Contents

0 Introduction and Review

0.1 Introduction and review............... 13
The scientific method, 13.—What is physics?, 16.—How to learn
physics, 19.—Velocity and acceleration, 21.—Self-evaluation, 23.—
Basics of the metric system, 24.—Less common metric prefixes,
27.—Scientific notation, 27.—Conversions, 28.—Significant figures,
30.—A note about diagrams, 32.
0.2 Scaling and order-of-magnitude estimates....... 34
Introduction, 34.—Scaling of area and volume, 35.—Order-of-magnitude
estimates, 43.
Problems...................... 47

1 Conservation of Mass

1.1 Mass...................... 55
Problem-solving techniques, 58.—Delta notation, 59.
1.2 Equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass..... 60
1.3 Galilean relativity................. 62
Applications of calculus, 67.
1.4 A preview of some modern physics.......... 68
Problems...................... 70

2 Conservation of Energy

2.1 Energy..................... 73
The energy concept, 73.—Logical issues, 75.—Kinetic energy, 76.—
Power, 80.—Gravitational energy, 81.—Equilibrium and stability,
86.—Predicting the direction of motion, 89.
2.2 Numerical techniques............... 91
2.3 Gravitational phenomena.............. 96
Kepler’s laws, 96.—Circular orbits, 98.—The sun’s gravitational
field, 99.—Gravitational energy in general, 99.—The shell theorem,
102.—?Evidence for repulsive gravity, 108.
2.4 Atomic phenomena................ 109
Heat is kinetic energy., 110.—All energy comes from particles mov-
ing or interacting., 111.—Applications, 113.
2.5 Oscillations................... 115
Problems...................... 120
Exercises...................... 128

3 Conservation of Momentum

3.1 Momentum in one dimension............ 132
Mechanical momentum, 132.—Nonmechanical momentum, 135.—