# University Physics by Young and Freedman

5 Hacker News commenters recommended University Physics by Young and Freedman and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a standard introduction to a little bit of everything in physics. The most common caveat is that its modern physics coverage is short.

## Why people recommend it

- Standard text for learning physics (2 comments): "The standard text to build understanding in physics is University Physics by Sears & Zemansky." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48693946)) "I also second OgsyedIE's suggestion og Young & Freedman." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478222))
- Broad coverage of introductory physics (2 comments): "the best introduction to a little bit of everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473690)) "Freshman university textbooks have what you need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478252))

## What people warn about

- Modern physics coverage seems short (1 comments): "I have heard good things about this book but it seems its coverage of Modern Physics might be a bit too short?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46474048))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Feynman, Leighton and Sands](https://hackerapproved.com/p/feynman-lectures-on-physics.md): 34 recommend
- [Course of Theoretical Physics by Landau and Lifshitz](https://hackerapproved.com/p/course-of-theoretical-physics.md): 8 recommend
- [Computational Physics (2nd Edition) by Giordano and Nakanishi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/computational-physics.md): 7 recommend
- [General Relativity by Robert Wald](https://hackerapproved.com/p/general-relativity.md): 6 recommend
- [Engineering Thermodynamics](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-textbook-on-engineering-thermodynamics.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805387676?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780805387674) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "University Physics by Young and Freedman", https://hackerapproved.com/p/university-physics/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).