As a beginner, how do I get into physics Olympiads?
As a beginner, how do I get into physics Olympiads?
The question in hand is subjective to a person’s level in math. When starting Olympiads, it is usually recommended that one is able to do at least single variable calculus or what is referred to in other places as Calculus 1 or AP Calculus AB.
In all honesty, you won’t be using much calculus until you get deeper into physics topics, and it is absolutely necessary to be able to be fluent in the language of calculus when studying Electricity and Magnetism. However, at the basic mechanics level, you should probably only be expected to be able to do differentiation and integration.
If you don’t know calculus yet: don’t worry, it won’t take long to be able to do basic differentiation and integration. Calculus is notorious for other things in its field. A solid one week should be good enough to get started.
- Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane. This calculus based physics book provides a thorough, comprehensive walkthrough of the basics of physics and provides hard challenge problems at the end of each section. Reviewing through this book will increase your understanding of physics as well as build a solid base. It has been said that people have gotten gold medals at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) solely with this book.
- Problems and Solutions in Introductory Mechanics by D. Morin. This book provides hundreds of beautiful problems in Mechanics. Reading through this book is almost essential when preparing for the F=ma Exam.
- Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt. This book provides a basic introduction of physics to a person whose mathematics level is not yet at calculus. It is recommended for you to start with this book if your current math class is Algebra 2 or lower. People who are currently taking Precalculus are recommended to start with Halliday Resnick Krane (HRK) after learning how to solve basic derivatives and integrals.
oh sure.. kalda handouts are very famous . here is the link~
https://www.ioc.ee/~kalda/ipho/