Physics further reading

Love Physics? Want to know more?

Perhaps you are a year 7 or 8 student who is a keen bean, a GCSE student who wants to know more than is in the curriculum, or maybe you're a 6th Form student thinking about what lies beyond A-level?

If you are thinking of applying to University they will be particularly impressed if you have completed activities that have a slightly higher time commitment: the citizen science projects, online courses, and books, for example. They’ll also be impressed if you explore one topic or idea enough to be able to write or talk about it.

Make a note of what you have done, and ideas you want to investigate. You could make brief research notes on any topic you want to explore more deeply, including anything that inspires or fascinates you as you go!

Either way there is so much more to physics than what you might find in school. Read on to discover some fantastic places to find out more:

Youtube channels

There are a huge number of brilliant channels out there, but start by subscribing to these channels - you'll be amazed by what you can learn:

• GCSE & A level physics online

• Minute Physics

• Veritasium

• Physics girl

Podcasts and radio

There is nothing better than listening to an absorbing podcast as you walk, organise your room or drift to sleep at night! It’s calming and inspiring at the same time. Luckily there are hundreds to choose from, so you’re bound to find something you enjoy. If you’re interested in a particular topic, such as gravitational waves, type it into the search box on the BBC website, and you’ll probably find a couple of radio shows about it! Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• The infinite monkey cage

• The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry

• Bluffer’s Guide to Science

• Big Bang Day: Five Particles

• Experiments that changed the world

Citizen Science Projects

Contribute to real scientific research from the comfort of your on home. You could help find regions of space where stars are being born, discover planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy, map global light pollution, or protect the Earth from solar storms! It’s easy to get involved - there are lots of options on each of these websites, and they all teach you what to do.

• https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?discipline=physics&page=1&status=live

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_citizen_science_projects

• https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience

TED talks

TED talks are really great, thought-provoking (and free!) presentations on a huge range of topics, often given by the world’s leading thinkers. Browse https://www.ted.com/talks

Useful Websites

• Isaac Physics

You may use this site at GCSE and it is used a lot at A level. You can pick a topic and test yourself. If you answer the high level questions you may be invited to a short course at Oxford University

• Khan academy

Lots of useful short videos to explain physics concepts clearly and succinctly

• The physics classroom

Loads of helpful explanations and animations

• The Institute of Physics

All sorts of information about physics

Online Courses (MOOCs)

MOOCs are short, free online courses run by Universities. You can study almost anything, and they’re aimed at the general public, not geniuses!

They often involve some videos, reading, web chats and interactives, and you can often get a certificate at the end.

If you want to study something relevant to the A level course, I recommend Particle Physics or Quantum Physics – both are very new and exciting! But feel free to try anything else that appeals to you.

• https://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses/full-catalogue

• https://www.coursera.org/browse/physical-science-and-engineering/physics-and-astronomy

• https://www.futurelearn.com/

• https://www.edx.org/learn/science

Books

There are many fantastic science and physics books out there and you can often pick them up second hand for not much money. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

The Character of Physical Law, Richard P. Feynman

Reading the words of Richard P. Feynman is necessary part of every physicist’s education. The brilliance of those words comes from two things: his informal conversational style and the startling clarity of his thoughts. This book covers seven lectures given by Feynman at Cornell, and reaches right from the most mundane objects to the biggest thoughts about the universe. The best thing about it is that when reading this, you can imagine yourself right there in the room with him, listening to one of the best teachers of physics who has ever lived.

A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

This is the classic introduction to the weirdness of spacetime, with an added bonus in the form of a minor detour into the innards of the atom. Our 3D spatial world isn’t separate from the arrow of time, and the consequences for the universe are immense. It’s also worth reading just because this was many people’s first introduction to those ideas, and you can almost feel the mind of the reader being blown as you progress through.

Storm in a Teacup, The Physics of Everyday Life, Helen Czerski

Our world is full of patterns. If you pour milk into your tea and give it a stir, you’ll see a swirl, a spiral of two fluids, before the two liquids mix completely. The same pattern is found elsewhere too. Look down on the Earth from space, and you’ll find similar swirls in the clouds, made where warm air and cold air waltz.

In Storm in a Teacup, Helen Czerski links the little things we see every day with the big world we live in. Each chapter begins with something small – popcorn, coffee stains and refrigerator magnets – and uses it to explain some of the most important science and technology of our time.

This is physics as the toolbox of science - a toolbox we need in order to make sense of what is around us and arrive at decisions about the future, from medical advances to solving our future energy needs. It is also physics as the toy box of science: physics as fun, as never before.

A short history of nearly everything, Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bryson's quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us.

Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science.

The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, A Short History of Nearly Everything is the biggest-selling popular science book of the 21st century, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.