4 ms·

I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study fr

by imranq 3y ago

I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. It felt like a slog across random topics with no application

yodon 3y ago
The key is to make sure you're reading books by Landau and Lifshitz. Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer. That said, these are definitely books to read when you're in the mindset of studying for PhD doctoral exams in Physics. I loved them at the time but would definitely have a hard time curling up by the fire with them on a rainy afternoon.
- MontyCarloHall 3y ago
  >Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer. As the famous quip goes, "not a word of Landau and not a thought of Lifshitz."
mepian 3y ago
I remember trying to read the first tome of Landau and Lifshitz in my first year of studying at the physics department and instantly bouncing off. The textbooks of Irodov, Savelyev, and Sivukhin were much more approachable.
- smueller1234 3y ago
  There's a reason the profs love Landau/Lifshitz. The books have a certain elegance that, once you have a decent understanding of the subject already, is easy to appreciate. But as a first year theory student, that's just not what you need. Went through the same experience you describe. But enjoyed them when I picked them up again a few years later.
- asimeqi 3y ago
  The first volume is "Mechanics" as in Theoretical Mechanics. It's a second or third year Physics course not a first year one. I took it third year, it was mostly fine. The treatment of Hamilton-Jacobi equation lacked motivation but it wasn't super difficult. I also took volume 2, "Classical Theory of Fields". That was much, much harder. Anything after that seemed unreachable.
aleph_minus_one 3y ago
> I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. A person that I know who has a doctoral degree in pysics and loves the Landau-Lifshitz books said: "If you need such an external motivation (for reading the Landau-Lifshitz books), you simply do not have sufficient inner drive for studying physics. Find another major that better is a better fit for you."
- guptadagger 3y ago
  I think this 100% true, you don't read those books for any pleasure, its simply a necessary part of an education in theoretical physics. rigorous and challenging
- mathisfun123 3y ago
  don't you just love it when people with "doctoral" degrees meme? this is a really bad paraphrasal of the apocryphal story about hilbert: "There is a much quoted story about David Hilbert, who one day noticed that a certain student had stopped attending class. When told that the student had decided to drop mathematics to become a poet, Hilbert replied, “Good — he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician.” — Robert Osserman (US mathematician, 1926 – 2011)"
  - aleph_minus_one 3y ago
    > don't you just love it when people with "doctoral" degrees meme? This was not intended as some kind of meme by him. He really is like that. The mention of his doctoral degree in physics has just the relevance that he is not to be considered a crackpot.

by imranq 3y ago

yodon 3y ago

The key is to make sure you're reading books by Landau and Lifshitz. Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer. That said, these are definitely books to read when you're in the mindset of studying for PhD doctoral exams in Physics. I loved them at the time but would definitely have a hard time curling up by the fire with them on a rainy afternoon.

MontyCarloHall 3y ago
>Landau was more the famous as a theoretician, Lifshitz was the better writer. As the famous quip goes, "not a word of Landau and not a thought of Lifshitz."

mepian 3y ago

I remember trying to read the first tome of Landau and Lifshitz in my first year of studying at the physics department and instantly bouncing off. The textbooks of Irodov, Savelyev, and Sivukhin were much more approachable.

smueller1234 3y ago
There's a reason the profs love Landau/Lifshitz. The books have a certain elegance that, once you have a decent understanding of the subject already, is easy to appreciate. But as a first year theory student, that's just not what you need. Went through the same experience you describe. But enjoyed them when I picked them up again a few years later.
asimeqi 3y ago
The first volume is "Mechanics" as in Theoretical Mechanics. It's a second or third year Physics course not a first year one. I took it third year, it was mostly fine. The treatment of Hamilton-Jacobi equation lacked motivation but it wasn't super difficult. I also took volume 2, "Classical Theory of Fields". That was much, much harder. Anything after that seemed unreachable.

aleph_minus_one 3y ago

> I've skimmed through the Landau books and while they are technically excellent, they lack a sense of feeling and motivation which makes it hard to self study from. A person that I know who has a doctoral degree in pysics and loves the Landau-Lifshitz books said: "If you need such an external motivation (for reading the Landau-Lifshitz books), you simply do not have sufficient inner drive for studying physics. Find another major that better is a better fit for you."

guptadagger 3y ago
I think this 100% true, you don't read those books for any pleasure, its simply a necessary part of an education in theoretical physics. rigorous and challenging
mathisfun123 3y ago
don't you just love it when people with "doctoral" degrees meme? this is a really bad paraphrasal of the apocryphal story about hilbert: "There is a much quoted story about David Hilbert, who one day noticed that a certain student had stopped attending class. When told that the student had decided to drop mathematics to become a poet, Hilbert replied, “Good — he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician.” — Robert Osserman (US mathematician, 1926 – 2011)"
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  > don't you just love it when people with "doctoral" degrees meme? This was not intended as some kind of meme by him. He really is like that. The mention of his doctoral degree in physics has just the relevance that he is not to be considered a crackpot.