College Physics helps you learn physics by doing physics. This approach helps you build the foundations for conceptual understanding and develop more sophisticated reasoning and problem-solving skills that can be applied to complex situations.

Eugenia Etkina is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She holds a PhD in physics education from Moscow State Pedagogical University and has more than 35 years experience teaching physics. She is a recipient of 2014 Millikan Medal awarded to educators who made significant contributions to teaching physics, and a fellow of the AAPT. Professor Etkina designed and now coordinates one of the largest programs in physics teacher preparation in the United States, conducts professional development for high school and university physics instructors, and participates in reforms to the undergraduate physics courses. In 1993 she developed a system in which students learn physics using processes that mirror scientific practice. That system, called Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) serves as the basis for this textbook. Since 2000, Professors Etkina has conducted over 100 workshops for physics instructors and co-authored the first edition of College Physics and the Active Learning Guide. Professor Etkina is a dedicated teacher and an active researcher who has published over 60 peer-refereed article.

Visit Exploring and Applying Physics on Facebook for conversations around this text and ISLE (Investigative Science Learning Environment).

Gorazd Planinsic is a Professor of Physics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has a PhD in physics from the University of Ljubljana. Since 2000 he has been leading the Physics Education program that prepares almost all high-school physics teachers for the country of Slovenia. He started his career in MRI physics and later switched to Physics Education Research. During the last ten years, his work has mostly focused on the research of new experiments and how to use them more productively in teaching and learning physics. He is co-founder of the Slovenian hands-on science center House of Experiments. Professor Planinsic is co-author of more than 80 peer-refereed research articles, more than 20 popular science articles, and is the author of a university textbook for future physics teachers. In 2013 he received the Science Communicator of the Year award from the Slovenian Science Foundation.

Alan Van Heuvelen holds a PhD in physics from the University of Colorado. He has been a pioneer in physics education research for several decades. He taught physics for 28 years at New Mexico State University where he developed active learning materials including the Active Learning Problem Sheets (the ALPS Kits) and the ActivPhysics multimedia product. Materials such as these have improved student achievement on standardized qualitative and problem-solving tests. In 1993 he joined Ohio State University to help develop a physics education research group. He moved to Rutgers University in 2000 and retired in 2008. For his contributions to national physics education reform, he won the 1999 AAPT Millikan Medal and was selected a fellow of the American Physical Society. Over the span of his career he has led over 100 workshops on physics education reform. He has worked with Professor Etkina in the development of the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) and co-authored the first edition of College Physics and the Active Learning Guide.

1. Introducing physics

2. Kinematics: Motion in one dimension

3. Newtonian mechanics

4. Applying Newton’s laws

5. Circular motion

6. Impulse and linear momentum

7. Work and energy

8. Extended bodies at rest

9. Rotational motion

10. Vibrational motion

11. Waves

12. Gases

13. Static fluids

14. Fluids in motion

15. First law of thermodynamics

16. Second law of thermodynamics

17. Electric charge, force, and energy

18. The electric field

19. DC circuits

20. Magnetism

21. Electromagnetic induction

22. Reflection and refraction

23. Mirrors and lenses

24. Wave optics

25. Electromagnetic waves

26. Special relativity

27. Quantum optics

28. Atomic physics

29. Nuclear physics

30. Particle physics

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