Unit 4 Physics Resources

[Lasercookie]

This is going to appear to be a mess of links here. This is a list of some of the resources I've been using to further refine my understanding of the theory in Unit 4. Obviously theory is pretty significant in Unit 4, so definitely worth reading, watching and thinking about it as much as you can. Obviously not all of you will have the time to sit through and consume all this stuff, so I've bolded the resources that I think are the most useful. I strongly urge you to at least take a look at those.

Textbooks:
Nelson Physics
Heinemann
Jacaranda

General resources:
http://hscphysics.googlepages.com/HSC_Phys_Notes.pdf (HSC)
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/
http://webs.mn.catholic.edu.au/physics/emery
http://www.vicphysics.org/practical-investigations.html- Some interesting documents in there
http://www.khanacademy.org/#physics
http://physics.info/ - Seems to be unfinished, but what is there is decent.

Irrelevant:
http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1420.html (definitely worth reading, explains Maxwell's equations without delving deep into mathematics)
http://www.sixtysymbols.com/ - Mostly irrelevant, but pretty interesting

http://www.ibphysicshelp.net/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/ibphysicshelp - The guy demonstrates a prac and then explains it quite thoroughly.

Now these open university courses are the ultimate resource. A lot of the first year stuff relates directly to what we're learning. Course/Lecture notes are great; usually easy to understand as well. Video lectures are usually pretty good, though you don't want to waste your time listening to some lecturer bang on about something completely irrelevant, so I'd choose the ones you watch carefully (as they do run for like 90 minutes each). Electricity, magnetism and optics is usually covered in a first year class called Physics II. Sound usually ties in with mechanics, which is usually covered in a course called Physics I.

Uni Level Physics:
Feynman Lecture's on Physics - It's fascinating reading and explains elegantly (but really easy to get distracted and end up learning about something completely irrelevant). Go to the library and borrow it, universities libraries will definitely have it, download a pdf version or something. You will be seriously depriving yourself if you don't at least flick through this book at least once.

http://www.youtube.com/education?category=University/Science/Physics - Videos aren't named very well, but good stuff
https://oyc.yale.edu/NODE/211 - I like the design of this website, content is pretty similar to Unit 4 as well
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#physics (good mix of courses, some have a lot of practical stuff to watch, some have a lot of video lectures and some have excellent problem questions and course notes)
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02x-physics-ii-electricity-magnetism-with-an-experimental-focus-spring-2005/lecture-notes/

I'm planning on writing up some course notes detailing everything I've learnt so far pretty soon as well. If they turn out to be any decent, I'll upload them onto AN.

[b^3]

Nice list, I was having a look at these earlier and I used some of them as research for one of my physics sacs. Had to make a "poster" (what kind of a sac is that) on motors and generators.

[Lasercookie]

Nice list, I was having a look at these earlier and I used some of them as research for one of my physics sacs. Had to make a "poster" (what kind of a sac is that) on motors and generators.

Pretty sure that's a presentation sac. I've also got a poster sac for motors and generators.

[jhubeJELLO]

Thank you so much!

[Lasercookie]

I just found out about this book, it's called Conceptual Physics and is written by Paul G. Hewitt.

Google Books

It seems pretty interesting, doesn't really use maths that much and instead focuses purely on the theory aspects. The writing style is really informal (which can be a disadvantage). It looks like it'll be a good supplement and an interesting read. It seems to be for first year introductory physics, but it's really easy to understand from what I've read so far (so for the overlapping topics, it will go a bit beyond our level, but not that much). I'll probably give it a good read soon (it has a chapter on Sound, Light and E&M). The exercise questions are theory/explain type questions as well. It would be good practice for theory questions, trial exam theory questions are nearly always dull and pedantic.

Melbourne University has a few copies of various editions, it would be worth going there and taking a look at this book. There is a High School version as well, don't know what that covers. I wouldn't be surprised if other libraries have copies of it. You could also "borrow" it from the internet.

edit: After reading some of the chapters, it does explain physics nice and simply and focuses on concepts. The review questions are really basic, but the exercise questions are pretty good. I didn't realise this at first, but it's quite obvious it's for people with no physics background. However, it does go beyond our course (covers A LOT of stuff that we don't, e.g. it does go into general relativity and other uni physics topics) and provide light on a few topics that the VCE textbooks don't explain that well. So yeah, I think it's a good reference to get an initial understanding of the theory (pretty important for Unit 4), and would be worth borrowing for like a week and reading through it. Personally, I wouldn't waste money on it (unless it was like under $5). Don't expect too much depth, the explanations are on-par with the level our VCE textbooks explain it (but with a coherent writing style).

[Lasercookie]

I linked to this on another thread, but this is a good source for more challenging and well-written questions: http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/physics/. You can select the topic (covers most of VCE Physics and more) and I tend to go straight to the 'exam questions', but the 'practice questions' aren't all that bad either. You could find most of the stuff through the regular MIT OCW course page, but I guess this filters out some of the more irrelevant stuff quicker.

YouTube: What is up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency, and Pitch) [by Vi Hart] - This is a fairly entertaining video. It discusses sound, providing insight on frequency, pitch, timbre, standing waves and a rough explanation of how the ear works.

While on the topic of sound, I think this video is more than enough to justify how interesting the topic can be (well specifically standing waves and resonance): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI

[Lasercookie]

Some stuff on de Broglie and the Nobel Prize

Video footage of the ceremony: http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1038
Speech about de Broglie: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1929/press.html

A well-known Swedish poem has as its opening words "My life is a wave". The poet could also have expressed his thought by the words: "I am a wave". Had he done so, his words would have contained a premonition of man's present deepest understanding of the nature of matter.

de Broglie's Nobel lecture: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1929/broglie-lecture.pdf
(very interesting reading)