Physics I: Mechanics
Calculus-based mechanics through waves and heat, with collisions replayed in the centre-of-mass frame where they make sense.
21 units · 124 topics · 553 questions
How physics measures, converts, and estimates the world before a single equation of motion shows up.
The Scope of Physics and Orders of Magnitude · Units and the SI System · Unit Conversion · Dimensional Analysis · +1 more
Arrows that carry both size and direction, added, subtracted, and multiplied two different ways.
Scalars Versus Vectors · Vector Addition and Subtraction · Unit Vectors and Components · The Dot Product · +1 more
Position, velocity, and acceleration built from calculus and from constant-acceleration shortcuts, ending in free fall.
Position, Displacement, and Distance · Average and Instantaneous Velocity · Acceleration in One Dimension · Kinematics With Constant Acceleration · +2 more
Projectiles, circles, and moving reference frames — what changes once motion stops being a straight line.
Position and Displacement Vectors in 2D · Velocity and Acceleration Vectors in 2D · Projectile Motion · Uniform Circular Motion · +2 more
Inertia, force, and action-reaction pairs, turned into free-body diagrams that solve connected-object problems.
Newton's First Law and Inertia · Mass, Weight, and Newton's Second Law · Newton's Third Law · Free-Body Diagrams · +2 more
Friction, tension, drag, and circular motion — Newton's second law applied to the messy forces of the real world.
Static and Kinetic Friction · Tension in Ropes and Pulleys · Drag Force and Terminal Velocity · Centripetal Force · +2 more
Work as a force integrated along a path, and the work-energy theorem that turns force problems into energy bookkeeping.
Work Done by a Constant Force · Work Done by a Variable Force · Kinetic Energy · The Work-Energy Theorem · +1 more
Energy stored in height and springs, read off a potential energy curve like a ball rolling through valleys and over hills.
Gravitational Potential Energy · Elastic Potential Energy · Conservative and Nonconservative Forces · Energy Diagrams and the Ball-in-a-Valley Picture · +2 more
Impulse, collisions replayed head-on and at angles, center of mass, and the rocket equation's variable-mass twist on momentum.
Momentum and Impulse · The Impulse-Momentum Theorem · Conservation of Momentum · Elastic Collisions in One Dimension · +4 more
Angular kinematics, moment of inertia built by integration, torque, and rolling motion as translation and rotation combined.
Angular Position, Velocity, and Acceleration · Relating Linear and Angular Variables · Rotational Kinematics With Constant Angular Acceleration · Torque · +5 more
A skater pulling her arms in, a gyroscope that precesses instead of falling — angular momentum conserved and torqued.
Angular Momentum of a Particle · Torque and the Rate of Change of Angular Momentum · Conservation of Angular Momentum · Angular Momentum of Rigid Bodies and Systems · +1 more
Ladders, beams, and hanging signs that don't move, plus the stress and strain of materials pushed toward their breaking point.
Conditions for Static Equilibrium · Center of Gravity · Solving Equilibrium Problems · Stress and Strain · +1 more
Newton's law of gravitation, Kepler's laws as its consequence, and the escape velocity that separates an orbit from a launch.
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation · Gravitational Field and g · Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion · Circular Orbits and Orbital Mechanics · +2 more
Pressure, buoyancy, and the continuity and Bernoulli equations that explain why a wing lifts and a hose sprays farther.
Density and Pressure · Pressure in a Fluid at Rest · Pascal's Principle and Hydraulic Systems · Buoyancy and Archimedes's Principle · +2 more
Simple harmonic motion, the pendulum, and what damping and driving do to an oscillator left alone versus pushed on purpose.
Simple Harmonic Motion · Position, Velocity, and Acceleration in SHM · Energy in Simple Harmonic Motion · The Simple Pendulum · +2 more
Transverse and longitudinal waves, interference, and the standing waves that form when two traveling waves meet head-on.
Transverse and Longitudinal Waves · Wave Speed on a String · Mathematical Description of a Wave · Superposition and Interference · +2 more
Sound as a pressure wave, decibels, beats between close frequencies, and the Doppler shift that bends a passing siren's pitch.
Sound as a Pressure Wave · The Speed of Sound · Sound Intensity and Decibels · Standing Waves in Air Columns · +2 more
Temperature scales, thermal expansion, specific heat, and the latent heat hiding inside a phase change.
Temperature and Thermal Equilibrium · Temperature Scales and Thermometers · Thermal Expansion · Heat, Specific Heat, and Calorimetry · +2 more
Pressure and temperature explained as the statistics of countless molecular collisions, from PV = nRT down to individual speeds.
The Ideal Gas Law · Pressure From Molecular Collisions · Temperature and Molecular Kinetic Energy · The Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution · +1 more
Heat, work, and internal energy tracked through PV diagrams across the four special thermodynamic processes.
Thermodynamic Systems and Internal Energy · Heat, Work, and the First Law · PV Diagrams and Thermodynamic Processes · Isothermal, Isobaric, Isochoric, and Adiabatic Processes · +1 more
Why heat engines can't be perfectly efficient, and the entropy that gives time itself a direction.
Heat Engines · The Carnot Cycle · Statements of the Second Law · Refrigerators and Heat Pumps · +2 more