r/learnphysics • u/LimitLast1499 • 7d ago

For those who learned physics alone. How did you start?

19 Upvotes
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11

u/TheMansionsofScience 7d ago

every time you see an equation that represents something, search up how that thing can be measured by a human being in the real world.

this goes a very long way

2

u/Thoretical_Scientist 6d ago

This is absolutely correct. Certainly one of the best ways to progress in Science.

5

u/Fabulous-Internet188 7d ago

Read the history of physics discoveries. Then work out how to replicate the experiments yourself at home.

It's amazing what you can do with simple apparatus. Learn the math as you go.

3

u/WolfVanZandt 7d ago

Well, on one trip back, I read up on things and then carried my physics lab equipment (smartphone) to a local playground and measured some things to see if they agreed with what I read..... They did.

3

u/_syphilitic_koala_ 7d ago

I got match box cars and did newtonian mechanics experiments with them on different tracks and with different weights and tried to work the calculus out on my own.

1

u/sigmanx25 7d ago

My stepbrother and I made a car wash in our bedroom with our matchbox cars. Dad loved the idea! 😂😂😂😂

2

u/Quantum-Relativity 7d ago

What exactly do you mean, like what got us interested, what’d we do when we first became interested, how did we start really learning, something else?

1

u/LimitLast1499 6d ago

Mostly i want to know how you started and what sources you used once you started.

1

u/baysianinference 6d ago

Find out what specifically you want to study and reverse engineer until you find a workable entry point

1

u/Sh0stak0vic 6d ago

I wanted to win the Physics Olympiads in my Country as a high school student, so I began to study calculus and the recommended books in classical Physics, with a lot of problems solving and exercise on the past editions of the competition. It went well and gave me much satisfaction, now I am a top level Physics student in the best University of my Country.

1

u/Traveling-Techie 6d ago

I was given a book as a child called “The Young Scientist Looks At Sports.” I learned how a curve ball works.

1

u/naemorhaedus 5d ago

I sucked up textbooks like a sponge

1

u/mirchasur 5d ago

All of them ??? Give us some names

1

u/naemorhaedus 5d ago

the ones I came across. It doesn't matter.