Physics I: 501 Practice Problems For Dummies

Book Preface

Whether you want some extra practice for your college or high school physics class, you want to refresh your memory about a course you took long ago, or you’re simply curi-ous about the way the universe works, you’ve found the right book. After all, the best way to learn physics is to do physics, and the hundreds of problems in this book give you plenty of opportunity to do physics. You can practice as much as you like and become a pro at figuring out the right way to start out all sorts of problems that you’d expect to see in the first semester of a one-year physics course.
Why doesn’t the moon crash into the earth? How is it possible to sleep on a bed of nails? Why does the water level in your glass stay the same when the ice melts? By working through the many problems in this book, you’ll be better able to explain these and other mysteries of the universe to your friends.

What You’ll Find

The Physics I practice problems in this book are divided into 15 chapters, beginning with foun-dational practice (such as calculating displacement and working with vectors); moving on to forces, energy, and momentum; and wrapping up with thermodynamics. Some of the questions require you to reference a diagram, but that instruction is always clear within the questions.
Chapter 16 contains the solutions to all of the practice problems, as well as detailed explanations that help you understand how to come up with the correct answer. If you get a particular ques-tion wrong, though, don’t just read the answer explanation and move on. Instead, try solving the question again because you know that now you won’t make the same mistake that got you to the original wrong answer in the first place. (After all, sometimes knowing what not to do is a great start in discovering what to do.)
Whatever you do, stay positive. The harder questions in this book aren’t meant to discourage you. Rather, they’re meant to prove to you just how well you can understand the many challeng-ing concepts presented in a typical Physics I class.

How This Workbook Is Organized

This workbook is divided into two main parts: the questions and the answers.

Part 1: The Questions
The questions in this book cover the following topics:

» Math basics: To learn physics, you need to know a little bit of math. (Just a little!) Chapter 1 checks your knowledge of basic algebra, trigonometry, units, and significant digits.
» Kinematics: The basic quantities you use to describe motion are displacement, velocity, and acceleration. In Chapter 2 you practice one-dimensional motion problems. Chapter 3 deals with the two-dimensional case.
» Forces: Newton’s laws relate forces and motion. Chapter 4 has you applying Newton’s laws; Chapter 5 questions you on friction and gravitational force.
» Angular motion: The linear quantities you use to describe motion and forces have angular analogues. Chapter 6 checks your knowledge of angular velocity and angular acceleration. In Chapter 7 you practice solving circular motion problems. Chapter 11 deals with torque, angular momentum, and rotational kinetic energy.
» Energy and momentum: You can discover a lot about the world around you by studying con-served quantities such as energy and momentum. Chapter 9 features work- and energy-related problems; Chapter 10 focuses on momentum and collisions.
» Simple harmonic motion: Periodic motion occurs repeatedly in nature, which is why Chapter 12 has you practice working with springs and pendula.
» Liquids, gases, and thermodynamics: Dealing with macroscopic properties is often easier than keeping track of the motion of each molecule. Chapter 8 focuses on density, pressure, and flow rates of liquids and gases. In Chapter 13 you examine temperature, heat, and heat transfer. Chapter 14 questions you on the ideal gas law, and Chapter 15 gets you applying the laws of thermodynamics to heat engines, heat pumps, and other situations.

Part 2: The Answers
Here’s where you can find detailed answer explanations for every question in this book. Find out how to set up and work through all the problems so that you arrive at the correct solution.