From Aerospace Engineering to Physics

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dajja15
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Joined: Sun May 20, 2007 9:16 pm

From Aerospace Engineering to Physics

Post by dajja15 » Sun May 20, 2007 9:22 pm

I am a junior undergrad in Aerospace Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I am going to get my Masters here and my plan after that is to get a PH.D in Physics. I will have a minor in physics by the time I graduate here. What should I do to prepare myself for the physics GRE and getting into grad school. I am doing some physics reserach at a university this summer and I might do some more physics research as oppurtunities arise. What is the best way to cover all the material that I will nto cover from a minor in physics and my aero degree. Any advice would be very appreciated! Thanks a lot.

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Helio
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Post by Helio » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:53 pm

Depends most on the courses you took for the minor. I am guessing mechanics should not be such a large problem, while the Quantum and E&M might create some question marks.

Here you can get a nice overview on the weight and topics covered

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_gre

As a couple recommendations regarding books:

A general physics book used in the intro courses is the basis:
Ohanian, Halliday and Resnick, etc.

For Atomic Physics:

Eisberg & Resnick is all you need
http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-M ... 047187373X

For E&M

Griffiths
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Elec ... 347&sr=1-1

For Quantum:

Start with Eisberg & Resnick to get back into it and the go on to the upper division book, there are too many out there.

Thermo and Stat:

Either Schröder or Reif
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Ther ... 569&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Stat ... 612&sr=1-1

Well those are the books that have been recommended to me by the current Chair of the GRE board, he was my prof. for all three intro physics courses.

Generally, try to over as much as possible and see how familiar you are with the concepts and study those you don't understand/have problems with. There are a couple guides, but some are out of print, exceedingly expensive or not the best way to study. [/url]



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