It appears as if this work in progress may be a bit abandoned – the last update was in 2005. But, this attempt at modernizing a historic high school physics textbook still has plenty to offer students. It was part of a project to produce a set of free high school science textbooks. It was, in part, sponsored by the SchoolNet project. The authors identified this as a high school physics text that is also suitable for introductory level college students. Calculus is not a pre-requisite.
The high school physics text does include some notes and comments from the current editors. But, it does look like an excellent Physics textbook for self-study and a great source to supplement an assigned textbook.
Table of Contents
- 1 Units
- 1.1 PGCE Comments
- 1.2 ‘TODO’ LIST
- 1.3 Introduction
- 1.4 Unit Systems
- 1.4.1 SI Units (Systeme International d’Unit ́es)
- 1.4.2 The Other Systems of Units
- 1.5 The Importance of Units
- 1.6 Choice of Units
- 1.7 How to Change Units — the “Multiply by 1” Technique
- 1.8 How Units Can Help You
- 1.8.1 What is a ‘sanity test’?
- 1.9 Temperature
- 1.10 Scientific Notation, Significant Figures and Rounding
- 1.11 Conclusion
- 2 Waves and Wavelike Motion
- 2.1 What are waves?
- 2.1.1 Characteristics of Waves: Amplitude
- 2.1.2 Characteristics of Waves: Wavelength
- 2.1.3 Characteristics of Waves: Period
- 2.1.4 Characteristics of Waves: Frequency
- 2.1.5 Characteristics of Waves: Speed
- 2.2 Two Types of Waves
- 2.3 Properties of Waves
- 2.3.1 Properties of Waves: Reflection
- 2.3.2 Properties of Waves: Refraction
- 2.3.3 Properties of Waves: Interference
- 2.3.4 Properties of Waves: Standing Waves
- 2.3.5 Beats
- 2.3.6 Properties of Waves: Diffraction
- 2.3.7 Properties of Waves: Dispersion
- 2.4 Practical Applications of Waves: Sound Waves
- 2.4.1 Doppler Shift
- 2.4.2 Mach Cone
- 2.4.3 Ultra-Sound
- 2.5 Important Equations and Quantities
- 3 Geometrical Optics
- 3.1 Refraction re-looked
- 3.1.1 Apparent and Real Depth
- 3.1.2 Splitting of White Light
- 3.1.3 Total Internal Reflection
- 3.2 Lenses
- 3.2.1 Convex Lenses
- 3.2.2 Concave Lenses
- 3.2.3 Magnification
- 3.2.4 Compound Microscope
- 3.2.5 The Human Eye
- 3.3 Introduction
- 3.4 Reflection
- 3.4.1 Diffuse Reflection
- 3.4.2 Regular Reflection
- 3.4.3 Laws of Reflection
- 3.4.4 Lateral Inversion
- 3.5 Curved Mirrors
- 3.5.1 Concave Mirrors(Converging Mirrors)
- 3.5.2 Convex Mirrors
- 3.5.3 Refraction
- 3.5.4 Laws of Refraction
- 3.5.5 Total Internal Reflection
- 3.5.6 Mirage
- 3.6 The Electromagnetic Spectrum
- 3.7 Important Equations and Quantities
- 4 Vectors
- 4.1 PGCE Comments
- 4.2 ‘TODO’ LIST
- 4.3 Introduction
- 4.3.1 Mathematical Representation
- 4.3.2 Graphical Representation
- 4.4 Some Examples of Vectors
- 4.4.1 Displacement
- 4.4.2 Velocity
- 4.4.3 Acceleration
- 4.5 Mathematical Properties of Vectors
- 4.5.1 Addition of Vectors
- 4.5.2 Subtraction of Vectors
- 4.5.3 Scalar Multiplication
- 4.6 Techniques of Vector Addition
- 4.6.1 Graphical Techniques
- 4.6.2 Algebraic Addition and Subtraction of Vectors
- 4.7 Components of Vectors
- 4.7.1 Blockonan Incline
- 4.7.2 Vector Addition Using Components
- 4.8 Do I really need to learn about vectors? Are they really useful?
- 4.9 Summary of Important Quantities, Equations and Concepts
- 5 Forces
- 5.1 ‘TODO’ LIST
- 5.2 What is a force?
- 5.3 Force Diagrams
- 5.4 Equilibrium of Forces
- 5.5 Newton’s Laws of Motion
- 5.5.1 First Law
- 5.5.2 Second Law
- 5.5.3 Third Law
- 5.6 Examples of Forces Studied Later
- 5.6.1 Newtonian Gravity
- 5.6.2 Electromagnetic Forces
- 5.7 Summary of Important Quantities, Equations and Concepts
- 6 Rectilinear Motion
- 6.1 What is rectilinear motion?
- 6.2 Speed and Velocity
- 6.3 Graphs
- 6.3.1 Displacement-Time Graphs
- 6.3.2 Velocity-Time Graphs
- 6.3.3 Acceleration-Time Graphs
- 6.3.4 Worked Examples
- 6.4 Equations of Motion
- 6.5 Important Equations and Quantities
- 7 Momentum
- 7.1 What is Momentum?
- 7.2 The Momentum of a System
- 7.3 Change in Momentum
- 7.4 What properties does momentum have?
- 7.5 Impulse
- 7.6 Summary of Important Quantities, Equations and Concepts
- 8 Work and Energy
- 8.1 What are Work and Energy?
- 8.2 Work
- 8.3 Energy
- 8.3.1 Types of Energy
- 8.4 Mechanical Energy and Energy Conservation
- 8.5 Summary of Important Quantities, Equations and Concepts
- Essay 1: Energy
- Essay 2: Tiny, Violent Collisions
- 9 Collisions and Explosions
- 9.1 Types of Collisions
- 9.1.1 Elastic Collisions
- 9.1.2 Inelastic Collisions
- 9.2 Explosions
- 9.3 Explosions:Energy and Heat
- 9.4 Important Equations and Quantities
- 10 Newtonian Gravitation
- 10.1 Properties
- 10.2 Mass and Weight
- 10.2.1 Examples
- 10.3 Normal Forces
- 10.4 Comparative problems
- 10.4.1 Principles
- 10.5 Falling bodies
- 10.6 Terminal velocity
- 10.7 Drag force
- 10.8 Important Equations and Quantities
- 11 Pressure
- 11.1 Important Equations and Quantities
- Essay 3: Pressure and Forces
- 12 Heat and Properties of Matter
- 12.1 Phases of matter
- 12.1.1 Density
- 12.2 Phases of matter
- 12.2.1 Solids, Liquids, Gasses
- 12.2.2 Pressure in Fluids
- 12.2.3 Change of Phase
- 12.3 Deformation of Solids
- 12.3.1 Strain, Stress
- 12.3.2 Elastic and plastic behavior
- 12.4 Ideal gasses
- 12.4.1 Equation of state
- 12.4.2 Kinetic theory of gasses
- 12.4.3 Pressure of a gas
- 12.4.4 Kinetic energy of molecules
- 12.5 Temperature
- 12.5.1 Thermal equilibrium
- 12.5.2 Temperature scales
- 12.5.3 Practical thermometers
- 12.5.4 Specific heat capacity
- 12.5.5 Specific latent heat
- 12.5.6 Internal energy
- 12.5.7 First law of thermodynamics
- 12.6 Important Equations and Quantities
- 13 Electrostatics
- 13.1 What is Electrostatics?
- 13.2 Charge
- 13.3 Electrostatic Force
- 13.3.1 Coulomb’s Law
- 13.4 Electric Fields
- 13.4.1 Test Charge
- 13.4.2 What do field maps look like?
- 13.4.3 Combined Charge Distributions
- 13.4.4 Parallel plates
- 13.4.5 What about the Strength of the Electric Field?
- 13.5 Electrical Potential
- 13.5.1 Work Done and Energy Transfer in a Field
- 13.5.2 Electrical Potential Difference
- 13.5.3 Millikan’s Oil-drop Experiment
- 13.6 Important Equations and Quantities
- 14 Electricity
- 14.1 Flow of Charge
- 14.2 Circuits
- 14.3 Voltage and current
- 14.4 Resistance
- 14.5 Voltage and current in a practical circuit
- 14.6 Direction of current flow in a circuit
- 14.7 How voltage, current, and resistance relate
- 14.8 Voltmeters, ammeters, andohmmeters
- 14.9 An analogy for Ohm’s Law
- 14.10 Power in electric circuits
- 14.11 Calculating electric power
- 14.12 Resistors
- 14.13 Nonlinear conduction
- 14.14 Circuit wiring
- 14.15 Polarity of voltage drops
- 14.16 What are ”series” and ”parallel” circuits?
- 14.17 Simple series circuits
- 14.18 Simple parallel circuits
- 14.19 Power calculations
- 14.20 Correct use of Ohm’s Law
- 14.21 Conductor size
- 14.22 Fuses
- 14.23 Important Equations and Quantities
- 15 Magnets and Electromagnetism
- 15.1 Electromagnetism
- 15.2 Magnetic units of measurement
- 15.3 Electromagnetic induction
- 15.4 AC
- 15.5 Measurements of AC magnitude
- 16 Electronics
- 16.1 capacitive and inductive circuits
- 16.1.1 A capacitor
- 16.1.2 An inductor
- 16.2 filters and signal tuning
- 16.3 active circuit elements, diode, LED and field effect transistor, operational amplifier
- 16.3.1 Diode
- 16.3.2 LED
- 16.3.3 Transistor
- 16.3.4 The transistor as a switch
- 16.4 principles of digital electronics logical gates, counting circuits
- 16.4.1 Electronic logic gates
- 16.5 Counting circuits
- 16.5.1 Half Adder
- 16.5.2 Full adder
- 17 The Atom
- 17.1 Models of the Atom
- 17.2 Structure of the Atom
- 17.3 Isotopes
- 17.4 Energy quantization and electron configuration
- 17.5 Periodicity of ionization energy to support atom arrangement in Periodic Table
- 17.6 Successive ionisation energies to provide evidence for arrangement of electrons into
core and valence - 17.7 Bohror bits
- 17.8 Heisenberg uncertainty Principle
- 17.9 Pauli exclusion principle
- 17.10 Ionization Energy
- 17.11 Electron configuration
- 17.12 Valency
- 18 Modern Physics
- 18.1 Introduction to the idea of a quantum
- 18.2 The wave-particle duality
- 18.3 Practical Applications of Waves: Electromagnetic Waves
- 19 Inside atomic nucleus
- 19.1 What the atom is made of
- 19.2 Nucleus
- 19.2.1 Proton
- 19.2.2 Neutron
- 19.2.3 Isotopes
- 19.3 Nuclear force
- 19.4 Binding energy and nuclear masses
- 19.4.1 Binding energy
- 19.4.2 Nuclear energy units
- 19.4.3 Mass defect
- 19.4.4 Nuclear masses
- 19.5 Radio activity
- 19.5.1 Discovery of radioactivity
- 19.5.2 Nuclearα, β, and γ rays
- 19.5.3 Danger of the ionizing radiation
- 19.5.4 Decay law
- 19.5.5 Radioactive dating
- 19.6 Nuclear reactions
- 19.7 Detectors
- 19.7.1 Geiger counter
- 19.7.2 Fluorescent screen
- 19.7.3 Photo-emulsion
- 19.7.4 Wilson’s chamber
- 19.7.5 Bubble chamber
- 19.7.6 Spark chamber
- 19.8 Nuclear energy
- 19.8.1 Nuclear reactors
- 19.8.2 Fusion energy
- 19.9 Elementary particles
- 19.9.1 β decay
- 19.9.2 Particle physics
- 19.9.3 Quarks and leptons
- 19.9.4 Forces of nature
- 19.10 Origin of the universe
View this Free Online Material at the source:
A Textbook for High School Physics
