A radical new approach to teaching Freshman Physics
at a price students can afford – only $19.99.
Buy it on Amazon
Physics One is based on two equations:
F = dp/dt
and
Physics – Calculus = Nonsense
For freshman physics, Physics One is a disruptive educational technology:
First, it’s $19.99, not $199.99. Students can afford to buy it.
Second, Physics One is calculus-based. Calculus-based? Calculus is woven systematically throughout the text, not only appearing as a few homework problems.
Third, Physics One presents a university-level course. University-level? Homework requires symbolic reasoning, not punching numbers into pocket calculators. From the beginning, forces and accelerations are three-vectors, not scalars.
Physics One is based on the decades that I spent teaching Freshman Mechanics. In Physics One’s 430 pages, I present Newtonian Mechanics, reveal a new approach to laboratories that has students do real experiments rather than cookbook exercises, and advance to harmonic oscillators. The book includes homework problems, study problems with worked solutions (not just final answers), and sample examinations (examinations that I used in class).
The links at the top of the page take you to several sample chapters, including:
For Faculty Members considering adopting this book.
For students who want to study effectively.
Chapter 3 — Calculus and Kinematics
Chapter 6 — Newton’s Laws of Motion
and, finally,
Paperbound copies of Physics One are available from Amazon. One of the reasons Physics One costs $19.99, not $199.99 or twice that, is that I do not have a huge sales force, mass mailing of free copies of the book, and the like. By popular demand, I have added a hardback version of the book, price $24.99.
Physics One has three major sections.
Section One presents standard topics in classical mechanics. I supply a few sample chapters. Note in particular Chapter 3, on motion at constant acceleration, a topic that most students understand incorrectly, and Chapter 6, on Newton’s Laws of motion.
Section Two presents experiments. The required equipment is very simple. The objective is to introduce students to real experiments, in which you do not know the answer in advance, and in which you do not at first know how to make the measurement as accurately as possible. Before you do publishable experimental work, there is a vast period of tuning up the instrument, doing control measurements, making and analyzing preliminary results to see what has gone wrong, and finally obtaining the publishable data. Real experiments using very simple equipment are an important part of real physics, and real experiments are what students get to do.
Section Three treats harmonic oscillators and coupled harmonic oscillators.
The book cover and banner here show the two greatest physicists of the second millennium, Isaac Newton and Josiah Willard Gibbs. Cover and Banner art are by Cedar Sanderson.
If you are enthusiastic about educational disruption, note also my proposal for Essential University.