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good physics books

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:48 am
by dzpopstar
i want to do M.Sc in high energy particle physics from tokyo univ.
they need GRE physics and toefl.
can u please refer me some good books for physics GRE.
does anybody know what would be a good score for tokyo.
i have no research work.
thanks a lot.

Re: good physics books

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:58 pm
by matonski
Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday Resnick and Walker
Modern Physics by Beiser
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths

IMO, those 3 books are enough to get a good score. For extra credit, I suggest you understand what a Lagrangian is and what a partition function is. Not too detailed, but enough to be able to write them out for basic systems.

Re: good physics books

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:02 pm
by dzpopstar
Are you sure.
i know(theory) these books like back of my hand but still i am not confident about the subject, the reason might be the fact that none of them contain the numerical questions asked in the paper.

Re: good physics books

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:25 pm
by elzoido238
matonski wrote:Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday Resnick and Walker
Modern Physics by Beiser
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths

IMO, those 3 books are enough to get a good score. For extra credit, I suggest you understand what a Lagrangian is and what a partition function is. Not too detailed, but enough to be able to write them out for basic systems.
Great picks, I would also add Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths to this list.
dzpopstar wrote:Are you sure.
i know(theory) these books like back of my hand but still i am not confident about the subject, the reason might be the fact that none of them contain the numerical questions asked in the paper.
David Griffiths sits on the committee of examiners for the pgre, and many of the problems on the available practice tests in the subject areas if QM and electrodynamics are taken directly out of his books. Since Dr. Griffiths still sits on the committee, it is very likely that you will see problems from his texts on future exams. Therefore, if you familiarize yourself with the problems in these texts, you will greatly improve your chances of getting a good score.

Re: good physics books

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:34 pm
by dzpopstar
should i focus more of my time doing numericals or doing derivations?

Re: good physics books

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:07 pm
by ceyhanb
just wanted to bump this up, so that i get some feedback>

I have a B.S in Physics and now i am studying for the Physics GRE. I still have all my textbooks, but i know that I wont need to study all of them.

I know that Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday Resnick Walker and Modern Physics by Kenneth Krane Will be be extremely useful to study. It seems like the whole text will be important.

All I need to do is get a 50% on this exam to get into the program that I want.


My question is: How in depth should I study from the "Senior/Junior Level" texbooks such as Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths and Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths. Also, I think Classical Mechanics by Taylor will be useful for its Lagrangian calculations.

So, again: How in depth should I go? What topics should i focus on in Quantum Mechanics and Electromagnetism because these get really complicated as some of you may know.

I also have a book called "3000 Solved Problems in Physics by Shaum" so if you guys know this book please let me know which topics I should focus on.

Any help would be nice

Thanks for readin

Re: good physics books

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:42 pm
by nathan12343
ceyhanb wrote:just wanted to bump this up, so that i get some feedback>

I have a B.S in Physics and now i am studying for the Physics GRE. I still have all my textbooks, but i know that I wont need to study all of them.

I know that Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday Resnick Walker and Modern Physics by Kenneth Krane Will be be extremely useful to study. It seems like the whole text will be important.

All I need to do is get a 50% on this exam to get into the program that I want.


My question is: How in depth should I study from the "Senior/Junior Level" texbooks such as Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths and Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths. Also, I think Classical Mechanics by Taylor will be useful for its Lagrangian calculations.

So, again: How in depth should I go? What topics should i focus on in Quantum Mechanics and Electromagnetism because these get really complicated as some of you may know.

I also have a book called "3000 Solved Problems in Physics by Shaum" so if you guys know this book please let me know which topics I should focus on.

Any help would be nice

Thanks for readin
Don't study your junior level material particularly closely. The vast majority of the test is freshman level mechanics and E&M as well as material at the level of a sophomore Modern Physics class (Very basic QM, Thermo, and 'Classic Experiments').

Focus on the easy material, you will get the most points this way and it's probably the material which you don't remember as well.