Course related links
Applets and Simulations:
Miscellaneous:
- American Physical
Society.
- Approaches to teaching physics
- Coin
shrinking and can crushing, neat and dangerous
things to do with strong currents and magnetic fields.
-
Electricity in Europe, practical information about
using American electrical devices in Europe, where the
voltage is 220 V (rms) at 50 Hz, versus the American
values of 120 V (rms) at 60 Hz. Especially watch out
for electric clocks (which run more slowly in Europe)
and devices using transformers (which can overheat in
Europe, can you understand why?).
- The Eye Design
Book, by Curt Deckert. A nice summary of the great diversity
of eyes found in nature. Deckert created this website to convince
people that the diversity and complexity of eyes imply the
existence of an intelligent designer. Do you agree or can you
find weaknesses in his arguments? How do you think he would
respond to the fact that over half of all human adults need
eyeglasses to see well?
-
Hyperphysics, use of concept maps to understand
connection between various concepts and applications of
physics. For 53/54 students, especially check out the
sublink
Health Related Physics.
-
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics.
-
MCAT, Medical College Admission Test. See especially the
Physics file of topics and skills.
-
Most common errors in undergraduate mathematics.
- Nobel Prizes in Physics.
-
Physics News Update.
- Physics News
Graphics.
- Physics
Source, resources for introductory physics courses.
- PTEC: Physics Teacher
Education, site for improving educatin of future physics
teachers.
- Polarization
- Frizion,
website of art created by photographing polarized light
passing through ice crystals.
-
Polarization.com, many interesting applications and
anecdotes about polarization.
- Science museums:
- Science puzzles and questions:
Pioneers:
Related Texts:
Books that relate physics to medicine or
biology and vice versa
- Animal Eyes by Michael F. Land and Dan-Eric
Nilsson (Oxford University Press, 2002).
- Biological Physics by Philip Nelson
(W. H. Freeman, 2003).
- Biomedical Applications for Introductory
Physics by J. A. Tuszynski and J. M. Dixon (Wiley,
2001).
- Books by Duke author Steven Vogel, for example
Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World
or Life's Devices.
- Intermediate Physics for Medicine and
Biology, third edition by Russell K. Hobbie (American Institute of
Physics, 2001).
Fun Books Related to Physics
- The End of Science: Facing the Limits of
Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age
by John Horgan. Controversial but interesting book
that argues that all the key scientific discoveries
might have been made by now.
- Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape
the Universe by Martin Rees. A short interesting
book by the British Royal Astronomer and a leading
cosmologist, about how certain key physical
properties of nature have values that need to be
extremely finely tuned for any kind of interesting
structure, including life, to occur in the
universe. Why the physical parameters have the
precise values they do remains a deep mystery.
- Out of the Shadows: Contributions of
Twentieth-Century Women to Physics, by Nina Byers
and Gary Williams (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by
Nick Herbert. One of the better books that explains
what quantum mechanics is all about and its strange
implications about reality.
- The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in
Nature by Philip Ball, a non-technical survey of
recent achievements in the interdisciplinary area of
pattern formation.
- Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified by
Richard Wolfson. One of the more accessible
non-technical discussions of Einstein's relativity
theories.
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