3 ms·
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
by 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 agoThere'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 agoThe 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.