High School Physics—a Physical Approach
with an Emphasis on the Scientific Method
Introduction
Table of Contents
- Introduction and Methodology
- Thermodynamics I
- Temperature Measurement and
Phase Change
- Mixing Water of Different
Temperatures
- Mixing Water of Different
Temperatures and Masses
- Mixing Water and Metal of
Different Temperatures—Specific Heat
- Melting Ics, Boiling
Water—Latent Heat
- Sub-freezing
Temperatures—Ice Cream
- Conduction, Convection,
Radiation—Heat Transport
- Heat Conduction
- Optional
Topic—Errors and Calibration of Thermometers
- Mechanics
- Moving in a Straight
Line—Kinematics and Vectors, Part I
- Spinning in a Circle—Kinematics
and Vectors, Part II
- Invariance of Physical
Laws—Vectors and Vector Operations
- Galileo Galilei
- Go-Karts and Newton's Laws, Part I,
Force
- Under the Shade of the Apple
Tree—Newton's Laws, Part II, Gravity
- Disproving the "Flat Earth Theory"
- Finding the Mass of the Earth
- Technique—Finding Distances Using Triangulation
- Finding the Distance to the Moon
- "Proving" the Mass of the Moon can be Considered a "Point"
Mass
- Calculating the Orbit of the Moon
- A Useful Definition—Work
- The Relationship Between Work and Kinetic Energy
- Potential Energy
- A Unifying Theme of Physics—Conservation of Energy
- Fluids
- Waves
-
Periodic Motion
-
Simple Harmonic Motion
-
More Simple Harmonic Motion
-
Even More Simple Harmonic Motion
-
Damped and Driven Harmonic Motion
-
Traveling Periodic Motion—Waves
-
Describing Waves
-
Transmitting and Blocking Waves
-
Interference
-
Sound and Tone
-
Measuring the Speed of Sound
-
Standing Waves and Overtones
-
Twelve Tones and Musical Harmony
- Electricity and Magnitism
- Light
- Look Around the Corner—Does Light Travel in a Straight
Line?
- Left and Right in the Mirror—Reflection
- Spear Fishing—Diffraction
- Rainbows—Prisms
- Hidden Information in Rainbows—Spectroscopy
- That Looks Weird—Line Emission and Continuous Emission
Light
- Under the Magnifying Glass—Lenses I
- Seeing in the Dark—Lenses II
- Another Way to do the Same Thing—Parabolic Mirrors
- Thin Lens Approximation
- Eyeglasses, Telescope and Microscopes
- Generating Electricity from Light—Photoelectric Effect
- Generating Heat from Light—Solar Heating
- Now You See It, Now You Don't—Transparency and Opacity
- Thermodynamics II
- Hot Air Balloon—Density,
Temperature/Volume Part 1
- Liquid Nitrogen and a
Ballon—Density, Temperature/Volume Part 2
- Trapped Air, Open Container in
the Pool—Density, Pressure
- Trapped Air, Closed
Container—Absolute Zero
- Putting It All
Together—Ideal Gas Law
- Ideal Gas Used as
Thermometer—Definition of Temperature
- Heating and Cooling to Expand
Long Metal Rods—Temperature Proxies
- Relativity
- Atoms
-
Invention of Atomic Theory
-
Atoms with Similar Properties—Classification Schemes
-
The Size/Mass of a Single Atom—Avoogadro's Number
-
Atoms are Divisible—The electron
-
Brownian Motion
-
Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus—Scattering
-
Radioactivity
-
Black Body Radiation
-
Line Spectra
-
Photo-electric effect
-
Lasers