Introduction

This preview introduces revolutionary ideas and heroes from Copernicus to Newton, and links the physics of the heavens and the earth.

The Law of Falling Bodies

Galileo's imaginative experiments proved that all bodies fall with the same constant acceleration.

Derivatives

The function of mathematics in physical science and the derivative as a practical tool.

Inertia

Galileo risks his favored status to answer the questions of the universe with his law of inertia.

Vectors

Physics must explain not only why and how much, but also where and which way.

Newton's Laws

Newton lays down the laws of force, mass, and acceleration.

Integration

Newton and Leibniz arrive at the conclusion that differentiation and integration are inverse processes.

The Apple and the Moon

The first real steps toward space travel are made as Newton discovers that gravity describes the force between any two particles in the universe.

Moving in Circles

The original Platonic ideal, with derivatives of vector functions. According to Plato, stars are heavenly beings that orbit the Earth with uniform perfection -- uniform speed and perfect circles. Even in this imperfect world, uniform circular motion make perfect mathematical sense.
Instructional Objectives
* Understand the meaning of uniform circular motion. * Describe the vector relationships between the radius, velocity, and acceleration in uniform circular motion. * Be able to use the expressions a = v2/r = omega2r = 4 pi2r/T2 in problems involving circular motion. * Be able to use Newton's laws to describe the dynamics of circular motion and to solve problems involving objects moving in circular paths.

Fundamental Forces

All physical phenomena of nature are explained by four forces: two nuclear forces, gravity, and electricity.

Gravity, Electricity, Magnetism

Forces at play in the Physics Theater. The gravitational force between two masses, the electric force between two charges, and the magnetic force between two magnetic poles -- all these forces take essentially the same mathematical form. Newton's script suggested connections between electricity and magnetism. Acting on scientific hunches, Maxwell saw the matter in an entirely new light.
Instructional Objectives
* State one connection between electricity and magnetism. * Give examples of the concept of "field." * State some similarities and differences between the force of gravity and electricity. * Explain how the speed of light in "buried" in the forces of electricity and magnetism

The Millikan Experiment

How does science progress? Through painstaking trial and error, illustrated with a dramatic re-creation of Robert Millikan's classic oil-drop experiment. Understanding the electric force on a charged droplet and viscosity, the measured the charge of a single electron.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to describe Millikan's method for measuring the charge of an electron. * Be able to solve problems with viscous forces. * Recognize that all charge is a multiple of fundamental unit of charge, which is the charge of the electron.

Conservation of Energy

According to one of the major laws of physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed.

Potential Energy

Potential energy provides a powerful model for understanding why the world has worked the same way since the beginning of time

Conservation of Momentum

If The Mechanical Universe is a perpetual clock, what keeps it ticking away till the end of time? Taking a cue from Descartes, momentum -- the product of mass and velocity -- is always conserved. Newton's laws embody the concept of conservation and momentum. This law provides a powerful principle for analyzing collisions, even at the local pool hall.
Instructional Objectives
* Recognize conservation of momentum as a consequence of Newton's Second Law. * Know when the momentum of a system is conserved. * Recognize the connection between kinetic energy and momentum. * Be able to solve problems involving elastic and inelastic collisions. * Know the relationship between impulse and time average of force.

Harmonic Motion

The music and mathematics of periodic motion.

Resonance

The music and mathematics of nature, Part II. As Galileo noted, the swings of a pendulum increasingly grow with repeated, timed applications of a small force. When the frequency of an applied force matches the natural frequency of a system, large-amplitude oscillations result in the phenomenon of resonance. Resonance explains why a swaying bridge collapsed in a mild wind, and how a wineglass can be shattered by a human voice.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to define forced oscillations. * Be able to explain resonance and give a few examples. * Understand the relationship between resonance and forced oscillatory motion.

Waves

With an analysis of simple harmonic motion and a stroke of genius, Newton extended mechanics to the propagation of sound.

Angular Momentum

An old momentum with a new twist. Kepler's second law of planetary motion, which is rooted here in a much deeper principle, imagined a line from the sun to a planet that sweeps out equal areas in equal times. Angular momentum is a twist on momentum -- the cross product of the radius vector and momentum. A force with twist is torque. When no torque acts on a system, the angular momentum of the system is conserved.
Instructional Objectives
* Know the definitions of torque and angular momentum. * Know how to write the angular momentum of a system and a particle. * Understand the connection between Kepler's second law and the law of conservation f angular momentum. * Recognize the role of conservation of angular momentum in the formation of vortices and firestorms.

Torques and Gyroscopes

From spinning tops to the precession of the equinoxes.

Kepler's Three Laws

The discovery of elliptical orbits helps describe the motion of heavenly bodies with unprecedented accuracy.

The Kepler Problem

The deduction of Kepler's laws from Newton's universal law of gravitation is one of the crowning achievements of Western thought.

Energy and Eccentricity

The precise orbit of any heavenly body -- a planet, asteroid, or comet -- is fixed by the laws of conservation of energy and angular momentum. The eccentricity, which determines the shape of an orbit, is intimately linked to the energy and angular momentum of the heavenly body.
Instructional Objectives
* Understand the relationship between energy and eccentricity. * Be able to characterize orbits by eccentricity. * Be able to understand the concept of effective potential and how it relates to planetary motion. * Understand how initial conditions affect the orbit of a planet, comet or satellite.

Navigating in Space

Voyages to other planets use the same laws that guide planets around the solar system.

Kepler to Einstein

From Kepler's laws and the theory of tides, to Einstein's general theory of relativity, into black holes, and beyond.

Harmony of the Spheres

A last lingering look back at mechanics to see new connections between old discoveries

Beyond the Mechanical Universe

The world of electricity and magnetism, and 20th-century discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Static Electricity

Eighteenth-century electricians knew how to spark the interest of an audience with the principles of static electricity.

The Electric Field

Faraday's vision of lines of constant force in space laid the foundation for the modern force field theory.

Potential and Capacitance

Franklin proposes a successful theory of the Leyden jar and invents the parallel plate capacitor

Voltage, Energy and Force

When is electricity dangerous or benign, spectacular or useful?

The Electric Battery

Electricity changed from a curiosity to a central concern of science and technology in 1800, when Alessandro Volta invented the electric battery. Batteries make use of the internal properties of different metals to turn chemical energy directly into electric energy.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to understand the internal and external potentials of metals. * Be able to explain the internal workings of an electric battery

Electric Circuits

The work of Wheatstone, Ohm, and Kirchhoff leads to the design and analysis of how current flows.

Magnetism

William Gilbert, personal physician by appointment to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I of England, discovered that the earth behaves like a giant magnet. Magnetism as a natural phenomenon, the behavior of magnetic materials, and the motion of charged particles in a magnetic field.

Instructional Objectives
* Be able to calculate the magnetic force on a current element and on a moving charge in a given magnetic field. * Know the definition of torque and potential energy for a magnetic dipole. * Be able to explain the concept of domains in ferromagnetic materials. * Be able to use the definition of magnetic flux and discuss the significance of the result that the net magnetic flux out of a closed surface is zero. * Be able to calculate the magnetic moment of a current loop and the torque exerted on a current loop in a magnetic field. * Be able to discuss the magnetism of the Earth.

The Magnetic Field

The law of Biot and Sarvart, the ... force between electric currents, and Ampère's law.

Vector Fields and Hydrodynamics

Force fields have definite properties of their own suitable for scientific study.

Electromagnetic Induction

The discovery of electromagnetic induction in 1831 creates an important technological breakthrough in the generation of electric power

Alternating Current

Electromagnetic induction makes it easy and natural to generate alternating current. Use of transformers makes it practical to distribute ac over long distances. Although Nikola Tesla understood all this, Thomas Edison chose not to, and thereby hangs a tale. Alternating current circuits obey a differential equation identical to the harmonic oscillator resonance equation.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to state the definition of rms current and relate it to the maximum current in an ac circuit. * Know the phase relationships between voltages and currents for elements of an LRC circuit. * Be able to discuss the relationship between an LRC circuit and a harmonic oscillator. * Be able to describe a step-up and a step-down transformer. * Be able to discuss the relationship between power transmission and voltage. * Be able to state the resonance condition for an LRC circuit and to sketch the power versus angular frequency

Maxwell's Equation

By the 1860s all the pieces of the electricity and magnetism puzzle were in place, except one. The last piece, discovered by James Clerk Maxwell and called (unfortunately) the displacement current was just what was needed to produce electromagnetic waves called (among other things) light.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to write down Maxwell's equations and discuss the experimental basis of each. * Be able to state the definition of Maxwell's displacement current and discuss its significance. * Realize that Maxwell's equations reveal that light is an electromagnetic wave. * Be able to state the expression for the speed of an electromagnetic wave in terms of electric and magnetic currents. * Be able to comment on the symmetry of Maxwell's equations. * Know the significance of Maxwell's equations in modern technological society. 

Optics and Beyond

Maxwell's theory says that electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma-rays and including visible light, are all basically the same phenomenon. Many of the properties of light are really just properties of waves, including reflection, refraction and diffraction. Ordinary light can be used to see things on a human scale, X-rays to "see" things on an atomic scale.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to discuss the nature and properties of various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. * Be able to state the law of reflection and Snell's law of refraction and relate them to the properties of waves. * Be able to explain wave interference and diffraction. * Be able to explain how we can "see" atoms.

The Michelson-Morley Experiment

In 1887, an exquisitely designed measurement of the earth's motion through the ether results in the most brilliant failure in scientific history.

The Lorentz Transformation @

If the speed of light is to be the same for all observers, then the length of a meter stick, or the rate of a ticking clock, depends on who measures it.

Velocity and Time

Einstein is motivated to perfect the central ideas of physics, resulting in a new understanding of the meaning of space and time.

Mass, Momentum, & Energy

The new meaning of space and time make it necessary to formulate a new mechanics. Starting from the conservation of momentum, it turns out among other things that E = mc 2.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to state the definition of relativistic momentum and e equations relating kinetic energy and the total energy of a particle to its speed. * Be able to discuss the relation between mass and energy in Special Relativity and compute the binding energy of various systems from the known rest masses of their constituents. * Be able to discuss the concept of relativistic mass

Temperature and Gas Laws

The ups and downs of scientific research are reflected in Boyle's experiments, and Charles' investigations. Hot new discoveries about the behaviors of gases make the connection between temperature and heat, and raise the possibility of an absolute scale. Text Assignment: Chapter 15
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to state the definitions of the Celsius temperature scale and the Fahrenheit temperature scale and convert temperatures given on one scale into those of the other. * Be able to convert temperatures given on either the Celsius scale or the Fahrenheit scale into kelvins. * Be able to state the equation of state for an ideal gas and give the value of the universal gas constant in joules per kelvin. * * Know that the average energy of a gas molecule at temperature T is of the order of kT, where k is Boltzmann's constant. * Know that the absolute temperature T is a measure of the kinetic energy of a gas.

Engine of Nature

The Carnot engine, part one, beginning with simple steam engines

Entropy

The Carnot engine, part two, with profound ... implications for the behavior of matter and the flow of time through the universe.

Low Temperatures

Solids, liquids, and gases are the substance of every substance in the physical world. With the quest for low temperatures came the discovery that, under the right conditions of temperature and pressure, all elements can exist in each of the basic states of matter.
Instructional Objectives
* Explain how you make something colder. * Be able to list and give examples of the three basic states of matter. * Be able to explain what a phase diagram is. * Be able to reproduce a phase diagram fro water and explain why it is so unique. * Know how gases are liquefied. * Be able to explain the Joule-Thomson effect.

The Atom

This program explores the history of the atom, from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century, when discoveries by J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford created a new crisis for the world of physics.
Instructional Objectives
* Be able to summarize the kinetic theory and discuss the size of atoms. * Be able to compare Thomson's model of an atom with Rutherford's planetary model of an atom. * Be able to discuss why Rutherford's model of an atom conflicted with Maxwell's theory of charged particles. * Be able to discuss the significance of Brownian motion in providing evidence for the existence of atoms.

Particles and Waves

Evidence that light can sometimes act like a particle leads to quantum mechanics, the new physics.

From Atoms to Quarks

Electron waves attracted to the nucleus of an atom help account for the periodic table of the elements and ultimately lead to the search for quarks.

The Quantum Mechanical Universe & Beyond