Math Problem Books
Math Problem Books
(Also read – Physics Books for self learning) How often have you stared at a math (or physics) problem, unsure of where to begin? Most math books are unusually pedantic and dull – all in an attempt to be more ‘rigorous’. Screw rigor, I say. Students are looking for a deeper understanding – lemmas, theorems are certainly not the way to provide that deep understanding.
These books fill this important gap. By providing the first step (where do I start), these problems bring those abstract theorems to life.
Here is a list of my favorite pure math problem books (Algebra, Differential Calculus, Real and Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra and more….) , theoretical (Ph.D. level physics) and mathematical physics problems. Some of the Web Resources also have solutions to common graduate textbook problems ( Goldstein , Jackson , Griffiths , Peskin Schroder , Shankar , Klauber , Merzbacher).
Pure Math |
MathematicalPhysics |
General Physics problems (for Ph.D. Qualifiers) |
Web Resources |
More Pure Math |
Slightly Advanced Problems – graduate level math, but an amazing selection. |
Princeton Problems in Physics
University of Chicago – Graduate Problems in Physics
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PhysicsPages | ||
GoldStein Solutions | ||||
Perfect for the budding high school or college math student. There’s no comparison to the ‘Green’ and the companion ‘Red’ Book problems. |
J.D. Jackson Solutions |
100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics Bernoulli, Cauchy, Euler…Solar, Lunar Eclipses, Brightness of Venus…The journeys in here are priceless. Don’t let the word ‘elementary’ fool you. |
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Perfect for the budding high school or college math student. There’s no comparison to the ‘Green’ and the companion ‘Red’ Book (slightly harder than the Green Book) problems. |
Think you understand relativity? Try this book for size. Some of the problems in here are research topics in their own right. What an amazing selection! |
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Complex Functions, Harmonic and Analytic Functions are the lifeblood of physicists and other mathematical sciences. This translation (from Russian) is probably the greatest collection of complex analysis problems, with solutions. |
For those demanding graduate physics courses, this might be a good resource. Solving J.D. Jackson’s Electrodynamics problems was always a painful experience (though I did manage to eke out an A in that course). This book helped me with some of the tougher expansions. |
A fun collection of problems |
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Summary
This list was not created overnight. Over a period of two decades, these books were part of the additions to my personal library.
Please comment if I am missing your favorite math problem book (or mathematical physics problem book) ! Also see Rare Finds in Relativity
The table of books shows but not the books themselves. Please fix this, as I think a lot of people benefit from lists like these, which aren’t usually available from a naive google search.
I’m using Firefox on Ubuntu 16.04.