The Free High School Science Texts: A Textbook for High ...

1 TheFreeHighSchool ScienceTexts:A TextbookforHighSchool Students 9, 20051 2003\FreeHighSchool ScienceTexts"Permissionis grantedtocopy, distributeand/ormodifythisdocument underthetermsof theGNUFreeDocumentationLicense, laterversionpublishedby theFreeSoftwareFoundation;withnoInvarian t Sections,noFront-Cover texts ,andnoBack-Cover copy of thelicenseis includedin thesectionentitled\GNUFreeDocumentationL icense".iContentsIPhysics11 .. `TODO'LIST.. Units(Syst emeInternationald'Unit es) .. Units.. Units.. Units.. to ChangeUnits|the\Multiplyby 1" Technique.. UnitsCanHelpYou.. a `sanity test'? .. cNotation,Signi cant FiguresandRounding.

2 102 Waves andWavelike .. Waves : Amplitude.. Waves : Wavelength.. Waves : Period .. Waves : Frequency.. Waves : Speed.. Types of Waves.. Waves.. Waves : Re ection.. Waves : Refraction.. Waves : Interference.. Waves : StandingWaves.. Waves : Di raction.. Waves : Dispersion.. Waves:SoundWaves.. Cone.. EquationsandQuantities..353 .. andRealDepth:.. WhiteLight .. ection.. lenses.. Lenses.. cation.. ection.. usere ection.. ection.. re ection.. Mirrors(ConvergingMirrors).. Mirrors.. Refraction.. ection.. EquationsandQuantities..504 .. `TODO'LIST.. Vectors.. Vectors.. Vectors.

3 Vectors.. VectorAddition.. Vectors.. of Vectors.. onanincline.. reallyneedto learnaboutvectors?Aretheyreallyuseful?.. Important Quantities,EquationsandConcepts..835 `TODO'LIST.. a force?.. Forces.. 'sLawsof Motion.. ForcesStudiedLater.. Important Quantities,EquationsandConcepts.. 1026 rectilinearmotion?.. Motion.. EquationsandQuantities.. 1257 Momentum?.. a System.. Momentum.. momentumhave?.. Important Quantities,EquationsandConcepts.. 1398 .. of Energy.. Important Quantities,EquationsandConcepts.. 151 Essay1: Energy152 Essay2: Tiny, Violent Collisions158iv9 of Collisions.

4 :EnergyandHeat.. EquationsandQuantities.. 17510 .. problems.. EquationsandQuantities.. 18611 EquationsandQuantities.. 187 Essay3: PressureandForces18812 HeatandPropertiesof matter.. matter.. ,liquids,gasses.. uids.. phase.. solids.. ,stress.. state.. gasses.. a gas.. molecules.. cheatcapacity.. clatent heat.. of thermodynamics.. EquationsandQuantities.. 215v13 Electrostatics?.. 'sLaw .. eldmapslooklike? .. theElectricField?.. a Field.. erence.. 'sOil-dropExperiment .. EquationsandQuantities.. 23914 of Charge.

5 In a practicalcircuit.. current ow in a circuit.. voltage,current, andresistancerelate.. ,ammeters,andohmmeters.. 'sLaw.. in electriccircuits.. of voltagedrops.. "series"and"parallel"circuits?.. calculations.. Ohm'sLaw .. EquationsandQuantities.. 28515 .. measurement .. of AC magnitude.. 307vi16 andinductive circuits.. capacitor.. ltersandsignaltuning.. circuitelements,diode,LEDand elde ecttransistor,operationalampli .. a switch .. digitalelectronicslogicalgates,countingc ircuits.. 33317 theAtom.. theAtom.. guration.

6 Of ionizationenergyto supportatomarrangement in PeriodicTable. ionisationenergiesto provideevidenceforarrangement of electronsintocoreandvalence.. Principle.. guration.. 34118 theideaof a quantum.. Waves:ElectromagneticWaves .. 34319 madeof .. radioactivity .. , , and rays .. theionizingradiation.. law .. dating.. screen.. 'schamber.. decay .. nature.. theuniverse.. 377A GNUFreeDocumentationLicense382viiiPartIP hysics1 Physicsis thestudyof a sensewe aremorequali edto dophysicsthanany we arebornwe studythethingsaroundus in ane orttounderstandhow theyworkandrelateto each to catch or throw a ballis eldof studywe refertoasphysicswe justtrytomake attemptto describe merelythelanguagewe to physicsis to relateeverythingyoulearnto thingsyouhave alreadynoticedin youreveryday at thingscloselyyoudiscover is thecontinuedscrutiny of everythingwe know abouttheworldaroundusthatleadspeopleto thelifelongstudyof simplequestionlike "Whyis theskyblue?

7 "which couldleadyouto electromagneticwaves which in turncouldleadyouwave particleduality andto energylevelsof atomsandbeforelongyouarestudyingquantumm echanicsor thestructureof thesectionsthatfollow noticethatwe willtryto describe how we willcommunicatethethingswe donewe canbegintheadventureof lookingmorecloselyat theworldwe live Explainwhatis meant by `physicalquantity'. Chapteris too fullof tablesandwords;need guresto make it moreinteresting. Make researchinghistoryof SI unitsa smallproject. Multiplyby onetechnique:notpositive!Suggestusingexp onents instead( pre xes).Thisalsoworksbetterforchangingcompl icatedunits(km=h 1tom:s ).

8 Opinionthatthistechniqueis limitedin itsapplication. EditNASA story. TheTemperaturesectionshouldbe :I have editedtheoriginalsectionbutperhapsa moreaggressive editis justi edwiththedetailsde `TODO'LIST Writesectiononscienti cnotation,signi cant guresandrounding. Addto sanity testtableof sensiblevaluesforthings. GraphCelsius/Kelvinladder. AddressPGCE comments make curtainsandneededto wouldneedto know how much materialwas wideand6 longwouldbe insu cient|youhave to specifytheunit( ).Withouttheunittheinformationis incompleteandtheshopassistant wouldhave to youweremakingcurtainsfora doll'shousethedimensionsmight be 2 centimetreswideand6 centimetreslong!

9 3 BasequantityNameSymbollengthmetremmasski logramkgtimesecondselectriccurrentampere AthermodynamictemperaturekelvinKamount of :SI BaseUnitsIt is notjustlengthsthathave units,allphysicalquantitieshave units( ). unitsystemsin usetoday. Physicists,forexample,use4 mainsetsof units:SIunits, , theworldor whatareaof physicsyouworkin,theunitswillbe di erent. For example,in SouthAfricaroaddistancesaremeasuredin kilometres(SIunits),whilein Englandtheyaremeasuredin miles(imperialunits).Youcouldeven make upyourownsystemof unitsif youwished,butyouwouldthenhave to teach peoplehow to useit! Units(Syst emeInternationald'Unit es)Thesearetheinternationallyagreeduponu nitsandtheoneswe was developedin Franceat thetimeof unitswhich canbe builtfromthe7 baseunitslistedin (incidentallythechoiceof theseseven was arbitrary).

10 Theyarecalledbaseunitsbecausenoneofthemc anbe expressedas combinationsof similarto breakinga languagedowninto a setof soundsfromwhich of viewingthebaseunitsis like madefromtheprimarycoloursbutnoprimarycol ourcanbe madeby combiningtheothertwo ( ).Thesymbols(orabbreviations)of unitsarealsowrittenwithlowercaseinitials exceptif theyarenamedafterscientists( (K) andtheampere(A)).To make lifeconvenient, particularcombinationsof workingwiththemeasier,butit is always correctto reduceeverythingto combinationsof SI concernedif theformulaelookunfamiliarat thisstage{we willdealwitheach in detailin thechaptersahead(aswellas many others)!}