Topic 1
Introduction, What is physics?
~ 2.5 Lectures

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
-- Paul Dirac

Activity:
• Pendulum

Minimum:
1. The excerpt from Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, handed out in class.
2. "Cargo Cult Science", Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement address.
3. From Conceptual Physics, Section 1.3 Review of the Metric System and Conversions. (This includes the subsections "The metric system," "Scientific notation," "Conversions," and "Should that exponent be positive or negative?") Feel free to use the html version instead of the pdf, though some of the formatting may be a bit more confusing.
4. Watch the Powers of 10 Applet.

Recommended:
1. Read any other text (online or written), about the metric system, scientific notation, and unit conversion. For example, Simple Nature is from the same author as Conceptual Physics, but gives more depth; sections 0.1.6 Basics of the metric system, 0.1.7 Less common metric prefixes, 0.1.8 Scientific notation, and 0.1.9 Conversions (pdf pages 24-30) give equivalent information.
2. You might find this link to a speech by Richard Feynman interesting. It's titled "What is Science," and it includes some of his experiences as a child. It was "Presented at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, 1966."
3. Feynman's memoir about serving on the State of California's Cirriculum Commission, "Judging Books by their Covers." One excerpt: "There's a rule that you have to have every entry in by a certain time, and the publisher was a few days late with it. So it was sent to us with just the covers, and it's blank in between. The company sent a note excusing themselves and hoping they could have their set of three books considered, even though the third one would be late." It turned out that the blank book had a rating by some of the other members! They couldn't believe it was blank, because [the book] had a rating. In fact, the rating for the missing book was a little bit higher than for the two others. The fact that there was nothing in the book had nothing to do with the rating."

Topic 2
Galileo and Motion
~ 4 Lectures

The Book of Nature is written in mathematical characters, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word, without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.
-- Galileo

Activity:
• Projectile Motion

Minimum:
1. From The Physics Classroom: 1-D Kinematics,
   • Read all of Lesson 1: Describing Motion with Words
   • Read section c: Vector Diagrams from Lesson 2: Describing Motion with Diagrams (be sure to watch the animation)
   • Read all of Lesson 5: Free Fall and the Acceleration of Gravity except for section c "Representing Free Fall by Graphs"
   • Read all of Lesson 6: Describing Motion with Equations except for section e "Kinematic Equations and Graphs"
2. Read the lecture notes from Galileo and Einstein by Michael Fowler: only the two lectures "Galileo's Acceleration Experiment" and "Naturally Accelerated Motion"
3. Watch the short video clip from The Institute and Museum of the History of Science.
4. Explore some of Physics.org's Physics Evolution, to find where Galileo fits in historically with other significant figures. (It is interesting, but don't go overboard with this; it's easy to spend a lot of time there.)

Recommended:
1. Those portions of The Physics Classroom: 1-D Kinematics that were not required
2. Much of Galileo's Two New Sciences is interesting and well-written (if you can see past the rather old translation to the ideas being discussed). Those sections most relevant to us in this section may be found in the Text and figures, through the end of the First Day, both parts of the Third Day, and the first part of the Fourth Day.
3. Read any physics textbook's section about speed, velocity, and acceleration. For example, the "Definitions" portion of Physics for Beginners.
4. Read Newtonian Physics Chapter 2, only the sections 2.2 - Describing Distance and Time, and 2.3 - Graphs of Motion; Velocity
5. [something about Galilean relativity]

Topic 3
Newton and Forces
~4 Lectures

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
-- Isaac Newton (in 1727 shortly before his death)

Activity:
• Forces and accelerations

Minimum:
1. Read, EITHER from Newton the Lucky Genius by Win Clavering, (via the Internet Archive Wayback machine):
   • The Home Page/Introduction.
   • Early Years
   • Cambridge
   OR from Let Moratls Rejoice - A Synopsis of the life of Sir Isaac Newton by Win Clavering, at least:
   • The Introduction (once on Win Clavering's web site; now in the handouts folder elsewhere on ANGEL).
   • Pages 1-8 (Early Years)
   • Pages 9-19 (Cambridge)
2. Read, From the Physics Classroom, all of the Newton's Laws chapter (Lessons 1, 2, 3, and 4)
3. Watch the short video clip of An Apollo Astronaut dropping a hammer and feather on the Moon.

Recommended:
1. The remainder of Let Moratls Rejoice - A Synopsis of the life of Sir Isaac Newton by Win Clavering, or the remainder of Newton the Lucky Genius from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
2. Read more about Newton's Laws, from any physics textbook. For example, Chapter 4 from Newtonian Physics.

Test 1: 2/17

Topic 4
Energy
~4 Lectures

One may ask the question as to the extent to which the quest for beauty is an aim in the pursuit of science. . . . It is, indeed, an incredible fact that what the human mind, at its deepest and most profound, perceives as beautiful finds its realization in external nature.
What is intelligible is also beautiful.
-- S. Chandrasekhar, ("Beauty and the Quest for Beauty in Science", 1979)

Activity:
• [A discussion of fuel efficiency]

Minimum:
• An excerpt from Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces, handed out in class.
• From The Physics Classroom: Work, Energy and Power all of Lesson 1 only
• Lecture: wrecking ball From Walter Lewin at MIT. Go to 45:45 for the wrecking ball portion.

Recommended:
• [some reading, re: fuel efficiency]
• From The Physics Classroom: Work, Energy and Power Lesson 2

Topic 5
Gravity and the Planets
~4 Lectures

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
-- Wernher von Braun

Minimum:
1. Read the page Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton, elsewhere on ANGEL.
2. From The Physics Classroom: Circuilar Motion and Satellite Motion,
   • Read all of Lesson 3: Univeral Gravitation
   • Read all of Lesson 4: Planetary and Satellite Motion except for section c "Mathematics of Satellite Motion"
3. Review the following animations from Mike Gallis's Astronomy Animations (in order to make some of the Feynman notes more concrete):
   • Tidal Effects on a Planet and Satellite
   • Spring and Neap Tides on the Earth
   • Kepler's First Law (that all orbits are ellipses, with the sun at one focus of the ellipse)
   • Kepler's Second Law (that a line from the sun to a planet will sweep out equal areas in equal times)
4. Visit the Newtonian Mountain applet. It takes a figure from Newton's Principia, and adds some interactivity to it. The point: orbits aren't truly different from our usual motion of projectiles near the earth: things in orbit (including the Moon) are "falling" all the time, toward the earth. If you had a cannon and a very high mountain, then with a fast enough shot, you would get orbits.
5. Read, From the Physics Classroom, only "Lesson 3: Universal Gravitation" from the Circular Motion and Satellite Motion chapter.

Recommended:
1. Look through Bending Spacetime in the Basement, focusing on a refresher of the equation of Newton's Law of universal gravitation (and perhaps trying out the programmed calculation there), plus the video clips "Movie 1," and "Movie 3."

Test 2: 3/31

Topic 6
Static Electricity, Electrical Forces
~4 Lectures

Activity:
• Electrostatics

Minimum:
1. Briefly review This electricity tutorial, excluding the last few sections: "Resistance," "Power," and "Ohm's Law."
2. Read the Feynman Quote about static electricity (also from the Feynman Lectures, but not in "Six Easy Pieces") posted on ANGEL.
3. Read, from "The Physics Classroom" Chapter: Static Electricity:
   • All of Lesson 1: Charge and Charge Interactions (Note: you'll need to click through each of the 5 parts of that lesson.)
   • Most of Lesson 3: Electric Force. That is, all of Charge Interactions Revisited, Coulomb's Law, and Inverse Square Law, and only the first two sections "Newton's Laws and the Electrical Force" and "Electric Force and Acceleration" from Newton's Laws and the Electrical Force.
4. The first portion ("Static Electricity") of How Shocking, a PBS Flash demonstration of static electricity. (Requires Flash 5.)
5. [Video links to demonstrations]
6. [some subset of: Benjamin Franklin and Electrostatics: http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/personal_pages/bob_m/ ]
7. [some subset of the demonstrations described at: http://www.ece.rochester.edu/~jones/demos/ ]
8. [View the video, and read some of the tutorials, at http://www.hinsdale86.org/staff/jliaw/topics/Waves/EM/Electrostatics/electrostatics.htm ]

Recommended:
1. The remaining portions ("Kite Experiment" and "Lightning Rod") of How Shocking, a PBS Flash demonstration of static electricity. (Requires Flash 5.)
2. [More about Benjamin Franklin]
3. [Calculating electrical forces]

Topic 7
Light
~4 Lectures

Activity:
• Demonstrations: Total internal reflection

Minimum:
1. Read, from "The Physics Classroom Tutorial" about light,
   • Most of Lesson 1: Reflection and Ray Model of Light That is, all of The Role of Light to Sight, The Law of Reflection, and Specular vs. Diffuse Reflection. (Skip "The Line of Sight.")
   • Some of Refraction and Ray Model of Light That is, all of Lesson 1: Refraction at a Boundary (you'll need to click through parts a through f), some of Lesson 2: The Mathematics of Refraction (Only "The Angle of Refraction," and the beginning of "Snell's Law"), the first two sections of Lesson 3: Total Internal Reflection, and all of Lesson 4: Interesting Refraction Phenomena (including dispersion, rainbow formation, and mirages.

Topic 8
Question and Answer/Review
4/28

Final Exam
To Be Determined