This introductory, algebra-based, two-semester college physics book is grounded with real-world examples, illustrations, and explanations to help students grasp key, fundamental physics concepts. This online, fully editable and customizable title includes learning objectives, concept questions, links to labs and simulations, and ample practice opportunities to solve traditional physics application problems.

College Physics for AP Courses is designed to engage students in their exploration of physics and help them to relate what they learn in the classroom to their lives and to apply these concepts to the Advanced Placement test. Physics underlies much of what is happening today in other sciences and in technology, therefore the book includes interesting facts and ideas that go beyond the scope of the AP course to further student understanding. The AP Connection in each chapter directs students to the material they should focus on for the AP® exam, and what content — although interesting — is not necessarily part of the AP curriculum.

Investigate collisions on an air hockey table. Set up your own experiments: vary the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Is momentum conserved? Is kinetic energy conserved? Vary the elasticity and see what happens.

As a continuation of the theme of potential and kinetic energy, this lesson introduces the concepts of momentum, elastic and inelastic collisions. Many sports and games, such as baseball and ping-pong, illustrate the ideas of momentum and collisions. Students explore these concepts by bouncing assorted balls on different surfaces and calculating the momentum for each ball.

Make a whole rainbow by mixing red, green, and blue light. Change the wavelength of a monochromatic beam or filter white light. View the light as a solid beam, or see the individual photons.

The course begins with the basics of compressible fluid dynamics, including governing equations, thermodynamic context and characteristic parameters. The next large block of lectures covers quasi-one-dimensional flow, followed by a discussion of disturbances and unsteady flows. The second half of the course comprises gas dynamic discontinuities, including shock waves and detonations, and concludes with another large block dealing with two-dimensional flows, both linear and non-linear.

Watch your solution change color as you mix chemicals with water. Then check molarity with the concentration meter. What are all the ways you can change the concentration of your solution? Switch solutes to compare different chemicals and find out how concentrated you can go before you hit saturation!

For a semester-length course, all seven chapters can be covered. For a shorter course, the book is designed so that chapters 1, 2, and 5 are the only ones that are required for continuity; any of the others can be included or omitted at the instructor’s discretion, with the only constraint being that chapter 6 requires chapter 4.

With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students learn the basic concepts of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. Students then apply these concepts as they work in teams to solve two problems. One problem requires that they maintain the warm temperature of one soda can filled with water at approximately body temperature, and the other problem is to cause an identical soda can of warm water to cool as much as possible during the same thirty-minute time interval. Students design their solutions using only common, everyday materials. They record the water temperatures in their two soda cans every five minutes, and prepare line graphs in order to visually compare their results to the temperature of an unaltered control can of water.

Experiment with conductivity in metals, plastics and photoconductors. See why metals conduct and plastics don't, and why some materials conduct only when you shine a flashlight on them.

Students make a simple conductivity tester using a battery and light bulb. They learn the difference between conductors and insulators of electrical energy as they test a variety of materials for their ability to conduct electricity.

Experiment with conductivity in metals, plastics and photoconductors. See why metals conduct and plastics don't, and why some materials conduct only when you shine a flashlight on them.

Bluetooth is everywhere—from smartphones to computers to cars. Even though students are exposed to this technology, many are not aware of how they can use it themselves to wirelessly control their own creative projects! For this challenge, students build on what they learned during a previous Arduino maker challenge, Make and Control a Servo Arm with Your Computer, and learn how to control a servo with an Android phone (iPhones do not work with the components used in this challenge). By the end of the exercise, expect students to be wirelessly controlling a servo with a simple phone application!

In this activity, students use a variety of materials to design and create headphones that absorb sound.

Students teams design and build shoe prototypes that convert between high heels and athletic shoes. They apply their knowledge about the mechanics of walking and running as well as shoe design (as learned in the associated lesson) to design a multifunctional shoe that is both fashionable and functional.

Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and convection.

Thermal backgrounds in space. Cosmological principle and its consequences: Newtonian cosmology and types of "universes"; survey of relativistic cosmology; horizons. Overview of evolution in cosmology; radiation and element synthesis; physical models of the "early stages." Formation of large-scale structure to variability of physical laws. First and last states. Some knowledge of relativity expected. 8.962 recommended though not required. This course provides an overview of astrophysical cosmology with emphasis on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, galaxies and related phenomena at high redshift, and cosmic structure formation. Additional topics include cosmic inflation, nucleosynthesis and baryosynthesis, quasar (QSO) absorption lines, and gamma-ray bursts. Some background in general relativity is assumed.

The students discover the basics of heat transfer in this activity by constructing a constant pressure calorimeter to determine the heat of solution of potassium chloride in water. They first predict the amount of heat consumed by the reaction using analytical techniques. Then they calculate the specific heat of water using tabulated data, and use this information to predict the temperature change. Next, the students will design and build a calorimeter and then determine its specific heat. After determining the predicted heat lost to the device, students will test the heat of solution. The heat given off by the reaction can be calculated from the change in temperature of the water using an equation of heat transfer. They will compare this with the value they predicted with their calculations, and then finish by discussing the error and its sources, and identifying how to improve their design to minimize these errors.

Students learn about the physical force of linear momentum movement in a straight line by investigating collisions. They learn an equation that engineers use to describe momentum. Students also investigate the psychological phenomenon of momentum; they see how the "big mo" of the bandwagon effect contributes to the development of fads and manias, and how modern technology and mass media accelerate and intensify the effect.

In this activity, students construct their own pinhole camera to observe the behavior of light.