IOP - Introduction to Physics Module Overview

Introduction to Physics

Introduction

To some, physics may seem like just a jumble of numbers, symbols and equations. But as the name implies, physics is the subject that seeks to explain, model and predict our physical world. Throughout the ages, physics has used the language of mathematics to push at the boundaries of human spiritual and philosophical thought. What today is accepted as physics has often been in the past the source of awe and mysticism. Before we can approach the boundaries of what is knowable and understand often counterintuitive events through physics, we need to first retrace the footsteps of what has come before. This journey needs to begin with the ways in which we quantify and model mathematically the existence and interaction of physical objects.

Essential Questions

1. What is the internal structure of matter?
2. What is more important to Newtonian mechanics and circuits; the macroscopic system or subatomic system of matter?
3. What are the four fundamental quantities that describe macroscopic systems?
4. What are derived quantities that describe macroscopic systems?
5. What units are used in the measure of macroscopic systems?
6. What limits the accuracy of measurements and calculations of physical quantities?
7. What are two methods of expressing numbers that are extremely large or extremely small?
8. What is a scalar?
9. What is a vector?
10. What are examples of physical quantities that are represented by vectors and scalars?
11. How are vectors represented?
12. How does one convert from one representation of a vector to another?
13. How are vectors added and subtracted?

Key Terms

1. charge - The physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when close to other electrically charged matter. There are two types of electric charges, called positive and negative.
2. derived quantity - A quantity which is made from a combination of fundamental or other derived quantities.
3. dimensional analysis - The practice of checking relations among physical quantities by identifying their dimensions.
4. displacement - A vector quantity describing the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of an object.
5. engineering notation - A method of expressing a number in which a base, greater than or equal to 1 and less than 1000, is multiplied by a power of 10 whose exponent is divisible by 3.
6. fundamental quantity - A quantity which cannot be made from fundamental or other derived quantities (displacement, mass, time and charge).
7. Inertia - A property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.
8. length - The scalar part, or magnitude, of the displacement vector.
9. mass - The measure of inertia.
10. scalar - A quantity which can be described by a single number.
11. scientific notation - A method of expressing a number in which the base is greater than or equal to 1 and less than ten, multiplied by a power of 10.
12. significant figures - Digits that carry meaning which contribute to a number's precision.
13. SI system - The international system of units (also called the MKS system) which defines measures of displacement , mass, time, and charge as meters, kilograms, seconds and coulombs, respectively.
14. time - A dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future.
15. vector - Mathematical representation of a physical quantity requiring both magnitude and direction.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS