Physics Books for the Novice?

cornjchob asks: "I've been a Slashdot reader for quite sometime now, and I've seen alot of Physics articles posted. I've got a good understanding of alot of it, but that doesn't mean there's no room to improve. So what's some good reading material for Physics that will give you a good, solid foundation if you've missed something, and then give you some additional stuff? What about online articles or PDF's for us cheap folk? Quantum Mechanics is another subject area that--judging by alot of posts underneath the articles, at least--many of us could use some brushing up on. Any suggestions for books/articles/PDF's on that? Suggestions on anything pertinent to any of those would be great."

Comments

Re:Serway, Serway, Serway.

[bcrowell]

I once taught introductory physics out of the algebra-based version of this book (Serway and Faughn). It has a lot of good conceptual homework questions in it, but other than that, I didn't like the book. Too often, it started a chapter with an equation, with no explanation of where the equation came from. It's basically a plug-and-chug book. Maybe the calculus-based version you're referring to is better.

For a calculus-based book, I think Knight is pretty good. You can also check out my own free texts via my Slashdot user page. My calculus-based book, Simple Nature, is not as mature a project as my algebra-based series, Light and Matter.