About us
This is a group for anyone who has ever rigorously studied physics – or has wanted to. Here's why you'd want to join us:
- If you feel like physics is the most interesting and most difficult subject that there is;
- If you're burning with a desire to deeply understand the universe at its smallest and largest scales;
- And if you thrive in an environment of learning through collaboration with people like yourself...
... then you've found the right place!
Join us to participate in lively discussions and learn core material in serious study groups. We offer multiple tracks of study, regularly host special events and talks, and are constantly tweaking the meetup to make it more useful. We also stay in touch between meetings to motivate and help each other continue learning.
Everyone is welcome from every level of experience! Many of us are (re)discovering physics after college (sometimes long after) and it can be easy to feel rusty or underqualified. Don't fall into that false narrative! If you think some of the material in this meetup is too advanced, we want you to join us so that we can help you learn!
Upcoming events
156
Physics Essentials: Modern Mechanics
·OnlineOnlineJoin us in a guided group study of the most essential subject in physics: mechanics! Unlike your high school or college mechanics course, we're following two deeply insightful textbooks:
- Modern Classical Mechanics, by Helliwell and Sahakian, is our primary text. It offers a fresh take on classical mechanics, treating it as a logically coherent system rather than a bag of tricks. It introduces powerful tools like the Euler-Lagrange equations and Hamiltonian dynamics without assuming a deep math or physics background. The authors focus on the “why” behind the equations, helping readers see the physical ideas and symmetries that unify different problems.
- Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, by V.I. Arnold, emphasizes the deep, geometric language of physics. We use this as a secondary resource. Arnold’s approach connects simple Newtonian mechanics to powerful ideas like manifolds, symplectic structure, and group theory – concepts that also show up in quantum mechanics and modern physics.
The material starts with familiar concepts and carefully develops them into advanced topics. Don't worry if you feel like you don't have enough background for the latter; our group is incredibly friendly and paced to support learners from a variety of backgrounds. We encourage questions, discussions, and a spirit of curiosity. Whether you're revisiting physics or exploring it for the first time, you're welcome here.
What to expect – Here is our current format:
- Before each meeting, we will assign ourselves a reading and a set of exercises that everyone is invited to try for next time. (All of this is optional and there is never anything expected or required – this is a self-study group!)
- During the meeting, one or more volunteers will teach the lessons from the assigned readings, and others will present their solutions to (or attempts at!) the exercises.
- Between meetings, we will collaborate through our chat server and/or small study sessions during "office hours". New members should especially take advantage of these to get up to speed. Ask us for details and links to these fantastic resources!
Prerequisites: So long as you have taken at least some amount of college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine.
We maintain a live chat server for staying in touch between meetups. Ask us for a link.This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning field theory at a graduate or advanced undergraduate level. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Discuss Physics and Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
Having technical trouble joining the meeting? You need to use the Zoom app and log in with a (free to create) personal Zoom account before you can join our meeting. You might not be able to join directly from a web browser if you can’t log in.
6 attendees
Quantum Gravity Explorations
·OnlineOnlineOverview
This is a collaborative study group dedicated to understanding the foundations, motivations, and current landscape of quantum gravity research. Our goal is breadth over depth: rather than mastering every technical detail, we aim to build a clear conceptual picture of why quantum gravity is challenging, what the major approaches attempt to do, and how they compare.Nevertheless, developing a coherent understanding of quantum gravity does require engaging with the mathematics. We will work through explicit equations and derivations to understand how gravitational dynamics emerge, how quantum consistency constrains theories, and why certain results are unavoidable rather than assumed.
Participants should have a basic familiarity with the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and general relativity, and be comfortable with the Lagrangian formalism of physical theories.
What to expect
- We assign readings, lectures to watch, and curated exercises prior to each meeting, which will be announced below.
- During the meetings, one or more of the volunteers will walk through the assigned materials and moderate the discussion.
- Additional discussion between meetings will take place on our chat server, where we can exchange solutions, notes, interesting and relevant articles, etc. Notes and solutions may also be hosted in our Github repository.
What this group is NOT
- Not a popular science or sci-fi discussion group.
- Not a high-pressure, exercise-heavy bootcamp.
- Not a forum to strongly endorse or air grievances against any one approach to quantum gravity .
For casual physics chat or general discussion, please see our other Meetup groups.
Community & Continuity
We maintain a live chat server for continuing discussions between meetups, and a link can be provided upon request if you’d like to join. This even is part of the broader Physics With Friends community, which hosts multiple collaborative study tracks across physics and mathematics.Materials & Assignments
For the next several meetings, we will be going through Barton Zwiebach’s A First Course in String Theory, 2nd Ed. (Amazon link).- Read sections 6.1-6.5 of Zwiebach, and work through problem 6.3
- "Closed strings and the level matching rule" (lecture 4) from Leonard Susskind’s string theory lectures (https://theoreticalminimum.com/courses/string-theory-and-m-theory/2010/fall/lecture-4)
11 attendees
Differential Geometry: From Mapmaking to Conformal Geometry (Ch. 4 part 2 of2)
·OnlineOnline### Why Did Ship Captains Care About Conformal Maps?
One of the original motivations for differential geometry was surprisingly practical:
How do you draw a flat map of the Earth that preserves the angles sailors need for navigation?As we finish Chapter 4 of Visual Differential Geometry and Forms by Tristan Needham, we’ll explore conformal maps, curvature from the metric, and the geometric ideas behind cartography itself.
What makes Needham especially interesting is not just the visual approach, but the historical context he brings to the mathematics — showing how real problems in navigation, mapping, and geometry led to the development of the subject.
Last meeting: metrics, curvature, and how geometry is encoded in (ds^2).
This meeting: conformal maps, complex viewpoints, curvature from scaling, and selected Chapter 7 problems that deepen the ideas from Chapter 4.
### What We’ll Cover
• Conformal maps and angle preservation
• Cartography and the geometry of navigation
• Curvature from the conformal scale factor
• Why every surface locally admits conformal coordinates
• Selected Chapter 7 problems related to Chapter 4 (Problems 1–13)### What to Expect
• Calculus required (partial derivatives, multivariable thinking)
• Reading Chapter 4 encouraged (especially 4.5–4.6)
• Discussion-based (not a lecture)
• Problems worked selectively for conceptual insight### Why It Matters
These ideas connect directly to:
• General relativity
• Complex analysis
• Differential forms and modern geometry
• The deeper idea of “structure-preserving” maps in mathematics and physics### Important
Discussion will stay focused on the agenda.
For casual physics conversation, see other group meetings.### Optional References
Weeks • Baez & Muniain • Greenberg • Penrose
### More in Physics With Friends
This event is one of many collaborative study tracks in our Physics With Friends community.
Explore other topics and join additional study groups here:
https://www.meetup.com/physicswithfriends/events/Join anytime — come prepared to think.
Note: This meeting was previously listed under the placeholder title “Course on General Relativity and Differential Geometry,” carried over from last year’s MIT relativity course review series. The focus has now shifted fully to Tristan Needham’s differential geometry text.
12 attendeesPhysics Essentials: Modern Mechanics
·OnlineOnlineJoin us in a guided group study of the most essential subject in physics: mechanics! Unlike your high school or college mechanics course, we're following two deeply insightful textbooks:
- Modern Classical Mechanics, by Helliwell and Sahakian, is our primary text. It offers a fresh take on classical mechanics, treating it as a logically coherent system rather than a bag of tricks. It introduces powerful tools like the Euler-Lagrange equations and Hamiltonian dynamics without assuming a deep math or physics background. The authors focus on the “why” behind the equations, helping readers see the physical ideas and symmetries that unify different problems.
- Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, by V.I. Arnold, emphasizes the deep, geometric language of physics. We use this as a secondary resource. Arnold’s approach connects simple Newtonian mechanics to powerful ideas like manifolds, symplectic structure, and group theory – concepts that also show up in quantum mechanics and modern physics.
The material starts with familiar concepts and carefully develops them into advanced topics. Don't worry if you feel like you don't have enough background for the latter; our group is incredibly friendly and paced to support learners from a variety of backgrounds. We encourage questions, discussions, and a spirit of curiosity. Whether you're revisiting physics or exploring it for the first time, you're welcome here.
What to expect – Here is our current format:
- Before each meeting, we will assign ourselves a reading and a set of exercises that everyone is invited to try for next time. (All of this is optional and there is never anything expected or required – this is a self-study group!)
- During the meeting, one or more volunteers will teach the lessons from the assigned readings, and others will present their solutions to (or attempts at!) the exercises.
- Between meetings, we will collaborate through our chat server and/or small study sessions during "office hours". New members should especially take advantage of these to get up to speed. Ask us for details and links to these fantastic resources!
Prerequisites: So long as you have taken at least some amount of college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine.
We maintain a live chat server for staying in touch between meetups. Ask us for a link.This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning field theory at a graduate or advanced undergraduate level. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Discuss Physics and Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
Having technical trouble joining the meeting? You need to use the Zoom app and log in with a (free to create) personal Zoom account before you can join our meeting. You might not be able to join directly from a web browser if you can’t log in.
2 attendees
Past events
1157
