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Georgia Tech Student Wiki for Introductory Physics.
This resource was created so that students can contribute and curate content to help those with limited or no access to a textbook. When reading this website, please correct any errors you may come across. If you read something that isn't clear, please consider revising it for future students!
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- Pick one of the topics from intro physics listed below
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Please remember that this is not a textbook and you are not limited to expressing your ideas with only text and equations. Whenever possible embed: pictures, videos, diagrams, simulations, computational models (e.g. Glowscript), and whatever content you think makes learning physics easier for other students.
Source Material
All of the content added to this resource must be in the public domain or similar free resource. If you are unsure about a source, contact the original author for permission. That said, there is a surprisingly large amount of introductory physics content scattered across the web. Here is an incomplete list of intro physics resources (please update as needed).
- A physics resource written by experts for an expert audience Physics Portal
- A wiki written for students by a physics expert MSU Physics Wiki
- A wiki book on modern physics Modern Physics Wiki
- The MIT open courseware for intro physics MITOCW Wiki
- An online concept map of intro physics HyperPhysics
- Interactive physics simulations PhET
- OpenStax intro physics textbooks: Vol1, Vol2, Vol3
- The Open Source Physics project is a collection of online physics resources OSP
- A resource guide compiled by the AAPT for educators ComPADRE
Resources
- Commonly used wiki commands Wiki Cheatsheet
- A guide to representing equations in math mode Wiki Math Mode
- A page to keep track of all the physics Constants
- A page for review of Vectors and vector operations
- A listing of Notable Scientist with links to their individual pages
Physics 1
Week 1
Help with VPython
Vectors and Units
VPython
Vectors and Units
Interactions
Velocity and Momentum
Week 2
Momentum and the Momentum Principle
Iterative Prediction with a Constant Force
Week 3
Analytic Prediction with a Constant Force
Iterative Prediction with a Varying Force
Week 4
Fundamental Interactions
Week 5
Conservation of Momentum
Properties of Matter
Week 6
Identifying Forces
Curving Motion
Week 7
Energy Principle
Week 8
Work by Non-Constant Forces
Potential Energy
Week 9
Multiparticle Systems
Week 10
Choice of System
Thermal Energy, Dissipation and Transfer of Energy
Rotational and Vibrational Energy
Week 11
Different Models of a System
Models of Friction
Week 12
Collisions
Week 13
Rotations
Angular Momentum
Week 14
Analyzing Motion with and without Torque
Week 15
Introduction to Quantum Concepts
Physics 2
Week 1
3D Vectors
Electric field
Electric force
Electric field of a point particle
Superposition
Dipoles
Week 2
Interactions of charged objects
Tape experiments
Polarization
Week 3
Insulators
Conductors
Charging and discharging
Week 4
Field of a charged rod
Field of a charged ring/disk/capacitor
Field of a charged sphere
Week 5
Potential energy
The Main Idea
Understanding Potential Energy is a very important idea for both Physics 1 and Physics 2 as it allows to solve equations more easily sometimes because of it's relation to Force. Let's first break down Energy. We know from Einstein that the basic energy equation is E=mc^2 + K where K is the kinetic energy and mc^2 is the rest energy. Kinetic Energy describes the energy of motion. Potential Energy is a little more tricky. A single particle can not have potential energy because potential energy is related to interacting objects within a system. For example, an electron that is farther away from a proton has more potential energy than an electron that is close to a proton. That is why we have the equation deltaK+deltaU=Wsurr and mc^2 is zero. This is defined as the energy principle for a multiparticle system. Understanding how distance affects the potential energy allows us to look at potential energy without the mathematics.
A Mathematical Model
The main mathematical equations for potential energy:
The relationship between force and potential energy is described through this integral. deltaU=Uf-Ui=-W=-integalFds
