Thread: trying to learn physics

hi,

im a 15 year old kid that lives in sweden and duing the summer i have been watching a lot of videos about physics but the problem is i dont really understand them so usually i just watch a video and think, wow cool and then i go on to another one. and oubviously i understand you cant understand everything without going to school for it but thats kind of hard for people my age so what i wanted to ask was how do i start learning the basic stuff so i can understand more and acctually learn stuff from these videos. where did you start.

Originally Posted by yokomoko

where did you start.

...in school. with a good teacher and with a lot of determination.

PS: yoku-moku is a type of Japanese tea cookies, very good.

where did you start

I think videos are not necessarily the best vehicle to learn physics from. I personally started with developing and firming up my maths skills ( when I was even younger than you are now ), starting with algebra and then calculus; these two form the basis of everything you do in physics. Afterwards it will be a good idea to get a comprehensive entry-level physics textbook, such as Young & Freedman, University Physics, 13th edition. It is an excellent introductory text that covers the basics of most areas in physics, and it is very well presented with many pictures, illustrations and exercises. You do need to know your basic algebra and calculus, though.

I'm afraid the only way to succeed in physics is to put in the hard work, and study.

Originally Posted by yokomoko

hi,

im a 15 year old kid that lives in sweden and duing the summer i have been watching a lot of videos about physics but the problem is i dont really understand them so usually i just watch a video and think, wow cool and then i go on to another one. and oubviously i understand you cant understand everything without going to school for it but thats kind of hard for people my age so what i wanted to ask was how do i start learning the basic stuff so i can understand more and acctually learn stuff from these videos. where did you start.

I agree with others who say get away from videos. Your reaction "wow, cool" is just what I would expect and it's about as far as you'll get from videos.

You need something where you can go back and think harder about bits you don't follow first time round. A BOOK on basic physics is what you need. Simple things such as mechanics and the science of states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) are not hard and will equip you to understand more complex things. You will need some simple maths, e.g. how to understand simple formulae such as F = ma, E = 1/2mv^2 but not much more than this at the start.

And I do not understand why you say you cannot study this at school. Surely this is exactly what is taught to school students of your age, isn't it?