Reference
Library
Whole textbooks you can read here for free, and the books we'd hand a student who wants more.
Read here
Complete open textbooks by OpenStax, free for everyone, no account needed. The books are in English.
Physics
For Introduction to Physics.
High school, algebra only
The closest match to this course: motion, forces, energy, waves, electricity and a first look at modern physics, with worked examples on every page.
Open the bookFirst-year college, algebra and trig
Goes further than the course in every topic, then on to optics, relativity, quantum and nuclear physics. Pick it up when you want more problems to solve.
Open the bookIntroductory, very little math
Gravity and light put to work on the planets, stars and galaxies. A good reward after the orbits lesson.
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Math
For Math for Physics: the first editions, which are free to share and reuse.
Starting from whole numbers
Fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and a first taste of equations, with hundreds of worked examples. The place to go when a step in a lesson feels shaky.
Open the bookA first algebra course
Solving for a letter, straight-line graphs, slope, square roots and the quadratic formula: every algebra move the physics course makes, practised slowly.
Open the bookHigh school to first-year college
Functions, exponentials, logarithms, the unit circle and trigonometry in full. It covers most of Math for Physics, one chapter at a time.
Open the bookThe bridge to calculus
The same ground as Algebra and Trigonometry at a brisker pace, ending with limits and derivatives. Read it before a first calculus course.
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What to read next
Books we recommend to students, from bedtime reading to the next course up. Pick a spine to jump to it.
First reads
No equations needed. Read these for the ideas and the wonder.
What If?
Randall Munroe, 2014
Absurd questions (what if you threw a baseball at 90% of the speed of light?) answered with real physics. The best proof that estimating is fun.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli, 2014
Relativity, quantum mechanics and black holes in under a hundred pages. Read it in an afternoon to see where the course is heading.
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking, 1988
The classic tour of the universe, from the Big Bang to black holes, written for readers with no physics at all.
Cosmos
Carl Sagan, 1980
How we found our place in the universe, and how science works as a way of thinking. It has inspired generations of physicists.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard Feynman, 1985
Stories, not physics, but the best picture of what curiosity looks like in a physicist. Read the chapter on teaching in Brazil.
Alongside the course
Algebra at most. These build the intuition the lessons ask for.
Thinking Physics
Lewis Carroll Epstein, 1979
Hundreds of hand-drawn puzzles you answer with reasoning, not formulas. Try each one before turning the page.
Conceptual Physics
Paul G. Hewitt, 1971
A full textbook that explains every idea in words and pictures before any math. Ideal if an equation in a lesson feels like magic.
The Flying Circus of Physics
Jearl Walker, 1975
Hundreds of everyday puzzles, each with a short explanation. Good for spotting physics outside the course.
Six Easy Pieces
Richard Feynman, 1994
The six most approachable chapters of Feynman's lectures: atoms, energy, gravity and quantum behaviour, in his own voice.
Light and Matter
Benjamin Crowell
A complete six-book introductory physics course, from Newton to relativity and quantum physics, with clear diagrams and plenty of problems. Openly licensed (CC BY-SA), so it's free for good.
Math that makes sense
For Math for Physics: books that explain why the rules work, not just what they are.
The Joy of x
Steven Strogatz, 2012
Short chapters that walk from counting to calculus, each built around one idea and one everyday example. The friendliest tour of the math in this course.
How Not to Be Wrong
Jordan Ellenberg, 2014
Proportion, straight lines and probability turned on real decisions. Reads like a set of detective stories in which the clue is always a piece of school math.
Calculus Made Easy
Silvanus P. Thompson, 1914
Opens with 'What one fool can do, another can' and keeps that promise: derivatives and integrals explained with 'little bits'. The natural next step after our two calculus lessons.
When you're ready for calculus
The next step after the course, for when derivatives no longer scare you.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Feynman, Leighton & Sands, 1963
The famous Caltech course. Dense, but nobody explains why physics works the way it does better. We cite it in many lessons.
The Theoretical Minimum
Leonard Susskind & George Hrabovsky, 2013
Classical mechanics the way physicists really do it, with just enough calculus taught along the way.
Curso de Física Básica
H. Moysés Nussenzveig
The standard Brazilian university course in four volumes, from mechanics to modern physics. Rigorous, clear, and written in Portuguese.
Written in Portuguese
Active Calculus
Matt Boelkins
A complete first calculus course built around questions you answer as you read. Openly licensed, so it will always be free.
The originals, free
Public domain. Physics and geometry as their discoverers wrote them, free on Project Gutenberg.
The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid
Euclid, edited by John Casey
Geometry as it was taught for two thousand years: definitions, then proofs, one step at a time. Book I ends with the Pythagorean theorem.
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Isaac Newton, 1687
Where the laws of motion and universal gravitation were first set down. Open it just to read the three laws in Newton's own words.
Relativity: The Special and General Theory
Albert Einstein, 1916
Einstein's own popular explanation of relativity, written for readers who know only school mathematics.
The Chemical History of a Candle
Michael Faraday, 1861
Six Christmas lectures for young people about one burning candle, covering combustion, gases and the air. Still a model of how to explain science.
Opticks
Isaac Newton, 1704
Newton splitting sunlight with prisms and proving that white light is a mixture of colours, told experiment by experiment. The companion to Reflection & Refraction.
Experimental Researches in Electricity
Michael Faraday, 1839
The lab notebooks, in effect, where Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831. You can follow every coil and magnet he tried.