High School Physics—a Physical Approach

with an Emphasis on the Scientific Method

Introduction

Table of Contents

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