Doing Physics with Scientific Notebook : A Problem-Solving Approach

by Gallant, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780470665978
• ISBN10: 0470665971
• Edition: CD
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-29
• Publisher: Wiley
• More Book Details

Summary

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to guide those using Scientific Notebook (SNB) software to deal with physics problems. Including a CD enabling the reader to have 30-day trial of SNB software, the book contains many examples with detailed explanations of how to use the features of SNB to solve many physics problems. While it follows the traditional undergraduate physics curriculum typically used by textbooks and can therefore be used to supplement any undergraduate physics text, professional physicists and engineers will also find the book useful.

Author Biography

Joe Gallant, Kent State University, USA
Joe Gallant is currently a tenured associate professor of physics at Kent State University. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 in theoretical nuclear physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His primary task is teaching and he taught a number of physics courses at Kent State University from 1993 to 2007 before moving to Hiram College, where his currently responsible for teaching a number of physics courses, including: Principles of Physics I and II; Doing Physics with Scientific Notebook; Modern Physics; Thermal Physics and Electricity and Magnetism. He also carries out original research, and has published three papers where he uses used SNB to do the calculations. His current research involves classical periodic orbits near black holes.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
So we’re all on the same page...	p. xiii
What is science?	p. xiv
To the Student	p. xv
To the Teacher	p. xvi
Contact Information	p. xvi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction to SNB	p. 1
Why SNB?	p. 1
The Basics	p. 2
Physics à la mode: Math or Text	p. 8
Creating Mathematical Expressions	p. 8
Evaluate and Evaluate Numerically	p. 11
Scientific Notation	p. 13
Substitution and Endpoint Evaluation	p. 14
Solving Equations	p. 17
Solve Exact	p. 18
Solve Numeric	p. 21
Systems of Equations	p. 24
The Compute Menu	p. 25
Simplify and Expand	p. 25
Factor	p. 26
Rewrite and Combine	p. 28
Check Equality	p. 29
Polynomials	p. 31
Power Series	p. 32
Definitions	p. 35
Other Good Stuff	p. 37
Computing In-place	p. 37
Making Assumptions about Variables	p. 37
Limits	p. 40
A few words about Calculus	p. 42
Units	p. 46
Converting	p. 47
User-Defined Units	p. 51
Plotting	p. 52
Plot 2D Rectangular	p. 54
Other 2-Dimensional Plots	p. 55
Plot 3D Rectangular	p. 58
Cylindrical and Spherical Plots	p. 60
Plotting Data	p. 63
Fitting a Curve to Data	p. 63
Differential Equations	p. 67
Solve ODE Exact and Laplace	p. 68
Solve ODE Numeric	p. 70
Problems	p. 75
One-Dimensional Kinematics	p. 83
Constant Acceleration	p. 83
Displacement and Position	p. 83
Velocity and Acceleration	p. 84
Equations of Motion	p. 86
Signs of the times	p. 88
Free Fall	p. 89
Varying Acceleration	p. 91
Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration	p. 91
Equations of Motion	p. 93
Gravity and Air Resistance	p. 96
Resisting Air Resistance is Futile	p. 97
Long-Distance Free Fall	p. 99
Problems	p. 102
Vectors	p. 105
Components of a Vector	p. 107
Magnitude and Direction	p. 108
Adding Vectors	p. 111
The Component Method	p. 112
The SNB Method	p. 113
The Graphing Method	p. 115
Unit Vectors	p. 119
Multiplying Vectors	p. 120
Dot Product	p. 121
Cross Product	p. 122
Problems	p. 125
Projectile Motion	p. 127
No Air Resistance	p. 127
Trajectory	p. 132
Time of Flight	p. 134
Maximum Height	p. 135
Linear Air Resistance	p. 137
Trajectory	p. 141
Time of Flight and Range	p. 143
Maximum Height	p. 145
Turn off the Air!	p. 146
Turn down the Air!	p. 147
Quadratic Air Resistance	p. 151
Height-Dependent Air Resistance	p. 152
Problems	p. 154
Newton’s Laws of Motion	p. 157
Newton’s First Law	p. 157
Newton’s Second Law for Constant Forces	p. 158
Newton’s Second Law for Varying Forces	p. 165
Time-dependent Forces	p. 165
Velocity-dependent Forces	p. 167
Position-dependent Forces	p. 170
Newton’s Third Law	p. 173
Problems	p. 175
Conservation Laws	p. 179
Definitions	p. 179
Conservation of Energy	p. 181
Work	p. 181
The Work-Energy Theorem	p. 185
Potential Energy	p. 186
Mechanical Energy is Conserved	p. 188
A Complete Bookkeeping	p. 191
Conservation of Momentum	p. 193
Collisions in 1-dimension	p. 193
Collisions in 2-dimensions	p. 196
Rockets	p. 199
Deep Space	p. 199
Launch	p. 202
Air Resistance	p. 207
Varying Gravity and Air Resistance	p. 213
Problems	p. 216
Circular Motion	p. 221
Uniform Circular Motion	p. 222
The Rotating Umbrella	p. 224
Rotational Kinematics	p. 227
The Compact Disk	p. 229
Newton’s Second Law and Circular Motion	p. 233
Uniform Circular Motion and the 2nd Law	p. 233
Non-uniform Circular Motion and the 2nd Law	p. 235
Sliding on a Sphere	p. 236
Problems	p. 248
Harmonic Motion	p. 251
Simple Harmonic Motion, Simply	p. 251
Energy and SHM	p. 254
Not-quite-as-Simple Harmonic Motion	p. 255
Energy and SHM, again	p. 257
Damped Harmonic Motion	p. 259
Underdamped (ß2 < 2 0) 2 0)	p. 259
Critically Damped (ß2 = 2 0)	p. 261
Overdamped (ß2 > 2 0)	p. 262
Driven Harmonic Motion	p. 263
Constant driving force, no damping	p. 263
Sinusoidal driving force, no damping	p. 264
Constant driving force with damping	p. 265
Sinusoidal driving force with damping	p. 267
Small Oscillations	p. 270
Not-so-simple Harmonic Motion	p. 272
Problems	p. 275
Central Forces	p. 279
Equations of Motion	p. 279
Newtonian Gravitation	p. 285
Kepler’s Laws	p. 286
The Effective Potential	p. 292
Two Special Forces	p. 296
Numerical Stuff	p. 303
Problems	p. 305
Fluids	p. 309
Density and Pressure	p. 309
Static Fluids	p. 311
Buoyancy	p. 312
Fluids in Motion	p. 314
Bernoulli’s Equation	p. 316
Applications of Bernoulli’s Equation	p. 318
A More Realistic Approach	p. 320
Flow in a Pipe	p. 321
Stokes’ Law	p. 330
Problems	p. 331
Temperature and Heat	p. 335
Temperature Scales	p. 335
Absolute Temperature	p. 337
Heat and Work	p. 338
Heat Flow	p. 339
Change in Temperature: Specific Heat	p. 339
Change in State: Latent Heat	p. 340
Calorimetry	p. 341
Varying Specific Heat	p. 344
The Specific Heat of Solids	p. 345
Problems	p. 353
Special Relativity	p. 359
The Two Postulates	p. 360
The Consequences	p. 361
Time Dilation	p. 363
Length Contraction	p. 364
Addition of Velocities	p. 365
Simultaneity	p. 367
The Lorentz Transformation	p. 367
Space-Time	p. 370
Relativistic Momentum and Energy	p. 375
Relativistic Collisions	p. 378
Relativistic Dynamics	p. 382
Four-vectors	p. 387
Problems	p. 392
A Topics in Classical Physics	p. 397
Newton’s Nose-Cone Problem	p. 397
Simple Shapes	p. 398
Frusta and Fudges	p. 403
Newton’s Minimizer	p. 409
Indented Tips and the Minimizer	p. 411
The Shape of the Eiffel Tower	p. 414
An Interesting Classical Orbit	p. 417
Fisher’s Crystal	p. 421
Problems	p. 428
B Topics in Modern Physics	p. 435
The Tale of the Traveling Triplets	p. 435
Trip 1: Constance goes to Vega	p. 435
Relativistic Interlude: Constant Acceleration	p. 437
Trip 2: Axel goes to Vega	p. 441
What happens on the way to Vega...	p. 443
Orbits in General Relativity	p. 445
Angular Momentum	p. 447
Other GR orbits	p. 451
Be the Ball: Embedding Diagrams	p. 456
Classical Lifetime of a Hydrogen Atom	p. 460
Nonrelativistic Analysis	p. 460
Relativistic Analysis	p. 462
Quantum Mechanical Bound States	p. 465
Infinite Square Well (“particle in a box”)	p. 467
Finite Square Well	p. 470
V-shaped Linear Well	p. 477
Problems	p. 483
References	p. 491
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.