Advance Praise for Head First Physics;
Praise for other Head First academic titles;
Praise for the Head First Approach;
;
Author of Head First Physics;
How to Use this Book: Intro;
Who is this book for?;
We know what you're thinking;
We know what your brain is thinking;
Metacognition: thinking about thinking;
Here's what WE did:;
Here's what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission;
Read Me;
The technical review team;
Acknowledgments;
Safari® Books Online;
Chapter 1: Think Like a Physicist: In the beginning ...;
1.1 Physics is the world around you;
1.2 You can get a feel for what's happening by being a part of it;
1.3 Use your intuition to look for 'special points';
1.4 The center of the earth is a special point;
1.5 Ask yourself "What am I ALREADY doing as I reach the special point?";
1.6 Where you're at - and what happens next?;
1.7 Now put it all together;
1.8 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 2: Making it all MEAN Something: Units and measurements;
2.1 It's the best music player ever, and you're part of the team!;
2.2 So you get on with measuring the myPod case;
2.3 When the myPod case comes back from the factory...;
2.4 ...it's waaay too big!;
2.5 There aren't any UNITS on the blueprint;
2.6 You'll use SI units in this book (and in your class);
2.7 You use conversion factors to change units;
2.8 You can write a conversion factor as a fraction;
2.9 Now you can use the conversion factor to update the blueprint;
2.10 You just converted the units for the entire blueprint!;
2.11 But there's STILL a problem ...;
2.12 What to do with numbers that have waaaay too many digits to be usable;
2.13 How many digits of your measurements look significant?;
2.14 Generally, you should round your answers to three significant digits;
2.15 Is it OK to round the myPod blueprint to three significant digits?;
2.16 You ALREADY intuitively rounded your original myPod measurements!;
2.17 Any measurement you make has an error (or uncertainty) associated with it;
2.18 The error on your original measurements should propagate through to your converted blueprint;
2.19 Right! Time to attack the blueprint again!;
2.20 STOP!! Before you hit send, do your answers SUCK?!;
2.21 You nailed it!;
2.22 When you write down a measurement, you need the right number of significant digits;
2.23 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 3: Scientific Notation, Area, and Volume: All numbers great and small;
3.1 A messy college dorm room;
3.2 So how long before things go really bad?;
3.3 Power notation helps you multiply by the same number over and over;
3.4 Your calculator displays big numbers using scientific notation;
3.5 Scientific notation uses powers of 10 to write down long numbers;
3.6 Scientific notation helps you with small numbers as well;
3.7 You'll often need to work with area or volume;
3.8 Look up facts in a book (or table of information);
3.9 Prefixes help with numbers outside your comfort zone;
3.10 Scientific notation helps you to do calculations with large and small numbers;
3.11 The guys have it all worked out;
3.12 200,000,000 meters cubed bugs after only 16 hours is totally the wrong size of answer!;
3.13 Be careful converting units of area or volume;
3.14 So the bugs won't take over ... unless the guys sleep in!;
3.15 Question Clinic: The "Converting units of area or volume" Question;
3.16 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 4: Equations and Graphs: Learning the lingo;
4.1 The new version of the Break Neck Pizza website is nearly ready to go live ...;
4.2 ...but you need to work out how to give the customer their delivery time;
4.3 If you write the delivery time as an equation, you can see what's going on;
4.4 Use variables to keep your equation general;
4.5 You need to work out Alex's cycling time;
4.6 When you design an experiment, think about what might go wrong!;
4.7 OK - time to recap where you're at...;
4.8 Conduct an experiment to find out Alex's speed;
4.9 Write down your results... in a table;
4.10 Use the table of distances and times to work out Alex's speed;
4.11 Random errors mean that results will be spread out;
4.12 A graph is the best way of taking an average of ALL your results;
4.13 Use a graph to show Alex's time for ANY distance;
4.14 The line on the graph is your best estimate for how long Alex takes to cycle ANY distance;
4.15 You can see Alex's speed from the steepness of the distance-time graph;
4.16 Alex's speed is the slope of the distance-time graph;
4.17 Now work out Alex's average speed from your graph;
4.18 You need an equation for Alex's time to give to the web guys;
4.19 Rearrange the equation to say "¿ time = something";
4.20 Use your equation to work out the time it takes Alex to reach each house;
4.21 So you do a test run with the website ...;
4.22 So just convert the units, and you're all set...right?;
4.23 Include the cooking time in your equation;
4.24 The Break Neck website goes live, and the customers love it!;
4.25 A few weeks later, you hear from Break Neck again;
4.26 A graph lets you see the difference the stop lights made;
4.27 The stop lights change Alex's average speed;
4.28 Add on two minutes per stop light to give the customer a maximum delivery time ...;
4.29 ...the customers are extremely happy ...;
4.30 ...and you're invited to the Pizza Party;
4.31 Question Clinic: The "Did you do what they asked you" Question;
4.32 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 5: Dealing with Directions: Vectors;
5.1 The treasure hunt;
5.2 Displacement is different from distance;
5.3 Distance is a scalar; displacement is a vector;
5.4 You can represent vectors using arrows;
5.5 You found the next clue...;
5.6 You can add vectors in any order;
5.7 Well done - you've found the third clue!;
5.8 Question Clinic: The "Wheat from the chaff" Question;
5.9 Angles measure rotations;
5.10 Now you can get on with clue 3!;
5.11 If you can't deal with something big, break it down into smaller parts;
5.12 You move onto the fourth clue...;
5.13 Velocity is the 'vector version' of speed;
5.14 Write units using shorthand;
5.15 So, on to clue 4 ...;
5.16 You need to allow for the stream's velocity too!;
5.17 If you can find the stream's velocity, you can figure out the velocity for the boat;
5.18 It takes the boat time to accelerate from a standing start;
5.19 How do you deal with acceleration?;
5.20 So it's back to the boat ...;
5.21 Vector, Angle, Velocity, Acceleration = WINNER!!!;
5.22 Your Physics Toolbox;
5.23 Question Clinic: The "Design an experiment" Question;
Chapter 6: Displacement, Velocity, and Acceleration: What's going on?;
6.1 Just another day in the desert ...;
6.2 ...and another Dingo-Emu moment!;
6.3 How can you use what you know?;
6.4 The cage accelerates as it falls;
6.5 ' Vectorize' your equation;
6.6 You want an instantaneous velocity, not an average velocity;
6.7 You already know how to calculate the slope of a straight line...;
6.8 A point on a curved line has the same slope as its tangent;
6.9 The slope of something's velocity-time graph lets you work out its acceleration;
6.10 Work out the units of acceleration;
6.11 Success! You worked out the velocity after 2.0 s - and the cage won't break!;
6.12 Now onto solve for the displacement!;
6.13 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 7: Equations of motion (part 1): Playing With Equations;
7.1 How high should the crane be?;
7.2 Graphs and equations both represent the real world;
7.3 You're interested in the start and end points;
7.4 You have an equation for the velocity - but what about the displacement?;
7.5 See the average velocity on your velocity-time graph;
7.6 Test your equations by imagining them with different numbers;
7.7 Calculate the cage's displacement!;
7.8 You know how high the crane should be!;
7.9 But now the Dingo needs something more general;
7.10 A substitution will help;
7.11 Get rid of the variables you don't want by making substitutions;
7.12 Continue making substitutions ...;
7.13 You did it - you derived a useful equation for the cage's displacement!;
7.14 Check your equation using Units;
7.15 Check your equation by trying out some extreme values;
7.16 Your equation checks out!;
7.17 Question Clinic: The "Substitution" Question;
7.18 Question Clinic: The "Units" or "Dimensional analysis" Question;
7.19 Think like a physicist!;
7.20 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 8: Equations of Motion (Part 2): Up, up, and... back down;
8.1 Previously ...;
8.2 Now ACME has an amazing new cage launcher;
8.3 The acceleration due to gravity is constant;
8.4 Velocity and acceleration are in opposite directions, so they have opposite signs;
8.5 You can use one graph to work out the shapes of the others;
8.6 Is a graph of your equation the same shape as the graph you sketched?;
8.7 Ready to launch the cage!;
8.8 Fortunately, ACME has a rocket-powered hovercraft!;
8.9 You can work out a new equation by making a substitution for t;
8.10 Multiply out the parentheses in your equation;
8.11 You have two sets of parentheses multiplied together;
8.12 Where you're at with your new equation;
8.13 You need to simplify your equation by grouping the terms;
8.14 You can use your new equation to work out the stopping distance;
8.15 There are THREE key equations you can use when there's constant acceleration;
8.16 You need to work out the launch velocity that gets the Dingo out of the Grand Canyon!;
8.17 The launch velocity's right!;
8.18 You need to find another way of doing this problem;
8.19 Question Clinic: The "Sketch a graph" or "Match a graph" Question;
8.20 Question Clinic: The "Symmetry" and "Special points" Questions;
8.21 Your Physics Toolbox;
Chapter 9: Triangles, Trig and Trajectories: Going two-dimensional;
9.1 Camelot - we have a problem!;
9.2 How...