Table of Contents

Introduction 1 Part 1: Putting Physics into Motion 5 CHAPTER 1: Using Physics to Understand Your World 7 CHAPTER 2: Reviewing Physics Measurement and Math Fundamentals 15 CHAPTER 3: Exploring the Need for Speed 27 CHAPTER 4: Following Directions: Motion in Two Dimensions 51 Part 2: May the Forces of Physics Be with You 77 CHAPTER 5: When Push Comes to Shove: Force 79 CHAPTER 6: Getting Down with Gravity, Inclined Planes, and Friction 99 CHAPTER 7: Circling around Rotational Motion and Orbits 117 CHAPTER 8: Go with the Flow: Looking at Pressure in Fluids 139 Part 3: Manifesting the Energy to Work 163 CHAPTER 9: Getting Some Work Out of Physics 165 CHAPTER 10: Putting Objects in Motion: Momentum and Impulse 189 CHAPTER 11: Winding Up with Angular Kinetics 209 CHAPTER 12: Round and Round with Rotational Dynamics 235 CHAPTER 13: Springs 'n' Things: Simple Harmonic Motion 253 Part 4: Laying Down the Laws of Thermodynamics 271 CHAPTER 14: Turning Up the Heat with Thermodynamics 273 CHAPTER 15: Here, Take My Coat: How Heat Is Transferred 289 CHAPTER 16: In the Best of All Possible Worlds: The Ideal Gas Law 305 CHAPTER 17: Heat and Work: The Laws of Thermodynamics 317 Part 5: The Part of Tens 347 CHAPTER 18: Ten Physics Heroes 349 CHAPTER 19: Ten Wild Physics Theories 355 Glossary 363 Index 367

About the Author

Steven Holzner, PhD, was a contributing editor at PC Magazine and was on the faculty of both MIT and Cornell University. He wrote Physics II For Dummies, Physics Essentials For Dummies, and Quantum Physics For Dummies.