This new book aims to guide both the experimentalist and theoretician through their compulsory laboratory courses forming part of an undergraduate physics degree. The rationale behind this book is to show students and interested readers the value and beauty within a carefully planned and executed experiment, and to help them to develop the skills to carry out experiments themselves.
Understanding, designing and conducting experiments is at the heart of science. This text introduces the fundamental principles on which physicists should build a thorough experimental approach to their discipline.
A physics course for 9th to 11th grade covering essential physics concepts. Introductory Physics is a mastery-oriented text specially designed to foster content mastery and retention when used with the companion resource materials available on CD from Centripetal Press. Another key feature of Centripetal Press texts is the integration of related subjects: history, mathematics, language skills, epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge) as well as frequent references from the humanities. Fresh pedagogical ideas and presentation make this text a superior choice for all learning environments where rigor and lucidity are desired in a text.
ASPC is designed for honors-level or accelerated high school freshmen. It is a physical science text that trims away the fat and goes deep so that students get a solid preparatory foundation in these two subjects. Centripetal Press advocates a "physics first" approach to the high school science sequence. In short, having a light physics-based course in 9th grade creates the possibility of carry-over into later science course in a way that the standard "biology first" sequence does not. Energy, work, heat transfer, the atomic model, the periodic table, substances, atomic bonding, and other subjects require only Algebra I mathematics. (Freshmen using ASPC should have already completed Algebra I in the 8th grade.) In addition to these subjects, important skills in the laboratory, plus unit conversions, scientific notation, metric prefixes, and the writing of lab reports are essential skills that students will thoroughly learn in this text. Imagine going on to accelerated 10th grade chemistry with all of these skills and concepts firmly in hand! The chemistry class can cover more ground when they do not need to cover those essentials. And the practice of building upon skills already learned supports the "mastery learning" paradigm employed in every Centripetal Press textbook.
This book on the use of Arduino and Smartphones in physics experiments, with a focus on mechanics, introduces various techniques by way of examples. The main aim is to teach students how to take meaningful measurements and how to interpret them. Each topic is introduced by an experiment. Those at the beginning of the book are rather simple to build and analyze. As the lessons proceed, the experiments become more refined and new techniques are introduced. Rather than providing recipes to be adopted while taking measurements, the need for new concepts is raised by observing the results of an experiment. A formal justification is given only after a concept has been introduced experimentally. The discussion extends beyond the taking of measurements to their meaning in terms of physics, the importance of what is learned from the laws that are derived, and their limits. Stress is placed on the importance of careful design of experiments as to reduce systematic errors and on good practices to avoid common mistakes. Data are always analyzed using computer software. C-like structures are introduced in teaching how to program Arduino, while data collection and analysis is done using Python. Several methods of graphical representation of data are used.
This book brings together the most important topics in experimental particle physics over the past forty years to give a brief but balanced overview of the subject. The author begins by reviewing particle physics and discussing electromagnetic and nuclear interactions. He then goes on to discuss three nearly universal aspects of particle physics experiments: beams, targets, and fast electronics. The second part of the book treats in detail the properties of various types of particle detector, such as scintillation counters, Cerenkov counters, proportional chambers, drift chambers, sampling calorimeters, and specialized detectors. Wherever possible the author attempts to enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of performance. Finally, he discusses aspects of specific experiments, such as properties of triggers, types of measurement, spectrometers, and the integration of detectors into coherent systems. Throughout the book, each chapter begins with a discussion of the basic principles involved, followed by selective examples.
Comprehensive lab procedures for introductory physics Experiments in Physics is a lab manual for an introductory calculus-based physics class. This collection of 32 experiments includes laboratory procedures in the areas of mechanics, heat, electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics, with post-lab questions designed to help students analyze their results more deeply. Introductory material includes guidance on error analysis, significant figures, graphical analysis and more, providing students with a convenient reference throughout the duration of the course.
The market leader for the first-year physics laboratory course, this manual offers a wide range of class-tested experiments designed explicitly for use in small to mid-size lab programs. The manual provides a series of integrated experiments that emphasize the use of computerized instrumentation. The Sixth Edition includes a set of "computer-assisted experiments" that allow students and instructors to use this modern equipment. This option also allows instructors to find the appropriate balance between traditional and computer-based experiments for their courses. By analyzing data through two different methods, students gain a greater understanding of the concepts behind the experiments. The manual includes 14 new integrated experiments—computerized and traditional—that can also be used independently of one another. Ten of these integrated experiments are included in the standard (bound) edition; four are available for customization. Instructors may elect to customize the manual to include only those experiments they want. The bound volume includes the 33 most commonly used experiments that have appeared in previous editions; an additional 16 experiments are available for examination online. Instructors may choose any of these experiments—49 in all—to produce a manual that explicitly matches their course needs. Each experiment includes six components that aid students in their analysis and interpretation: Advance Study Assignment, Introduction and Objectives, Equipment Needed, Theory, Experimental Procedures, and Laboratory Report and Questions.
