Category Archives: physics

Tweet6.4: Power “Power” is like work, in that it doesn’t mean what you think it means precisely. It’s close, but not quite the same. Power means work/energy over time. For the calculus literate among you, power is the derivative of … Continue reading →

Tweet6.3: Work and Energy with Varying Forces This section is for people who know a liiiittle integral calculus. If you don’t, you can try to follow along qualitatively. In that case, think of an integral as a way to multiply … Continue reading →

Tweet6.2: Kinetic Energy and the Work Energy Theorem This is a short section, but understanding it is very important to understanding reality. We established last time that work is force times distance. So, when you slide along the floor in … Continue reading →

TweetChapter 6: Work and Kinetic Energy 6.1: Work Work and energy are big important concepts in physics. They can be tricky at first because your intuition about the words will lead you astray. So, repeat after me: Work in real … Continue reading →

TweetInteresting Problems in Chapter 5, Part B Okay, this one totally kicked my ass. As I stated at the outset, part of why I wanted to go back through all of my physics text was that there were many things … Continue reading →

TweetInteresting Problems in Chapter 5, Part A I’m going to do something a little bit different this time. In the past, I’ve worked specific fun problems. However, the problems in this section are a bit repetitive. This is by no … Continue reading →

Tweet5.5: The Fundamental Forces I always appreciate a book that takes the time to tell you something cool, especially once you reach a point where you’re more able to appreciate it. There’s really not much for me to add here, … Continue reading →

Tweet5.4: Dynamics of Circular Motion It’s a lot of fun for me to do sections like this because when I first started learning physics, this stuff was confusing. Back then I didn’t know any trig and wasn’t very good at … Continue reading →

Tweet5.2: Using Newton’s Second Law: Dynamics of Particles Here, we add an important layer of realism by throwing in the ever-present force of friction. So, you probably have a common sense notion of friction. Let’s make it a bit more … Continue reading →

Tweet5.2: Using Newton’s Second Law: Dynamics of Particles Now things are moving! In 5.1 we constructed FBDs for systems in equilibrium. That is, systems where the net force summed to zero on every conceivable axis. Left-right, up-down, north-south, zachward-antizachward – … Continue reading →