Resources for Physics 131

This page contains links to  handouts and other interesting material. The lecture transparencies, homework solutions and workbook solutions are available on the Carmen course management system. You can log into Carmen with your OSU "name.number" username, and your regular OSU password.

Note that the posted material complements the textbook and the lectures, it does not replace them. In particular, examples are shown on the whiteboard during lecture, and cannot be found in the posted material.

Handouts and general course information:

What you should do - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Physics 131


Doing Homework with WebAssign  
Last year's Final Formula Sheet (for the curious student)
Current Formula Sheet (updated weekly, it will be provided for quizzes and exams)

How to use the Physics/Chemistry Calculators

Highly recommended: the Activ Physics webpage at  http://www.aw-bc.com/knight It is designed to be used with our textbook, and accessible for free.

Links to material relating to measurement and units:

Time webpages: the official US time, the Naval Observatory's time page
Why you SHOULD pay attention to units: the Mars Climate Orbiter page
A humorous column on: Whatever happened to the metric system?
Powers of Ten: from the Milky Way to DNA to quarks

Links to material relating to kinematics:

The National Hurricane Center tracks hurricanes, and predicts the storm's path (plenty of kinematics!).

Athens Olympics pages, a nice compilation of world track and field records , and the page of USA Track and Field - physics in action
Simulation: Average Speed vs. Instantaneous Speed

Simulation: Acceleration
Simulations: interesting animations you can try out yourself. They will also help you greatly with understanding graphs!

Links to material relating to vectors:

Vector-Addition demonstration also check out another concept simulation on vectors

Simulation: even more vector addition

Gravity: measuring the universal constant of gravity, G

Simulation: an applet illustrating orbital motion - Newton's Cannon

NASA Solar System Simulator

Isaac Newton - a website with historical information and nice physics applets (scroll down to the bottom)

Information on Energy from the U.S. Department of Energy

The Physics of Roller Coasters - you may even build your own coaster!

New! Links to videos about mechanics. You can watch these videos after registering at learner.org - it's free.

The Mechanical Universe

 

Some general science links:

Physics Central - by the American Physical Society
The Smithsonian Institution
NASA

Disclaimer: The links above are given for information purposes only. Listing these links does not imply that I or Ohio State support any opinions expressed therein.