General Physics I

GENERAL PHYSICS I (PHY 1030)

Prince George's Community College

Fall 2023

Homework #9 (OPTIONAL, for extra credit) is due on Thursday, December 12, 2024 at 9:00 am. Because of problems with availability of the Astronomical Almanac, this is an old assignment, using data from 2018. If you choose to work on this assignment, do as many steps as you wish. The more steps, the more credit. You may find helpful this table of Julian day numbers: Julian Days (Your Julian day should look something like 245xxxx.xxxxxx.)
You may send me your results (PDF file or photo) by email.
Some links:
- High-viscosity pitch drop experiment - Live cam (University of Queensland)
- Liquid Helium II: The Superfluid - In six parts (1963)
See: Physics is Phun. Next demonstration: “A Show of Fire & Ice”, December 6 and 7, 2024.
For a mathematics review, you may have a look at the book
Introduction to College Mathematics
If you're interested in an internship with NASA, see this link: NASA Internships

To learn more about classical mechanics, I suggest:

An Introduction to Advanced Dynamics by S.W. McCuskey (Addison-Wy clear and readable intermediate text, at about the college junior level.
Mechanics (3rd ed.) by Keith R. Symon. Another standard junior-level intermediate mechanics text.
Classical Mechanics by Herbert Goldstein (3rd ed.) (Addison-Wesley, 2001). The standard graduate-level text on advanced mechanics.

For some fun physics-related reading for the winter break, I suggest:

The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne and Christopher Nolan. Thorne is a well-known physicist who was involved in making the movie Interstellar from its beginning. In this book he and film director Nolan describe the physics shown in the movie.
Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku. A noted physicist discusses the possibility of time travel, force fields, invisibility cloaks, transporters, etc.
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. A very entertaining collection of stories surrounding the periodic table of the elements.
Mr. Tompkins in Paperback (and an updated version, The New World of Mr. Tompkins) by George Gamow. A famous Russian physicist wrote these stories of a world in which the speed of light is just 30 mph so relativistic effects are visible, and more stories of a world where Planck's constant is so large that quantum effects are visible.

Here's an interesting article on the physics of skipping stones from Physics Today: Water-Skipping Stones and Spheres

The 2024 Nobel prize for physics has been awarded to physicists John J. Hopfield (USA) and Geoffrey E. Hinton (Canada) “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”

Dr. David G. Simpson:

http://www.pgccphy.net/1030

Webmaster: Dr. David G. Simpson
Page last updated: December 10, 2024.