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Welcome to the Georgia Tech Wiki for Intro Physics. This resources 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!

Looking to make a contribution?

1. Pick a specific topic from intro physics
2. Add that topic, as a link to a new page, under the appropriate category listed below by editing this page.
3. Copy and paste the default Template into your new page and start editing.

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 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 algebra based intro physics textbook College Physics
• The Open Source Physics project is a collection of online physics resources OSP
• A resource guide compiled by the AAPT for educators ComPADRE

Organizing Catagories

These are the broad, overarching categories, that we cover in two semester of introductory physics. You can add subcategories or make a new category as needed. A single topic should direct readers to a page in one of these catagories.

Interactions

• Fundamental Interactions
• System & Surroundings
• Newton's First Law of Motion

Theory

• Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Notable Scientists

• Albert Einstein
• Ernest Rutherford

Properties of Matter

• Mass
• Charge
• Spin
• SI Units

Contact Interactions

• Young's Modulus
• Friction
• Tension

Momentum

• Vectors
• Kinematics
• Predicting Change in one dimension
• Predicting Change in multiple dimensions
• Momentum Principle
• Curving Motion

Angular Momentum

• The Moments of Inertia
• Rotation
• Torque
• Predicting a Change in Rotation

Energy

• Predicting Change
• Rest Mass Energy
• Kinetic Energy
• Potential Energy
• Work
• Thermal Energy
• Conservation of Energy
• Electric Potential

Fields

• Electric Field of a
  • Point Charge
  • Electric Dipole
  • Capacitor
  • Charged Rod
  • Charged Ring
  • Charged Disk
  • Charged Spherical Shell
• Electric Potential
  • Potential Difference in a Uniform Field
• Polarization
• Magnetic Field
  • Direction of Magnetic Field
  • Bar Magnet
  • Magnetic Force
  • Hall Effect
  • Lorentz Force
  • Biot-Savart Law
  • Integration Techniques for Magnetic Field
  • Sparks in Air
  • Motional Emf

Simple Circuits

• Components
• Steady State
• Non Steady State
• Node Rule
• Loop Rule
• Power in a circuit
• Ammeters,Voltmeters,Ohmmeters
• Current
• Ohm's Law

Maxwell's Equations

• Gauss's Flux Theorem
  • Electric Fields
  • Magnetic Fields
• Faraday's Law
  • Inductance
• Ampere-Maxwell Law

Radiation

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
• An overview of VPython