You probably have most of this stuff at home anyway

Welcome Students

With a little effort, you can teach yourself an entire introductory physics course using the information on this site. Before you begin, here’s what you need to have:

  • Some math background: For most of what we do, you need to be able to handle some algebra, quadratic equations, and some basic sine and cosine type functions.

  • An online textbook: This course will reference the OpenStax College Physics 2e book. Create a free account at OpenStax — and chip in to support their work if you are able to do so.

  • A scientific calculator: It doesn’t need to be an expensive one. You can do just fine with a 10 dollar special that you pick up at your local big-box store.

  • Some free software: You can do almost all of the work you need to do on Google Docs. If you want to do the labs portion of the course (and I hope you do!) you’ll need a video data software called Tracker, which you can download and install — or, if you have the patience, you can use on the web without an installer.

To really study physics, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to try this stuff. Many of the lessons will be paired with a lab that you can do at home with normal things that you find around the house. I will demonstrate one way to do these labs with things that I have around my house, but you don’t need to do an exact copy of what I did.

A plan of action:

  1. Work through the topics in numerical order. This is very important. The study of physics is a little like building a brick wall. You need to have the first layer of bricks in place before putting the second layer (and third and so on…) on top.

  2. Read the web page first, then the textbook sections that the web page references. As you read through the textbook sections, try to solve the example problems without looking at the solution. If you get stuck, look at the steps in the book.

  3. If there is a lab, try it! See if you can get results that agree with the stuff you were studying.

  4. Try the odd-numbered problems at the end of the chapter. You can check your answers by clicking on the problem number. (Even numbered problems do not have answers.)