The first in a series of books explaining the equations in Physics. This book is on “space, time, and motion”. The idea behind the series is that understanding what the equations mean is straight forward. The hard part of a working Physicist’s job is being able to fill in the details of these equations for an experiment and to then solve the equations to get an answer.
I found it interesting as a review of what I (presumably) learned in University. Carroll emphasizes some approaches that were not part of the curriculum as I remember it.
Examples of this include:
- Newton’s equations of motion versus Laplacian and Hamiltonian equations.
- Perturbation approaches to solving real-world problems numerically (computers).
- General relativity ideas, Carroll’s area of specialization.
Interesting book, but I do remember a lot of this, so found myself skimming through much of the book.