The 10 Best Physics Textbooks

Few books explain physics the way the Feynman Lectures on Physics do. Richard Feynman gave these talks to Caltech undergraduates in the early 1960s, and the three volumes run from motion and heat through electricity to quantum mechanics. He starts from everyday puzzles and builds up, so the reasons behind each law stick. Caltech posts a free web edition, which lets you sample it first. The books carry almost no homework problems, so pair them with a course text.

Halliday Principles of Physics is the classic calculus-based text for a first year of college physics, and the American Physical Society named it the most outstanding introductory physics text of the 20th century. Each chapter pairs worked examples with a deep pool of problems, and this extended version adds relativity, quantum and nuclear physics. It's the international adaptation of the U.S. book Fundamentals of Physics, so its problems won't line up with a U.S. homework list.

Teaching yourself? Shankar Fundamentals of Physics I grew from the Yale introductory course that R. Shankar recorded for Open Yale Courses, and those lecture videos are free to watch alongside it. The writing keeps a lecturer's voice, explaining each step instead of skipping ahead, and this expanded edition adds exercises with an answer key. It covers mechanics, relativity, waves, fluids and heat. Electricity, optics and quantum physics sit in a separate second volume.

Griffiths Introduction to Electrodynamics is the standard text for a junior-level course in electricity and magnetism, and its relaxed, conversational voice is why so many students hang on to it. It opens with a brisk review of vector calculus, then builds from charges at rest to fields that move and radiate. The fifth edition adds examples and problems, some meant to be solved on a computer. It expects comfort with calculus in three dimensions, so it's no starting point.

Anyone can read OpenStax University Physics free online or as a PDF, because Rice University's nonprofit OpenStax publishes it under an open license. This first volume covers mechanics, sound, oscillations and waves for a calculus-based course, with color figures and worked examples throughout. A printed copy suits readers who would rather not study from a screen. The full course spans three volumes, so this one only takes you through the first term.

A cat sits on the front cover of Griffiths Introduction to Quantum Mechanics and lies limp on the back, a joke about the strangest idea inside. David Griffiths and Darrell Schroeter write the way a good teacher talks, working through the wave equation step by step before moving on to atoms, spin and approximation methods. It's the standard undergraduate text and covers the quantum part of the graduate-school physics exam. Readers without linear algebra will struggle early.

The second pass at motion is where Taylor Classical Mechanics shines: Newton's laws give way to the Lagrange and Hamilton methods physicists use on harder problems. John Taylor explains each move in plain language, and the later chapters on chaos are rare at this level. Problems at the end of each chapter are marked by difficulty, which helps when you're working alone. It hasn't seen a new edition since 2005, and it comes only in hardcover.

If high school physics went over your head, Kuhn Basic Physics breaks it into small steps with a question after each, so you can check yourself as you go. Karl Kuhn, a university professor, and Frank Noschese, a high school physics teacher, cover momentum, energy, waves, magnetism and light, with the math in optional sections. Self-tests with answers close each chapter. It stops at the basics and won't prepare anyone for calculus-based work.

Written for adults who want real physics, equations and all, The Theoretical Minimum skips the storytelling of popular science books. Leonard Susskind, a Stanford physicist, wrote it with George Hrabovsky from his continuing-education lectures, and it teaches classical mechanics alongside just enough calculus to follow along, in short chapters with exercises. Later books in the series take the same approach to quantum mechanics, relativity and fields. It moves quickly, and readers who never took calculus may need a second source.

Graduate students get one long tour of classical physics beyond the basics in Modern Classical Physics, which grew from a course Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford taught at Caltech. It ties optics, fluids, plasmas, elasticity, relativity and statistical physics together with one set of mathematical tools. Thorne later shared a Nobel Prize for detecting gravitational waves. It's long and demanding and assumes a full undergraduate degree, so it suits serious students as a reference.