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Book Chapter |
He’s full of hot air! We all know what this expression means. In this chapter, students of physics take a more substantial look at hot air knowing that hot air rises and is one means by which a hot-air balloon can soar…
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Michael Jordan makes it all look so easy. The ball gracefully glides in its arc and swishes through the net. All that polish from years of practice and no formal physics. Can a mathematical approach help to replicate…
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Have you ever taken your bathroom scales to an elevator for a ride? This is guaranteed to start an interesting conversation and you will be advancing the cause of physics at the same time. This chapter features several…
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The complexity of the human eye confounded Darwin. But his concept of adaptation and natural selection guided a steady stream of biologists who have collectively depicted a series of 40 steps, each a small advantage…
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We are all familiar with images formed by mirrors and lens. In fact, we often pay to see images produced in special ways. But what is an “image charge?” Does it have anything to do with optical images? This chapter…
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The technological products of the discovery of fission, notably the atomic bomb and nuclear power, have greatly elevated its importance in our culture. The chore in this chapter is somewhat modest in comparison to both…
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One person described how the bedroom wall moved across the room. Another watched as a huge wave of concrete traveled along the highway. We all saw the massive destruction when one bridge roadway collapsed on top of…
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What happens when you are given a problem that is either too complex to solve or one where there are crucial ingredients missing? Many problems are very complex and cannot be solved if all the complexity is included.…
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Newton was certainly not the first person to see an apple fall from a tree. He may, however, have been the first to imagine the apple and the Moon to be one and the same. To Newton, the Moon was merely a much larger…
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This chapter focuses on finding the magnetic field. In the Biot-Savart law, the magnetic field is perpendicular to both the current element and the radiusvector. The magnetic field points out of the plane determined by…
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The analysis of the rolling wheel has become much simpler. The kinetic energy of the rolling wheel is equal to the rotational kinetic energy of the wheel about its center of mass plus the kinetic energy of the entire…
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Given a flashlight battery, a flashlight bulb, and a single piece of wire, hold them together to make the bulb light. Adults have taken more than an hour to light the bulb! And yet, this is the first activity in a…
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Visually, if not straight lines, then does nature favor curves? All curves are not equivalent. This chapter embarks on a brief tour of some simple physics with an eye toward the curves to discover along the way.
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Relativistic conservation laws
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Conservation laws are everywhere! Conservation of energy is one of the most useful laws in all branches of science. Other conservation laws in physics include charge, momentum, angular momentum, and those associated…
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How does a good theory get judged? It must first be able to explain what the prevailing theory has successfully explained. It must also be able to explain some known phenomenon that the prevailing theory is unable to…
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