Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Radically Modern Introductory Physics Text I
David J. Raymond · New Mexico Tech
The idea for a “radically modern” introductory physics course arose out of frustration with the standard two-semester treatment of the subject. It is basically impossible to incorporate a significant amount of “modern physics” (meaning post-19th century!) in that format. The authors feel that an introductory physics course for non-majors should make an attempt to cover the great accomplishments of physics in the 20th century, since they form such an important part of our scientific culture.
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Radically Modern Introductory Physics Text II
David J. Raymond · New Mexico Tech
The idea for a “radically modern” introductory physics course arose out of frustration with the standard two-semester treatment of the subject. Given this structure, a knowledgeable instructor able to offer one-on-one time with students (as in our recitation sections) is essential for student success. The text is most likely to be useful in a sophomore-level course introducing physics majors to the broad world of physics viewed from a modern perspective.
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Relativity Lite - A Pictorial Translation of Einstein’s Theories of Motion and Gravity
Jack C. Straton · Portland State University
Relativity Lite is designed for courses like my 100-student General Astronomy sequence. Relativity Lite translates the mathematical equations conventional relativity texts rely upon into pictures that are readily understood and contain within them the mathematical essentials. This new book would provide the comprehensive coverage needed to understand, in sufficient depth, these three linked areas of our reality.
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Introduction to Soil Science Laboratory Manual (Schwyter and Vaughan)
Anna R. Schwyter and Karen L. Vaughan · University of Wyoming
In the contents: 05: Soil Physics and Water Relations
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Phys1140: Introductory Physics II: Part 1
Elizabeth McCormak · Bowdoin College
Welcome students! Physics 1140 will be using a selection of open electronic resources (OER) to support your learning in this course. The Bowdoin Physics Department has collected sections of the OpenStax University Physics OER textbook and arranged them in parts 1 and 2 according to the material we will discuss. Part 1 provides information, sample problems, and online simulations for the first half of the course. Part 2 provides the same for the remainder of the course.
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Nuclear and Particle Physics
Niels Walet · University of Manchester
In the contents: 01: A History of Particle Physics · 1.01: Nobel Prizes in Particle Physics · 1.02: A Timeline of Particle Physics
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Physics Formulas
Johan Wevers · Eindhoven University of Technology
In the contents: 1.07: Statistical Physics · 1.10: Quantum Physics · 1.11: Plasma physics
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Essential Graduate Physics - Classical Mechanics
Konstantin K. Likharev · Stony Brook University
includes: Electric Charge Interaction; Charges and Conductors; Polarization of Dielectrics; DC Currents; Magnetism; Time-Dependent Electromagnetism; Electromagnetic Wave Propagation; Radiation, Scattering, Interference, and Diffraction; Special Relativity; Radiation by Relativistic Charges
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UCD: Physics 9C - Electricity and Magnetism
Tom Weideman · University of California, Davis
Physics 9C introduces general principles and analytical methods used in electricity & magnetism for physical science and engineering majors.
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Mechanics and Relativity
Timon Idema · Delft University of Technology
In Mechanics and Relativity, the reader is taken on a tour through time and space. Starting from the basic axioms formulated by Newton and Einstein, the theory of motion at both the everyday and the highly relativistic level is developed without the need of prior knowledge. Applications covered in the book span a wide range of physical phenomena, including rocket motion, spinning tennis rackets and high-energy particle collisions.
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Introduction to the Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Photons (Benedict)
Mihály Benedict · University of Szeged
These lecture notes have been prepared to give an introduction into the foundations of atomic and molecular physics with an emphasis on the interaction of these atomic systems with light, and in more general, with electromagnetic fields. Modern technology is based more and more on the laws and properties of micro-world, so it seems necessary to understand the most important rules and methods of this field of a physics student.
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Stellar Atmospheres
Jeremy Tatum · University of Victoria
This textbook presents a physics-based introduction to stellar atmospheres, covering radiation theory, blackbody radiation, and radiative transfer. It explains how absorption, scattering, and atomic processes shape stellar spectra, linking quantum mechanics and statistical physics to line formation, broadening, and limb darkening, and concludes with tools like the curve of growth for interpreting observations.
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The Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics
George W. Collins II · Ohio State University
This book offers a rigorous, theory-driven overview of stellar astrophysics, from the physics of matter, energy generation, and transport to full models of stellar structure and evolution. It covers main-sequence and post–main-sequence stars, relativistic and rotating stars, pulsations, and stellar atmospheres, linking fundamental physics to observable stellar properties and spectra.
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Biophysics 241: Membrane Biology
Roland Faller · University of California, Davis
Advanced topics on membrane biochemistry and biophysics. Relationship of the unique properties of biomembranes to their roles in cell biology and physiology.
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Physics 9A Lab
Staff · University of California, Davis
In the contents: Read Me: About Labs in Physics 9
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Applications of Maxwell’s Equation
John F. Cochran and Bretislav Heinrich · Simon Fraser University
This book was developed for an upper-level physics course. Along with a careful exposition of electricity and magnetism, it devotes a chapter to ferromagnets. According to the course description, the topics covered were “electromagnetics, magnetostatics, waves, transmission lines, waveguides, antennas, and radiating systems.”
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Introductory Quantum Mechanics
Richard Fitzpatrick · University of Texas at Austin
This book is intendedas an introductory course on non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Readers need to be reasonably familiar with Newtonian dynamics, elementary classical electromagnetism and special relativity, the physics and mathematics of waves (including the representation of waves via complex functions), basic probability theory, ordinary and partial differential equations, linear algebra, vector algebra, and Fourier series and transforms.
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Introductory Physics: Building Models to Describe Our World
Ryan D. Martin, Emma Neary, Joshua Rinaldo, and Olivia Woodman · Queen's University
In the contents: 01: The Scientific Method and Physics · 1.04: The Scope of Physics · 8.05: The Lagrangian Formulation of Classical Physics
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Complex Methods for the Sciences
Y. D. Chong · Nanyang Technological University
An introductory course in mathematical methods for science and engineering students. Topics covered include complex analysis, contour integration, Fourier analysis, and Green's function methods. Mathematical methods are illustrated with examples drawn from physics, with a focus on oscillations and waves. These notes are also available in the form of Jupyter notebooks on Github (GPLv3).
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Physical Optics
Jeremy Tatum · University of Victoria
Physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid.