Understanding Physics

What Hacker News says

1. godelskiOct 2024

     > for some reason it seems you need the wrong theories to organize the empirical data
   

   There's a somewhat well known article on this by Isaac Asimov: the Relativity of Wrong

   The scientific process is really misunderstood. People think you use it to find truth, but actually you use it to reject falsehoods. The consequence of this is that you narrow in on the truth so your goals look identical, but the distinction does matter (at least if you want to understand why that happens and why it's okay that science is wrong many times -- in fact, it's always wrong, but it gets less wrong (I'm certain there's a connection to that website and this well known saying).

   He's well known for his Sci-Fi but he got a PhD in chemistry, taught himself astrophysics, and even published in the area. He even had written physics texts. I found Understanding Physics quite enjoyable when I was younger but yeah, it isn't the same level of complexity I saw while getting my degree, but it's not aimed at University students.

   Anyways, I'm just saying, he's speaking as an insider and I do think this is something a lot more people should read.

   https://hermiene.net/essays-trans/relativity_of_wrong.html

   I believe there's a copy of Understanding Physics here but currently offline: https://archive.org/details/asimov-understanding-physics

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2. lIl-IIIlSep 2024
   His book "Understanding Physics" is amazing. Similar in spirit to Petzold's "Code" that is often praised on HN.
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3. eutropiaMar 2022
   If you can find a copy of “Understanding Physics” by Isaac Asimov, that is an excellent place to start.
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4. wwwwewwwwDec 2021
   I was going to suggest "Understanding physics" by Asimov. I think "On physics" is a collection of essays where "Understanding physics" is more a complete bottom-up treatment like Petzold's "Code".
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5. gshubert17Aug 2021
   Isaac Asimov's _Understanding Physics_ is older (1966) but is meant for the general reader or to supplement a textbook. It uses algebra and only a little trig.

   J. D. Bernal's _A History of Classical Physics_ (1972) begins with ideas from ancient Greece and goes to the end of the 19th century. No math, but lots of pictures and diagrams. I have a 1997 reprint.

   Stephen F. Mason's _A History of the Sciences_ (1962) covers chemistry and biology as well as physics, from Babylonia and Egypt to the mid twentieth century.

   I am sure there are many others, but these, which include history and biography as well as scientific content, are good, readable overviews.

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6. phasetransitionJun 2020
   I originally learned electricity from Isaac Asimov's understanding physics, volume 2 when I was 13(?). I don't remember the details, but it clearly worked and helped me in all future education.

   If you want to try and learn some basics, and then try apply them, both AoE (mentioned already by pjc50) and "Practical Electronics for Inventors" are good choices.

   The latter is much more affordable than AoE.

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