PHYSICS BSC206

Learning Physics is Important to More Jobs than You Might realize

Physics is the foundation for any job that involves light, sound, movement, energy, or any gas, liquid or solid material. When you understand physics, you have a starting point for much of the work that is done in construction, manufacturing, horticulture, agriculture, transport, mining, engineering, photography, communications, information technology, and many other industries.

Physics is critical for many insustries; from engineering and construction to chemistry and computer science.

Do You Work or Want to work in any of the following?

  • construction
  • manufacturing
  • transport
  • communications
  • horticulture or agriculture
  • mining
  • engineering
  • mechanics
  • photography
  • information technology

    If you do, and are lacking a solid understanding of physics; this course is something that can help you!

In the world of physics, almost every concept, discovery or theory has originated from some form of observation. When you make an observation, you would generally want to use some measurements to be able to describe your observation. There are various components and variables to be measured in the world of physics, the most important ones are time measurement, length measurement, weight measurement, speed measurement, etc.

If you are able to obtain accurate measurements for the elements in your observation, you should then be able to model your observation. This means that you can build a model to represent your observation, and be able to use this model to display the elements that you observed and their interaction with each other. And finally, if you study your model carefully enough and if you manage to understand how the different components interact with each other, you might be able to predict how it will behave in a future point in time. You should normally base the predictions on mathematical calculations, as well as laws and theories of physics.

 

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Review of Basic Algebra
• Introduction
• Equations and formulae
• Variables
• Quadratic equations
• Graphing
• Geometry
• Triangles
• Basic formulae
• Quadrilaterals
• Angles and radians
• Logarithms and exponentials
• Trigonometry

2. Introduction: Scope and Nature of Physics
• Observing, measuring, modeling, predicting
• Units of measurement
• Converting between units
• Precision of measurements and identifying significant digits

3. Forces and Mechanics • Physics and motion
• Displacement
• Speed and velocity
• Acceleration
• Force
• Force of gravity
• Work
• Power
• Energy

4. Waves
• What are waves
• Properties of waves: longitudinal waves, transverse waves
• Wave terminology
• Relationship of frequency or period
• Wave speed
• Electromagnetic radiation and waves
• Sound waves
• Sound spectrum
• Measuring sound
• Speed of sound
• Doppler effect
• Standing waves and resonance

5. Electricity and Magnetism
• Electrostatics
• Conductors and insulators
• How to make an electroscope
• Coulomb's law
• The electric field
• Electricity and electric circuits
• Current
• Voltage
• Resistance
• Power
• Ohm's law
• Circuits: series, parallel
• Magnets
• Magnetic forces
• Ferromagnetism
• Creating magnets
• Earth's magnetic fiels
• Geomagnetic reversal
• Electromagnetism
• Electromagnetism and solenoids
• Electric motors
• Magnetic force
• Right hand rule
• Inductors
• Lenz's law

6. Energy and Work
• What is energy
• Mechanical energy
• Potential energy
• Kinetic energy
• Conservation of total energy and mechanical energy
• Converting kinetic energy into potential energy
• Work and force
• Conservative and non conservative forces
• Conservation of mass energy

7. Fundamentals of Thermodynamics
• Temperature measurement units
• Fahrenheit
• Celsius
• Kelvin
• Converting between units
• What is heat
• Heat transfers: thermal equilibrium
• Thermal expansion and thermal contraction

8. Light and Optics
• What is light
• Reflection
• Refraction
• Demonstration of refraction
• Index of refraction
• Difraction
• The electromagnetic spectrum
• How a rainbow forms
• What are mirrors
• Flat mirrors
• Convex mirrors
• Concave mirrors
• Lenses
• Converging lenses
• Diverging lenses

9. Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity
• Structure of matter
• The periodic table
• What is radioactivity
• Alpha radiation
• Beta radiation
• Gamma radiation
• Radioactivity applications
• Nuclear medicine -diagnostic and therapy
• Radioactive tracers in agriculture
• Food irradiation
• Archeological and geological dating
• Radiocarbon dating
• Half life
• Power generation
• Radiation effects and injuries
• Cancer and burns caused by radiation

10. Astronomy, Cosmology and Astrophysics
• What is astronomy
• The pioneers of astronomy
• The branches of astronomy
• Sub fields of astronomy
• Astronomy in our daily life
• The most important discoveries in astronomy
• What is Cosmology
• How did cosmology evolve
• Hubbles law
• Cosmological principle
• Calculate the age of the universe using the Hubble constant
• What is astrophysics

Course Duration -100 hours

Maths is an Important Starting Point

Much of physics is about explaining physical phenomena and being able to create predictive mathematical models or theories to explain why things occur as they do and be able to predict future results in a reliable manner.

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What are Waves?

Simply put waves are a form of energy travelling from one place to another; for example think of the sun, it is very far away yet its light and heat reaches earth, think of hitting a snare drum; the sound travels to your ears. These are only two examples of waves but there are many more.

Unfortunately sound waves and radio waves can’t really be seen, this makes them hard to describe, however one can visualize how waves behave when dropping a stone into water. The first image shows what happens when the stone is dropped the second image shows how the waves respond to this drop. 

When the water is disturbed by the stone, energy emits from the disturbance. This transmission of energy is known as a wave. It is important to note that the water does not actually move from one side to the other, only its energy is moved. Imagine a slinky that is held in place, if you disturb the slinky the pieces of metal links don’t actually move across the slinky, rather they oscillate.

Waves usually need a medium to travel through; in the example above you will notice, water is the medium. When hitting a snare drum, air is the medium for the sound waves. However, this is not true in all cases, as Electro Magnetic Waves (such as X-rays, infrared, radio waves and light waves) can travel through the vacuum of space. (e.g. the Suns light and heat)

ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION and WAVES

The electromagnetic spectrum is a representation band of all electromagnetic radiation, arranged based on their wavelength and frequencies. The spectrum starts with radio waves which have the lowest frequency, all the way up to gamma rays which have the highest frequency. We are not able to see all the waves on the electromagnetic spectrum; in fact, only a small portion of the waves represented on the spectrum can be seen by humans. This band is called “the visible light spectrum” and it includes white light