A world-class physicist and a citizen scientist combine forces to teach Physics 101-the DIY way. "The Theoretical Minimum" is a book for anyone who has ever regretted not taking physics in college-or who simply wants to know how to think like a physicist. In this unconventional introduction, physicist Leonard Susskind and amateur scientist George Hrabovsky offer a first course in physics and associated math for the ardent amateur. Unlike most popular physics books-which give readers a taste of what physicists know but shy away from equations or math-Susskind and Hrabovsky actually teach the skills you need to do physics, beginning with classical mechanics, yourself. Based on Susskind's enormously popular Stanford University-based (and YouTube-featured) continuing-education course, the authors cover the minimum-the theoretical minimum of the title-that readers need to master to study more advanced topics. An alternative to the conventional go-to-college method, "The Theoretical Minimum" provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.

The nature of classical physics -- Spaces, trigonometry, and vectors -- Motion -- Integral calculus -- Dynamics -- Partial differentiation -- Systems of more than one particle -- Energy -- The principle of least action -- Symmetries and conservation laws -- Hamiltonian mechanics and time-translation invariance -- The phase space fluid and the Gibbs-Liouville Theorem -- Poisson brackets, angular momentum, and symmetries -- Electric and magnetic forces -- Appendix 1: central forces and planetary orbits.