PHY101 ORACLE

3. PHY101 (3 Units): MECHANICS

 Measurement of Physical Quantities
 Vectors
 Kinematics
 Projectile Motion
 Dynamics
 Work , Energy and Power
 Uniform Circular Motion

1. Physical Quantities

Name physical quantities that you know: mass, time, speed, weight, energy, power, ...
Scientists can even make up a completely new physical quantity that has not been known if
necessary. However, there is a set of limited number of physical quantities of fundamental
importance from which all other possible quantities can be derived. Those fundamental
quantities are called Base Physical Quantities, and obviously the other derivatives are
called Derived Physical Quantities. SI is built upon 7 base quantities and their associated
units (see Table I).

TABLE I: SI Base Quantities and Units

Property Symbol Unit Dimension
Length L meter (m) L
Mass m kilogram (kg) M
Time t second (s) T
Temperature T kelvin (K) θ
Electric Current I ampere (A) I
Amount of Substance N mole (N) 1
Luminous Intensity F candela (cd) J

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 TABLE II: SI Examples of Derived Quantities and Their Units
Property Symbol Unit Dimension
Force F newton (N) kg·m·s−2 = kg·m·/s2
Speed v meter per second (m/s) m·s−1 = m/s
Pressure P pascal (Pa) (force per unit area) kg·m−1·s−2
Energy E joule (J) kg·m2·s−2
Power W watt (W) (energy per unit time) kg·m2·s−3

A physical quantity can be expressed with a unique combination of 7 base quanti-

ties. One can also make a physical quantity with a combination of derived quantities.
But it will be eventually reduced to a combination of base quantities. For exam-
ple, Kinetic Energy (E) is a type of energy represented in joule (J) and is a derived
quantity through 12 mv2 i.e. (1/2)(mass)x(speed)x(speed). Since speed is a derived
quantity itself: (speed) = (length)/(time), one can express energy using base quantities:
(1/2)(mass)x(length)2/(time)2. Note that the base quantities are in bold. Some of the
important derived physical quantities are listed in Table II.

2. Conversion of Units

Below is the table for commonly used unit conversion. It is also useful to know metric
prefixes (Table IV). Let us do a couple of examples of unit conversion.

TABLE III: Unit Conversion of Base Quantities

Quantity From To Operation
Length inch (in) m (inch) × 0.0254
foot (ft) m (foot) × 0.3048
mile (mi) m (mile) × 1609.34
Mass pound (lb) kg (pound) × 0.4536
metric ton (t) kg (ton) × 1000
ounce kg (ounce) × 0.02835
Volume liter (l) m3
(liter) × 0.001
gallon (ga) m 3
(gallon) × 0.00379
Temperature Fahrenheit ( F) K {(fahrenheit) − 32} × 5
9
+ 273.15 celcius (C) K (celcius) + 273.15

Examples
1. Length 0.02 in can be converted into SI unit in meters using Table I:
(0.02in) ×
0.0254 = 0.000508 m. Too many zeros below decimal points here. Since
0.000508 = 0.508 ×10−3 = 508 10 ×−6, it is also 0.503 mm (millimeter) or 508 µm
(micrometer).
2. Honda Fit weighs about 2,500 lb. It is equivalent to 2500lb × 0.4536 = 1134.0kg.

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 TABLE IV: Metric Prefix
Prefix Name Prefix Symbol Base 10 Decimal English Word
peta P 1,000,000,000,000,000 1015 quadrillion
tera T 1,000,000,000,000 1012 trillion
9
giga G 1,000,000,000 10 billion
mega T 1,000,000 106 million
kilo k 1,000 103 thousand
1
deca da 10 10 ten
1 one
centi c 0.01 10−2 hundredth
−3
milli m 0.001 10 thousandth
−6
micro µ 0.000,001 10 millionth
−9
nano n 0.000,000,001 10 billionth
pico p 0.000,000,000,001 10−12 trillionth
femto f 0.000,000,000,000,001 10−15 quadrillionth

Let us look into a derived quantity. Julia is driving her Honda Fit on I-75 at 70 mph
(miles per hour). Any moving object carries a physical quantity called kinetic energy;
you will soon learn about this. The kinetic energy is given by 12 mv2. So if you use the
conventional units, it will give 0.5 × 2500 × 70× 70 lb(mph)2. This quantity of energy needs
to be expressed in SI units in this class. So convert the mass into kg and the speed mph
into m/s (meter per second).
Step 1 Convert mass. It is already done in the above example m = 1134 kg.
·
Step 2 Convert speed. v = 70 mile/hr = 70 (1609.34 m)/(3600 s) = 70 1609.34/3600 =
31.29 m/s.
Step 3 Carry out the calculation using the quantities in SI. (kinetic energy) = 21 mv2 =
0.5 ·1134 (31.29)
· 2
= 555, 129.3 kg m · 2s−2. This is equivalent to 555,129.3 J (joule) (see
Table I).

Q1 The length scale in astronomy is much larger than what we are used to. So scientist
uses a different length unit called light-year (ly) which is the distance that light travels for
one year (speed of light is 3×108 m/s). One of the nearest star from the solar system is
about 4.2 ly away. Express 4.2 ly in km.
Answer: about 4 × 10+13 km.

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. It is 8.6 ly away from Earth. When you look
at Sirius on a clear night, light from the star was emitted 8.6 years ago and traveled at the
speed of light for 8.6 years to reach your eyes.

4. Weight and mass, they are not the same quantities in physics!

Measure your weight on a scale. Suppose that the scale reads 120 lb. Let’s investigate this
little further. Table I says pound is a conventional unit for a base quantity, mass. So your
scale measures your mass 120 lb = 54.43 kg. However, if you bring your scale to the moon
and measure your weight, it will give you 19.9 lb = 9.03 kg about 1/6 of the quantity on
Earth. Has your mass changed? Mass is the total amount of material or atoms–everything
is composed of atoms–in an object. Ignoring the possible weight loss during the space travel,
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the amount of substance in your body should not change. What happened?
When you step on a scale, you apply a force on the top of the scale. The force that you
are applying is due to gravitational pull (proportional to mass) of you by the earth. This
force will press down the top of your scale and the scale measures internally the force you
applied on the surface. The gravitational pull is weaker on the moon than on Earth. That
is why the scale reads 1/6 of the reading on Earth. The scale is calibrated (designed to be
used on Earth) to show you the mass equivalent to the force detected on Earth. Weight is
the force due to gravitational pull. So it should be expressed in unit of newton (N) not in
kg!
Note: When a quantity A is proportional to a quantity B, it means mathematically
A = c B· where c is a constant (fixed) number. Knowing the value of c, the knowledge of
one quantity immediately produce the value of the other quantity. Conversely, if you know
both A and B, then you can calculate c =BA .

It took a long time through Galileo and Newton to figure out the force of gravitational
pull is proportional to mass; F = gm. The proportional constant g is called gravitational
acceleration on Earth (g = 9.8 m/s2). The gravitational acceleration on the moon is
1.6 m/s2 which is about 1/6 of the Earth value. You can directly measure g in many ways,
which we will do in our laboratory session.

5. The Length Scale of the Universe

Length is one of the fundamental base quantities. We are very familiar with length:
height, distance of travel, size of a cell phone, ... You will be surprised to know what range
of length physicists are dealing with. Visit http://scaleofuniverse.com/ and survey the full
range of length in physics: from the shortest side, ”Planck length” approximately 10 −35 m
to the longest, the size of universe about 10 27 m. The size of the largest virus is about
10−6 m, the size of atom is about 10 −10 m, and the radius of Earth is about 6 × 106 m.
You may think the numbers are outrageously small or large. But physicists have a quite
good idea how to understand phenomena occurring in these outrageous length scales:
quantum physics describes phenomena in very small length scale such as subatomic world
and astrophysics for, as you imagine, astronomical phenomena such as expansion of universe.

Q2 What are the physical entities in the femtometer (fm) range? What is the typical size
of galaxies? You can get the answers from the web, http://scaleofuniverse.com/.

Q3 How many years would it take light to traverse a typical galaxy (light-year)? How long
would it take to pass through an atom in seconds?

6. How cold it can get?

On a day of winter storm, the temperature in Antarctica can reach -100 F. This is
much colder than your freezer. Then what is the lowest temperature one can get? Deep in
space far far away from the sun, is that the coldest spot in the universe? Is -1,000,000 F
possible? If you convert Fahrenheit into kelvin using the formula in Table III, -100 F is
equivalent to 199.82 K. One reason that physicists use kelvin scale rather than Celcius or
Fahrenheit is directly related to the question posed above. The lowest temperature allowed
in physics–therefore, one can reach– is zero kelvin, 0 K. One can not reach negative kelvin
temperature, very convenient! And we call this absolute zero. Then what is the temperature
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of deep space? Surprisingly it is not absolute zero. Physicists know the average temperature
of deep space with very high accuracy, about 2.73 K now. It used to be hotter than now
and will get colder in the future.

FIG. 1: Diagram of evolution of the universe from the Big Bang. From wikipedia, modified from
the original NASA/WMAP.

The current understanding of the universe is that it started from a point in which all
matter and energy are contained. At this stage, it is unimaginably hot. The universe started
to expand and accordingly cooled down very rapidly. Around 10 −43 s after the Big Bang,
the universe cooled down to 10 32 K (I know it is still unimaginably high temperature!).
Within about 1 s, the universe cooled to 109 K, and reached to the current temperature,
2.73 K after about 14 billion years after the Big Bang.

”... while the sources of heat were obvious the sun, the crackle of a fire, the life force of
animals and human beings cold was a mystery without an obvious source, a chill associated
with death, inexplicable, too fearsome to investigate.”

Absolute Zero and Conquest of Cold

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 Current technology can reach around 10 −9 K (nanokelvin). It is 0.000,000,001 K above
absolute zero. You can think of absolute zero like the speed of light in the sense that it is a
barrier nature does not allow to go beyond and one can only reach as close as possible. As the
temperature lowers close to absolute zero, nature reveals fascinating character, quantum nature
which is so different from what we experience. Remember that when the length scale gets shorter
in subatomic level, quantum physics is needed. If you lower temperature low enough, the
quantum nature appears even in a macroscopic length scale.

Units, Physical Quantities, Dimensions

1. PHYSICS is a science of measurement. The things which are measured are

called physical quantities which are defined by the describing how they are to
be measured. There are three fundamental quantities in mechanics:
Length
Mass
Time
All other physical quantities combinations of these three basic quantities.

2. All physical quantities MUST have units attached to them. The standard
system of units is called the SI (Systeme Internationale), or equivalently, the
METRIC system. This system uses
Length in Meters (m)
Mass in Kilograms (kg)
Time in Seconds (s)
With these abbreviations for the fundamental quantities, one can also be saidto be using
the MKS system.

3. An example of a derived physical quantity is Density which is the mass per

unit volume:
Mass Mass
Density ≡ =
Volume (Length)·(Length)·(Length)

4. Physics uses a lot of formulas and equation. A very powerful tool

in working out physics problems with these formulas and equations is
Dimensional Analysis. The left side of a formula or equation must have
the same dimensions as the right side in terms of the fundamental quantities of
mass, length and time.
5. A very important skill to acquire is the art of guesstimation, approximating
the answer to a problem. Related to that is an appreciation of sizes. Is the
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answer to a problem orders of magnitude too big or too small.
 The Standards of Length, Mass, and Time
The three fundamental physical quantities are length, mass, and time.

MASS
The standard mass of 1 Kilogram (kg) is defined as the mass of a platinum– iridium alloy
cylinder (3.9 cm diameter, 3.9 cm height) kept at the International Bureau of Weights and
Measures at Sevres, France.
All countries have duplicates, or secondary standards kept at their own domestic
bureaus of standards. Finally, there are tertiary standards which are available
in all scientific laboratories.
TIME
The standard unit of time, 1 Second (s), used to be defined in terms of the time it took for
the earth to rotate about its axis. Since the earth’s rotation is now known to be slowing
down, that is hardly a good standard. Instead the standard second is defined in terms of
the vibrations of the cesium–133 atom. Specifically
1 Second ≡ 9,192,631,770 vibrations
In fact this a very a useful definition since any laboratory can set up a cesium
clock and calibrate its time measuring equipment.

LENGTH
Formerly, like the mass definition, the definition of the unit length used to bein terms of a
platinum–iridium bar kept in France. Later that was changed in terms of the wavelength of the
orange–red light emitted from a krypton–86 lamp. Most recently, the unit of length, the meter
(m), has been defined in terms of the distance traveled by light:
299 1 458 seconds
1 Meter ≡ Distance traveled by light in vacuum during
,792,
In principle, all the units except mass, can defined worldwide without reference
to any particular object.

The abbreviations of the fundamental quantities of length, mass, and time are mks. All other
quantities, we will see, are combinations or derivations from these fundamental quantities.
You must ALWAYS use units in your answers.

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 Powers of Ten in the SI Units
A decided advantage of the SI or mks system, compared to the British system (inches, slugs,
etc.), is the use of powers of ten. In addition to the fundamental units (meter, kilogram,
second) one can use prefixes to these units when that is more convenient. Some of these
prefixes are given on pages 5–6, and you should memorize these. A more extended set of
prefixes are is shown in the table below, taken from page A8 in Appendix F which as the
complete set from 10−24 to 10+24.

Power of 10 Prefix Abbreviation

10−18 atto a
10−15 femto f
10−12 pico p
10−9 nano n
10−6 micro µ
10−3 milli m
10−2 centi c
10−1 deci d
103 kilo k
106 mega M
109 giga G
1012 tera T
1015 peta P
1018 exa E

Note the capitalization of the mega–, tera–, peta–, and exa– prefixes, while all the other
prefixes, including all those with negative powers of ten, have lower case abbreviations.
Typically, for derived units coming from a person’s names such as volt (V) from Volta, or
newton (N) from Issac Newton, these too willhave capital letters in their abbreviations.
You should be familiar with GBytes, meaning 1 billion1 bytes, as a unit of memory or disk
space on a personal computer. It should not be too long before we see these quantities quoted
in units of TBytes. In the high energy nuclear experiments where I work, we quote our data
outputs in units of PBytes, whichis pronounced as peta-Bytes.

Derived Quantity: Density

Besides the fundamental quantities of length, mass, and time, there are also many (many) so–
called derived quantities which can be always be expressed in terms of the fundamental
quantities. One will also be seeing derived quantities defined in terms of other derived
quantities, but ultimately everything can be expressed as combinations of length mass and
time. For now we look at examplesof such quantities.

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Density
Density is the mass of an object divided by its volume. If the object is composed entirely of one
substance, such as iron or gold or water or nitrogen, then the density will be the same
throughout the object. Density is usually given the Greek symbol ρ (“rho”)
mass m
ρ= = (1a)
volume V
A short table of densities of various substances is given on page 457. By knowing the density of
a substance and the volume of the substance one can find the mass of the substance according
to:
m = ρV (1b)

For example what is the mass of a solid cube of aluminum with a volume of
cm3 ? First realize that aluminum has a density of 2.7 gm/cm3, and then
usethe formula (1b) above
g
m = ρV = 2.7 · 0.2(cm)3 = 0.54 gm
(cm)3
Finally, one can compute the number atoms N in the above cube by knowingthat in one
mole of a substance there are Avogadro’s number of atoms:
1 Mole ≡ Molecular Weight in Grams Avogadro’s
Number (NA) ≡ 6.02 x 1023 atoms
For aluminum 1 Mole = 27 grams, so:
NA N NA · 0.54 gm
= =⇒ N = = 1.2 x 1022 atoms
27 gm 0.54 gm 27 gm
You should look carefully in the above equations to see how the units in the
denominator and the numerator tend to cancel out such that you get the correct
units in the final answer. We will explore this topic more in the following page.

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 Dimensional Analysis
It is important that you realize that all formulas and equations must be dimen- sionally correct.
That is the left side must contain the same dimensions as the right side. Also, if you add two
quantities in a formula, they must have the same basic dimensions.
For example we will look at the equation for distance traveled given an initial speed and a

constant acceleration. First we have to be told that speed is defined as distance traveled
divided by the time it took to travel that distance:
distance
v≡ =⇒ meters/second =⇒ LT −1
time
Here L and T are the dimensions length and time which are treated as algebraic quantities.
Next, we have to be told that acceleration is defined as the change in speeddivided by
the time it took for that change to occur:

∆v
a≡ =⇒ meters/(second)2 =⇒ LT −2
∆t
Now the formula for the distance traveled x(t) with an initial speed v0 and aconstant
acceleration a:

1
x(t) = x0 + v0 · t + a · t2 (2)
2
Dimensional Analysis of this equation

1 −2 2
L = L + (LT −1) · T + (LT ) · T
2
L=L
So both sides of the equation are in terms of Length.

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 Dimensional Analysis Counter-Example
Contrast the correct Equation 2 with the following incorrect expression

x(t) = at

Dimensional Analysis of this equation

L = (?) (LT −2) · T

L /= LT −1
Units Conversion
Often you will be given a problem in one set of units, but in order to find the answer you
must change to another set of units. For example, change the density of water from
grams/cubic centimeter into kilograms/cubic meter

g
ρwater = 1
(cm)3
10−3kg
ρwater =
(10−2m)3
10−3kg
ρwater =
(10−6m3)
kg
ρwater = 10+3
m3
One cubic centimeter of water contains one gram,

but

one cubic meter of water contains 1,000 kilograms!

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 CHAPTER 1: VECTORS

Direction of vector
Adding/Subtracting Vectors using Graphical
Method

• Parallel vectors can be added arithmetically

4N

6N 4N

2N

2N
2N
Adding Vectors using Graphical Method
• Non-parallel vectors are added by graphicalmeans
using the parallelogram law
– Vectors can be represented graphically by arrows

5.0 cm  20.0 N
Direction = right

– The length of the arrow represents the magnitude of thevector

– The direction of the arrow represents the direction of the
vector

– The magnitude and direction of the resultant vector can be found using an accurate scale
drawing
• Vector problem must be solved vectorically
unlike scalar quantity.
• E.g. 3 N + 4 N = 5 N

5N
4N

3N

Addition using drawing method

• The parallelogram law of vector addition states that if two vectors
acting at a point are represented by the sides of a parallelogram
drawn from that point, their resultant is represented by the diagonal
which passes throughthat point of the parallelogram
Coplanar vectors
• When 3 or more vectors need to be added, the same principles apply,
provided the vectors areall on the same plane i.e. coplanar
• To subtract 2 vectors, reverse the direction i.e.change the
sign of the vector to be subtracted, and add
Change in a Vector
Case 1

• If an object changes it's direction but not speed, then

velocity vector will only change its direction but not
magnitude.
Case 2

• If an object changes it's direction and also speed, vectorwill

change its direction as well as magnitude. So the change in
the vector would be final minus initial.
Components of a Vector
• Any vector directed in two dimensions can be thought of as
having an influence in two different directions. That is, it can
be thought of as having two parts. Each part of avector is
known as a component.

• 2N + 4N = 6N (2N and 4N are the components of 6N)

• The components of a vector depict the influence of that vector in a given

direction. The combined influence of the two components is equivalent to
the influence of thesingle vector. The single vector could be replaced by the
two components.
Components of a Vector
• Any vector can be thought of as having twodifferent
components. The component of asingle vector describes the
influence of that vector in a given direction.

• 3N +4N = 7N (3N and 4N are the components of 7N)

Resolution of vectors
• Resolving vectors into two perpendicular components

 A vector can be broken down into components, which are perpendicular to each other, so
that the vector sum ofthese two components, is equal to the original vector.

Splitting a vector into two components is

called resolving the vector. It is the reverse of using Pythagoras' theorem to add two perpendicular vectors,
and so adding the two components will give you the original vector.
Resolution of vectors
• Resolving vectors into two perpendicular components

• Resolving a vector requires some simple trigonometry. In the

diagram, the vector to be resolved is the force, F for angle A;

 the horizontal component of F :

 the vertical component of F :

Note that the two components do not have to be horizontal and

vertical. The angle can be changed to any required direction, andboth
components will still be perpendicular to each other
Resolution of vectors
• Resolving vectors into two perpendicular components
 In short…

• Vectors addition and

subtraction can be
performed using diagram
method or the resolve and
recombine method
Most physical quantities are either Scalars or Vectors

A scalar is a physical quantity which can be specified by just giving the mag-nitude only,
in appropriate units.

Examples of scalars are mass, time, length, speed.

Scalar quantities may be added by the normal rules of mathematicsA very

important class of physical quantity is Vectors.

A vector is characterized by specifying both a magnitude (in the proper units)

AND a direction.

Examples of vector quantities are force, velocity, momentum.

Vector quantities are added together by a special rule of vector addition.

There are two methods of doing vector addition:
1) Graphical addition (triangle, parallelogram, or polygon methods)
2) Analytic method — addition of the vector components
a) first: resolve the vectors into
2 their X and Y components
1 Y components separately
b) second: add the vector X and
c) third: use the Pythagorean theorem to form the resultant vector
The displacement vector is the vector which characterizes the change in
po sition of a particle.
There are two ways of multiplying two vectors:
1) The scalar or dot product generates a scalar s ≡ A
→ ·B
→ of magnitude
ABcos θAB

2) The vector or cross product generates a vector C→ ≡

→ ×B
A → whose magni-
tude C = ABsin θAB and whose direction is by the
right-hand rule.

2
2
 Vectors and Scalars

Some quantities in physics such as mass, length, or time are called scalars. A quantity is
a scalar if it obeys the ordinary mathematical rules of addition and subtraction. All that is
required to specify these quantities is a magnitude expressed in an appropriate units.
A very important class of physical quantities are specified not only by their magnitudes, but

also by their directions. Perhaps the most important of these quantities is FORCE. Consider a
heavy trunk on a smooth (almost slippery) floor, weighing say 100 pounds. You want to move
the trunk but you are only able to lift 50 pounds.

What do you do?

A vector must always be specified by giving its magnitude and direction. In

turn the vector’s direction must be given with respect to some known direction such as the
horizontal or the vertical direction, or perhaps with respect to some pre–defined “X” axis.

The specification of the magnitude and direction does not have to be direct or explicit. The
specification can be indirect or implicit by giving the “X” and “Y” components of the vector,
and it is up to you to use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the actual magnitude and
direction.
(Do you remember your trigonometry?)

1) What is a right triangle ? How many degrees are there in a triangle ?

2) What are the definitions of sine, cosine, and tangent ?

3) What is the Pythagorean theorem ?

4) What is the law of sines ?

5) What is the law of cosines ?

6) What is a radian ?

Vector Addition by Graphical MeansDepiction of

Vectors

A vector is represented by an arrow (a line with an arrowhead).

The length of the line is in some proportion to the magnitude of the vector.
The orientation of the line reflects the direction of the vector
2
How do I know that this is a vector
3 and not just another arrow?
Answer: If it’s a vector, it must add like a vector
In order to add, I must have another vector. With two vectors, I can add themtogether to
form a RESULTANT.

→
Two vectors, A → , can be added graphically by the simple triangle rule:
and B
Place the tail of the second vector at the head of the first vector, and then draw a line from
the tail of the first vector to the head of the second vector. That line, both in magnitude
and direction is the sum (Resultant) of the two original vectors.

→ =A
R → +B
→

If there are more than two vectors to be added, say → +B

A → +C
→ +D
→ , then the
triangle rule is simply extended to the polygon rule. Just keep placing the tail of the next vector
at the head of the preceding vector. The resultant is represented by a line from the tail of the
first vector to the head of the last vector.

→ =A
R → +B
→ +C
→ +D
→
Properties of Vector Addition
→ +B
1) Vector addition is commutative: A → =B
→ +A
→
→ + (B
2) Vector addition is associative: A → +C
→ ) = (A
→ +B
→) + C
→

2
4
 → . This produces a vector twice as large as the
A scalar may multiply a vector e.g. 2A
original vector, and in the same direction as the original vector. On the
other hand −0.5A → produces a vector half the size of the original vector, and in
the opposite direction to the original vector’s direction.

Analytic Addition of Vectors using Vector Components

The graphical addition of vectors is not terribly convenient, especially if a nu- merical solution
is required. Much more often you will have to add vectors analytically. By that is meant that
you first resolve the vectors into their per- pendicular components, then add the components
by ordinary mathematics, and finally reconstitute the resultant with trigonometry and the
Pythagorean theorem.

Resolving a vector into its perpendicular components.

Say that you are given a vector →A oriented at an angle θ with respect to the x
(horizontal) axis. This original vector may be resolved into two perpendicular
components, A → x and A →y which replace A→.
In other words, the original vector no longer exists, and one has two mutually
perpendicular vectors in its place.

The magnitudes of the two component vectors are given by:

Ax = A cos θ
Ay = A sin θ

The directions of the two component vectors are given by two unit vectors, →i
and →j along the x and y directions respectively:

→ x = Ax→i
A
→y = Ax→j
A

Clearly the above process can be run backwards. One can obtain back the
→
original vector A by using trigonometry:

q
For the magnitude use the Pythagorean theorem: A = A2x + A2y. For the
direction use the right triangle trigonometry definitions: tan θ = Ay/Ax =⇒ θ =
2
tan−1 Ay/Ax 5
 Analytic Addition of Vectors using Vector Components

The graphical addition of vectors is not terribly convenient, especially if a nu- merical solution
is required. Much more often you will have to add vectors analytically. By that is meant that
you first resolve the vectors into their per- pendicular components, then add the components
by ordinary mathematics, and finally reconstitute the resultant with trigonometry and the
Pythagorean theorem.

→ , now take another vector B

Instead of one vector A →
→
Let’s say A is at an angle α, and →B is at an angle β
The vector sum of A→ →
and B is denoted by R →

→ =A
R → +B
→

This can be solved component–by–component

Rx = Ax + Bx
Ry = Ay + By

→ . First the magnitude

Now solve for R

r q
R= Rx2 + Ry2 = (Ax + Bx )2 + (Ay + By )2

→ which we symbolize as γ
And now the direction of R
Ry (Ay + By)
γ = tan−1 = tan−1
Rx (Ax + Bx)

2
6
 Analytic Addition of Vectors using Vector Components

The graphical addition of vectors is not terribly convenient, especially if a nu- merical solution
is required. Much more often you will have to add vectors analytically. By that is meant that
you first resolve the vectors into their per- pendicular components, then add the components
by ordinary mathematics, and finally reconstitute the resultant with trigonometry and the
Pythagorean theorem.

TABLE FORM OF ANALYTIC ADDITION

Vector Angle Magn. of x component Magn. of y component

→
A α A cos α A sin α
→
B β B cos β B sin β
−1 Ry
→
R γ = tan Rx Rx = A cos α + B cos β Ry = A sin α + B sin β

Worked Example
A hiker walks 25 km due southeast (=45o) the − first day, and 40 km at60o north of east.
What is her total displacement for the two days?

Arrange the problem in the table above with →A being the first day’s displacement
and B→ being the second day’s displacement:

Vector Angle Magn. of x component Magn. of y component

(km) (o) (km) (km)
A = 25 −45 A cos (−45) = A sin (−45) =
B = 40 +60 B cos (+60) = B sin (+60) =
R= γ = tan−1 RRxy = Rx = Ry =

2
7
 Analytic Addition of Vector Components

Worked Example
You are given a displacement of 20 km to the West, and a second displacementat 10 km
to the North. What is the sum of the two displacements?

Vector Angle Magn. of x component Magn. of y component

(km) (o) (km) (km)
Vector Angle Magn. of x component Magn. of y component
(km) (o) (km) (km)
A = 20 +180 A cos (+180) = A sin (+180) =
B = 10 +90 B cos (+90) = B sin (+90) =
R= γ = tan−1 RRxy = Rx = Ry =

1
symbol SI measurement units symbol unit dimensions

2
 symbol SI measurement units symbol unit dimensions

distance d meter m m
mass m kilogram kg kg
time t second s s
electric charge* Q coulomb C C
temperature T Kelvin K K
amount of substance n mole mol mol
luminous intensity I candela cd cd
acceleration a meter per second squared m/s2 m/s2
area A square meter m2 m2
capacitance C farad F C2.s2/kg. m2
concentration [C] molar M mol/dm3
density D kilogram per cubic meter kg/m3 kg/m3
electric current I ampere A C/s
electric field intensity E newton per coulomb N/C kg.m/C .s2
electric resistance R ohm kg.m2/C2.s
emf volt V kg.m2/C.s2
energy E joule J kg.m2/s2
force F newton N kg.m/s2
frequency f hertz Hz s-1
heat Q joule J kg.m2/s2
illumination E lux (lumen per square meter) lx cd/m2
inductance L henry H kg.m2/C2
magnetic flux weber Wb kg.m2/C.s
potential difference V volt V kg.m2/C.s2
power P watt W kg.m2/s3
pressure p pascal (newton per square meter) Pa kg/m.s2
velocity v meter per second m/s m/s
volume V cubic meter m3 m3
work W joule J kg.m2/s2

1. * The official SI quantity is electrical current, and the base unit is the ampere.
Electrical current is the

3
 Kinematics
Most of the physical quantities are scalars or vectors.
Scalars are just numbers (mass, temperature, pressure, electric charge, speed, etc.)
Vectors are mathematical objects that can be envisioned as arrows having a direction and a
length (magnitude). Examples of vectors: Position vector in 3D space, displacement, velocity,
acceleration, force, electric and magnetic fields, etc. Vectors are denoted as symbols with
arrows in handwriting, such as 𝑟⃗ , and as bold symbols in print, such as r.
Vectors in 3D can be represented via their components (x,y,z) in a coordinate system of three
mutually perpendicular axes. If the object is in the plane (as we are on the surface of the Earth),
then the coordinate system has only two axes and there are only two components of a vector:
(x,y). These correspond to geographical latitude and longitude or to the set of two GPS
coordinates.

Displacement d of an object is defined as a vector that goes from the object’s initial position ri to
its final position rf. Of course, not only the amount (length or magnitude) of the displacement is
important, but also its direction. This is why vectors are so important.

Distance d is a scalar equal to the magnitude of the displacement d from one position to the
other.
An object (or a body, a person, a material point, etc.) can move from the initial to the final
position along a trajectory that is not necessarily straight. The length of the trajectory will be
denoted as L. As the straight line is the shortest way, the length of the trajectory cannot be
smaller than the distance, d  L.

4
An object (or a system of objects) is static if its position (positions) does (do) not depend on
time. Ifthere is a time dependence, we speak of kinematics or, more generally, of dynamics.
Important quantities are velocity and speed.
Average velocity is defined as the displacement divided by the time interval of the motion,
r𝑓 − r𝑖 d
v= = .
𝑡 𝑡
This formula is familiar to everybody but one should understand that the velocity is a vector
and it alsodescribes the direction of the motion. The magnitude of the velocity is just distance
over time, v = d/t.
Average speed is the trajectory length divided by the time interval of the motion,
𝐿
𝑠= .
𝑡
Since d  L, the speed is no less than the magnitude of the velocity, v  s.
Velocity and speed may change over time. In this case, it is convenient to speak of the
instantaneous velocity and speed. They are defined in the same way, only the time interval should
be made very short.
Acceleration is defined as the change of the velocity divided by the time interval:
v𝑓 − v𝑖
a= .
𝑡
Acceleration is a vector. Acceleration arises if the velocity changes its magnitude, its direction, or
both. Ifa car is accelerating from the rest, the direction of the acceleration is the same as the
direction of the velocity. If a car is braking, the acceleration is directed opposite to the velocity.
In this case, one can speak of deceleration. If an object is moving along a circular trajectory with
a constant speed, the velocity still changes its direction with time. Thus, there is an acceleration.
This acceleration is called centripetal acceleration (ac) and it is directed toward the center of the
circle.

Physicists use the international system of units called SI (French Système International). The

5
basic units of mechanics are meter (m), second (s), and kilogram (kg). The etalons of meter and
kilogram are kept in Paris. The main principle of the SI is its decimal character: everything goes by
powers of 10. For instance,

1 km = 1000 m, 1 cm = 0.01 m, 1 mm = 0.001 m, etc. Using this system of units is much easier
than that of the archaic systems.
All other units are derivatives of the basic units and they can be figured out from the definitions
of the physical quantities. For instance, velocity and speed are defined as distance-over-time,
thus their unit is m/s. Similarly, the unit of the acceleration is m/s2.

1. Newtonian dynamics and gravity

The main law of mechanics is Newton’s second law that states that forces applied to the object
cause its acceleration. The formula reads Force = Mass x Acceleration or, in the algebraic form,
F = 𝑚a.

As the acceleration, the force is a vector. The mass of the body m is a scalar so that the directions
of the force and the acceleration coincide. In Newton’s law, the force F stands for the sum of all
forces acting on the body. From the formula above, it follows that the unit of force is kg m/s 2.
This unit has a special name, newton, that is, N = kg m/s2. Newton is a derivative, not a basic,
unit.
If the force is zero, the acceleration is also zero, so that the object is not accelerating and its
velocity does not change (is a constant). This particular case constitutes Newton’s first law.

The third Newton’s law is an auxiliary law saying that when two bodies interact exerting forces
on each other these forces are opposite vectors of the same magnitude.
One of the most important forces is the gravity force that everyone feels. The gravity force is
directed down and its magnitude is given by
𝐹𝐺 = 𝑚𝑔.

Here g is the free-fall acceleration, g = 9.8 m/s2. The weight of the body is defined as the
magnitude ofthe gravity force acting on it and is measured in newtons. In the everyday
language weight and mass mean the same.
The formula above is just a special case of the attractive gravity force acting between two
bodies ofmasses M and m that also was established by Newton:
𝑀𝑚
𝐹𝐺 = 𝐺 .
𝑅2
Here G is the gravitation constant and R is the distance between the two bodies. Comparing the
2
twoformulas, one can identify g = GM/R
E , where
E R is now the radius or the Earth, 6400 km.
Centripetal acceleration is given by ac = v2/R, thus there has to be a force Fc = mac. The role of
the centripetal force is played by such physical forces as the tension of the cord, friction
6
between the road and car’s tires, as well as the gravity force in the planetary mechanics.
Another example of the force is the elastic force, that is, the force needed to deform an elastic
object. As the simplest case, the force needed to compress or expand a spring is given by the
Hooke’s law
𝐹 = 𝑘𝑥,

Where k is the so-called spring constant and x is the change of the spring’s length.

1. Energy
Energy has become a major concept in physics well after Newton in the course of the industrial
progress that introduced machines doing useful work. It was found that the energy, that can be
understood as the stored work or ability to do work, is conserved in all physical processes,
including functioning of machines and life. Work is defined as Work = Force x Displacement, that
is
𝑊 = 𝐹𝑑.
It should be stressed, that the work depends on the relative directions of the vectors F and d.
For instance, if these vectors are perpendicular, the work is zero. In particular, centripetal forces
are not doing work. If the force and the displacement are opposite, the work is negative. The
unit of the work is N m = kg m2/s2. It has a special name joule (J), that is, J = N m = kg m2/s2. As
the energy is defined by work, its unit is the same, J.
Power is defined as work done per unit of
time, 𝑊
𝑃= .
𝑡

The unit of power is watt, W = J/s = kg

m2/s3.
There are several other special units of work and energy, such as kilowatt-hour, kWh, calorie,
etc. The unit kWh is usually used in measuring the generated and consumed electrical energy, 1
kWh = 3600 kJ =3.6 x 106 J.
Calorie is used to describe thermal processes, as well as the energy contained in food. Initially,
calorie was defined as an amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of 1 g water by
one degree Celsius. However, the heat is just a form of energy transferred between the objects
by non-mechanical (thermal) way. Joule has established the relation between the units as 1 cal =
4.184 J in his famous experiment. Kilocalorie (kcal, Cal) is used in many cases instead of the
calorie. The food calorie is, in fact, the kilocalorie. Another relation is 1 kWh = 860 Cal.
The law of conservation of energy does not preclude transforming the energy into forms that
cannot be used. From the practical perspective, this energy gets lost. This always happens if the
friction forces areacting. For instance, work done on wiping a blackboard or a window is
7
converted into the internal energy of these objects, that is, into the energy of their disorderly
moving atoms and molecules. This microscopic motion defines the temperature of these bodies
that slightly increases in the process. One can confirm this picture experimentally by just
rubbing hands. This is an example of conversion of mechanical work into a non-mechanical form
of energy.
Mechanical energy is just one form of energy. There are two kinds of mechanical energy: kinetic
energy and potential energy. Kinetic energy is the energy of the motion and is defined by
𝑚𝑣2
𝐸𝑘 = .
2

8
For a system of bodies, their kinetic energies add up. Potential energy is related to the object’s
position. There are so many types of potential energy Ep as there are different forces. However,
there is no potential energy corresponding to the friction force. The gravitational energy of
bodies near the Earth’s surface is given by
𝐸𝐺 = 𝑚𝑔ℎ,

where h is the height above the chosen reference level. The potential energy of attracting
celestialbodies is
𝑀
𝐸𝐺 = −𝐺 𝑚
.
𝑅
The potential energy of a deformed spring is given
by
𝑘𝑥2
𝐸𝑝 = .
2
If there are no friction forces, the total mechanical energy is conserved: Ek + Ep = const. In the
presenceof weak friction forces, the total mechanical energy is slowly decreasing, and finally,
the system is reaching the state with zero kinetic energy and minimal potential energy. Note
that the total energy including the internal energy of other objects is always conserved.
Other forms of energy are thermal energy, the energy of the electromagnetic field (photons),
chemical energy (including the energy stored in batteries, in food, and in the muscles), nuclear
energy, etc.
Machines spend energy to produce useful work W. However, some part of the spent energy is
wasted. The energy balance looks like
𝐸𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 𝑊 + 𝐸𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑.

One can introduce the energy efficiency as the ratio of the useful work to the total energy spent:
𝑊 𝐸𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 − 𝐸𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑
𝜂= = .
𝐸𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐸𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡

All machines have h < 1, although the efficiency is increasing with the progress in the engineering.

2. Density, pressure, flow

Above we considered objects as point masses, that is a good approximation in many cases. In
other cases, one needs to take into account the distribution of masses in space. An obvious
example is a water in the sea. If the mass is distributed, then the force acting on this mass is
distributed, too.
In this section, we consider solids, liquids, and gases. Solids retain their shape. Liquids
retain their volume but not shape, taking the shape of their container. Gases retain neither
shape nor volume,taking the volume of their container. Liquids and gases are called fluids.

9
Distribution of the mass in space is described by the density  (Greek rho)
𝑚
𝜌= .
𝑉

Here m is the total mass of the body and V is its volume. Of course, this formula defines the
average density. To obtain the density at a given point, one has to consider a very small volume
V around this point. Solids and liquids are practically incompressible and they have the same
density everywhere. To the contrary, gases are compressible, and their density can change from
point to point. For instance, the density of the air in the atmosphere is decreasing with the
altitude.
The density of the water is 1000 kg/m3 or 1 g/cm3. The latter uses another system of units, CGS,
in which basic units are centimeter, gram, and second. This system of units is most popular in
physics but it is ceding its terrain to SI. The density of the air at normal conditions is about 1
kg/m3, much smaller than water. Gold has the highest density of metals, 19.3 g/cm3. Uranium is
only a little bit lighter, 19.1 g/cm3. It is used in missiles to increase their mechanical impact on
the armor. Aluminum is a light metal having the density 2.7 g/cm3.

In the case of distributed forces, it is convenient to introduce pressure as the perpendicular

force per unit area of the surface,
𝑃= .
𝐴
The unit of pressure is N/m2 that has the special name pascal: 1 Pa = 1 N/m2. Here A is the area
to which the force F is applied. Pressure is denoted by the same symbol P as the power above
but this should notlead to a confusion. If the force is applied to a very small area (which is the
case with sharp objects), pressure can become very high and the surface can be destroyed (cut,
pierced).
Within a liquid, pressure increases with the depth h because of the gravity. Any area inside the
liquid feels the force from the column of the liquid above it. As the result, pressure in the liquid
is given by

10
 𝐹
𝑃 = 𝜌𝑔ℎ + 𝑃0,
where P0 is the atmospheric pressure. In fact, atmospheric pressure also arises from the
column of theair above us. However, it is difficult to calculate because of the density of the air
changes with the height. At normal conditions, atmospheric pressure is 105 Pa = 1 atm.
If the gravity can be neglected than the pressure everywhere in the liquid is the same. This is
the Pascalprinciple.
If an object is submerged in a liquid, it experiences pressure from all directions. Since the
pressure around the bottom of the body is higher than the pressure at its top, there is a net
force directed upward, the so-called buoyant force. Archimedes’ law states that the buoyant
force Fb is equal to theweight of the liquid displaced by the object, that is,
𝐹𝑏 = 𝑚𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑔 = 𝜌𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑔𝑉.

The apparent weight of the submerged object is its actual weight (gravity force acting on
it) minus buoyant force, that is

𝐹𝐺,𝑎𝑝𝑝 = 𝐹𝐺 − 𝐹𝑏 = (𝜌 − 𝜌𝑙𝑖𝑞)𝑔𝑉.

If the object is lighter than the liquid, the apparent weight according to this formula is
negative. Physically this means that the object will be moving upward instead of drowning
until it reaches the surface of the liquid. There it comes to the stationary state of floating.
Above we considered the part of physics studying liquids at rest, hydrostatics. Hydrodynamics
studying the motion of liquids is much more complicated and requires such mathematical tool as
calculus. In fact, hydrodynamics includes gases in its part called aerodynamics. The specific of
gases is their compressibility, as mentioned above. Here we will talk about only a couple of basic
notions of hydrodynamics.
The motion of a liquid is stationary if the velocity of the liquid at any point does not depend on
time. An example is a water flowing in a pipe or in a quiet river. Waves in the sea is an example
of a nonstationary motion.
The flow of a liquid can be laminar (smooth) or turbulent. Laminar motion is characterized by smooth lines
of the stream. If a droplet of an ink is put into a laminar flow, it will travel along the stream line (this is a
method of visualizing stream lines). In a turbulent flow, the velocity of the liquid chaotically changes in
time and space. A droplet of ink put into a turbulent flow will quickly mix with the surrounding liquid
because different parts of this droplet will be pulled in different directions. As the result, the ink droplet
disappears and it becomes impossible to follow stream lines that simply do notexist in this case.
Turbulence usually occurs when the speed of the flow increases that leads to its instabilities

11
.
An important basic property of any flow is its continuity, a consequence of the conservation of
matter. Ifwe consider some volume within a flowing fluid, the change of the mass in this volume
is equal to the amount of mass entering through its surfaces. Liquids are incompressible, thus
the amount of mass in any given volume is a constant. This means that the total amount of mass
entering this volume is zero. The implication is that if some amount of mass enters the volume
from one side, the same amount has to exit from the other side. For instance, the amount of
liquid going through any cross-section A of a pipe during a unit of time is constant:
𝑣𝐴 = const or 𝑣1𝐴1 = 𝑣2𝐴2.
This form of the continuity equation means that if the pipe becomes narrower, the speed
increases. Everyone who was watering a garden using a garden hose knows this: making the
exit from the hose narrow, one can increase the speed of the water jet to make it travel a
longer distance in the air.
Another very important law is Bernoulli's law (a form of the energy conservation law) that
states that along stream lines (or along a pipe) pressure, height, and the fluid’s speed satisfy
the relation
𝜌𝑣2
𝑃 + 𝜌𝑔ℎ + = const.
2
Here h is the height (not the depth, as above). For the liquid at rest, v = 0, one recovers the
hydrostaticresult that pressure decreases with the height (and increases with the depth). The
most interesting implication of Bernoulli's law is the relation between the speed of the liquid
and pressure. If the speed increases, as it happens if the pipe narrows, pressure decreases. This
may seem to be counter-intuitiveto the people who have an intuition. However, it can be
qualitatively explained using the Newtonian

dynamics. When a portion of the fluid enters the constriction, it accelerates according to the
continuity equation above. This means that the forces acting on its back are stronger than those
acting on its front,that is, that the pressure behind this portion of the fluid is greater than the
pressure before it. Thus the pressure in the wide part of the pipe is greater than the pressure in
the constriction.
Bernoulli's law has one great application: aviation. The cross-section of the airplane’s wing is
more bulged at the top than at the bottom. This effectively creates a kind of constriction for
the air flowing above the wing. According to Bernoulli's law, the pressure above the wing
becomes lower than that below the wing, and a lifting force arises, overcoming the weight of
the plane. This happens if the
plane’s speed is high enough.

12
The even more important implication of Bernoulli's law is that it is working in voice bands
producing speech via instability of the air flow through them. In the absence of speech,
human brain could be unable to develop, discover Bernoulli's law, and build airplanes.

3. Temperature, gases, thermodynamics

In this part of physics, thermal phenomena are considered. In the name thermodynamics,
“dynamics” is somewhat misleading, as is the case with lots of physical terminology. The real
subject is not motion but rather transformation between different forms of energy into each
other and work done in different processes. In particular, thermodynamics explains how heat
machines such as refrigerators are working.
The central concepts of thermodynamics are internal energy, temperature, and heat.

Above, for a physical object as a whole, the kinetic and potential energies were introduced.
Kinetic energy is related to the motion of the object as the whole (mv2/2) and potential energy
is related to theobject’s position (e.g., mgh). It was stressed that if friction forces are present,
kinetic and potential energy transforms into the energy of chaotically moving atoms and
molecules of the body. This is also a kinetic energy, however, unseen by the eye and not related
to the motion of the object as the whole.
This internal kinetic energy is a part of the body’s internal energy and defines its temperature.
Another part of the internal energy is the potential energy of interaction between atoms and
molecules inside the body, including the energy of chemical bonds. This energy resembles the
energy of the spring considered above. Thus, the internal energy is also a sum of kinetic and
potential energies but it is microscopic, unlike the macroscopic energies of the body as a whole.
Internal potential energy is important in solids and gases since here atoms and molecules are
close to each other so that the forces of attraction and repulsion are strong. Uncompressed
gases, such as the airat normal condition, are rarified so that the molecules are far away from
each other and do not interact. Such gases are referred to as ideal gases. In ideal gases, there is
only kinetic internal energy. The average kinetic energy per molecule is directly related to the
temperature T in degrees of Kelvin (in kelvins or in K) as
𝑚𝑣2 3
〈 〉 = 𝑘𝐵𝑇.
2 2
Here kB is the Boltzmann constant, the transformation factor between kelvins and joules: kB =
1.3810-23 J/K.

13
The Kelvin temperature scale (used in physics and part of SI) is related to the Celsius scale as T =
T(C) +
273.15. For instance, 0C (melting of ice) corresponds to 273 K while 100C (boiling of water)
corresponds to 373 K. The so-called normal conditions correspond to the temperature 300 K and
the pressure 1 atm. This temperature corresponds to 300-273 = 27C. Kelvin temperature scale
is fundamental because the temperature becomes zero when the thermal motion of atoms and
molecules freezes out completely. This is called the absolute zero of the temperature, in Celsius -
273 degrees.
The Fahrenheit temperature scale used in the USA is related to the Celsius scale as
9
𝑇(F) = 5 𝑇(C) + 32, 𝑇(C) = (𝑇(F) − 32).

5
9
In the Fahrenheit scale, the absolute zero is -460 degrees, while the normal temperature is 81
degrees.
Ideal gases obey the equation of state that relates pressure, volume, and the temperature as
a simple law
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑁𝑘𝐵𝑇.
Here N is the number of molecules in the container of the volume V. We have seen that the
temperature is proportional to the kinetic energy of the molecules flying around. These
molecules exert a mechanical impact on the walls of the container as they rebound from the
walls. Since the number of molecules in the gas is huge (N = 2.41022 in one liter at normal
conditions!) impacts of individual molecules merge into a constant pressure on the walls. The
equation of state of the ideal gas clearly shows the absolute zero as such temperature at which
pressure or volume of the gas turns to zero. For instance, one can plot dependences P(T) at
different constant volumes that are all straight lines with different slopes. All these lines cross
the horizontal axis at the temperature -273 degrees Celsius. Of course, at low temperatures, the
gas will liquefy and the gas equation of state will become invalid.
However, the straight lines can be extrapolated to the absolute zero.

Processes including the internal energy of the body U satisfy the energy conservation law. This
14
important law is called the First law of thermodynamics and has the form
Δ𝑈 = 𝑄 + 𝑊.
Here Δ𝑈 = 𝑈𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 − 𝑈𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 is the change of the body’s internal energy, Q is the heat received by
thebody and W is work done on the body, for instance, by compressing it. If, to the contrary, the
body is expanding, W < 0 that means the body itself is doing a positive work on the environment,
losing its

15
internal energy. The heat Q is the energy received by the body in a non-mechanical way, for
instance,via a thermal contact of two bodies with different temperatures.

Experimentally it is established that the heat is always flowing from the hotter body to the
colder body and this process ends in the equilibration of the temperatures. This is the Second
law of thermodynamics.

It is important to realize that one cannot speak of the “amount of heat in the body”, as one
cannot speak of the “amount of work in the body”. Both heat and work can only be given away
or received. Only the internal energy is the so-called function of the state, that is, it has a
particular value in a particular state of the system. All thermodynamic machines (e.g.,
refrigerators) work in cycles. At the end of each cycle, the system returns to the initial state
with the same internal energy. But the net heat and work in each cycle are nonzero, satisfying Q
+ W = 0.
In many cases, when a thermodynamic system (a body) is receiving heat, its temperature
increases:
𝑄 = 𝐶Δ𝑇 = 𝑚𝑐Δ𝑇.
Here Δ𝑇 = 𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 − 𝑇𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 is the change of the temperature, C is the heat capacity of the whole
body, m is the mass of the body, and c is the specific heat capacity (that is, the heat capacity per
unit mass). For solids and liquids the heat capacity is a constant. Before Joule’s experiments it
was unknown that heat is a form of energy, and the unit of heat, the calorie, was introduced as
the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 g water by 1 degree Celsius (or Kelvin).
Thus the specific heat capacity of the water is c = 1 cal/(g K). Using the relations between
different energy units given in Chapter Energy, one can calculate, say, the amount of electrical
energy in kWh needed to warm up a particular amount of water.

When the system is receiving heat, it can do work losing a part of its internal energy and thus
making the temperature change smaller or even negative. Thus, in general, the heat capacity
depends on the process. However, this happens only for gases. Solids and liquids are
expanding only very weakly with increasing their temperature, and their heat capacity is
practically constant.
Let us consider heat machines. The first (historical) type of them is the heat engine that, in one
cycle, does work W by taking heat Q2 from a thermostat (reservoir, heat bath) at the
temperature T2 and gives away a smaller amount of heat Q1 to another thermostat at the
temperature T1 < T2. The first law of thermodynamics for one cycle reads Q2 = W + Q1. The
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energy (or heat) efficiency of this machine is the ratio of the (useful) work to the received heat,
𝑊 𝑄2 − 𝑄1
𝜂= = .
𝑄2 𝑄2
French engineer Sadi Carnot with the help of the second law of thermodynamics has proven a
theorem according to which the efficiency of a heat engine cannot exceed that of the so-called
Carnot cycle done on the ideal gas, for which the efficiency can be calculated. The resulting
maximal possible efficiency of the heat engine is given by
𝑇2 − 𝑇1
𝜂𝑚𝑎𝑥 = .
𝑇2

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It is always smaller than 1 and approaches 1 in the case when the temperature of the cold
thermostat approaches the absolute zero. Currently, heat engines are not used since receiving
and giving away heat are slow processes. What is used is combustion engines in which the
chemical energy of the fuel is converted into work.

The most popular among heat machines is the refrigerator that per cycle receives the heat Q1
from the cold reservoir (the interior of the refrigerator) and ejects the heat Q2 into the hot
reservoir (the environment). To make it function, work has to be done on the system via the
electric motor. The energy efficiency of the refrigerator is defined as the ratio of the heat
extracted to the work spent:
𝑄1 𝑄1 𝑇1
𝜂= = ≤ .
𝑊 𝑄2 − 𝑄1 𝑇2 − 𝑇1
In the last formula, Carnot’s theorem was used. One can see that the efficiency of the
refrigerator can be whatever large at the beginning of the process when the temperatures of
the interior and the exterior of the refrigerator are close to each other. However, as T1
decreases, the efficiency decreases as well and can become whatever small. This is why to
obtain very low temperatures in physics research labs, different methods are used.
The third type of the heat machine is the so-called heat pump. It works with the same cycle as
the refrigerator sucking the heat from the environment and releasing it in the interior (of a
house, for instance). If the temperatures of the exterior and the interior are close to each other,
the efficiency of the heat pump is high. If it is very cold outside, the efficiency becomes small, as
intuitively expected. The heat pump is not a familiar machine in the household yet.

JOSHUA OBIBINE AKA ORACLE

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