Other Sources of Physics Challenges
Only a very few of the Duke Physics Challenges were invented
by me, most are problems (or variations of problems) that I
have heard or read about. The following are references and
links to similar kinds of problems:
Volumes I and II of Physics for Entertainment by
Yakov Perelman are enjoyable easy-to-read books that discuss
many applications of physics to interesting day-to-day
phenomena in a non-technical way. Volume I is available
for free
download here.
The book Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and
Curiosities by Christopher P. Jargodzki and
Franklin Potter (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2001) is an
excellent collection of about 400 science puzzles, most
of them oriented at the high school and early college
level. (Some of my Physics Challenges assume that you have
taken some of the courses typically taken by an
undergraduate physics major.) The book provides solutions
and references for most of the problems.
At about the same level, the book Thinking Physics:
Questions with Conceptual Explanations by Lewis
C. Epstein and Paul G. Hewitt (Insight Press, San
Francisco, 1981) can be recommended. This book has short
koan-like problems that emphasize conceptual thinking rather
than detailed calculations. These kinds of problems help to
remind people that physics has insights that are distinct
from (and sometimes simpler than) any related mathematics.
An outstanding collection of problems and questions can be found in
the book The Flying
Circus of Physics, 2nd Edition Jearl Walker (Wiley 2006). This
book is particularly good at increasing one's awareness of the world
all around and how scientific problems arise from this
awareness. Readers of this book should be warned that many of the
problems are not physics problems or challenges in the sense that they
can be solved with a moderate amount of thinking or experiment. Many
of the problems are in fact extremely hard and remain unsolved. Still,
nearly every question is interesting and fun to think about. The
author has provided references (many of them technical) for the
problems.
The following are links to sites with similar kinds of
scientific problems and puzzles:
Miscellaneous other good sources of problems not on the Internet are:
- Problems on mechanics in the book An
Introduction to Mechanics by Daniel Kleppner and Robert
J. Kolenkow;
-
Problems on electricity and magnetism, many with solutions, in the
book
Electricity and Magnetism, Third edition by Edward Purcell and
David Morin;.
-
Problems on special relativity in the book Spacetime
Physics by Edwin Taylor and John Wheeler;
-
Many interesting and elementary applications of physics to
biomechanical problems are given in the delightful book
Life's Devices by Steven Vogel.
My
list of web sites related to physics education has many
sites that discuss simple conceptual and experimental
problems and projects.
Back to the Physics Challenges
Department of Physics