The "Academic Preparation" Book Club

[Matthew_888]

How useful is theoretical physics?

As useful as theoretical cooking vs cooking.

[VNV]

Frank Shu's "The Physical Universe" has an extended philosophical comment at the end of every section which encourages scientific thinking.

[Matthew_888]

Frank Shu's "The Physical Universe" has an extended philosophical comment at the end of every section which encourages scientific thinking.

Or one could actually think by doing something, get immediate feedbacks, for a cost close to 0.
One of the best MOOC ever created and distributed for FREE: From NAND to Tetris.
A way to stop mystifying one of the most pervasive invention of the century and learn how to think as a consequence of doing something that actually works.
But observing galaxies or planets through a telescope on site is a truly amazing experience... it comes probably way before theoretical physics or words and formula.

Theoretical golf vs golf.
I squat a humongous theoretical 1000kg.
It's theoretically funny.
But wait until we get to the meta-theory.

Why not practice logic with About - Project Euler or Brilliant | Math and science done right ?

Richard Guidon (the cartoonist) said: “Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.”
Leslie Lamport said: “Mathematics is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your writing is.”
Someone else said: “Computing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your mathematics is.”

Anyway...

[whale]

I think everyone would benefit from basic knowledge of differential and integral calculus. Maybe basics of differential equations as well.
R. Shankar: Basic training in mathematics, a fitness program for science students
Probably only after that you'll be truly able to understand mechanics and thermodynamics.

Also, every engineer should be aware of the control theory. I don't have any book recommendations since I took the class in uni but this guy's channel seems pretty good. You can start from there: YouTube

Thinking skills will also probably benefit from basic computer programming. I'd recommend an online course. Not sure which one's the best. I once took edX and it was decent.

[Pawn]

Kent's Mechanical Engineer's Handbook (most useful book I own)

There is a similar one for Chemical Engineering... I don't remember the name (but that has far less relevance to this thread -- and obviously less useful since I can't remember the name)

Vallado's Fundamental's of Astrodynamics and Applications has pretty much everything you would need to understand the math behind spacecraft and their use. (warning... math heavy)

[Matt Neilsen]

Hi everyone,

I didn't consider the fact that this is a moderated forum, so I can't actually go back and edit my original post to add new suggestions. However, I love the discussion that's already occurring, and I'm hopeful that this thread can still serve as a consolidated place for us to discuss/debate/suggest avenues of continued education.

Since I can't edit the original post, I have to ask Sully's forgiveness for not including The Barbell Prescription on the first page. I will accept whatever penance you deem necessary, good sir.

I personally would not recommend the Paleo sources for nutrition, or Good Calories/Bad Calories by Taube. Paleo works for some people, but not for any of the reasons advertised (evolutionary alignment with your ancestral heritage). I've talked about it elsewhere. As for Taubes, he is, in my opinion, one of the worst kind of science journalists: eloquent, opinionated, cherry-picking, pre-decided, and utterly wrong on a lot of issues.

Gropper's is good. I found the first half of the Precision Nutrition text to be a good basic primer for those unfamiliar with nutrition, and Dr. Israetel's last two e-books to be convincing and well-defended. Others with a deeper grasp of the field (the RNs and nutrition experts among the SSCs) would most certainly have better recommendations, though.

Thanks for the suggestions, CJ. I just read your article and it comports with my own experience. I've tried both extremes on the sliding scale of nutrition (veganism and carnvorism) and seemingly everything in between. Nutrition has always been somewhat mysterious to me, which is why I've resorted to N=1 experimenting in the past. That was in large part the impetus for this thread: I realized I need to get grounded in the fundamentals of science, or I will constantly be blown by the winds of popular opinion, pseudo-scientific publications, etc.

I check Dr. Israetel's website, and I'm assuming you're referring to his Renaissance Diet e-book. Which is the other one you'd recommend?

Thanks,
Matt

[Tiburon]

Epidemiology
Epidemiology: An Introduction by Kenneth Rothman
Modern Epidemiology by Rothman, Greenland and Lash

"Modern Epi" is too advanced.

But the first one, aka Baby Rothman, is the perfect introduction for someone who wants to critically read scientific studies, or, more generally, wants to judge the quality of evidence related to health and disease and death.

[Scott Hambrick]

Where do you end and what's a general outline of time periods you see and discuss?

We start with Homer and read all the way through Wittgenstein. There's really no era left untouched.

Scott, thanks for the recommendation. I took a look at your website and I really like what you guys are doing.

Thanks sir.

[Bill Hannon]

I think everyone would benefit from basic knowledge of differential and integral calculus. Maybe basics of differential equations as well.
R. Shankar: Basic training in mathematics, a fitness program for science students
Probably only after that you'll be truly able to understand mechanics and thermodynamics.

I'll second that - trying to tackle Statics, kinematics, dynamics, etc without the requisite math background is akin to trying to run Texas Method without ever doing a LP.

[Matthew_888]

Ho and I forgot about these: great science made simple trough drawings/comics accessible to almost everyone.
For example: Here's Looking at Euclid
A whole bunch of them are available here, translated in dozens of languages.
The guy is truly brilliant and his long and well lived life was and still (80yo) is full of adventures and discoveries (e.g. supersonic flight w/o shock-waves or MHD).