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Physics is all around us and the sites listed here do a great job in showing
the relevance of what we are learning in class to other situations.
Kinematics
related material
Yes, there are still those people out there who are convinced that the
earth is flat . Too bad they just don't make careful observations
(viewing an approaching ship ome ofver the horizon, comparing a sunset
viewed while sitting on the gorund to one seen a few seconds later when
standing). Anyway, their pages are amusing: The
Flat Earth Society and an article about the international
society's president.
Still trying to get a feel for metric units? Want to know how to
convert pints into liters? Sounds like you need the table of common
equivalent weights & measures. NIST also has a searchable
table
of fundamental constants- a very handy reference for the future.
Also, I've collected a few tables of typical values
of mass, speed, etc. expressed in SI units.
Chapter 3 introduces integration; while most of what we'll do in our class
will be simple polynomials and trig functions, you may occasionally run
into something more complicated. If so, you might want to use Wolfram's
on-line Integrator.
Okay, I admit that I'm not completely impartial about this, but I think
baseball is one of the greatest places to study physics- everything from
projectile
motion and air drag to curve
balls. The Exploratorium
also has a fantastic site that include many interactive pages.
Dynamics related material
Cirque du Soleil
is part circus, part theater, and many part oddness. It is an amazing
show and if you look with a "physics eye" you'll see some amazing examples
of mechanics, particularly statics. You can find such examples in
many circus or dance performances.
On the web you can find several papers related to the Hyatt Regency collapse
(mostly by students):
What's the absolutely best application of Newton's Laws? Roller Coasters!
Learn more about the physics behind various amusement
park rides.
Chapter 6 brings us to (some of) Kepler's Laws, in essence the grand application
of classical mechanics. If you would like more information on Kepler
and his laws, look at the on-line text From
Stargazers to Starships.
Chapter 6 talks about the motion of the planets, so it only seems fitting
that we add a few sites about our solar system-
Energy rleated material
Rotation related
material
By the end of the dynamics and rotation we have discussed a wealth of classical
mechanics (forces, conservation laws, etc.) One of the more artistic
applications for this information lies in ballet.
There is another site that also talks about the physics
of dance.
Momentum related material
The search for planets outside of the solar system is one application of
conservation of momentum. Recently there was an announcement that
several more planets had been detected. ABC
News has a story about the discovery. Geoff Marcy also has a
site that talks about extrasolar planets
in greater depth. There you will find a constantly updated list
of the discovered planets, readable
articles and much more!
Some of the most exciting types of collisions occur in particle accelerators
which propel subatomic particles
at speeds near the speed of light. (This is a great site that explains
alot fo particle physics.)
In addition to being places where you can see momentum conservation in
action, the subatomic world also offers us glimpses at other conservation
laws. The
Science of matter, space and time at FermiLab. This is a great
place to start your tour of "particle physics". It offers a qualitative
overview of what the world is made of and what the standard model
is. They even have a short video
that gives an overview of the standard model.
Stanford Linear Accelearator Center (SLAC) Virtual
Visitor Center- This site not only has information on the fundamental
physics, it also describes the methods that physicists use to study the
physics of small particles.
NASA
has several pages on neutron
stars and pulsars.
Oscillation related
material
Other material
Einstein is definitely the heavyweight of relativity. Why not read
his 1920 book Relativity: The
Special and General Theory? Both AIP
and NOVA have nice
sites on Albert Einstein. Here's a page that has many Einstein
links.
There is FAQ
out there for everything, so why not relativity?
The Michelson-Morley
experiment was an impressive in its simplicity and incredibly precise
results. This really ended the debate ether and the propagation of
light.
Subatomic
particles give us some of the best evidence that special relativity
is correct.
So can anything go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum? Well,
many reporters have gotten this one wrong. ABCNews
has a report giving their version of an experiment reported in Nature.
The short answer is that the press got it all wrong. The letter in
Nature seemed to say no revolutionary physics was involved, describing
the result as: "a direct consequence of classical interference between
different frequency components in an anomalous dispersion region."
What is real are the exeriments that have the speed
of light reduced well below 3 x 108
m/s. ABCNews describes the findings.
One of the final equations studied in Unit R is the incredibly famous E=mc2.
Listen
to Einstein discuss this equation.
The Physics Department has a few
pages that may be of interest to 101 students. There are pages designed
to help students
answer the important questions in life, such as "What I can do with a physics
degree?" Or, "Where can I intern?" Other pages talk about the
latest
in the world of physics (everything from research to limericks).
The Learning Resource Center is a
great place for students to find some tutoring and assistance.
The LRC offers physics, math, and chemistry group tutoring. They
have even prepared a "how
to solve word problems" tip sheet. In addition to course based
tutoring, LRC also offers workshops
on how to study, how to prepare for tests and studying to the MCAT, LSAT
or GRE.
Society of Physics Students! Okay, it's easier to say- SPS!
Come meet other students who enjoy science, hear guest speakers (often
your fellow students), and eat some snakcs.
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