Has anyone else felt that their astrophysics courses/books were helpful for the Physics GRE?
I've felt that the first quarter of astronomy (http://www.astro.washington.edu/courses/astro321/) really solidifed my foundation on gravitation, for example. Not so sure about the other two quarters though. And most astrophysics books tend to have physics at a lower level - a level quite appropriate for Physics GRE type questions (i'm definitely seeing this in the "Particle Astrophysics" book) - while most 4th year physics books are overkill.
Astrophysics textbooks as study?
Re: Astrophysics textbooks as study?
I think the only astronomy stuff you need to know is the telescope formula, dopler effect, nuclear reactions in stars, newton's law, and kepler's laws.
-
- Posts: 194
- Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:28 am
Re: Astrophysics textbooks as study?
Trust me on this (I'm not joking with you or being sarcastic) - know Hubble's Law.
- InquilineKea
- Posts: 301
- Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:07 pm
Re: Astrophysics textbooks as study?
Oh interesting. What about concepts from chemistry? Physical chemistry has A LOT of overlap with modern physics. And chemistry books have more "solve this in 1.5 minutes" problems than physics textbooks.
- WhoaNonstop
- Posts: 853
- Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:31 am
Re: Astrophysics textbooks as study?
Take the 4 practice tests and go through them. Note what concept is being tested in each question and study each of these concepts. You don't need a specific book or any of that crap, and you definitely don't need to study an Astrophysics book or a Physical Chemistry book.InquilineKea wrote:Oh interesting. What about concepts from chemistry? Physical chemistry has A LOT of overlap with modern physics. And chemistry books have more "solve this in 1.5 minutes" problems than physics textbooks.
-Riley