Fun with Physics

Welcome to "Fun with Physics,"

our class-wide collaborative study effort to help prepare for the final exam, and beyond!!!

This site is a work-in-progress, being created in real-time, as you and your classmates continue working on and submitting your worked-example problem solutions and explanations.


Site navigation: from the menu in the upper righthand corner (upper lefthand corner when viewed on your phone or tablet), you can direct yourself to all of the sub-pages available, each covering a problem that incorporates specific conceptual material from class.


Topics covered thus far include:

  • 2D Motion, Vectors, & Relative Velocity

(Relative velocity of a swimmer across a river current)

  • Force & Motion Dynamics

(Banked racetrack problem)

  • Force & Motion Dynamics for Two-Body Systems

(2 masses on a pulley, subject to weight, tension, friction & normal forces)

  • Angled Tension and Uniform Circular Motion

(Suspended lamp inside a train traveling a circular curved track)
(**2 versions of solution work-through!!)

  • Gravitational Forces Between Objects

(Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation for spherical bodies)

  • Conservation of Energy & Centripetal Forces

(Small block sliding down a loop-the-loop track)

  • Conservation of Energy with Newton's Laws & Kinematics

(Relating the Gravitational Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy of a 2 mass-pulley system using kinematics)

  • Gravitational Torque & Equilibrium

(Balance of forces upon a diving board)

  • Rotational Motion & Moment of Inertia

(Applying the linear and rotational acceleration relationship for hanging mass on a pulley)

  • Rotational Motion & Newton's Second Law

(Applying the relationship between rotational acceleration of a pulley and linear acceleration of 2 masses on it)

  • Rotational Kinetic Energy

(Relating Moment of Inertia, I, and angular velocity, ω, to find rotational KE of 5 ceiling-fan blade system)

  • Conservation of Momentum in Inelastic Collisions

(Relating post-collision speed and angular momentum to a bullet shot into a suspended block)

  • Work-Energy Theorem

(Relating Work and ∆KE to find velocity of deep space probe)

  • Impulse-Momentum Theorem

(Change in momentum, and direction of velocity, due to impulse, J, applied -- i.e. due to Force being applied over time)(**2 versions of solution work-through + VIDEO explanation!)

  • Snapshot & History Graphs

(Snapshot graph -- showing wave displacement as a function of position at a single instant of time; vs. History "time plot" graph -- showing one position as it changes over time)

  • Simple Harmonic Motion with Spring Oscillator

(Using Hooke’s law relating spring force with displacement from equilibrium, characterizing spring oscillator system in SHM — amplitude, frequency, period, velocity, spring constant k)

  • Standing Waves

(Relating frequency, string length L, number of nodes/antinodes, wavelength, & wave speed)

  • Sound Intensity & Distance

(Converting decibels to W/m^2 to relate wave intensity with distance away from the source of sound)

  • Superposition of Waves

(Effect on total amplitude level when 2 waves overlap causing constructive or destructive interference)

  • (**to be updated continuously as additional worked problem solutions and explanations are submitted from your classmates!)


We also have a subpage dedicated to our growing set of solutions for Physics 1012 (E&M) topics, which we are working on building up -- this subpage is included at the bottom of the menu, below all of the Physics 1011 topics.


Some of the problems will include two different solution explanations -- one from a group in each section of class. This is included in case one group or another's way of explaining their problem-solving process and reasoning may reasonate with some students better than another, and vice versa.


For the same reason, you will find some of the problems will include either a written-out and/or video-recorded version of the problem solution -- as there are different types of learners amongst your classmates (visual, auditory, tactile).


Check back periodically for updates, and best of luck in preparing for your finals, friends!!!



I wonder: how much fun can we all have, doing physics together...?