Holly,
Holly wrote:I will check out the videos you posted
Those links contain an overwhelming number of vidz. Unless someone is paying you to learn (or worse, you're paying tuition),
take your time. Browse the titles and, in an open document, keep a play list of links to your favorite topics (just right click any vid to copy its link). Then view 1 or 2 a day. It takes time for this stuff to settle in. 50 is young. There's no rush.
Holly wrote:I am currently reading ... Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind & Art Friedman
I find Susskind to be intelligent but one of the worst communicators I've encountered. His "Minimum" series is far more sophisticated than most beginners can handle. They would be completely unintelligible if not for his non-physicist co-authors. When I first got his QM book, I found I had to go back and get the one on
classical mechanics just to keep up with the jargon. Even there, a flood of jargon. Not bad but not my choice for beginners.
Anytime physicists start pulling abstract work spaces (such as "Hilbert space" or extra dimensions) out of their back pockets, it means they've
abandoned reality.
Physics isn't physics unless it's about the physical. That other stuff is
math. Nothing bad about math but it isn't necessarily physics. Particles can't do math.
Holly wrote:I wished I could sit with you and ask you questions.
What you'd get is
Personal Theory of which SPCF has quite a variety. We try and avoid that, here in the
Physics section. I'm guilty of making my own jargon (e.g. "pinhole" instead of "photon"), which no physicist will recognize. Nevertheless, I published a brief (5 page)
intro, you can try. If you prefer animation, I have a YouTube channel
here. They're meant to be viewed in order, starting with
01. At the first sign of confusion,
run for safety right back here.