published and, to my joy, found many readers. My aim in writing is simply to share enjoyment with readers in an equal partnership. And I hope always to leave the reader feeling that he or she really knows the people I am writing about.
Malcolm Longair’s book is like a course of very good lectures that get behind the equations to reveal the context of their discovery. For example, we learn how Planck, who hated Boltzmann’s statistical approach to the theory of heat, was obliged to adopt it in order to solve the problem of black body radiation, and how this led to the concept of the quantum. There are plenty of equations but each chapter tells a compelling story of people at work, and the presentation all the way through is beautifully clear, with superb illustrations.
In this original and integrated approach to theoretical reasoning in physics, Malcolm Longair illuminates the subject from the perspective of real physics as practised by research scientists. Concentrating on the basic insights, attitudes and techniques that are the tools of the modern physicist, this approach conveys the intellectual excitement and beauty of the subject. Through a series of seven case studies, an undergraduate course in classical physics and the discovery of quanta are reviewed from the point of the view of how the great discoveries and changes of perspective came about. This approach illuminates the intellectual struggles needed to attain…
I volunteered at my local library in small-town North Carolina from a very young age. One day I picked up Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, cementing my love of science. Sagan’s explanation that we’re all just a speck on the pale blue dot called Earth spoke to me and made me curious to know more. I begged my parents to let me go to Space Camp in Alabama and I went to North Carolina Governor’s School for Physics. I didn’t pursue a scientific career but I always retained my love of science. When I finally became an author in my 40s, I knew I would someday write a sci-fi time travel romance—eventually, A Paradox of Fates was born.
When I was researching time travel theories for A Paradox of Fates, I dove into this book and fell in love with Kaku’s writing all over again. I’d read him previously, and he does a great job at explaining high-concept science at a common-sense level. This is a fantastic book for anyone curious about physics where understanding seems just out of reach.
From cyborgs, starships, UFOs, aliens and antimatter to telepathy, invisibility, psychokinesis and precognition, Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible is an exciting look at how science fiction could soon become science fact.
Albert Einstein said, 'If at first an idea does not sound absurd, there is no hope for it.' Physics of the Impossible shows how our most far-fetched ideas today - from Star Trek's phasers and teleportation to time travel as envisioned by Back to the Future - are destined to become tomorrow's reality.
Michio Kaku, bestselling science author and one of the world's most acclaimed physicists, looks at…
I am a financial data scientist. I think it is important that data scientists are highly specialized if they want to be effective in their careers. I run a business called Conlan Scientific out of Charlotte, NC where me and my team of financial data scientists tackle complicated machine learning problems for our clients. Quant trading is a gladiator’s arena of financial data science. Anyone can try it, but few succeed at it. I am sharing my top five list of math books that are essential to success in this field. I hope you enjoy.
While studying computer networks, Claude Shannon did something pretty impressive. He reformulated the majority of classical statistics from scratch using the language and concepts of computer science.
Statistical noise? There’s a new word for that; it’s called entropy. Also, it turns out it is a good thing, not a bad thing because entropy is equal to the information content or a data set. Tired of minimizing the squared error of everything? That’s fine, minimize the log of its likelihood instead. It does the same thing. This book challenges the assumptions of classical statistics in a way that fits neatly in the mind of a computer scientist. As a quant trader, this book will help you understand and measure the information content of data, which is critical to your success.
Scientific knowledge grows at a phenomenal pace--but few books have had as lasting an impact or played as important a role in our modern world as The Mathematical Theory of Communication, published originally as a paper on communication theory more than fifty years ago. Republished in book form shortly thereafter, it has since gone through four hardcover and sixteen paperback printings. It is a revolutionary work, astounding in its foresight and contemporaneity. The University of Illinois Press is pleased and honored to issue this commemorative reprinting of a classic.
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I got hooked on superheroes from a very early age. My mom grew up in the Golden Age of comics and loved superheroes. She'd bring home a random assortment of adventures—Batman, Iron Man, Flash, Avengers, Justice League, Iron Fist, Captain America. I was especially keen on the martial arts mayhem so many could bring to bear. That got me started (and I've never stopped since) in martial arts as a teen and took me into a career in science. I bring my own interest, my knowledge of martial arts, and my extensive career and training as a sensorimotor neuroscientist as I explore the science of human achievement through the lens of comic book superheroes.
I love learning cool and niche nerdy science stuff. James Kakalios unpacks fundamental physics and the fun of superheroes in a crazy solid read.
Trust me, you need to know how many cheeseburgers the Flash would need to eat in order for his metabolism to power his runs around the Earth. Why Gwen Stacy’s death wasn’t Spider-Man’s fault and more. Also how high Superman could really jump, how Iron Man's suit would really work and more.
C'mon. These are fundamental truths of modern civilization and they are all laid bare in this fun and engaging foray into physics!
A complete update to the hit book on the real physics at work in comic books, featuring more heroes, more villains, and more science
Since 2001, James Kakalios has taught "Everything I Needed to Know About Physics I Learned from Reading Comic Books," a hugely popular university course that generated coast-to-coast media attention for its unique method of explaining complex physics concepts through comics. With The Physics of Superheroes, named one of the best science books of 2005 by Discover, he introduced his colorful approach to an even wider audience. Now Kakalios presents a totally updated, expanded edition that features…
My passionate scientific interest in cosmology began several decades ago as a Stanford student while moon-lighting as a cloud chamber photo scanner at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). An initial interest in particle physics merged with an interest in cosmology because the Big Bang theory is about both. Developing a unique cosmology model and collaborating with other cosmologists around the world was a natural extension. Following numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications, our book summarizing them was one, as well. Taking a passionate interest in anything and sharing it with others is an important first step!
I love Stephan Hawking’s A Brief History of Time because it was the first book that inspired me to become a cosmologist. It is a terrific overview of the science behind the modern belief in the Big Bang and what has followed.
It is told with Hawking’s wry sense of humor and unique ability to make complex concepts understandable to the layperson and budding scientist, which I was at the time. It is a fantastic start for my readers of all persuasions.
Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and…
I am totally fascinated by the quest of how Nature does it. In particular, I love the fact that humans managed to enters the strange world of atoms and photons by just using their brute intellectual force and imagination. This world obeys precise rules, but very different ones from those we get used to since childhood. For example, the laws that govern the microscopic world allow for indeterminacy and randomness. Moreover, some random events may manifest themselves at several locations at once, leading to the phenomenon of quantum non-locality. I am very fortunate that I could spend all my professional time on such fascinating conceptual questions, combined with highly timely new technologies.
This is a wonderful and highly convincing analysis of quantum non-locality, written by one of the top expert philosophers of science. Personally, I learned a lot from this book, which clearly influenced me and helped me to become an expert in the field. The book goes deep into explaining why we live in a world full of non-local correlations and what that means. It analyses in depth the tension between quantum non-locality and relativity. Moreover, it contains several original ideas, like, e.g., how many bits of communication are needed to simulate quantum non-locality. It is still today a very timely book.
Modern physics was born from two great revolutions: relativity and quantum theory. Relativity imposed a locality constraint on physical theories: since nothing can go faster than light, very distant events cannot influence one another. Only in the last few decades has it become clear that quantum theory violates this constraint. The work of J. S. Bell has demonstrated that no local theory can return the predictions of quantum theory. Thus it would seem that the central pillars of modern physics are contradictory. Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity examines the nature and possible resolution of this conflict. Beginning with accurate but non-technical…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I am totally fascinated by the quest of how Nature does it. In particular, I love the fact that humans managed to enters the strange world of atoms and photons by just using their brute intellectual force and imagination. This world obeys precise rules, but very different ones from those we get used to since childhood. For example, the laws that govern the microscopic world allow for indeterminacy and randomness. Moreover, some random events may manifest themselves at several locations at once, leading to the phenomenon of quantum non-locality. I am very fortunate that I could spend all my professional time on such fascinating conceptual questions, combined with highly timely new technologies.
This book tells the fascinating story of the people and events behind the turbulent changes in attitudes to quantum theory in the second half of the 20th century. Science is sometimes quite abstract. But it is made by very concrete persons whose characters shape the various scientific communities.
This book tells the fascinating story of the people and events behind the turbulent changes in attitudes to quantum theory in the second half of the 20th century. The huge success of quantum mechanics as a predictive theory has been accompanied, from the very beginning, by doubts and controversy about its foundations and interpretation. This book looks in detail at how research on foundations evolved after WWII, when it was revived, until the mid 1990s, when most of this research merged into the technological promise of quantum information. It is the story of the quantum dissidents, the scientists who brought…
