How physics is actually done — instruments, simulation and error.
8 topics · 11 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing
Steven W. Smith · 1997
Builds digital signal processing out of operations on arrays of numbers rather than continuous mathematics, aimed at readers who need working code…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Simulating Physics with Computers
Richard P. Feynman · 1982
Argues that only a computer built from quantum mechanical elements can efficiently simulate a quantum system, founding the idea of the quantum…
+3 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
An Algorithm for the Machine Calculation of Complex Fourier Series
James W. Cooley & John W. Tukey · 1965
Shows a discrete Fourier transform can be computed in n log n steps instead of n-squared by recursively splitting the sum, the algorithm that made…
+5 more at this level
11 works
Steven W. Smith
Builds digital signal processing out of operations on arrays of numbers rather than continuous mathematics, aimed at readers who need working code before they need a proof.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Richard P. Feynman
Argues that only a computer built from quantum mechanical elements can efficiently simulate a quantum system, founding the idea of the quantum computer.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling & Flannery
Explains why each numerical method fails before giving you the code, which is the part most libraries leave out.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Werner Krauth
Works through Markov-chain Monte Carlo for statistical mechanics models from first principles, building detailed balance and the Metropolis rule up from simple examples rather than stating them as axioms.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Luca Lista
Works through the frequentist machinery — confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, the look-elsewhere effect — that a particle physics experiment needs before it can claim a discovery.
link checked 17 Sept 2026James W. Cooley & John W. Tukey
Shows a discrete Fourier transform can be computed in n log n steps instead of n-squared by recursively splitting the sum, the algorithm that made digital signal processing practical.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Rajan Gupta
Introduces putting spacetime itself on a discrete grid so that quantum chromodynamics, otherwise unsolvable by hand at low energy, can be computed directly.
97 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Fugao Wang & D. P. Landau
Proposes sampling a flat histogram in energy rather than the Boltzmann distribution directly, letting a single Monte Carlo run recover the full density of states of a statistical-physics model.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology
Sets out the now-universal method for combining every source of error into a single stated uncertainty, replacing decades of incompatible national conventions.
link checked 17 Sept 2026CMS Collaboration
Describes the design and construction of the CMS detector at the LHC, an instrument built to be sensitive to physics its designers could not yet predict.
link checked 17 Sept 2026LIGO Scientific Collaboration (J. Aasi et al.)
Details the kilometre-scale interferometer, sensitive to a strain of about one part in 10^21, that made a direct detection of gravitational waves possible for the first time.
link checked 17 Sept 2026