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- Fundamentals of Electricity & MagnetismLink visible for attendees
Come to our brand new class for the fundamentals of electricity & magnetism, taught at an undergraduate level by one of our own members, Amey Joshi! This class complements our Advanced Electrodynamics study group (see below for details) and is presented at a more accessible level.
- This is a one-semester, introductory course, held once a week. There will be an hour of lecture followed by up to an hour of group discussion and problem solving.
- 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!
To accommodate students around the world, this event is scheduled for 8am British Time, which is midnight in the Pacific time zone.
We're following a classic and freely available text by Edward Purcell, Electricity And Magnetism, first edition. (Later book editions switch to SI units but we are choosing to use Gaussian units from the first edition in order to make it easier to go on to more advanced readings.) You can find PDFs online if you don't want to buy a hard copy.
Additional resources that can help:
- Jakob Schwichtenberg’s No-Nonsense Electrodynamics gives a great supplementary explanation of concepts.
- David Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics is a popular text used in both undergraduate and graduate courses.
- MIT OpenCourseware course which uses this book and provides supplementary materials.
Prerequisites: Some amount of college calculus and physics. We will share with you a number of useful resources that the group offers to help you through any topics you’re struggling with.
If you are interested in a more advanced, graduate-level treatment of electrodynamics, please considering joining our Advanced Electrodynamics meetup series, held every other Saturday at 10am Pacific time. Find the next session on our Meetup Events page.
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 physics at a university 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.
- Advanced study group: Quantum Field TheoryLink visible for attendees
(Returning physicists: See below for this week's homework.)
––––
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.
––––––
This week's suggested homework:
- Watch this space for changes. Homework for the next session is usually posted within 24 hours after the end of the last session.
- 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 May 27th 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 Discuss Physics & Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
–––
Suggested homework to do for May 27th:- 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.)
- Read up through section 5.3
- Solve problems 5.1 – 5.3
SUGGESTED 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 – 10
Chapter 5: 1 – 3