The physics course offered at my high school isn't very intullectually stimulating and is only offered for 1/2 of the school year. I would like to partake upon educating myself and would appreciate any reccomendations based on your own experiance.

Thanks

I hear ya! High school physics is the epitomy of boredom. Text books probably aren't your best bet. Read books like A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes etc if you haven't already. They maintained my sanity in high school.

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Climate Change Australia

If you are taking calculus or have had it, I'd suggest the Feynman Lecture Series [if you can find it]. He wrote in a very entertaining fashion, and was one of the sharpest minds every to pick up a pencil. I found his books turned difficult ideas into plain common sense.

Keep in mind that the first few years of Physics are mostly about day to day stuff, but just taking that will make the astronomy articles you read make a lot more sense.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Indeed. It's 5 years of "what happens when cart A hits bunny B" before you get to the interesting stuff. Personally I didn't persist, but I have enormous respect for anyone who has.

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Climate Change Australia

5 years of simple mechanics? Ouch. Though Kashi..... Australian physics at high school only goes for 2 years. And for some stupid reason so much emphasis is put on optics!

Though more astrophysics are being brought in. And in Yr 12 basic relativity is coming in! Only 100 years after Einstein released it......

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MacTalk - The Australian Apple Community - iPod, iPhone and Mac.

It is my hope that my children learn string theory in year 11 physics.

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Climate Change Australia

Hi nicolii,
If you're genuinely interested in physics then I can only recommend that you do the class work AND get your head round the other more crazy stuff like relativity and black holes (the buzz-words). If you want to really understand how the cool stuff works then, unfortunately, you have to get down to the nitty gritty of basic Newtonian mechanics and electronics. Don't loose heart! If you've got a good teacher then everything should look like a concequence of the previous lessons.
Physics is not easy and you need to understand the math involved very well. My best advice is this:

Read slowly and carefully all the course work and don't let your concentration slip when things look complex. And don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand something. After all, physics is all about asking questions!

Cheers
Ferg

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<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Optima'>Yet another blind watcher of the sky.</span></span></span>

Ferg.c. is right. Don't do what I did and skip the whole page of your exam that's on reinforced concrete because it's boring .

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Climate Change Australia

String theory? Its totally unprovable, I think even in say 30 years studying string theory will still be the domain of university. Anyway, not everyone wants to know the very fundamentals. Some want electronics or optics.

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I quite enjoy my high school Physics. We take topics like Astrophysics, Quantam physics, accelerators.. etc. Though some topics are boring. But if you have a good teacher, it'll become quite enjoyable.

But the problem is that it's not specific enough and not detailed, which is why I do my own research on the net 'cause i feel i have many unanswered questions. I doubt the fact that String theory will be taught in schools, 'cause some students aren't interested.. Probably it would be optionally taught only as an advanced course.

Wow quantum physics in high school. I may do something in an advanced course, but standard course? Nah not here in Australia.

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It's kinda an introduction to Quantum Physics. Only the basic principles are required by the syllabus; Photoelectric emission, wave-particle duality, Einstein's photoelectric equation, De Broglie's thoerem... Schrodinger's atom model is included, but the equations and calculations aren't.

Relativity now is off the syllabus; however, it was included previously.
I actually don't mind anymore. I do my own search.
But don't worry! I keep tuned with what's explained in class

Yeah we have those introductions too. Though I'm not sure if its in the new syllabus. It was in the old, hopefully they aern't bringing relativity in at the expense of quantum introduction!

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MacTalk - The Australian Apple Community - iPod, iPhone and Mac.

Wow! Quantum mechanics at high school level. We have upto Bohr's model, but only the postulates, and even these are not properly explained. The studies are quite uninteresting, so I have to download physics textbooks from the net for further research. And then comes the shouting from dad : Concentate on studies!

Man!

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Limericks, written by me: http://limericker.blogspot.com

Physics studies are for a wide range of people, not just those who want to deal with fundamanetals, even though thats the most exciting bit!

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MacTalk - The Australian Apple Community - iPod, iPhone and Mac.

LOL Rahul, i often hear that too ^_^