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Useful chapters in HRW?

Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:16 pm
by ramparts
Hi all - I'm reading Halliday, Resnick, Walker (7th or 8th ed, depending what the library here has at the time) cover to cover as has been recommended here, to go over freshman/high school physics. But some of these chapters are things I've plain never seen before and I'm really wondering if they'll be useful in the end (like, I just got to shearing and elasticity). Are there any chapters in this book (of the 37!) that cover topics which don't really get put on the GRE, or is every topic in this book something that is worth knowing for the test?

Re: Useful chapters in HRW?

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:22 pm
by Kaiser_Sose
I skipped over chapter 1...

I didn't feel that like converting furlongs to yards to meters.

KS

Re: Useful chapters in HRW?

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:15 pm
by irockhard
CLASSICAL MECHANICS: 20%
(such as kinematics, Newton's laws, work and energy, oscillatory motion, rotational motion about a fixed axis, dynamics of systems of particles, central forces and celestial mechanics, three-dimensional particle dynamics, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism, noninertial reference frames, elementary topics in fluid dynamics)
ELECTROMAGNETISM: 18%
(such as electrostatics, currents and DC circuits, magnetic fields in free space, Lorentz force, induction, Maxwell's equations and their applications, electromagnetic waves, AC circuits, magnetic and electric fields in matter)
OPTICS AND WAVE PHENOMENA: 9%
(such as wave properties, superposition, interference, diffraction, geometrical optics, polarization, Doppler effect)
THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS: 10%
(such as the laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic processes, equations of state, ideal gases, kinetic theory, ensembles, statistical concepts and calculation of thermodynamic quantities, thermal expansion and heat transfer)
QUANTUM MECHANICS: 12%
(such as fundamental concepts, solutions of the Schrödinger equation (including square wells, harmonic oscillators, and hydrogenic atoms), spin, angular momentum, wave function symmetry, elementary perturbation theory)
ATOMIC PHYSICS: 10%
(such as properties of electrons, Bohr model, energy quantization, atomic structure, atomic spectra, selection rules, black-body radiation, x-rays, atoms in electric and magnetic fields)
SPECIAL RELATIVITY: 6%
(such as introductory concepts, time dilation, length contraction, simultaneity, energy and momentum, four-vectors and Lorentz transformation, velocity addition)
LABORATORY METHODS: 6%
(such as data and error analysis, electronics, instrumentation, radiation detection, counting statistics, interaction of charged particles with matter, lasers and optical interferometers, dimensional analysis, fundamental applications of probability and statistics)
SPECIALIZED TOPICS: 9%
Nuclear and Particle physics (e.g., nuclear properties, radioactive decay, fission and fusion, reactions, fundamental properties of elementary particles), Condensed Matter (e.g., crystal structure, x-ray diffraction, thermal properties, electron theory of metals, semiconductors, superconductors), Miscellaneous (e.g., astrophysics, mathematical methods, computer applications)
I pretty much skipped everything not on this list.

Re: Useful chapters in HRW?

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:31 pm
by ramparts
That's awesome - thanks!

Anyone know if they've seen problems on things not covered in that list?

Re: Useful chapters in HRW?

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:49 pm
by grae313
Uh, that's the official list of what the exam covers, right off the ETS website and one of the first pages of every practice booklet. Plus, they've got a "miscellaneous" topic so I don't think it's possible for there to be a question on the exam not covered in that list.