INTRODUCTION

PHYSICS is the branch of science that deals with the

structure of matter and how the fundamental constituents of the
universe interact. It studies objects ranging from the very small
using quantum. Physics has evolved and continues to evolve
without any single strategy. Essentially an experimental science,
refined measurements can reveal unexpected behavior. On the
other hand, mathematical exploration of existing theories into
new theoretical areas, critical reexamination of apparently
obvious but untested assumptions, arguments by symmetry or
analogy aesthetic judgment pure accident, and hunch- each of
these plays a role (as in all science). (Britannica)
There is a branch of Physics.
1. Classical Physics – energy and matter are considered
separate entities. Acoustics, optics, classical mechanics,
and electronics are traditionally branches within classical
physics.
2. Modern Physics – is a branch of physics that is mainly
concerned with the theory of relativity and quantum
mechanics. Albert Einstein and Max Plank were the
pioneers of modern of physics as the first scientists to
introduce the theory of relativity and quantum
mechanics, respectively. In modern physics, energy and
matter are not considered as separate entities. Rather,
they are considered different forms of each other.
3. Nuclear Physics – is a branch of physics that deals with
the constituents, structure, behavior and interactions of
 atomic nuclei. This branch of physics should not be
confused with atomic physics, which studies the atom as
a whole, including its electrons.
4. Atomic Physics – is a branch of physics that deals with
the composition of the atom apart from the nucleus. It is
mainly concerned with the arrangement and behavior of
electrons in the shells around the nucleus. Thus, atomic
physics mostly examines electrons, ions, and neutral
atoms.
5. Geophysics – is a branch of physics that deals with the
study of the earth. It is mainly concerned with the shape,
structure and composition of the earth, but geophysicists
also study gravitational force, magnetic fields,
earthquakes, magma, and more. It was only recognized
as a separate discipline in the 19 th century, but its origins
date back to ancient times.
6. Biophysics – “the interdisciplinary study of biological
phenomena and problems, using the principles and
techniques of physics.” Biophysics studies biological
problems and the structure of molecules in living
organisms using techniques derived from physics. One of
the most ground breaking achievements of biophysics is
the discovery of the structure of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic
Acid) by James Watson and Francis Crick.
7. Mechanics – is a branch of physics that deals with the
motion of material objects under the influence of forces.
 CHAPTER I

MECHANI
CS
 Mechanics is a branch of physical science that deals with
energy and forces and their effects on bodies. (Merriam Webster
Dictionary) It is the branch of physics that deals with the action of
forces on bodies and with motion, comprised of kinetics, statics,
and kinematics. It deals with the study of motion. No matter what
your interest in science or engineering, mechanics will be
important for you motion is a fundamental idea in all of science.
Mechanics can be divided into 2 areas. KINEMATICS, dealing
with describing motion and DYNAMICS, which deals with the
causes of motion.
PHYSICS

OPTICS MECHANICS ELECTRICITY HEAT

KINEMATICS DYNAMICS

KINEMATICS – branch of physics and a subdivision of classical

mechanics concerned with the geometrically possible motion of a
body or system of bodies without consideration of the forces
involved. It is the science of describing the motion of objects
using words diagrams, numbers, graphs and equations.
DYNAMICS - branch of physics and a subdivision of mechanics
that is concerned with the motion of material objects in relation
to the physical factors that affects the forces, mass, momentum
and energy. It is the study of forces and motion. It is also a branch

of mechanics that deals with the effect that forces have on the
motion objects.

Motion in One Dimension

Displacement
Motion involves the displacement of an object from one
place in a space and time to another. Displacement has both a
magnitude (size) and a direction, it’s a vector quantity.

Velocity
SPEED and VELOCITY are interchangeable. In physics,
however, there’s a clear distinction between them. Speed is
scalar quantity whereas velocity is a vector quantity.
Example
A turtle and a rabbit engage in a footrace over a
distance of 4.00 km. the rabbit runs 0.500 km and then stops

for 90.0 min nap. Upon awakening, he remembers the race and
runs twice as fast. Finishing the course in a total time of 1.75h,
the rabbit wins the race.
(a) Calculate the average speed of the rabbit.
(b) What was his average speed before he stopped for a nap?

Example
Find the average velocity
Solution

Acceleration
Going from place to place in your car, you rarely travel
long distances at constant velocity. The velocity of the car
increases when you step harder on the gas pedal and decrease
when you apply the brakes. The velocity also changes when
you round a curve, altering your direction of motion. The
changing of an object’s velocity with time is called
acceleration.

Example
Suppose the car
accelerates from initial velocity of vi = +10 m/s to a final
velocity of vf = +20m/s in a time interval of 2s.
Solution
Free Falling Objects
The expression freely falling object doesn’t necessarily
refer to an object dropped from rest. A freely falling object is
any object moving freely under the influence of gravity alone,
regardless of its initial motion. Objects throws upward or
downward and those released from rest are all considered
freely failing. We denote the magnitude of the free fall

acceleration by the symbol g. The value of g decreases with

increasing altitude, and varies slightly with latitude as well. At
earth’s surface, the value for g is approximately 9.80 m/s2.

Projectile Motion
A cannonball shot from a cannon, a stone thrown into the
air, a ball rolling off the edge of a table, a spacecraft circling the
earth - all of these are examples of PROJECTILES. Projectiles
near the earth follow a curved path that at first seems rather
complicated. However, these paths are surprisingly simple
when we look at the horizontal and vertical components of
motion separately.

Vectors and Two-Dimension

Motion
VECTOR QUANTITY
- is characterized by having both a magnitude and
direction. Vector quantity will usually denote in bold
face type with an arrow over the top of the letter.
Examples of this are acceleration, displacements,
velocity, and force.
SCALAR QUANTITY
- has a magnitude but no direction. Scalar quantities
such as mass and temperature are completely
specified by a numeric value with appropriate units;
no direction is involved. Example of this are mass,
length, time, distance, temperature, speed, and
energy.

o Equality of Two Vectors

Two vectors A S and B S are equal if they have the same
magnitude and the same direction. This property allows us to
translate a vector parallel to itself in a diagram without
affecting the vector.
o Adding Vectors
When two or more vectors are added, they must all
have the same units. For example, it doesn’t make sense to add
a velocity vector, carrying units of meters per second, to a
displacement vector, carrying units of meters. Scalars obey the
same rule: It would be similarly meaningless to add
temperatures to volumes or masses to time intervals.
Vectors can be added geometrically or algebraically.
(The latter is discussed at the end of the next section.) To add
vector B S to vector A S geometrically, first draw A S on a piece
of graph paper to some scale, such as 1 cm 1 m, so that its
direction is specified relative a coordinate system. Then draw
vector B S to the same scale with the tail of B S starting at the
tip of A S, as in Active Figure 3.3a. Vector B S must be drawn
along the direction that makes the proper angle relative vector
A S. The resultant vector R S 5 A S 1 B S is the vector drawn
from the tail of A S to the tip of B S . This procedure is known
as the triangle method of addition.

Motion in Two-Dimension
Projectile Motion
 A cannonball shot from a cannon, a stone thrown
into the air, a ball rolling off the edge of a table, a
spacecraft circling the earth - all of these are examples of
PROJECTILES. Projectiles near the earth follow a curved
path that at first seems rather complicated. However,
these paths are surprisingly simple when we look at the
horizontal and vertical components of motion separately.

The Law of Motion

This topic introduces Newton’s three laws of motion
and his law of gravity. The three laws are simple and sensible.
The first law states that a force must be applied to an object in
order to change its velocity. Changing an object’s velocity
means accelerating it, which implies a relationship between
force and acceleration. This relationship, the second law,
states that the net force on an object equals the object’s mass
times its acceleration. Finally, the third law says that
whenever we push on something, it pushes back with equal
force in the opposite direction. These are the three laws in a
nutshell.
Forces
A force is commonly imagined as a push or a pull on
some object, perhaps rapidly, as when we hit a tennis ball with
a racket. We can hit the ball at different speeds and direct it
into different parts of the opponent’s court.
This means that we can control the magnitude of the applied
force and also its direction, so force is a vector quantity, just
like velocity and acceleration.
Newton’s First Law
An objects moves with a velocity that is constant in
magnitude and direction, unless acted on by a nonzero net
force. The net force on an object is defined as the vector sum
of all external forces exerted on the object.
Mass and Inertia
The tendency of an object to continue in its original
state of motion is called inertia. Although inertia is the
tendency of an object to continue its motion in the absence of a
force, mass is a measure of the object’s resistance to changes
in its motion due to a force. The greater the mass of a body, the
less it accelerates under the action of a given applied force.
The SI unit of mass is the kilogram. Mass is a scalar quantity
that obeys the rules of ordinary arithmetic.
Newton’s Second Law
Imagine pushing a block of ice across a frictionless
horizontal surface. When you exert some horizontal force on
the block, it moves with an acceleration of, say, 2 m/s2. If you
apply a force twice as large, the acceleration doubles to 4
m/s2. Pushing three times as hard triples the acceleration, and
so on. From such observations, we conclude that the
acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net
force acting on it. Mass also affects acceleration.
Suppose you stack identical blocks of ice on top of each other
while pushing the stack with constant force. If the force
applied to one block produces an acceleration of 2 m/s2, then
the acceleration drops to half that value, 1 m/s2, when two
blocks are pushed, to one-third the initial value when three
blocks are pushed, and so on. We conclude that the
acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass.
These observations are summarized in Newton’s second law:
The acceleration a S of an object is directly proportional to the
net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass.
The constant of proportionality is equal to one, so in
mathematical terms the preceding statement can be written

Units of Force and Mass

The SI unit of force is the newton. When 1 newton of force
acts on an object that has a mass of 1 kg, it produces an
acceleration of 1 m/s2 in the object. From this definition and
Newton’s second law, we see that the newton can be
expressed in terms of the fundamental units of mass, length,
and time as:
Problem
An airboat with mass 3.50 x 102 kg, including passengers,
has an engine that produces a net
horizontal force of 7.70 x 102 N,
after accounting for forces of
resistance. (a) Find the
acceleration of the airboat. (b)
Starting from rest, how long does
it take the airboat to reach a
speed of 12.0 m/s? (c) After
reaching this speed, the pilot turns off the engine and drifts to
a stop over a distance of 50.0 m. Find the resistance force,
assuming it’s constant.
Solution
(a) Find the acceleration of the air boat.
Apply newton’s second
Law and solve for acceleration.

(b) Find the time

necessary
to reach a speed of 12.0m/s.
Apply the kinematics velocity equation:
 (c) Find the resistance force after the engine is turned off.

Using kinematics, find the net acceleration due to

resistance forces.

Substitute the acceleration into Newton’s Second

Law, finding resistance force.

Gravitation Force
It is a mutual force of attraction between any two objects
in the Universe. Although the gravitational force can be very
strong between very large objects, it’s the weakest of the
fundamental forces.
Weight
The magnitude of the gravitational force acting on an object of
mass m near Earth’s surface is called the weight, w, of the
object, given by
w = mg
Where g is the acceleration of gravity.
SI unit: newton (N)
NEWTON’S THIRD LAW
We found that a force is
exerted on an object when it
comes into contact with some
other object. Consider the task of
driving a nail into a block of
wood. To accelerate the nail and drive it into the block, the
hammer must exert a net force on the nail. Newton recognized,
however, that a single isolated force (such as the force exerted
by the hammer on the nail) couldn’t exist. Instead, forces in
nature always exist in pairs. According to Newton, as the nail
is driven into the block by the force exerted by the hammer,
the hammer is slowed down and stopped by the force exerted
by the nail.
Newton’s third law constantly affects our activities in
everyday life. Without it, no locomotion of any kind would be
possible, whether on foot, on a bicycle, or in a motorized
vehicle. When walking, for example, we exert a frictional force
against the ground. The reaction force of the ground against
our foot propels us forward. In the same way, the tires on a
bicycle exert a frictional force against the ground, and the
reaction of the ground pushes the bicycle forward. As we’ll see
shortly, friction plays a large role in such reaction forces.
If object 1 and object 2 interact, the force F12 exerted by object
1 on object 2 is equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to
the force F21 exerted by object 2 on object 1.

The action force is equal in magnitude to the reaction force

and opposite in direction. In all cases, the action and reaction
forces act on different objects.
Applications of Newton’s Laws of Motion
This section applies Newton’s laws to objects moving
under the influence of constant external forces. We assume
that objects behave as particles, so we need not consider the
possibility of rotational motion. We also neglect any friction
effects and the masses of any ropes or strings involved. With
these approximations, the magnitude of the force exerted
along a rope, called the tension, is the same at all points in the
rope.
Object in Equilibrium
Objects that are either at rest or moving with constant
velocity are said to be in equilibrium because a = 0

Forces of Friction
An object moving on a surface or through a viscous
medium such as air or water encounters resistance as it
interacts with its surroundings. This resistance is called
friction. Forces of friction are essential in our everyday lives.
Friction makes it possible to grip and hold things, drive a car,
walk, and run. Even standing in one spot would be impossible
without friction, as the slightest shift would instantly cause
you to slip and fall.

ENERGY
Energy is one of the most important concepts in the
world of science. In everyday use energy is associated with the
fuel needed for transportation and heating, with electricity for
lights and appliances, and with the foods we consume.
Energy is present in the Universe in a variety of
forms, including mechanical, chemical, electromagnetic, and
nuclear energy. Even the inert mass of everyday matter
contains a very large amount of energy. Although energy can
be transformed from one kind to another, all observations and
experiments to date suggest that the total amount of energy in
the Universe never changes. This is also true for an isolated
system—a collection of objects that can exchange energy with
each other, but not with the rest of the Universe. If one form of
energy in an isolated system decreases, then another form of
energy in the system must increase.
Work
Work has a different meaning in physics than it does
in everyday usage. In the physics definition, a programmer
does very little work typing away at a computer. A mason, by
contrast, may do a lot of work laying concrete blocks. In
physics, work is done only if an object is moved through some
displacement while a force is applied to it. If either the force or
displacement is doubled, the work is doubled. Double them

both, and the work is quadrupled. Doing work involves

applying a force to an object while moving it a given distance.

Work is a scalar quantity—a number rather than a vector—

and consequently is easier to handle. No direction is
associated with it. Further, work doesn’t depend explicitly on
time, which can be an advantage in problems involving only
velocities and positions. Because the units of work are those of
force and distance, the SI unit is the newton-meter (N m).
Another name for the newton-meter is the joule (J) (rhymes
with “pool”). The U.S. customary unit of work is the foot-
pound, because distances are measured in feet and forces in
pounds in that system.
EXAMPLE
An Eskimo returning from a successful fishing trip pulls a
sled loaded with salmon. The total mass of the sled and salmon
is 50.0 kg, and the Eskimo exerts a force of 1.20 x 102 N on the
sled by pulling on the rope. (a) How much work does he do on
the sled if the rope is horizontal to the ground and he pulls the
sled 5.00 m? (b) How much work does he do on the sled if ɵ =
30.0o and he pulls the sled the same distance? (Treat the sled
as a point particle, so details such as the point of attachment of
the rope make no difference.)

Solution
(a)

Find the work done when the force is horizontal.

(b) Find the work done when the force is exerted at a 30

angle.

K
Kinetic Energy and Work Energy Theorem
Solving problems using Newton’s second law can be
difficult if the forces involved are complicated. An
alternative is to relate the speed of an object to the net
work done on it by external forces. If the network can
 be calculated for a given displacement, the change in
the object’s speed is easy to evaluate.
Gravitational Potential Energy
An object with kinetic energy (energy of motion) can do
work on another object, just like a moving hammer can drive a
nail into a wall. A brick on a high shelf can also do work: it can
fall off the shelf, accelerate downwards, and hit a nail squarely,
driving it into the floorboards. The brick is said to have
potential energy associated with it, because from its location
on the shelf it can potentially do work.

Potential energy is a property of a system, rather than of a

single object, because it’s due to a physical position in space
relative a center of force, like the falling diver and the Earth. In
this chapter we define a system as a collection of objects
interacting via forces or other processes that are internal to
the system. It turns out that potential energy is another way of
looking at the work done by conservative forces.
Gravitational Work and Potential Energy
Using the work–energy theorem in problems involving
gravitation requires computing the work done by gravity. For
most trajectories—say, for a ball traversing a parabolic arc—
finding the gravitational work done on the ball requires
sophisticated techniques from calculus. Fortunately, for
conservative fields there’s a simple alternative: potential
energy. Gravity is a conservative force, and for every
conservative force a special expression called a potential
energy function can be found. Evaluating that function at any
two points in an object’s path of motion and finding the
difference will give the negative of the work done by that force
between those two points. It’s also advantageous that
potential energy, like work and kinetic energy, is a scalar
quantity. Our first step is to find the work done by gravity on
an object when it moves from one position to another. The
negative of that work is the change in the gravitational
potential energy of the system, and from that expression, we’ll
be able to identify the potential energy function.

Spring Potential Energy

Springs are important elements in modern technology.
They are found in machines of all kinds, in watches, toys, cars,
and trains. Work done by an applied force in stretching or
compressing a spring can be recovered by removing the
applied force, so like gravity, the spring force is conservative.
This means a potential energy function can be found and used
in the work–energy theorem.
A
spring in its

equilibrium position, where the spring is neither compressed

nor stretched. Pushing a block against the spring as
compresses it a distance x. Although x appears to be merely a
coordinate, for springs it also represents a displacement from
the equilibrium position, which for our purposes will always
be taken to be at x 0.
Experimentally, it turns out that doubling a given
displacement requires double the force, while tripling it takes
triple the force. This means the force exerted by the spring, Fs,
must be proportional to the displacement x, or

where k is a constant of proportionality, the

spring constant, carrying units of newton’s
per meter. This equation is called Hooke’s law, after Sir Robert
Hooke, who discovered the relationship. The force Fs is often
called a restoring force because the spring always exerts a
force in a direction opposite the displacement of its end,
tending to restore whatever is attached to the spring to its
original position. For positive values of x, the force is negative,
pointing back towards equilibrium at x = 0, and for negative x,
the force is positive, again pointing towards x = 0.
 CHAPTER II

HEAT
If you touch a hot stove, energy will enter your hand
from the stove because the stove is warmer than your hand.
But if you touch ice, energy will pass out of your hand and into
the colder ice. The direction of spontaneous energy transfer is
always from a warmer substances to a colder substance. The
energy that transfer is always from one object to another
because of a temperature difference between them is called
heat.
It is common – but incorrect with physics types – to
think that matter contains heat. Matter contains energy in
several forms, but it does not contains heat. Heat is energy in
transit from a body of higher temperature to one lower
temperature. Once transferred, the energy cease to be heat.
When heat flows from one object or substance to
another it is in contact with, the objects or substances are said
to be in thermal contact.
Thermal Equilibrium
After object in thermal contact with each other reach
the same temperature, no heat flows between them – we say
the objects are in thermal equilibrium.
To read thermometer we wait until it reaches thermal
equilibrium with a substance being measured. When
thermometer is in contact with a substance, heat flows
between them until they have the same temperature.

Internal Energy
 There is rotational kinetic energy of molecules and
kinetic energy due to internal movements of atoms within
molecules. There is also potential energy due to the forces
between molecules. The grand total of all energies inside a
substance is called internal energy. A substance does not
contains heat - it contains internal energy.
When a substances take in or give off heat, any of
these energy may change. Thus, as a substance absorbs heat,
this energy may or may not make the molecules jostle faster.
In some cases, as when ice is melting, substance absorbs heat
without an increase in temperature.
Measurement of Heat
So we see that heat is energy transferred from one
substance to another by temperature difference. The amount
of heat transferred can be determined by measuring the
temperature change of a known mass of water that absords
the heat.
When a substance absorbs heat, the resulting
temperature change depends on more than just the mass of
the substances. The quantify heat, we must specify the mass
and kind of substance affected.
The unit of heat is defined as the heat necessary to produce
some standard, agreed-on temperature change for a specified
mass of material. The most commonly used unit for heat is the
calorie. The calorie is defined as the amount of heat required
to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 ̊C.
The kilocalorie is 1000 calories (the heat required to raise the
temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 ̊C). The heat used in
rating foods is actually a kilocalorie, although it’s often
referred to as the calorie. To distinguish it from smaller
calorie, the food unit is sometimes called a Calorie (written
with a capital C).
Thermal Expansion
When the temperature of a substance is increased, its
molecules jiggle faster and normally tend to move faster apart.
This results in an expansion of the substance. With few
exceptions, all forms of matter – solids, liquids, and gases –
expand when they are heated ad contract when they are
cooled. For comparable pressures and comparable changes in
temperature, gases generally expand or contract more than
solids.
 Chapter III

Soun
d
The Origin of Sound
All sounds are produced by the vibrations of material
objects. In a piano, violin, or guitar, a sound wave is produced
by vibrating strings; in a saxophone, by a vibrating reed; in a
flute, by a fluttering column of air at the mouthpiece. Your
voice results from the vibration of your vocal chords.
In each of these cases, the original stimulates the
vibration of something larger or more massive – the sounding
board of a stringed instruments, the air column within a reed
or wind instrument, or the air in throat and mouth of a singer.
This vibrating material then sends a disturbance through a
surrounding medium, usually air, in the form of longitudinal
waves. Under ordinary conditions, the frequency of the
vibrating source equals the frequency of sound waves
produced.
We describe our subjective impression about the
frequency of sound by the word pitch. A high pitched sound
like that from a piccolo has a high vibration frequency, while a
low pitched sound like that from a fog horn has a low vibration
frequency.
As we grow old, our hearing range shrinks, especially at
the high frequency end. Sound waves with frequencies below
20 hertz are called infrasonic. And those with frequencies
above 20 000 hertz are called ultrasonic. We cannot hear
infrasonic or ultrasonic sound waves.

Sound in Air
Clap
your hands
and you

produce a pulse that goes out in all directions. The pulse

vibrates the air somewhat as a similar pulse would vibrate a
coiled spring or a slinky spring toy. Each particle moves back
and forth along the direction of motion of the expanding wave.
 For a clearer picture of this process, consider the long
room. At the end is an open window with a curtain over it. At
the other end is a door.
When you quickly open the door (top sketch), you can
imagine the door pushing the molecules next to it away from
their initial positions, and into their neighbors. Neighboring
molecules, in turn, push into their neighbors, and so on, like a
compression wave moving along a spring, until the curtain
flaps out the window. A pulse of compressed air is called a
compression.

Media that Transmit Sound

Most sounds you hear are transmitted through the
air. But sound also travel in solids and liquids. Put your ear to
the ground and you can hear the hoof beats of distant horses
through the ground before you can hear them through the air.
More practically, put your ear to a metal fence and have a
friend tap it far away. The sound is transmitted louder and
faster by the metal than by the air.
Sound cannot travel in a vacuum. The transmission
of sound requires a medium. If there is nothing to compress
and expand, there can be no sound. There may still be
vibration, but without a medium there is no sound.
Speed of Sound
The speed of sound in dry air at 0 ̊C is about 330 meters per
second, or about 1200 kilometers per hour, about one-
millionth the speed of light. For each degree increase in air
temperature above 0 ̊C, the speed of sound in air increases by
0.60m/s. so in air at a normal room temperature of about 20
̊C, sound travels at about 340 m/s.
The speed of sound in a material depends not on the material’s
density, but on its elasticity. Elasticity is the ability of a
material to change shape in response to an applied force, then
resume its initial shape once the distorting force is removed.
Steel is very elastic; putty is inelastic.

Loudness
Loudness is a physiological sensation sensed in the brain. It
differs for different people. Loudness is subjective but is
related to sound intensity. Despite subjective variations,
loudness varies nearly as the logarithm of intensity (power of
ten). The unit of intensity for sound is the decibel (dB), after
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.
Forced Vibration
When you strike an unmounted tuning fork, the sound it
makes is faint. Strike a tuning fork while holding its base on a
tabletop, and the sound is relatively loud. Why? This is
because the table is forced to vibrate, and its larger surface
sets more air in motion. The table top becomes a sounding
board, and can be forced into vibration with forks of various
frequencies. This is a case of forced vibration.
Natural Frequency
When any object composed of an elastic material is disturbed,
it vibrates at its own special sets of frequencies, which
together form its special sound. We speak of an object’s
natural frequency, which depends on factors such as the
elasticity and shape of the object. Bells and tuning forks
vibrate at their own characteristic frequencies. A natural
frequency is one at which minimum energy is required to
produce forced vibrations. It is also the frequency that
requires the least amount of energy to continue this vibration.

Chapter IV
LIGHT
Early Concepts of Life
Light has been studied for thousands of years. Some of
the ancient Greek Philosophers thought that light consisted of
tiny particles, which could enter the eye to create the
sensation of vision. Others, including Socrates and Plato,
thought that vision resulted from streamers or filaments
emitted by the eye making contact with an object. This view
was supported by Euclid, when he asked how else we can
explain why we do not see a needle on the floor until our eyes
fall upon it.
Then in 1905 Einstein published a theory explaining
the photo-electric effect. According to this theory, light consists
of particles- massless bundles of concentrated electromagnetic
energy- later called photons.
 Scientists now agree that light has a dual nature, part
particle and part wave. This chapter discusses only the wave
nature of light, and leaves the particle nature of light.
The Speed of Light
It was not known whether light travels instantaneously or
with finite speed until the latter part of the seventeenth century.
Galileo had tried to measure the time a light beam takes to travel
to a distant mirror and back, but the time was so short he
couldn’t begin to measure it. Others tried the experiment at
longer distances with lanterns they blinked on and off between
distant mountaintops. All they succeeded in doing was measuring
their own reaction times.

The first demonstration that light travels at a finite speed was

supplied by the Danish astronomer Olaus Roemer about 1675.
Roemer made very careful measurements of the periods of
Jupiter’s moons. The innermost moon, Io, is visible through a
small telescope and was measured to revolve around Jupiter in
42.5 hours. Io disappeared appears periodically into Jupiter’s
shadow, so this period could be measured with great precision.
Electromagnetic Waves
Light is energy that is emitted by accelerating electric charges
– often electrons in atoms. This energy travels in a wave that is
partly electric and partly magnetic. Such a wave is an
electromagnetic wave.
Light is a small portion of the broad family of
electromagnetic waves that includes such familiar forms as
radio waves, or the electromagnetic spectrum.

The lowest frequency of light we can see with our eyes appears
red. The highest visible frequencies are nearly twice the
frequency of red and appear violet. Electromagnetic waves of
frequencies lower than the red of visible light are called infrared.
Heat lamps give off infrared waves. Electromagnetic waves of
frequencies higher than those of violet are called ultraviolet.
These higher – frequency waves are responsible for sunburns.

Light and

Transparent Materials
Light is energy carried in an electromagnetism wave that is
generated by vibrating electric charges. When light is incident
upon matter, electrons in the matter are forced into vibration.
In effect, vibrations in an emitter are transferred to vibrations
in a receiver. This is similar to, but in other ways different
from, the way sound is received by a receiver.
Exactly how a receiving material responds when light is
incident upon it depends on the frequency of the light and the
natural frequency of electrons in the material. Visible light
vibrates at a very high rate, more than 100 trillion times per
second (1014 hertz).
Opaque material
Most materials absorb light without remission and thus allow
no light through them; they are opaque. Wood, stone, and
people are opaque to visible light. In opaque materials, any
coordinated vibrations given by light to the atoms and
molecules are turned into random kinetic energy – that is, into
internal energy. The materials become slightly warmer.
 Chapter V

ELECTRIC
ITY

Electricity is one form or another underlies just about

everything around you. It’s in the lighting from the sky; it’s in
the spark beneath your feet when you scuff across a rug; and
it’s what holds atoms together to form a molecules.
Electrical Forces and Charges
Force of gravity, it attracts you to the earth, and you
call it your weight. Now consider a force acting on you that is
billions upon billions of times stronger. Such a force could
compress you to size about the thickness of the piece of paper.
But suppose that in addition to this enormous force there is a
repelling force that is also billions upon billions of times
stronger than gravity. The two forces acting on you would
balance each other and have no noticeable effect at all. It so
happens that there is a pair of such forces acting on you all the
time - electrical forces.
Conservation of Charge
Electrons and protons have electric charge. In a neutral atom,
there are as many electrons as protons, so there is no net
charge. The total positive charge balances the total negative
charge exactly. If an electron is removed from an atom, the
atom is no longer neutral. The atom has one more positive
charge than negative charge and is said to be positively charge.
Coulomb’s Law
Newton’s law of gravitation that the gravitational force
between two objects of mass m1 and mass m2 is proportional to
the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance d between them:
Where G is the universal
gravitational constant.
Conductors and Insulators
Electrons are more easily moved in some materials than in
others. Outer electrons of the atoms in a metal are not
anchored to the nuclei of particular atoms, but are free to
roam in the material. Such material are good conductors.
Metals are good conductors for the motion of electric charges
for the same reason they are good conductors of heat: their
electrons are “loose.”
Electrons in other materials – rubber and glass, for example –
are tightly bound and remain with particular atom. These
materials are wander about to other atoms in the material.
These materials are poor conductors of electricity, for the
same reason they are generally poor conductors of heat. Such
materials are good insulators.
 Chapter VI

MAGNE
TISM
 Magnets are fascinating. Bring a pair close together
and stick. Turn one of the magnets around and they repel each
other. A magnet will stick to a refrigerator door, but it won’t
stick on aluminum pan.
The term magnetism stems from certain rocks called
lodestones found more than 2000 years ago in the region of
Magnesia in Greece. In the twelfth century, the Chinese used
them for navigating ships. In the eighteenth century, the French
physicist Charles coulomb studied the forces between
lodestones. We now know that lodestones contain iron ore,
which has been named magnetite.
Magnetic Poles
Magnetic exerts forces on one another. They are
similar to electric charges, they can both attract and repel
without touching, depending on which end is held near the
other. Also, like electric charges, the strength of their
interaction depends on the distance of separation of two
magnets. Whereas electric charges produce electrical forces,
regions called magnetic poles produce magnetic forces.
The Nature of Magnetism Field
Magnetism is very much related to electricity. Just as an
electric charge is surrounded by an electric field, the same
charge is also surrounded by a magnetic field if it is moving.
This is due to the “distortions” in the electric field caused by
motion, and was explained by Albert Einstein in 1905 in his
theory of special relativity.

This text will not go into the details, except to acknowledge

that a magnetic field is relativistic by product of the electric
field.