This is a lab activity involving transformations between the gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, and kinetic energy of a system. An air track with a glider and a photo gate timer are needed to perform the lab. The lab is divided into three separate but related parts. The first part involves using a spring to launch the glider horizontally, measuring the velocity of the glider, and then relating elastic potential energy to kinetic energy. The second activity involves adjusting the air track so that when the glider is launched, it goes up an incline. This set up allows students to relate elastic potential energy to gravitational potential energy. The third and final activity ties elastic potential, gravitational, and kinetic energy together. Using the knowledge they acquired from the first two activities, the students need to use Conservation of Energy to predict the velocity of the glider as it is launched up the incline and then compare their prediction to the experimental value.

The Technical Services Group at MIT's Department of Physics provides technical and teaching support for undergraduate courses at MIT. They have recorded an ever-growing collection of physics demonstrations for general use. These brief videos are publicly available on MIT Tech TV. Online Publication

An introduction to basic topics in physics, supported by take-home experiments. The sequence of topics includes space and time; force, work, and mechanical energy; heat and mechanical/thermal energy conversions; electrical and chemical energy; atomicity and kinetic theory of gases; introduction to wave motion; Newtonian mechanics and gravitation; and simple harmonic motion in mechanical systems. Kits of equipment are provided for the performance of a relevant take-home experiment as part of the homework each week. Many of the experiments involve simple electrical and electronic instrumentation.

Main emphasis on electricity and magnetism. Topics include currents and DC circuits; capacitance, resistance, and nonsteady currents; Coulomb's Law and electrostatic fields; Gauss's Law; electric potential; magnetic fields of currents; electromagnetic induction; magnetism and matter; AC circuits and resonance; Maxwell's equations; electromagnetic fields in space; electromagnetism and relativity; electromagnetic radiation as waves and photons. Kits of equipment are provided for the performance of a relevant take-home experiment as part of the homework each week. This course is an introduction to electromagnetism and electrostatics. Topics include: electric charge, Coulomb's law, electric structure of matter, conductors and dielectrics, concepts of electrostatic field and potential, electrostatic energy, electric currents, magnetic fields, Ampere's law, magnetic materials, time-varying fields, Faraday's law of induction, basic electric circuits, electromagnetic waves, and Maxwell's equations. The course has an experimental focus, and includes several experiments that are intended to illustrate the concepts being studied.

This is a course for non-science majors that is a survey of the central concepts in physics relating everyday experiences with the principles and laws in physics on a conceptual level. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Describe basic principles of motion and state the law of inertia; Predict the motion of an object by applying Newtonęs laws when given the mass, a force, the characteristics of motion and a duration of time; Summarize the law of conservation of energy and explain its importance as the fundamental principle of energy as a –law of nature”; Explain the use of the principle of Energy conservation when applied to simple energy transformation systems; Define the Conservation of Energy Law as the 1st Law of Thermodynamics and State 2nd Law of Thermodynamics in 3 ways; Outline the limitations and risks associated with current societal energy practices,and explore options for changes in energy policy for the next century and beyond; Describe physical aspects of waves and wave motion; and explain the production of electromagnetic waves, and distinguish between the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This task requires students to answer questions about the structure of an expression.

In this activity, students will learn about Newton's 2nd Law of Motion. They will learn that the force required to move a book is proportional to the weight of the book. Engineers use this relationship to determine how much force they need to move an airplane.

This course introduces the structure, composition, and physical processes governing the terrestrial planets, including their formation and basic orbital properties. Topics include plate tectonics, earthquakes, seismic waves, rheology, impact cratering, gravity and magnetic fields, heat flux, thermal structure, mantle convection, deep interiors, planetary magnetism, and core dynamics. Suitable for majors and non-majors seeking general background in geophysics and planetary structure.

The need for an OER textbook on conceptual physics led to the discovery of a short book Matthew Raspanti posted on the internet back in 2008. He agreed to a CC-BY-NC-SA licence that permits the text to reside on Wikiversity as a pdf file. It is available as a single 162 page document, as well as 20 much shorter documents to facilitate online navigation.

Each of these 20 sections links out of a WIKI page that will permit the submission and sharing of ancillary materials under a CC-BY-SA license. These wiki-pages can be organized to host an arbitrary number of submissions by students, as well as by instructors.

This learning video explores the mysterious physics behind boomerangs and other rapidly spinning objects. Students will get to make and throw their own boomerangs between video segments! A key idea presented is how torque causes the precession of angular momentum. One class period is required to complete this learning video, and the optimal prerequisites are a familiarity with forces, Newton's laws, vectors and time derivatives. Each student would need the following materials for boomerang construction: cardboard (roughly the size of a postcard), ruler, pencil/pen, scissors, protractor, and a stapler.

This video lesson explores Newton's Third Law of Motion through examination of several real world examples of this law in action, including that of a donkey cart - a site common in the streets of Pakistan. Students will understand that forces act on objects even if the objects appear to be static and that certain conditions - gravity in particular - affect how two objects interact. The time needed to complete this lesson is approximately 50-60 minutes, and students should be familiar with basic mechanics such as Newton's laws, levers, etc. The materials required are a couple of spring balances, a meter rule, tape, pencil, two desks, and some lab weights (few grams each). The types of in-class activities for between the video breaks include active discussions and participation by students in activities related to the Third Law.

This course is designed to give you the scientific understanding you need to answer questions like: How much energy can we really get from wind? How does a solar photovoltaic work? What is an OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Converter) and how does it work? What is the physics behind global warming? What makes engines efficient? How does a nuclear reactor work, and what are the realistic hazards? The course is designed for MIT sophomores, juniors, and seniors who want to understand the fundamental laws and physical processes that govern the sources, extraction, transmission, storage, degradation, and end uses of energy.

From drinking fountains at playgrounds, water systems in homes, and working bathrooms at schools to hydraulic bridges and levee systems, fluid mechanics are an essential part of daily life. Fluid mechanics, the study of how forces are applied to fluids, is outlined in this unit as a sequence of two lessons and three corresponding activities. The first lesson provides a basic introduction to Pascal's law, Archimedes' principle and Bernoulli's principle and presents fundamental definitions, equations and problems to solve with students, as well as engineering applications. The second lesson provides a basic introduction to above-ground storage tanks, their pervasive use in the Houston Ship Channel, and different types of storage tank failure in major storms and hurricanes. The unit concludes with students applying what they have learned to determine the stability of individual above-ground storage tanks given specific storm conditions so they can analyze their stability in changing storm conditions, followed by a project to design their own storage tanks to address the issues of uplift, displacement and buckling in storm conditions.

Fundamental principles of the processes used in the fabrication of silicon monolithic integrated circuits. Physical models of bulk crystal growth, thermal oxidation, solid-state diffusion, ion implantation, epitaxial deposition, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition. Refractory metal silicides, plasma and reactive ion etching, and rapid thermal processing. Process modeling and simulation. Technological limitations on integrated circuit design and fabrication. VLSI fundamentals.

The objective of this lesson is to illustrate how a common everyday experience (such as playing pool) can often provide a learning moment. In the example chosen, we use the game of pool to help explain some key concepts of physics. One of these concepts is the conservation of linear momentum since conservation laws play an extremely important role in many aspects of physics. The idea that a certain property of a system is maintained before and after something happens is quite central to many principles in physics and in the pool example, we concentrate on the conservation of linear momentum. The latter half of the video looks at angular momentum and friction, examining why certain objects roll, as opposed to slide. We do this by looking at how striking a ball with a cue stick at different locations produces different effects.

This is a lecture, discussion, and project based seminar about the physics of rock climbing. Participants are first exposed to the unsolved problems in the climbing community that could be answered by research and then asked to solve a small part of one of these problems. The seminar provides an introduction to engineering problems, an opportunity to practice communication skills, and a brief stab at doing some research. This seminar explicitly does not include climbing instruction nor is climbing/mountaineering experience a prerequisite.

Students explore the physics utilized by engineers in designing today's roller coasters, including potential and kinetic energy, friction, and gravity. First, students learn that all true roller coasters are completely driven by the force of gravity and that the conversion between potential and kinetic energy is essential to all roller coasters. Second, they also consider the role of friction in slowing down cars in roller coasters. Finally, they examine the acceleration of roller coaster cars as they travel around the track. During the associated activity, the students design, build, and analyze a roller coaster for marbles out of foam tubing.

This course offers an introduction to the basic concepts of the quantum theory of solids.

Students are introduced to the physics concepts of air resistance and launch angle as they apply to catapults. This includes the basic concepts of position, velocity and acceleration and their relationships to one another. They use algebra to solve for one variable given two variables.

In this lesson, students learn that light travels in a straight line from a light source and that ray diagrams help us understand how an image will be created by a lens. In the accompanying activity, students explore the concepts behind the workings of a pinhole camera.