✎ Traditional Roadmap [The Physics Travel Guide]

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====== Traditional Roadmap======
 
Most universities follow the traditional roadmap, which follows the historical "order" of the theories.

===== Theoretical Physics =====

<diagram>
| Classical Mechanics|~@2| kinematics, forces, circular motion, energy, momentum, rotations, harmonic motion, Newton's laws, Lagrangian Mechanics, Hamiltonian Mechanics, phase space, configuration space |
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Electrodynamics |~@2 | Coulomb's Law, electric circuits, Maxwell's equations |
| |! |!@4 |
| |!| Special Relativity | ~@2 | Minkowski space, time dilation, proper time, Lorentz group, Poincare group, inertial frames of reference|
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Quantum Mechanics|~@2 | double slit experiment, Schrödinger's equations, canonical commutation relations, particle in a box, perturbation theory, Heisenberg picture, tunneling |
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Quantum Field Theory|~@2 |  Klein-Gordan equation, Dirac equation, second quantization, scattering theory, path integral formalism |
| |!@4| | | | | |
| General Relativity|~@2 | Einstein equation, Schwarzschild metric|
</diagram>

===== Mathematics =====

There are several math topics that are usually learned parallel to the theories:

<diagram>
| Classical Mechanics|~@8| trigonometric functions, differential calculus, integral calculus, differential equations, variational calculus, Legendre transforms|
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Electrodynamics |~@8 | vector calculus, complex numbers, systems of linear equations, linear algebra, Fourier transforms  |
| |! |!@4 |
| |!| Special Relativity | ~@8 | group theory|
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Quantum Mechanics|~@8 | Hilbert spaces, special functions  |
| |!@4| | | | | |
| Quantum Field Theory|~@8 |  Taylor approximations, distributions, Greens functions |
| |!@4| | | | | |
| General Relativity|~@8 |differential geometry|
</diagram>

===== Experimental Physics =====

In addition, there are other topics that are often covered in "experimental physics" courses:

* Optics
  * Waves
  * Nuclear Physics

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