The following outline corresponds roughly to chapters of the textbook, Eric Mazur's Principles and Practice of Physics ( link to online version of textbook ). Topics may be added or removed, and the ordering may be changed, to follow student interest and timing. You should consult with the instructor (and the textbook) for a thorough introduction to physics that is often covered in high school courses but which will be skipped in our couse (such as torque and angular momentum; simple harmonic motion and waves; and optics).
Fall
- Foundations of physics
- History and Methods
- Making models
- Symmetry
- Measurement
- Units
- How to solve problems
- Intuition
- Motion in one dimension
- Position and displacement
- Representing motion
- Average speed / velocity
- Vectors
- Motion at constant velocity
- Instantaneous velocity
- Acceleration
- Describing changes in velocity
- Projectiles
- Motion diagrams
- Motion with constant acceleration
- Free-fall
- Inclined Planes
- Instantaneous acceleration
- Momentum
- Friction
- Inertia
- Defining the "system"
- Defining a standard of inertia
- Momentum
- What happens in isolated systems?
- Conservation of momentum
- Energy
- Types of collisions
- Kinetic energy
- Internal energy
- Closed and open systems
- Elastic and inelastic collisions
- Conservation of energy
Winter
- Relative motion
- Relativity of motion
- Inertial reference frames
- The principle of relativity
- Galilean relativity
- Center of mass
- Convertible kinetic energy
- Conservation laws and relativity
- Interactions
- The effects of interactions
- Potential energy
- Energy dissipation
- Source energy
- Interaction range
- Fundamental interactions
- Interactions and accelerations
- Nondissipative interactions
- Potential energy near the Earth
- Dissipative interactions
- Force
- Momentum and force
- The reciprocity of forces
- Identifying forces
- Translational equilibrium
- Free body diagrams
- Springs and tension
- Equation of motion
- Force of gravity
- Hooke's law
- Impulse
- Systems of interacting objects
- Work
- Force displacement
- Positive and negative work
- Energy diagrams
- Defining the system
- Single particle vs. many-particle work
- Work from variable forces
- Motion in a plane (multiple directions)
- Straight is relative
- Vectors
- Decomposition of forces
- Friction
- Work and friction
- Vector algebra
- Projectile motion
- Collisions and momentum
- Work as a dot product
- Coefficients of friction
Spring
- Special Relativity
- How do you measure time?
- Simultaneous is a relative term
- Space-time
- Matter and energy
- Time dilation
- Length contraction
- Conservation of momentum
- Conservation of energy
- Gravity
- Universal gravity
- Gravity and momentum
- Weight
- Principle of equivalence
- Gravitational constant
- Gravitational potential energy
- Celestial mechanics
- Gravitational force from a sphere
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