What we’re about
This is a group for anyone who has ever rigorously studied physics – or has wanted to. Here's why you'd want to join us:
- If you feel like physics is the most interesting and most difficult subject that there is;
- If you're burning with a desire to deeply understand the universe at its smallest and largest scales;
- And if you thrive in an environment of learning through collaboration with people like yourself...
...then you've found the right place!
Join us to participate in lively discussions and learn core material in serious study groups. We offer multiple tracks of study, regularly host special events and talks, and are constantly tweaking the meetup to make it more useful. We also stay in touch between meetings to motivate and help each other continue learning.
Everyone is welcome from every level of experience! Many of us are (re)discovering physics after college (sometimes long after) and it can be easy to feel rusty or underqualified. Don't fall into that false narrative! If you think some of the material in this meetup is too advanced, we want you to join us so that we can help you learn!
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Electrodynamics study groupLink visible for attendees
ATTENTION: After today's meetup, subsequent electrodynamics meetups will change to a different time slot: Instead of Fridays at 4pm Pacific, we will meet Saturdays at 8 AM Pacific. Our next meeting will be Saturday morning, May 11, at 8am PT.
(Previous attendees: April 26th assignment is found below.)
Have you been wanting to learn or re-learn electromagnetism and Maxwell’s equations at an advanced level? Then come to our study group for all things electrodynamics!
Our sessions are built around Andrew Zangwill’s Modern Electrodynamics, a recent graduate-level text that is the spiritual successor to Jackson’s venerable Classical Electrodynamics, the previous gold standard for over half a century. Written in modern notation and addressing many important areas in contemporary physics research, Modern Electrodynamics is a rich resource that we can follow from foundations to important domain-specific applications, as we see fit.
Meetings are every other Friday, 4pm, Pacific Time. Here is our current format (as of March 2024):
- Before each meeting, we assign ourselves a reading and a set of exercises that everyone is invited to try for next time. (All of this is optional and there is never anything expected or required – this is a self-study group!) Readings are about half a chapter on average.
- During the meeting, one or more volunteers give a high-level, qualitative overview of the concepts in the assigned reading. Afterwards, everyone will present their solutions to (or attempts at!) one or two problems.
- We have dedicated problem-solving-only sessions throughout the month.
- Between meetings, we collaborate through our chat server and/or small study sessions during "office hours". New members should especially take advantage of these to get up to speed. Ask us for details and links to these fantastic resources!
Prerequisites: So long as you have taken at least some amount of college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine. Chapter 1 walks you through the essential math, and we will share with you a number of useful resources that the group offers to help you through any topics you’re struggling with.
This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning electrodynamics at a graduate or advanced undergraduate level. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Discuss Physics & Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
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Suggested homework to do for April 26th:- If you're new here, ignore the rest of this! Just download a free sample of the book and start reading Chapter 2.
- Read sections 4.1 – 4.4.
- Solve any problems that look interesting and relevant to sections 4.1-4.4.
Previously assigned problems:
- Chapter 1: 1–2, 11, 14–15, 17, 19
- Chapter 2: 3–4, 8–10
- Chapter 3: 1–2, 5, 10–11, 13–14, 16–19
- Advanced study group: Quantum Field TheoryLink visible for attendees
(Returning physicists: See below for April 28th homework.)
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This is an advanced study group for folks committed to learning quantum field theory rigorously. Everyone with an undergraduate background in math or physics is welcome to attend. Before you sign up, please make sure you’re comfortable with multivariable integration, partial differential equations, and other concepts taught in upper division undergraduate math courses.This is not a casual discussion or philosophy group; we’re here to study, solve problems, and get an operative insider’s knowledge of the fundamentals of QFT as it is used in contemporary physics research. If you’re not able to dedicate time between each session to work on problems, this is not the event for you.
Our primary text is Lancaster & Blundell‘s Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur. Each semiweekly meeting consists of a continuous rotation of group members volunteering to teach approximately one chapter of material at a time, followed by problem solving and open discussion.
If you're a first-time visitor to this event or the Physics With Friends community – please know that you are very strongly encouraged to come join us even if you feel like you're too far behind. Our events are specifically structured to accommodate new people joining us at any point along our studies.
In addition to the live group discussions over Zoom, we also maintain a chat server for staying in touch between meetups. Ask us for a link.
This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a serious study group for math and physics enthusiasts who are interested in learning the material deeply. It is not a general discussion group. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Monthly Physics Discussion event, held every third Wednesday.
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April 28th suggested homework:
- Read chapter 36.
- If you have volunteered to present a section of chapter 36, please prepare your lecture notes.
- Solve chapter 36 problems if you have time.
- If you are new here, ignore the above and just read Chapters 0 and 1 and come to the meetup!
- Thermodynamics and Statistical MechanicsLink visible for attendees
(Returning physicists: See below for April 29th suggested homework. Newcomers: Please read this entire description.)
Join us to study a range of very important topics in modern physics. We are currently focusing on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Later in the year we will move on to waves, optics, fluid dynamics, elasticity, and plasma. There have been tremendous advances in all of these fields recently and there are remarkable applications of and connections from them to many areas of physics and engineering.
Unlike the classes on stat mech and optics that you may have taken in undergrad, which might have been based on physics texts from 50 years ago, we are rocketing into the present and future by following the recently released book from Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford: Modern Classical Physics. This is a new, geometric and relativistic treatment that incorporates major advances that have taken place in the last few decades of all of the above topics, written by two well-known experts and masterfully laid out in a cohesive, contemporary format that’s easy to read. This is today’s material for today’s students.
Prerequisites: So long as you have taken at least some amount of college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine. The first part will introduce topics in differential geometry that will be heavily used throughout the book. If you want further study on this topic, come to our regular Relativity and Differential Geometry meetup every other Tuesday.
What to expect – Here is our current format:
- Before each meeting, we will assign ourselves a reading and a set of exercises that everyone is invited to try for next time. (All of this is optional and there is never anything expected or required – this is a self-study group!)
- During the meeting, one or more volunteers will teach the lessons from the assigned readings, and others will present their solutions to (or attempts at!) the exercises.
- Between meetings, we will collaborate through our chat server and/or small study sessions during "office hours". New members should especially take advantage of these to get up to speed. Ask us for details and links to these fantastic resources!
This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning the advanced branches of math and physics that one needs to master in order to deeply understand the state of science in 2023. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Monthly Physics Discussion event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
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Suggested homework to do for April 29:- If you're new here, ignore the rest of this! Just please make sure you have the book and start reading Chapter 3. (Skip chapters 1 and 2 for now.)
- Before we move on to Chapter 5 next week, we're spending today's session on review and conceptual reinforcement. So please:
- Identify at least one thermodynamic/stat-mech concept, problem, or book section from chapters 1 – 4 that you are confused by, stuck on, or find exciting or illuminating. Come to the meeting prepared to talk about it and gain some insight from the rest of the group.
PREVIOUSLY ASSIGNED PROBLEMS. This is a running list of problems we've discussed in session and you're encouraged to discuss them with us after trying them yourself.
Chapter 1: 1 – 5, 7, 11, 13 – 15
Chapter 2: 1 – 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20
Chapter 3: 4 – 6, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19
Chapter 4: 2, 5, 6, 8 – 10
