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Generally Important Stuff
All of Dowd's Online Classes at Flickr
Helpful if you want more about a topic not in your course.
Tracker
This is video analysis software that's free and open source. Works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX
Doane College Physics Library
Use these in tracker if your video won't load. Please cite which video you use
Using a spreadsheet:
The great 1992 B-list horror movie "Starting with Safety" by the American Chemical Society.
Physical Science Study Committee Films (PSSC)
This curriculum development project produced some of the greatest physics movies ever. We'll watch most of these in class, but if you're ever interested in seeing them for yourself, here they are. There are apparently dozens of films, but I've only found online copies of four surviving ones in English. Many appear to be availible in Italian. I've included a link to one of these below, because the Cavendish experiment is reproduced and it's worth seeing how to do it. Either watch it in the Italian or just mute it.
Here's a 1958 Popular Science article explaining the series:
Frames of Reference:
This video is probably the most important thing to watch to understand how all motion is relative, and how it appears really depends on how we watch it. An absolute classic
Force (le Forze):
Unfortunately, only availible dubbed in Italian currently. This one is taught by Jerrold Zacharias, the founder of the whole PSSC project. This is worth your time watching because of the Cavendish experiment, where he shows us how to figure out the value of the gravitational force.
Coulomb's Law:
This film probably seems the most dated of the set- the professor teaching it is an old school 1960s professor and may seem a little boring. Be careful. This is a gem, and if you follow his reasoning, you'll understand almost everything you need to know about how charges distribute in conductors and influence each other.
A Magnet Laboratory:
This is the most essential of the set. The rules for how currents create magnetic fields are difficult to study in the classroom, as they need gianormous currents to make themselves known. This uses the MIT magnet lab and a couple of mad scientists to actually show how magnetism works. It's the clearest presentation I've ever seen and they literally light the lab on fire by the end.
Periodic Motion:
A really nice introduction to the relationship between force and displacement in simple harmonic motion. Brought to you by Drs. Ivey and Hume of Frames of Reference Fame:
Laws of Motion
Newton's Principia
1729 English Translation from the Latin by Andrew Motte. This is the book in which the 3 Laws originally appeared
Newton's A Treatise of the System of the World.
This is the book with Newton's Cannonball in it
A really cool applet that lets you play with Newton's Cannonball
Momentum
Bat and Ball
This link is about the forces that a bat and a ball experience on them during impact
Energy
Energy Information Agency Map of Connecticut
Energy Information Agency Map of Oklahoma
This link shows every power plant, oil refinery, transmission line, and development potential in the states I have taught in.
Fuel Economy of a Car
This link shows where the energy in your gasoline (chemical potential energy) goes
Planetary Motion
My Solar System Demo
Kola Superdeep Bore Hole
Geostationary Orbit
(really cool animated gif files here)
Star cycle for stars massive enough to form a black hole:
Electrostatics&Electricity
Electric Field Hockey
Wimshurst Machine Description
Hawkins Electrical Guide
The above is the Google e-book edition of the 1917 Hawkins Electrical Guide. It should bring you to page 25, where it explains how the Wimshurst machine works. If you're interested, study this carefully and it will make sense. The Hawkins Electrical Guide is also a fun read generally... you'll notice very clear explanations of somethings, but other things you'll realize that you know more! (since you had the benefit of living 100 years after it was published)
Franklin's bells (from scitoys.com)
Do NOT hook these to a lightning rod!!!!!
Oxford Bell
(Ringing since 1840)
St Andrew's University Description of Voltage in a circuit:
Battery-Resistor Circuit
DC Circuit Construction
Bats on a wire shorting out an Air Force base in Japan
Snakes can short out power lines too
Good description of how a battery works
Consumer Product Safety Commission Description of a GFCI:
Reader's Digest article on currents adding in a parallel circuit
(this really helps you understand parallel circuits- a wonderful resource)
Simple motor (from scitoys.com)
How christmas lights can burn out and not take the entire strand with them
Energizer Learning Center
This site is published by the Everready Battery Co, and has some good animations of how batteries work. It also has descriptions of how you can do some of the great experiments of physics using household materials (Oersted's Law, for example!)
Magnetism
Force on a moving charged particle
Earth's Magnetic Field Link 1
NASA Website on the modern understanding
Earth's Magnetic Field Link 2
1950s Popular Science Article
Faraday's Law Lab (Coil in a magnetic field, Oersted's Law, Generator, Transformer)
Waves and optics
Definiton of different waves:
Waves on a String Simulation:
The best two source interference simulation!!
From Hong Kong
Doppler Effect Demo
Two source interference Simulation:
Tacoma Narrows Bridge:
One of the craziest videos you'll ever see. This really happened!
What actually happened on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Breaking a glass with sound
Virtual Optics Lab (Ray Diagrams for mirrors and lenses)
Total Internal Reflection Examples:
Underwater:
Laser in Acrylic
Bare Fibre Optic
Fibre Optic with Coupler
Rene Descartes's sketch of why primary and secondary rainbows exist.
Ray A from the sun makes the primary, and Ray F makes the secondary
Triple and Quadruple Rainbows Exist!
Thin Film Refection
Explanation
Animation
Reflection vs. refraction (Teleprompters, Pepper's Ghost, Tupac Shakur at Coachella 2012, Horror Shows, Birds Hitting Windows)
Read these in order if you're interested Wikipedia Explanation of a one-way mirror:
Explanation of why birds fly into windows
Wikipedia Explanation of Teleprompter
Reporter using a Teleprompter
LBJ signing Civil Rights Act on TV using a Teleprompter
Wikipedia Explanation of the Pepper's Ghost Trick
New York Times Op-Ed on Tupac Shakur's appearance at Coachella.
Contains a useful image to visualize how Pepper's Ghost was traditionally done
ABC Video of Tupac Shakur at Coachella 2012
Modern Physics
Blackbody Radiation
(why stuff glows when it gets hot)
Photoelectric effect
(what Einstein won his Nobel prize for)
Bohr Energy Level Demonstrator
Nuclear Physics
A is for Atom video
This 1952 video produced by General Electric is very informative in understanding the basics of how nuclear power works. If you don't fully understand what a nuclear reaction is, this is a good place to start
Balancing Chemical Equations Help
Balancing Chemical Equations Game
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(c) 2008-2019 Timothy M Dowd. Last Modified @ 18:06 EDT on 2022-08-28
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