General Physics Workbook: Physics Problems and How to Solve Them

This Workbook is intended to give the student of elementary physics three dividends for the work he invests in an experience in solving a wide range of problems that are intimately related both to understanding of physics and to its use, a problem solving equipment that includes methods and techniques not discussed in the average textbook, and a solid confidence that physics problems can be solved.

To meet these objectives the Workbook concentrates on the development of thought processes and basic understanding rather than on the collection and display of information. It does not, to appreciable extent, infringe on the role of the usual elementary physics textbook, which is required to serve as an encyclopedia of known facts and theories. Thus the Workbook and a textbook complement each other and should be used together.

Elementary textbooks are organized into topics and categories of topics. Since no two modern textbooks agree on the sequence of this organization, it would be impossible to construct a problem workbook that would mesh with more than one textbook in the sequence of topics or in their relative weight of treatment. The Workbook avoids this difficulty by concentrating on the fundamental principles underlying all topics; selected topics appear not in any standard sequence but only as appropriate illustrations of the operation of fundamental principles.

Physics, in contrast to information about physics, consists of motion and forces and momentum and energy and of the operational and conservation laws that control and predict their behavior. These fundamental components of physics are independent of both time and topic. By concentrating on the universal aspects of all physical phenomena the Workbook is free to cut across all topic lines and across all distinctions between “classical” and “modern” physics.

Since World War II elementary physics courses and their texts have become more scientific, and this has been a healthy development. Unfortunately in many instances being ”scientific” meant treating anything that was labeled engineering or was of current practical use as irrelevant and of no “scientific” interest. But students in elementary physics courses – even future theoretical physicists – still live in the real world and are still curious about the practical aspects of their environment. Hence it should not be surprising that the interest of students should become more deeply engaged, and their motivation for working at learning should be stronger, when they can see a clear relation between their study and the world they live in.

A majority of the problems in this Workbook are related to the real world that students see; either the problems simulate a real situation, or they are component sub-problem of a larger real problem. All problems are solvable with the data available, with many providing an opportunity for exercising judgment – which also duplicates the real world. All problems are provided with answers; I have never been in favor of playing games with students by withholding answers. A student working at a problem is trying to learn; even if in desperation he tries working backward from the answer he stills learns something.