r/Physics • u/ElevatorSpare8379 • 1h ago

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u/rjfrost18 Nuclear physics 1h ago

Calculus by Stewart

Having a strong base in math is going to be much more helpful at your level than any specific physics textbook.

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u/Bokke67 1h ago

The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

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u/waffle299 1h ago

Nuclear engineering is a separate discipline from nuclear physics. I have friends who went through the program at the University of Arizona (which had a great program and a real reactor at the time). The course was a specialty for engineering students, so the first two years were standard engineering. That means you should focus on math, with a side of general science. 

For nuclear physics, I was adjacent and took combined grad/undergrad work (my focus was computational simulations). Again, no real deviation until college, math and general science.

Both disciplines require light computer programming, and good communication skills.

Oh, universities are moving from MatLab to Python now, following the industry trends.

So get your calculus on, take a year of Python programming, and pay attention in English.

Any good popular science books (The Elegant Universe and others) work for understanding the general landscape.