About us
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
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Physics Essentials: Modern Mechanics
·OnlineOnlineJoin us in a guided group study of the most essential subject in physics: mechanics! Unlike your high school or college mechanics course, we're following two deeply insightful textbooks:
- Modern Classical Mechanics, by Helliwell and Sahakian, is our primary text. It offers a fresh take on classical mechanics, treating it as a logically coherent system rather than a bag of tricks. It introduces powerful tools like the Euler-Lagrange equations and Hamiltonian dynamics without assuming a deep math or physics background. The authors focus on the “why” behind the equations, helping readers see the physical ideas and symmetries that unify different problems.
- Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, by V.I. Arnold, emphasizes the deep, geometric language of physics. We use this as a secondary resource. Arnold’s approach connects simple Newtonian mechanics to powerful ideas like manifolds, symplectic structure, and group theory – concepts that also show up in quantum mechanics and modern physics.
The material starts with familiar concepts and carefully develops them into advanced topics. Don't worry if you feel like you don't have enough background for the latter; our group is incredibly friendly and paced to support learners from a variety of backgrounds. We encourage questions, discussions, and a spirit of curiosity. Whether you're revisiting physics or exploring it for the first time, you're welcome here.
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!
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.
We maintain a live 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 highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning field theory 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 and Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
Having technical trouble joining the meeting? You need to use the Zoom app and log in with a (free to create) personal Zoom account before you can join our meeting. You might not be able to join directly from a web browser if you can’t log in.
4 attendees
Quantum Gravity Explorations
·OnlineOnlineOverview
This is a collaborative study group dedicated to understanding the foundations, motivations, and current landscape of quantum gravity research. Our goal is breadth over depth: rather than mastering every technical detail, we aim to build a clear conceptual picture of why quantum gravity is challenging, what the major approaches attempt to do, and how they compare.Nevertheless, developing a coherent understanding of quantum gravity does require engaging with the mathematics. We will work through explicit equations and derivations to understand how gravitational dynamics emerge, how quantum consistency constrains theories, and why certain results are unavoidable rather than assumed.
Participants should have a basic familiarity with the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and general relativity, and be comfortable with the Lagrangian formalism of physical theories.
What to expect
- We assign readings, lectures to watch, and curated exercises prior to each meeting, which will be announced below.
- During the meetings, one or more of the volunteers will walk through the assigned materials and moderate the discussion.
- Additional discussion between meetings will take place on our chat server, where we can exchange solutions, notes, interesting and relevant articles, etc. Notes and solutions may also be hosted in our Github repository.
What this group is NOT
- Not a popular science or sci-fi discussion group.
- Not a high-pressure, exercise-heavy bootcamp.
- Not a forum to strongly endorse or air grievances against any one approach to quantum gravity .
For casual physics chat or general discussion, please see our other Meetup groups.
Community & Continuity
We maintain a live chat server for continuing discussions between meetups, and a link can be provided upon request if you’d like to join. This even is part of the broader Physics With Friends community, which hosts multiple collaborative study tracks across physics and mathematics.Materials & Assignments
For the next several meetings, we will be going through Barton Zwiebach’s A First Course in String Theory, 2nd Ed. (Amazon link).- Read chapter 5 of Zwiebach, and work through problems 5.4 and 5.5
- "Closed strings and the level matching rule" (lecture 4) from Leonard Susskind’s string theory lectures (https://theoreticalminimum.com/courses/string-theory-and-m-theory/2010/fall/lecture-4)
13 attendees
Weekly Open Self-Study & Office Hours for Previous Attendees
·OnlineOnlineThis is a weekly Zoom meeting (see below for link) for anyone who's already attended our previous meetups to have (mostly-)quiet self-study time on any topic in physics or math. The goal is to recreate the feeling of being in the same study room together, just like in college. So leave your camera on! You may come and go at any time during study hours.
Unlike our other events, this is not a facilitated or structured event and there is no specific topic of study. Sometimes people may decide to work on the same topic together, and other times everyone will be reading or solving problems on their own.
Although this is primarily a quiet study session, talking is allowed as long as it's on the topic(s) of study and with the purpose of asking a question or helping someone. Otherwise, please be courteous and respectful of other people by leaving your microphone off.
This event complements our other meetups, which are subject-specific, structured learning environments.
If you are new to Physics With Friends, before coming to this quiet self-study event we ask that you please come to one of our other meetups first so that we can get to know one another.
*** ZOOM LINK ***
The Zoom meeting URL is a pinned message in the #study-buddies channel. If you don't know what this means, it's because we haven't met you yet. Please come to one of our meetups and we'll help you get set up.1 attendee
Differential Geometry: Mapping Surfaces: The Metric (Part 1 of 2)
·OnlineOnline### How Do You Measure Distance on a Curved Surface?
If a surface is curved—but you’re stuck living on it—how do you even define distance?
We’re studying Visual Differential Geometry and Forms — Tristan Needham, focusing on intuition first, formulas second.
Last meeting: Gaussian curvature and intrinsic geometry—how surfaces detect curvature.
This meeting: the metric—how geometry is encoded in ds², and how maps of the sphere reveal distortion, distance, and curvature.
### What We’ll Cover
• Why maps distort geometry (projective sphere)
• The metric as the fundamental object ds²
• How coordinates encode distance
• First glimpse: curvature from the metric### What to Expect
• Calculus required (partial derivatives, multivariable thinking)
• Reading Chapter 4.1–4.4 encouraged
• Problems will be worked selectively (focus on key ideas)
• Discussion-based (not a lecture)### Why It Matters
The metric is the foundation of:
• General relativity (spacetime geometry)
• Gauge theory
• Modern geometry and physics### Important
Discussion will stay focused on the agenda.
For casual physics conversation, see other group meetings.### Optional References
Weeks • Baez & Muniain • Greenberg • Isham
### More in Physics With Friends
This event is one of many collaborative study tracks in our Physics With Friends community.
Explore other topics and join additional study groups here:
https://www.meetup.com/physicswithfriends/events/
Join anytime — come prepared to think.13 attendees
Past events
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