Good Physics Book?

[Austin J]

Most games have some form of physics. I'm taking a class when we get back in school but I'm impatient, does anyone know some good physics books that seem to go well with programming? I'm talking about a physics book with Newtonian equations, motion etc. Not one of those books that talk about singularities and space-time curvature. That's fun and all but I don't think I'm going to be applying the General Theory of Relativity to a little game (assuming I could lol). I enjoy all physics in general, so it doesn't need to be one of those "Game Physics Programming" or anything, just a plain general physics book.

[ats15]

That depends on your level of math. If you are comfortable with simple differential equations, you can try Marion and Thornton - Classical dynamics of particles and systems. I assume that you are interested in mechanics part, not optics/ electriciy/ atomic physics/ etc.

[Austin J]

I have no problem with the book if those topics are included, there's a lot more things in life I like learning besides programming, it's fine if the book has some extra stuff to it that wouldn't necessarily apply to my goal here. I still have math classes to take, but I'm pretty good with it. If I don't know how to do something I can teach myself or go to Kahn Academy.

[andywestken]

As you say you want a good physics book but then go say it needs to be about Newtonian equations, etc; so do you actually want a good book on classical mechanics?

By the time you reach university, Physics books are usually about a single topic: classical mechanics, relativity, quantum mechanics, solid state physics, ...

The intro text for classical mechanics that I learnt from is "An introduction to mechanics" by Kleppner and Kolenkow. (My edition was published rather earlier than 2010...)

An Introduction to Mechanics
http://www.amazon.com/An-Introduction-Mechanics-Daniel-Kleppner/dp/0521198216

This focuses on classical mechanics, but does briefly introduce relativistic mechanics at the end.

And I see that it is also recommended reading by Princeton!
https://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/course_details.xml?courseid=005130&term=1132

Andy

[mutexe]

http://www.essentialmath.com/tutorial.htm

[Austin J]

Yeah sorry I was a little jumbled with that. Communication isn't always my strong point lol. I was trying to say it has to have classical mechanics. I was just clearing that up because I see a lot of people who say they're good at physics, but really all they have done is read the books with theoretical topics covering none of the math or deeper details.

My main priority is classical mechanics, I just meant that it's not a problem if it has other topics included, but it needs to have classical mechanics.

[andywestken]

Well, the Amazon page for "An Introduction to Mechanics" allows you to see the table of contents, so you can see if it's covering what you need/want.

Andy

[Austin J]

I've gotten the book digitally, thanks it's not bad. It certainly assumes you know your basic high school maths though, which is good or else it would be the size of a Chinese phone book lol.