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Episodes
- S1 E1 - The Fundamental ScienceSeptember 29, 201131minTake a quick trip from the subatomic to the galactic realm as an introduction to physics, the science that explains physical reality at all scales. Professor Wolfson shows how physics is the fundamental science that underlies all the natural sciences. He also describes phenomena that are still beyond its explanatory power.#Science & MathematicsFree trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E2 - Languages of PhysicsSeptember 30, 201131minUnderstanding physics is as much about language as it is about mathematics. Begin by looking at how ordinary terms, such as theory and uncertainty, have a precise meaning in physics. Learn how fundamental units are defined. Then get a taste of the basic algebra that is used throughout the course.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E3 - Describing MotionSeptember 30, 201128minMotion is everywhere, at all scales. Learn the difference between distance and displacement, and between speed and velocity. Add to these the concept of acceleration, which is the rate of change of velocity, and you are ready to delve deeper into the fundamentals of motion.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E4 - Falling FreelySeptember 30, 201130minUse concepts from the previous lecture to analyze motion when an object is under constant acceleration due to gravity. In principle, the initial conditions in such cases allow the position of the object to be determined for any time in the future, which is the idea behind Isaac Newton's clockwork universe.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E5 - It's a 3-D World!September 30, 201129minAdd the concept of vector to your physics toolbox. Vectors allow you to specify the magnitude and direction of a quantity such as velocity. The vector's direction can be along any axis, allowing analysis of motion in three dimensions. Then use vectors to solve several problems in projectile motion.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E6 - Going in CirclesSeptember 30, 201130minCircular motion is accelerated motion, even if the speed is constant, because the direction, and hence the velocity, is changing. Analyze cases of uniform and non-uniform circular motion. Then close with a problem challenging you to pull out of a dive in a jet plane without blacking out or crashing.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E7 - Causes of MotionSeptember 30, 201130minFor most people, the hardest part of learning physics is to stop thinking like Aristotle, who believed that force causes motion. It doesn't. Force causes change in motion. Learn how Galileo's realization of this principle, and Newton's later formulation of his three laws of motion, launched classical physics.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E8 - Using Newton's Laws: 1-D motionSeptember 30, 201132minInvestigate Newton's second law, which relates force, mass, and acceleration. Focus on gravity, which results in a force, called weight, that's proportional to an object's mass. Then take a ride in an elevator to see how your measured weight changes due to acceleration during ascent and descent.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E9 - Action and ReactionSeptember 30, 201130minAccording to Newton's third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Professor Wolfson has a clearer way of expressing this much-misunderstood phrase. Also, see several demonstrations of action and reaction, and learn about frictional forces through examples such as antilock brakes.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E10 - Newton's Laws in 2 and 3 DimensionsSeptember 30, 201130minConsider Newton's laws in cases of two and three dimensions. For example, how fast does a rollercoaster have to travel at the top of a loop to keep passengers from falling out? Is there a force pushing passengers up as the coaster reaches the top of its arc? The answer may surprise you.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E11 - Work and EnergySeptember 30, 201131minSee how the precise definition of work leads to the concept of energy. Then explore how some forces give back the work done against them. These conservative forces lead to the concept of stored potential energy, which can be converted to kinetic energy. From here, develop the important idea of conservation of energy.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E12 - Using Energy ConservationSeptember 30, 201130minA dramatic demonstration with a bowling ball pendulum shows how conservation of energy is a principle you can depend on. Next, solve problems in complicated motion using conservation of energy as a shortcut. Close by drawing the distinction between energy and power, which are often confused.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E13 - GravitySeptember 30, 201130minNewton realized that the same force that makes an apple fall to the ground also keeps the moon in its orbit around Earth. Explore this force, called gravity, by focusing on circular orbits. End by analyzing why an orbiting spacecraft has to decrease its kinetic energy in order to speed up.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E14 - Systems of ParticlesSeptember 30, 201130minHow do you analyze a complex system in motion? One special point in the system, called the center of mass, reduces the problem to its simplest form. Also learn how a system's momentum is unchanged unless external forces act on it. Then apply the conservation of momentum principle to analyze inelastic and elastic collisions.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E15 - Rotational MotionSeptember 30, 201133minTurn your attention to rotational motion. Rotational analogs of acceleration, force, and mass obey a law related to Newton's second law. This leads to the concept of angular momentum and the all-important -conservation of angular momentum, which explains some surprising and seemingly counterintuitive phenomena involving rotating objects.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E16 - Keeping StillSeptember 30, 201130minWhat's the safest angle to lean a ladder against a wall to keep the ladder from slipping and falling? This is a problem in static equilibrium, which is the state in which no net force or torque (rotational force) is acting. Explore this condition and develop tools for determining whether equilibrium is stable or unstable.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E17 - Back and Forth: Oscillatory MotionSeptember 30, 201132minStart a new section in which you apply Newtonian mechanics to more complex motions. In this lecture, study oscillations, a universal phenomenon in systems displaced from equilibrium. A special case is simple harmonic motion, exhibited by springs, pendulums, and even molecules.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E18 - Making WavesSeptember 30, 201128minInvestigate waves, which transport energy but not matter. When two waves coexist at the same point, they interfere, resulting in useful and surprising applications. Also examine the Doppler effect, and see what happens when an object moves through a medium faster than the wave speed in that medium.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E19 - Fluid Statics: The Tip of the IcebergSeptember 30, 201130minFluid is matter in a liquid or gaseous state. In this lecture, study the characteristics of fluids at rest. Learn why water pressure increases with depth, and air pressure decreases with height. Greater pressure with depth causes buoyancy, which applies to balloons as well as boats and icebergs.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E20 - Fluid DynamicsSeptember 30, 201131minExplore fluids in motion. Energy conservation requires low pressure where fluid velocity is high, and vice versa. This relation between pressure and velocity results in many practical and sometimes counterintuitive phenomena, collectively called the Bernoulli effect: explaining why baseballs curve and how airplane speedometers work.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E21 - Heat and TemperatureSeptember 30, 201129minBeginning a new section, learn that heat is a flow of energy driven by a temperature difference. Temperature can be measured with various techniques but is most usefully quantified on the Kelvin scale. Investigate heat capacity and specific heat, and solve problems in heating a house and cooling a nuclear reactor.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E22 - Heat TransferSeptember 30, 201131minAnalyze heat flow, which involves three important heat-transfer mechanisms: conduction, which results from direct molecular contact; convection, involving the bulk motion of a fluid; and radiation, which transfers energy by electromagnetic waves. Study examples of heat flow in buildings and in the sun's interior.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E23 - Matter and HeatSeptember 30, 201130minHeat flow into a substance usually raises its temperature. But it can have other effects, including thermal expansion and changes between solid, liquid, and gaseous forms: collectively called phase changes. Investigate these phenomena, starting with an experiment in which Professor Wolfson pours liquid nitrogen onto a balloon filled with air.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E24 - The Ideal GasSeptember 30, 201131minDelve into the deep link between thermodynamics, which looks at heat on the macroscopic scale, and statistical mechanics, which views it on the molecular level. Your starting point is the ideal gas law, which approximates the behavior of many gases, showing how temperature, pressure, and volume are connected by a simple formula.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E25 - Heat and WorkSeptember 30, 201131minThe first law of thermodynamics relates the internal energy of a system to the exchange of heat and mechanical work. Focus on isothermal (constant temperature) and adiabatic (no heat flow) processes, and see how they apply to diesel engines and the atmosphere.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
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- Audio languages
- English
- Subtitles
- English [CC]
- Producers
- The Great Courses
- Cast
- Richard Wolfson
- Studio
- The Great Courses
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