How to Use These Notes¶
The associated General Physics course sequence at Chapman University is fully flipped, meaning that students are responsible for studying the core material outside of the synchronous class time. This format allows class to be more interactive and allow for personal guidance from the instructor to navigate challenging material. It is crucial, however, for students to study the material carefully prior to entering the classroom. Time in class is limited, so is better used to target areas where students are having difficulty, rather than lecturing on basic material that is readily learned outside class. As such, the courses generally follow the structure of the Six Ideas That Shaped Physics texts as primary sources for the students.
These notes are supplementary to extend the conceptual scope of the material beyond what is presented in the main text. They provide a complementary perspective to help synthesize the core content into a solid conceptual edifice from which students can build more advanced understanding. As such, the notes develop the concepts for efficient reasoning about physical systems alongside rigorous expressions of those concepts using appropriate mathematics. Examples have been used sparingly to keep the total length manageable as a viable supplemental resource.
Though the notes assume basic familiarity with algebra, functions, and calculus, they reintroduce relevant mathematics systematically to make more explicit how the pieces cohesively fit together when describing physical situations. The presentation of this technical background is necessarily terse, so will be most helpful as a reference after first exposure to the associated content in the main text. The systematic presentation provided here should then help students reconstruct the material as a logical whole upon review.
The material is organized into thematic chapters, designed to be cross-referenced as needed during study.
Fundamental Concepts
A broad overview of physics as a discipline at a purely conceptual level prior to tackling mathematical descriptions. The content includes the known composition of matter and fundamental interactions, the map of known physics and its frontiers, the Standard Model of fundamental quanta, particle and field approximations, the Periodic Table and chemistry, modeling, measurement, precision and model coarse-graining, partitioning of systems and environments, geometry and motion, reference frames, symmetry, invariants as labels, action as a cost function, conservation laws, and dynamics.Mathematics as a Formal Language
A broad overview of mathematics as used in physics. The content includes symbols, units, algebra, equations, inequalities, functions, graphs, vectors, geometry, vector algebra, vector calculus, approximation methods, and error propagation.Describing Motion and its Causes
A formal overview of the concept of action as a cost of motion. The content includes the connection between symmetries and conserved costs, invariants as labels, and dynamics as cost stationarity.Conservation and Exchange
A closer look at the exchange of fundamental conserved quantities. The quantities of energy-momentum and angular momentum are examined in collisions, rotations, and oscillations, as well as the special role of internal energy in coarse-grained systems.Newtonian Mechanics
A formal development of force-based Newtonian mechanics and its relation to conservation principles. The content includes Newton’s laws, power, force, torque, statics, linear and rotational motion, coupled motion, non-inertial frames, and central forces.Einsteinian Mechanics
A formal development of Einsteinian special relativistic mechanics in spacetime as a generalization of Newtonian mechanics. The content includes the speed of light, spacetime geometry and algebra, invariant spacetime intervals, length contraction, time dilation, causality and the light cone, proper dynamics of particles, and proper dynamics of fields.