2 About this material
About the course
Foundations of Physics is an introductory course designed for those with qualifications in physics and mathematics at Scottish Higher / English A-level or equivalent. The course provides a largely self-contained introduction to the core classical physics of space, time and motion. The course aims to consolidate and deepen understanding of the fundamental principles in this area in particular, and to develop the skills essential to the study of physics in general:
- to make connections between principles and their applications;
- to think questioningly;
- to develop skills that you will need throughout your study;
- to argue systematically, in a structured, reasoned way;
- to translate physics into mathematics and mathematics into physics.
The course serves both as a preparation for further study in physics-based degree courses, and as a stand-alone course for students of other disciplines, including mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering.
The material for this course makes frequent reference to the recommended textbook for the course: ’Fundamentals of Physics’ (Extended International Edition; the newest is the 8th Edition, the 7th virtually the same), authors: Halliday, Resnick and Walker, publisher. There are plenty of other very good course texts available, so do not feel compelled to use this one.
About this material
This is the on-line version of the Course Handbook for Foundations of Classical Physics. It also exists as a paper version .
The Course Handbook is your route map for the course. You will use it constantly; so you need to take the time now to find out what it does (and what it doesn’t) provide. You are advised to read this guide carefully....
How The Handbook is Organised
The Handbook material is organised into a series of sections (e.g. S0, S1), each of which contain a number of subsections (e.g. S0.4, S1.1). Some subsections such as S6.7 are included for general interest and are not part of the main core of the course — this is marked clearly at the start of these subsections and the material within such subsections is left out of the paper version of the handbook. Typically each subsection will cover a series of topics, identified by the labels [A], [B], …. These labels should help you match the Handbook with the material of the lectures. To give you more help here, the printed version of the Handbook also shows you where to expect additional material in lectures — that’s what the little boxes in the right margin of each page are for. We’ll go into more detail about this when we describe the paper version of the handbook below.
Each section of the Course Handbook (except for this one!) begins with an overview identifying:
- its motivation: what it is all about in a few words;
- its objectives: the principal things you should look to learn (or consolidate) in the study of this section …but that isn’t a license to forget the rest!
- the key mathematics: the principal mathematics needed for or developed in this section.
At various points you will find boxes labelled Key Point like this:
Key Point 2.1
This is a key point!These boxes identify the core material, which deserves priority in your study and revision. The Key Points are numbered (e.g. Key Point 1.1, Key Point 2.2, with the first digit indicating the section in which it appears). This is only to allow us to make cross references to them – you don’t need to learn the numbers!
You will also sometimes find similar boxes labelled Guideline which are presented in a similar way to Key Points and identify general recipes and suggestions that you might want to follow when thinking about Physics. Here is an example:
Guideline 2.1 - Check the units
You will find more about this in S0.5!Guidelines are numbered in a similar way to Key Points, as are selected equations.
At the end of each subsection you will generally find a list entitled Learning Resources. This identifies material for further study or work, appropriate at this point. It comprises the following elements (not all of which feature every time):
- Textbook The Textbook (Halliday Resnick and Walker, HRW) matches the course quite closely, in regard to organisation and level; but it contains material which goes well beyond the coverage of the course. We will provide you with references to the most relevant sections.
Self-Tests. Self-Test questions are available on-line and have a simple multiple choice or multiple response format, allowing you to check your understanding of basic elements of the material and get immediate – and private – feedback. You can do these questions whenever (and however often) you like. We do not record your answers to these questions so do not worry about learning from your mistakes!
Some of the questions are very straightforward; others will get you thinking.
Course Questions. These questions are labelled (and cross-referenced as) Q1.1, Q1.2 …. In the paper version of the Course Handbook they appear explicitly under the Learning Resources paragraph. In this online version of the Course Handbook they appear as hyperlinks which lead you to the relevant question.
These questions are designed to develop your problem-solving skills, and your capacity to set out answers in a structured, clearly-argued form. They carry a code (sometimes two), S, H, K or T with the following significance
- S: a standard question... bread-and butter stuff! This is more like an exercise than a real problem.
- H: a somewhat harder question
- K: a key question which deserves special attention.
- T: a question focused more on thinking than on the systematics of problem solving.
Each question is accompanied by a ‘Hint’ and ‘Answer’ panel that can be hidden or shown as you require.
A complete set of hints is also to be found at the end of the paper version of the Handbook. We do not issue paper versions of the solutions.
The Paper Version of the Course Handbook
The paper version of the Course Handbook provides you with a skeleton outline of the course material, incorporating summaries of important concepts, key equations and figures. It is not a set of lecture notes but you can use it to make your study experience more profitable.
Because the paper version of the Course Handbook contains much less detail than what you will find in the on-line Course Handbook, we include a number of ‘anchors’ in the right hand margin of each page to help you match the content with what you see on the web.
The On-Line Version of the Course Handbook
Each subsection of the course is represented by one web page (such as this!) and all of the pages in the Course Handbook are organised into a simple ‘tree’ structure through which you can navigate.
This on-Line version of the course contains additional illustrative material which you can pursue in your own time.
Some of this material simply expands on the skeleton nodes by either filling in details, providing some worked examples or by adding extra comments or clarification to help you understanding. This type of material is usually presented as a rectangular region which you can expand or collapse by clicking on the ‘Reveal’ and ‘Hide’ hyperlinks within each region. You can also choose to hide or reveal all such regions in the page using the ‘Content Control Panel’ strip across the top of each page.
Here’s an example:
(As we mentioned earlier, these bits of material are noted on the printed version of the Handbook by little anchors in the right hand margin telling you what what each region is about.)
The on-line material also has a large number of extra web pages which live ‘off the beaten track’ and you can go into these and explore them in any way you choose.
Here’s an example:
Following these links will open up a pop-up exploration window on your browser. The same window is used for all of these special pages so you can choose to keep the window open afterwards while you browse further. Some of these extra pages contain links to other similar pages, other parts the Course Handbook or other web sites. (Links back to the Course Handbook or the Course Questions will open in your main browser window.)
Each of these extra pages is flagged by a little ‘code’ icon to suggest what you might find. The codes (with some examples) are:
Illustrative material, mainly qualitative and pictorial, sometimes animated:
An attempt to anticipate a Question:
Some more Detail:
A bit more Mathematics:
Time To Think — Test your understanding of what you have just read:
An Applet or Video — an interactive animation or application that you can play around with.
And something Extra ...perhaps we should have called it ’challenging’. In any event it will be material for those (we know you are out there!) who wish to go a bit deeper in thought, or flex mathematical muscles more vigorously: