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NEWS
- Exam #1 will be on Wednesday, October 9.
- The exam will cover the Greek alphabet, and all the material from the
beginning of the course until just before Newton's laws. This is chapters 1-4 of the Serway textbook, chapters 2 and 5-12 of the course notes,
and homeworks 1-3.
- You may bring a calculator (not a cell phone app), pencil, eraser, and one 8-1/2” × 11” sheet of paper
with whatever notes you wish written on it (both sides).
- You will be asked to put away cell phones during the exam.
- Remember to memorize the Greek alphabet and
SI prefixes (exa- through atto-).
- Click here for Exam #1 Formula Pages. These pages will be included with your exam, so you
should not make copies to bring with you.
- See: Physics is Phun
- For a mathematics review, you may have a look at the book
- College Mathematics for Scientists and Engineers
- If you're interested in an internship with NASA, see this link: NASA Internships
To Learn More
To learn more about classical mechanics, I suggest:
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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
Physics News
- None.
- The 2023 Nobel prize for physics
has been awarded to physicists
Pierre Agostini (USA),
Ferenc Krausz (Germany), and
Anne L’Huillier (Sweden)
“for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.”
Other News
Contact Information
Dr. David G. Simpson: 
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