Readings and Links

Physics 121, Fall 2010

Prof. E. F. Redish

Readings

• Chapters from Understanding Physics, by Cummings, Laws, Redish, and Cooney (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). Although this text does include some calculus, it also contains motivation and conceptual discussions that better match my approch in this class than other texts.
  
• For those of you who are pre-med or pre-health care, the introductory chapter of Dr. Jerome Groopman's book, How Doctors Think, makes clear the value of some of the methods of thinking we are trying to encourage in this class in the context of health care.

Links

• Scales
1. Powers of Ten (the 1977 version - slightly outdated in our scientific knowledge at the upper and lower limits)
Powers of Ten (the Simpsons version -- take it cum grano salis )
2. There is a more modern IMAX version (narrated by Morgan Freeman), but the version downloaded to youtube doesn't include the small, only the large. If anyone finds a version of this on the web, let me know so I can add a link to it.
• Basic Math
1. Algebra Referesher (West Texas A&M review of algebra)
2. Scientific Notation
   For practice, try the Scientific Notation quiz from our Astronomy Department!
3. Trig Refresher (I haven't found one I like. Let me know about what you have found.)
4. Algebra Practice quiz (by Adam Berman)
• Vectors
1. Raffles Junior College Adding and subtracting vectors with applets (mostly head-to-tail rule)
2. Cal Poly Adding and subtracting vectors with applets (lots of rules)

• Estimations
  1. A discussion of estimation problems and how to do them (Redish)
  2. A sample problem with solution (Redish)
     
• Dimensions and units
  1. A discussion of dimensions, dimensional analysis, and the motivation behind units
  (Redish)
• Vectors
1. Raffles Junior College Adding and subtracting vectors with applets (mostly head-to-tail rule)
2. Cal Poly Adding and subtracting vectors with applets (lots of rules)

• University of Colorado Physics Education Technology (PhET) Simulations (Main page)
1. The moving man (good for linking graphs of position, velocity, and acceleration)
2. Forces in 1-D (pushing various objects with applied forces and friction)
3. The ramp (pushing objects up a ramp with friction -- and letting them slide down)
4. Projectile motion (some amusing variations)
5. Energy skate park (a very cool sim showing the balance of kinds of energy)
6. Ladybug revolution (a sim giving you a handle on vector and componenet kinematics in rotation)
7. Gas properties (a sim visualizing the motion of the molecules in a gas)
• University of Illinois Multi-media Learning Modules
  1. Mechanics
  2. Electricity and Magnetism

• Demonstration sites
1. Wake Forest University (thanks to Megan Ritter for calling my attention to this link)

• Videos
1. Eureka -- A set of cartoon clips on basic physics available on YouTube.
2. Khan Academy -- Lectures on physics, but be careful: some of the discussion is really sloppy.
3. MIT Physics Lectures with Walter Lewin -- one of the most popular MIT lecturers. Lectures start with the conceptual material appropriate for our class, but go on to more complex and mathematical terms.

(Thanks to Neil Basumalik and Megan Young for some recommendations!)

RETURNS

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Last revision 2. November, 2010.