Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics 10th Edition

Book Preface

In writing this Tenth Edition of Physics for Scientists and Engineers, we continue our ongoing efforts to improve the clarity of presentation and include new pedagogical features that help support the learning and teaching processes. Drawing on positive feedback from users of the Ninth Edition, data gathered from both professors and students who use WebAssign, as well as reviewers’ suggestions, we have refined the text to better meet the needs of students and teachers.

This textbook is intended for a course in introductory physics for students majoring in science or engineering. The entire contents of the book in its extended version could be covered in a three-semester course, but it is possible to use the material in shorter sequences with the omission of selected chapters and sections. The mathematical background of the student taking this course should ideally include one semester of calculus. If that is not possible, the student should be enrolled in a concurrent course in introductory calculus.

The material in this book covers fundamental topics in classical physics and provides an introduction to modern physics. The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 14) deals with the fundamentals of Newtonian mechanics and the physics of fluids; Part 2 (Chapters 15 to 17) covers oscillations, mechanical waves, and sound; Part 3 (Chapters 18 to 21) addresses heat and thermodynamics; Part 4 (Chapters 22 to 33) treats electricity and magnetism; Part 5 (Chapters 34 to 37) covers light and optics; and Part 6 (Chapters 38 to 44) deals with relativity and modern physics.

Objectives

This introductory physics textbook has three main objectives: to provide the student with a clear and logical presentation of the basic concepts and principles of physics, to strengthen an understanding of the concepts and principles through a broad range of interesting real-world applications, and to develop strong problemsolving skills through an effectively organized approach. To meet these objectives, we emphasize well-organized physical arguments and a focused problem-solving strategy. At the same time, we attempt to motivate the student through practical examples that demonstrate the role of physics in other disciplines, including engineering, chemistry, and medicine.

An Integrative Approach to Course Materials

This new edition takes an integrative approach to course material with an optimized, protected, online-only problem experience combined with rich textbook content designed to support an active classroom experience. This new optimized online homework set is built on contextual randomizations and answerdependent student remediation for every problem. With this edition, you’ll have an integrative approach that seamlessly matches curated content to the learning environment for which it was intended—from in-class group problem solving to online homework that utilizes targeted feedback. This approach engages and guides students where they are at—whether they are studying online or with the textbook.

Students often approach an online homework problem by googling to find the right equation or explanation of the relevant concept; however, this approach has eroded the value attributed to online homework as students leave the support of the program for unrelated help elsewhere and encounter imprecise information. Students don’t need to leave WebAssign to get help when they are stuck—each problem has feedback that addresses the misconception or error a student made to reach the wrong answer. Each optimized problem also features comprehensive written solutions, and many have supporting video solutions that go through one contextual variant of the problem one step at a time. Since the optimized problem set is not in print, the content is protected from “solution providers” and will be augmented every year with updates to the targeted feedback based on actual student answers.

Working in tandem with the optimized online homework, the printed textbook has been designed for an active learning experience that supports activities in the classroom as well as after-class practice and review. New content includes Think– Pair–Share activities, context-rich problems, and a greater emphasis on symbolic and conceptual problems. All of the printed textbook’s problems will also be available to assign in WebAssign.

Changes in the Tenth Edition

A large number of changes and improvements were made for the Tenth Edition of this text. Some of the new features are based on our experiences and on current trends in science education. Other changes were incorporated in response to comments and suggestions offered by users of the Ninth Edition and by reviewers of the manuscript. The features listed here represent the major changes in the Tenth Edition.

WebAssign for Physics for Scientists and Engineers
WebAssign is a flexible and fully customizable online instructional solution that puts powerful tools in the hands of instructors, enabling you deploy assignments, instantly assess individual student and class performance, and help your students master the course concepts. With WebAssign’s powerful digital platform and content specific to Physics for Scientists and Engineers, you can tailor your course with a wide range of assignment settings, add your own questions and content, and access student and course analytics and communication tools. WebAssign for Physics for Scientists and Engineers includes the following new features for this edition.

Optimized Problems. Only available online via WebAssign, this problem set combines new assessments with classic problems from Physics for Scientists and Engineers that have been optimized with just-in-time targeted feedback tailored to student responses and full student-focused solutions. Moving these problems so that they are only available online allows instructors to make full use of the capability of WebAssign to provide their students with dynamic assessment content, and reduces the opportunity for students to find online solutions through anti-search-engine optimizations. These problems reduce these opportunities both by making the text of the problem less searchable and by providing immediate assistance to students within the homework platform.

Interactive Video Vignettes (IVV) encourage students to address their alternate conceptions outside of the classroom and can be used for pre-lecture activities in traditional or even workshop physics classrooms. Interactive Video Vignettes include online video analysis and interactive individual tutorials to address learning difficulties identified by PER (Physics Education Research). Within the WebAssign platform there are additional conceptual questions immediately following each IVV in order to evaluate student engagement with the material and reinforce the message around these classic misconceptions. A screen shot from one of the Interactive Video Vignettes appears on the next page: New MCAT-Style Passage Problem Modules. Available only in WebAssign, these 30 brand-new modules are modeled after the new MCAT exam’s “passage problems.” Each module starts with a text passage (often with accompanying photos/figures) followed by 5–6 multiple-choice questions. The passage and the questions are usually not confined to a single chapter, and feedback is available with each question.

New Life Science Problems. The online-only problems set for each chapter in WebAssign features two new life science problems that highlight the relevance of physics principles to those students taking the course who are majoring in one of the life sciences.

New What If? Problem Extensions. The online-only problems set for each chapter in WebAssign contains 6 new What If? extensions to existing problems. What If? extensions extend students’ understanding of physics concepts beyond the simple act of arriving at a numerical result.

Pre-Lecture Explorations combine interactive simulations with conceptual and analytical questions that guide students to a deeper understanding and help promote a robust physical intuition.

An Expanded Offering of All-New Integrated Tutorials. These Integrated Tutorials strengthen students’ problem-solving skills by guiding them through the steps in the book’s problem-solving process, and include meaningful feedback at each step so students can practice the problem-solving process and improve their skills. The feedback also addresses student preconceptions and helps them to catch algebraic and other mathematical errors. Solutions are carried out symbolically as long as possible, with numerical values substituted at the end. This feature promotes conceptual understanding above memorization, helps students understand the effects of changing the values of each variable in the problem, avoids unnecessary repetitive substitution of the same numbers, and eliminates round-off errors.

Increased Number of Fully Worked-Out Problem Solutions. Hundreds of solutions have been newly added to online end-of-chapter problems. Solutions step through problem- solving strategies as they are applied to specific problems.