Physics
What the universe is made of, how it moves, and how we know: from the pendulum to the Big Bang.
For: anyone starting the degree, anyone who has wondered what quantum mechanics or relativity really say, anyone who looks up at night.
Shaped by MIT's Course 8 (waves, quantum physics, statistical physics, relativity and the junior lab after the Physics I and II core) and the Cambridge Natural Sciences physics route.
Year 1 · The language
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01ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Calculus I: Slopes, Totals and the Bridge Between Them
Physics is written in calculus.
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02ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Physics I: Mechanics — Three Ways to Keep the Books
Newton's mechanics: forces, energy and momentum.
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03ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Physics II: Electricity & Magnetism — Charge, Fields and Light
Charge, fields and light: the second great theory.
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04ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Linear Algebra: Machines That Move Space
States, rotations and quantum mechanics itself are linear algebra.
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05ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Multivariable Calculus: Calculus on a Landscape
Fields fill space; their calculus is multivariable.
Year 2 · The classical world, sharpened
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06ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Differential Equations: Laws Written as Rates
Every law of motion is a differential equation.
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07ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Waves and Optics: When Waves Add, Light Can Make Darkness
Waves, interference and light: the bridge to quantum mechanics.
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08ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Special Relativity: Everyone Gets the Same Speed of Light
Space and time are one thing, and light's speed is the same for everyone.
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09ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Classical Mechanics: Let Energy Write the Equations
Mechanics rebuilt from energy: Lagrange, Hamilton, symmetry and chaos.
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10ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Thermodynamics: Why Every Engine Pays a Heat Tax
Heat, work and entropy.
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11ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Programming Fundamentals: Instructions, State and Taking Things Apart
Physicists simulate as much as they calculate.
Year 3 · The quantum world
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12ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Quantum Mechanics: Waves of Probability and the Limits of Knowing
Wavefunctions, uncertainty, spin and entanglement.
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13ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Statistical Mechanics: Temperature Is What Counting Looks Like
How the behaviour of trillions of atoms becomes temperature and pressure.
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14ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Partial Differential Equations: One Law for Every Point of a Field
The equations of fields, heat and waves.
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15ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Electromagnetics & Waves: Why Fast Signals Stop Acting Like Wires
Maxwell's equations at full strength: radiation and waves.
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16ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Numerical Analysis: Answers You Can Trust, and How Wrong They Are
Most real problems are solved numerically.
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17ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Probability & Statistics: Reasoning with Uncertainty
Every measurement has an error bar; data analysis is statistics.
Year 4 · The frontier
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18ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
General Relativity: Gravity Is the Shape of Spacetime
Gravity as the curvature of spacetime.
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19ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Differential Geometry: Curvature You Can Feel From the Inside
The geometry general relativity is written in.
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20ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Particle & Nuclear Physics: What Stuff Is Made Of, and What Can Happen to It
Quarks, leptons, forces and the Standard Model.
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21ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Condensed Matter Physics: Why Solids Conduct, Insulate and Compute
Why solids conduct, insulate, superconduct and make chips possible.
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22ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min
Astrophysics & Cosmology: Reading the Universe from Light Alone
Stars, galaxies, dark matter and the history of the universe.
MIT OpenCourseWare 8.03 (Vibrations and Waves), 8.04 (Quantum Physics I) and 8.044 (Statistical Physics I), free; The Feynman Lectures on Physics, free online; the textbooks named at the end of each subject. See also the library's 13 Physics for gentler first reads.
Architecture
How buildings and cities are imagined, drawn, made to stand, made comfortable and made to mean something.