CONCEPTUAL PHYSICS MANUAL


Classical Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism

by Craig Fletcher



Introduction and Note to Students

 
Chapter 1 Questions  -  Math Review
 
.....Solutions to Ch 1 Questions
 
Chapter 4  -  Kinematics
 
.....Solutions to Ch 4 Problems
 
Chapter 5  -  Newton's Laws

.....Solutions to Ch 5 Problems
 
Chapter 6  -  Energy

.....Solutions to Ch 6 Problems

Chapter 7- Momentum

.....Solutions to Ch 7 Problems

Chapter 8  -  Rotational Motion 1

.....Solutions to Ch 8 Problems

Chapter 9   -  Rotational Motion 2

.....Solutions to Ch 9 Problems
 
Chapter 10   -  Gravitation

.....Solutions to Ch 10 Problems
 
Chapter 11  -  Vibratory Motion

.....Solutions to Ch 11 Problems
 
Chapter 12  -  Wave Motion

.....Solutions to Ch 12 Problems


Second Semester

 
Chapter 13  -  Electrostatics

.....Solutions to Ch 13 Problems

Chapter 14  -  Electric Fields

.....Solutions to Ch 14 Problems
 
Chapter 15  -  Gauss's Law

.....Solutions to Ch 15 Problems
 
Chapter 16  -  Electrical Potentials

.....Solutions to Ch 16 Problems

Chapter 17  -  DC Circuits

.....Solutions to Ch 17 Problems
 
Chapter 18  -  Capacitors

.....Solutions to Ch 18 Problems

Chapter 19  -  Magnetic Fields

.....Solutions to Ch 19 Problems

Chapter 20   -  Faraday's Law and Induction

.....Solutions to Ch 20 Problems
 
Chapter 21   -  AC Circuits

.....Solutions to Ch 21 Problems



    NOTE: For those of you who are into embarrassing, possibly old-age related humor, I have one for you.

   Years ago, I used the server at my school (Polytechnic School in Pasadena, CA) to put my Conceptual Manual on-line (the manual is around 250 pages worth of purely conceptual questions and their solutions that follows the topics I presented in my book, Physics With Calculus). And for years, I'd send anyone who did not want to spend money on a hardcopy of the manual to that Web site to download a free copy of the offering. Then came my decision to put the material on prettygoodphysics.
   So I get into the Conceptual Manual folder on my computer, and my girlfriend--she's a professor of Mathematics at an east- coast university--is helping me do this, and lo and behold, it comes to light that when you click on, say, the Newton's Laws link, you don't get the Newton's Laws conceptual questions. Instead, you get the Newton's Laws chapter from the Honors Physics text I wrote years ago.
   I was a bit confused at this point (hence, the old-age problem), but finally figured out what, apparently, had happened. When I created the html page for the Conceptual manual, I used as a template the html page I'd created for the Honor's Physics text. Then, brain trust that I am, I got sidetracked and never change any of the links. In other words, if you are one of the people out there to whom I offered a free copy and, when you went to the site you found something that made no sense at all, I do apologize. Hopefully what is here will make you feel better.
   (And as a relevant aside, if anyone finds anything amiss in the pages herein, PLEASE let me know. My intent has never been to confuse anyone. If it doesn't make sense to you, it probably means I've goofed somehow and it won't make sense to others.)

 

 

   As for the motivation behind this manual, in a standard, Advanced Placement course covering Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism, the emphasis is generally on the mathematical side of the physics involved.  Of course, concepts are presented--you can't develop a model without first talking somewhat about the concepts to be modeled--but most texts (my own included) really seem to focus on the mathematics associated with the process.
    (For instance, the idea that an electric field is a modified force-field is presented in the beginning of most E&M texts, then two, long, sometimes mind-numbing chapters are devoted to using mathematical techniques--Gauss's Law, etc.--to derive mathematical functions that define the electric field due to various charge configurations--e.g., a charged ball, a charged rod, a sheet of charge, etc. In those chapters, it's all about the math.)
    Having contact with this kind of math is a good thing, especially if a student is interested in going into physics or engineering in college, or if one just wants to pass an AP test. But having an understanding of the concepts involved is really, at a very basic level, more important.
   Although I thought I'd done a decent job with the mathematics, I realized my text didn't go as far on the conceptual side as I would have liked. As the text was 1300 pages total and weighed in at sixteen pounds for the two-volume set, I decided to give my backpack-weary students a break and wrote a seperate "Conceptual Manual" to supplement what the book had done. That manual is what you have here.

   I hope you find it useful (not to mention actually here).