5/20/2019 Physics Olympiads – II: Book Recommendations – Theoretical Physics

Theoretical Physics

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts – Richard Philips Feynman

Physics Olympiads – II: Book Recommendations

Vivek Lohani Physics Olympiads 28 Aug 201511 Sep 2017

This is the second unsolicited post in the series on Physics Olympiads, albeit after a reasonably long
time. Not sure if that’s good or bad thing, though.

Anyway, while part I (h ps://crazycosmos.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/physics-olympiads/) had some

general information about physics olympiads in India, in this part, I shall list books that can be useful for
the preparation of theoretical rounds of physics olympiads. At the same time, for those who are
interested in pursuing physics as a career option, I shall try to give a glimpse of what maybe in store for
them (apart from the obvious – dearth of money ;-)).

To begin with, I must say that there are lots of physics books, both on theoretical foundations and/or on
physics problems, ranging from what I would rank as average to great, pedagogically friendly to not-so-
friendly, verbose to terse, and so on – and indeed it’s a difficult choice to make. It’s not even possible to
prescribe the perfect set of books, because a lot will depend on previous exposure and training, and on
the level at which you wish to get trained. Therefore, I shall merely list the books that might be useful.
I’ll also indicate the difficulty level using asterisks (*), more of those for the ones I think are more
difficult. The absolute minimum shall be indicated using a dagger (†). The absolute minimum books are,
by default, *-level difficulty books. So, I shall skip having *’s around those. All other references are in
general not easier than those. Also, “timeless classics” and “out of the world books” will not be rated –
for if you can do those, this blogpost will anyway be more or less pointless.

General Physics books:

1. Physics – Resnick, Halliday and Krane, volumes I and II. Best at school level in my view. (†)
2. Fundamentals of Physics – Resnick, Halliday and Walker. This can be used instead of the previous one.
The third author in each case has shaped the book according to his/her own taste. Although they are
nearly the same content-wise, I find the treatment in the one by Krane more palatable. (†)
3. Fundamental Laws of Mechanics – I. E. Irodov. Terse Russian style which is one of my favorites (the
other being the Feynman style). (*)
4. Basic Laws of Electromagnetism – I. E. Irodov. (**)
5. Physics – Alonso and Finn. I had this for a while and as far as I can remember I liked it. (1.5 *)
6. University Physics – Sears & Zemansky. Well-known text. (*)

General Problem books:

1. Problems in General Physics – I. E. Irodov. The bare minimum. (†)

2. Aptitude test problems in Physics – S. S. Krotov. More fun physics problems worked out in classy
physicist’s style. (†)
3. 200 Puzzling Problems – Gyula, Riley and Honyek. One more step closer towards making physics real!
(1.5 *)
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4. Problems in Elementary Physics – Bukhovtsev et al. Like Irodov’s problem book, maybe less demanding
when it comes to calculus. (*)
5. IPhO/APhO problem reference. Available online. (†)
6. INPhO past papers. Can be ordered from HBCSE book store, Mumbai. (†)
7. Boston Area Undergraduate Physics competition problems. Must be somewhere online. (**)

More advanced books:

General Physics:

1. Feynman lectures in Physics, Vol I and II – Feynman, Leighton and Sands. For those who love Physics for
what it is! Vol III is on Quantum Mechanics…so completely up to you if you want to read that. (** for
volume 1; *** for volume 2; third volume is out of the world)
2. Berkeley Physics series, Vol I through V. Quite detailed. Can be used as reference books. (**)

Mechanics:

1. Mechanics – Kleppner. A few things from here could be more than useful and can boost your
confidence. Technically, apart from the treatment of general rigid body motion in 3-D and damped
oscillators (second order homogenous ode’s and some variants), it’s not more difficult than
mechanics in senior secondary (or high school, depending upon what you call it). (1.5 times *)
2. Classical Mechanics – David Morin. I have heard that people have even started using Morin’s excellent
book for preparation of JEE and olympiads. While I didn’t use it (for I didn’t even know about it then
and I wonder if I would use it even if I knew), I think it’s great if people can already handle the first
half of the book in school itself. (** for the first half; *** for the second half which is not relevant for
the olympiads)
3. Mechanics – Landau and Lifshi . My favorite, not just because it’s a part of the Course of Theoretical
Physics, but I think this treatment is classy and to the point. No serpentine sentences and no
superfluity. Straight on the dot, precise and concise! For the aspiring theoretical physicist. (Oops, out
of the world again!)

Although I couldn’t resist mentioning Mechanics – Landau and Lifshi , partly because I mentioned
Morin’s book in the second spot, I’m not sure if it will be directly, enormously helpful for the olympiads
themselves. I myself didn’t do it in school, but it would just be amazing if someone can.

Electromagnetism:

1. Introduction to Electrodynamics – D. J. Griffiths. Standard first undergraduate course in electrodynamics

textbook. I have heard that students have started using this for gaining an upper hand, which is
great. Only one caveat – don’t spoil it for yourself by tampering with the quality of
learning/understanding in exchange for speed. (***)
2. Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory – Rei , Milford, Christy. ~ Same level as Griffith’s book. (***)
3. Electricity and Magnetism – E. M. Purcell, from the Berkeley Physics series. Mathematically easier than
the above 2 books, but has other miscellaneous topics too. By the way, Purcell taught Griffiths. Just
saying… (2.5**)

Thermodynamics:

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics are feats of human imagination. If it were not for
Thermodynamics, personally, I would have considered Statistical Physics to be close to Quantum
Mechanics in terms of abstruseness and absurdity. In modern physics, the former two are inescapably
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intertwined, while the underlying mechanics in the appropriate regime provides the richness, diversity
and its own mysticism to the set of observable physical phenomena within that regime.

The sad tale, however, is that Thermodynamics at the school level is not paid enough a ention to, to the
extent that simple computations are accentuated more than the conditions under which they are valid
and so on. While that is certainly deplorable, certain books come close to filling the void that is created
by superficial presentation of thermodynamical principles:

1. Heat and Thermodynamics – Zemansky and Di man. It does cover quite some things. I’m not a fan, but it
could prove useful as it nevertheless has many interesting sections. (**)
2. Thermodynamics – Herbert Callen. Axiomatic formulation of thermodynamics. Makes the structure of
the theory clear. (2.5 **)
3. Feynman lectures, Vol I – relevant chapters for thermodynamics. These I would gladly and strongly
recommend. (**)
4. Statistical Physics, part I – Landau and Lifshi . I’m not sure if this is doable; in fact, I doubt, unless you
are a prodigy. But eventually you might want to turn to this one to see what it all means. This
reference is here merely for completeness. Only for those who want to pursue physics. To keep the
fire ignited! (Timeless classic)

Optics and Waves:

1. Introduction to Electrodynamics – Griffiths has useful sections on optics and the wave equation. (***)
2. Optics – Hecht may have useful descriptions of several optical phenomena too. I haven’t studied this
one well though. (**)

Relativity:

1. Introduction to Special Relativity – Robert Resnick. Neat and standard. (**, the stars are merely because
of relativity itself, otherwise Resnick has done an exceptional job in breaking it down and making it
look simple)
2. Space and Time in Special Relativity – N. D. Mermin. One of my favorites. (**)
3. Spacetime Physics – Taylor and Wheeler. Few books on relativity can be as lively as this one. Only if you
have plenty of time for just relativity. (***)

Modern Physics:

In olympiad style Modern Physics, one tries to cover the two major revolutions of twentieth century –
relativity and quantum mechanics, and their applications. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend any good
book at this level for the la er. I think Krane’s book is decent and beyond that one has to go full thro le
to even make sense of anything as “simple” as a double-slit experiment or as “complicated” as the atom
itself.

Post Script 1

Reading a book doesn’t always mean going from start through end. It’s good if you can do that.
Otherwise you can pick up sections that are relevant for you and master those.
The minimum and maximum I’d recommend are the absolute minimum books (†). Everything else is
optional.
I didn’t go through the advanced books properly till I entered my undergraduate studies. However, I
did study most of these quite quickly then (but not all, eg. Feynman lectures Vol III). That’s why I feel,
with the right guidance, some sections can be covered even while one is in school. Plus, many
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students are already striving to do this – I figured this from the conversations I had with people, but I
don’t have a first hand proof of this. Incidentally, this happens to be my only excuse for including the
standard first or second level undergraduate texts.
If you are interested in physics, the subject, and wish to pursue it, don’t feel constrained to stay
within the confines of recommended syllabuses or books, picked up from places such as this blog or
the like, and instead feel free to fearlessly explore till whatever extent, if you will, pleases your fancy.
In fact, it’s a sea out there. Go, dive!

Post Script 2

I didn’t recommend Prof. H. C. Verma’s books, although those were the ones I primarily used at the
start. I feel some sections in those books are very well-wri en, even if not exhaustive or laden with
actual physical examples, while some are not so. It definitely has good problems on mechanics,
geometrical optics and heat transfer though (and answers, not solutions, at the end of chapters,
which could be a good thing). A serious warning here is that its treatment of rigid body rotation may
leave you flummoxed. Turn to Kleppner’s book instead for the same.
Try to avoid Dinesh, Arihant etc. for learning the basics. I had used some Arihant books to work out
problems though. The danger with those books is that they try to reduce physics in general to a set of
tricks, subset 1 of which they reveal in their text, subset 2 that they reveal in their problems and
subset 3 that remains in their head (which is what makes them intelligent of course), and all three
may have non-null intersection with the set of wrong or unsound or fundamentally flawed tricks.

However, I like “Problems in Physics” book in the Arihant series by D. C. Pandey. It’s an assortment of
problems lifted from various sources without always giving due credit to the original sources (but in his
defense not misappropriating). Only danger, as before, is that some of the tricks he divulged from his
subset 3 are actually wrong and, may leave you flabbergasted and misinformed if you take them on face
value.

My motive behind not mentioning those is not taking the moral responsibility for their tricks which can
go wrong.

Mir publishers may have a lot of out-of-print gems. Might want to check out those!

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Tagged:
Indian National Physics Olympiad,
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Published by Vivek Lohani

Studying simple harmonic oscillators in ever increasing degree of abstraction. View all posts by Vivek Lohani

One thought on “Physics Olympiads – II:

Book Recommendations”

Shubhankar says:
3 Sep 2016 at 8:47 am
Hey when did you get time to study other subjects for jee?

Reply

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