College Physics: Explore and Apply 2nd Edition

Book Preface

College Physics: Explore and Apply and its supporting materials (MasteringTM Physics, the Active Learning Guide (ALG), and our Instructor’s Guide)—a coherent learning system that helps students learn physics by doing physics!
Experiments, experiments… Instead of being presented physics as a static set of established
concepts and mathematical relations, students develop their own ideas just as physicists
do: they explore and analyze observational experiments, identify patterns in the data, and
propose explanations for the patterns. They then design testing experiments whose outcomes
either confirm or contradict their explanations. Once tested, students apply explanations and
relations for practical purposes and to problem solving.

A physics tool kit To build problem-solving skills and confidence, students master proven
visual tools (representations such as motion diagrams and energy bar charts) that serve as
bridges between words and abstract mathematics and that form the basis of our overarching
problem-solving strategy. Our unique and varied problems and activities promote 21st-century
competences such as evaluation and communication and reinforce our practical approach with
photo, video, and data analysis and real-life situations.

A flexible learning system Students can work collaboratively on ALG activities in class
(lectures, labs, and problem-solving sessions) and then read the textbook at home and solve
end-of-chapter problems, or they can read the text and do the activities using Mastering

Physics at home, then come to class and discuss their ideas. However they study, students will
see physics as a living thing, a process in which they can participate as equal partners.

Why a new edition? With a wealth of feedback from users of the first edition, our own
ongoing experience and that of a gifted new co-author, and changes in the world in general
and in education in particular, we embarked on this second edition in order to refine and
strengthen our experiential learning system. Experiments are more focused and effective, our
multiple-representation approach is expanded, topics have been added or moved to provide
more flexibility, the writing, layout, and design are streamlined, and all the support materials
are more tightly correlated to our approach and topics.

Working on this new edition has been hard work, but has enriched our lives as we’ve explored
new ideas and applications. We hope that using our textbook will enrich the lives of your
students!

Eugenia Etkina
Gorazd Planinsic
Alan Van Heuvelen

Brief Contents
PART 1 Mechanics
1 Introducing Physics 1
2 Kinematics: Motion in One Dimension 13
3 Newtonian Mechanics 51
4 Applying Newton’s Laws 84
5 Circular Motion 118
6 Impulse and Linear Momentum 147
7 Work and Energy 176
8 Extended Bodies at Rest 217
9 Rotational Motion 251
PART 2 VIBRATIONS AND WAVES
10 Vibrational Motion 284
11 Mechanical Waves 315
PART 3 GASES AND LIQUIDS
12 Gases 352
13 Static Fluids 386
14 Fluids in Motion 415
PART 4 THERMODYNAMICS
15 First Law of Thermodynamics 441
16 Second Law of Thermodynamics 476
PART 5 ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
17 Electric Charge, Force, and Energy 500
18 The Electric Field 535
19 DC Circuits 572
20 Magnetism 616
21 Electromagnetic Induction 649
PART 6 OPTICS
22 Reflection and Refraction 685
23 Mirrors and Lenses 712
24 Wave Optics 751
25 Electromagnetic Waves 784
PART 7 MODERN PHYSICS
26 Special Relativity 813
27 Quantum Optics 847
28 Atomic Physics 880
29 Nuclear Physics 921
30 Particle Physics 957