Intermediate Physics

Explore kinematics as the study of motion, describe how things move, and apply basic math and equations to solve problems and predict outcomes in everyday scenarios like throwing a ball.

Master physics notation by exploring subscripts and superscripts, initial and final values (vi, vf, v0), delta changes, and the role of Greek letters in kinematics, with practical examples.

Define displacement as the change in position with direction, not distance, a vector. Describe velocity as the rate of displacement over time; acceleration is the rate of velocity.

Learn kinematics with five equations linking initial velocity, acceleration, time, and displacement; apply the guess method to solve problems, such as a car starting from rest with constant acceleration.

Two runners, one at constant 3 m/s and another starting from rest with acceleration 1.5 m/s^2, chase each other; by equating displacements using kinematic equations, they meet after four seconds.

Explore two-dimensional projectile motion by separating horizontal and vertical directions, showing that perpendicular components evolve independently through vector decomposition, except when ground impact couples them.

Learn vector decomposition: break a vector into horizontal and vertical components using trigonometry, with magnitude and angle, applying sine and cosine to find each component.

Analyze free fall under constant gravity and apply 2d kinematics to projectile motion, using the vertical velocity component to determine when the sheep sees the potato—four seconds.

Explore vertical projectile motion by identifying that the top has zero vertical velocity. Use a kinematic equation with vi=15 m/s and a=10 m/s^2 to find the maximum height, 11.25 meters.

Explore horizontal projectile motion from a 50-meter cliff at 10 m/s, solving time to ground via vertical motion with g=10 m/s^2 and finding horizontal range with kinematic equations.

Learn projectile motion through 2D kinematics under a constant downward gravity of 10 m/s^2, covering horizontal launches, arcs, range, time, height, and five archetypes.

Explore projectile motion on a horizontal surface using variables to derive range, with v cos theta, v sin theta, and the up and down symmetry.

Explore how forces cause acceleration and how we represent them as vectors with magnitude and direction. Review gravity, wind, air pressure, normal force, and friction through the Fred scenario.

Explore the common forces—normal, friction (static and kinetic), gravity, and elastic forces like tension and springs—and learn how to analyze them, including perpendicular normals to surfaces and incline problems.

Draw free body diagrams to summarize all forces on an object, using arrows from its center of mass to analyze magnitude, direction, and the balance of normal force and gravity.

Add force vectors head-to-tail to obtain net force, the total of all forces acting on an object. Gravity and the chair's upward push illustrate net force under Newton's second law.

Apply Newton's second law by linking acceleration to net force and mass with F = ma. Increase force to raise acceleration and mass to lower it.

Newton's second law links acceleration to net force over mass; a 1 kg block pushed with 5 N to the right has gravity and normal force cancel, yielding 5 m/s^2.

Explore how normal force balances gravity in a static block, then analyze how a 5-newton downward push raises the normal force from 50 to 55 newtons.

This lecture explains tension force as a reactive force like normal force, evidenced by a hanging 5 kg block and its weight (50 newtons) at rest, shown in free-body diagram.

Explore normal forces in a two-block stack using free body diagrams and Newton's third law; inter-block normal force is 10 newtons and ground normal force is 30 newtons.

Decompose forces with vector components, draw free-body diagrams, and assess net force to decide if an 80 N force at 30 degrees lifts a 50 kg block or moves it.

Understand static and kinetic friction, how static friction matches applied force up to a maximum while kinetic friction stays constant, and how mu and the normal force set friction.

Explore static friction with a 1000-newton load and a unitless coefficient of 0.8, yielding a maximum static friction of 800 newtons; any push at or above will start motion.

Apply kinetic friction with mu_k = 0.7 to a train car to determine deceleration and stop time. Compute a ≈ 7 m/s^2 and t ≈ 2.86 s from 20 m/s.

illustrates a block on an inclined plane, draws a free-body diagram, and explains how gravity's component down the slope, balanced by the normal force, yields motion with no friction.

Draw the free-body diagram for an inclined plane with friction, including gravity, normal force, and friction; relate to mg cos theta and mg sin theta.

Explore the basics of energy, its conservation across forms, and transfers between chemical and mechanical energy, with the system concept and joule units guiding problem solving.

Explore chemical, nuclear, mass (E=mc^2), gravitational, elastic, and light energy, and see how forces drive energy storage and transfers in daily life.

Learn the kinetic energy formula k = 1/2 mv^2 and that direction doesn't matter because v^2; a 3 kg mass at 2 m/s yields 6 joules.

Explore gravitational potential energy, where mass and height determine energy via m g h, and where energy can convert to kinetic energy when dropped, height defined relative to reference point.

Explore the spring force, its dependence on the change in length x and the spring constant k, and how Hooke's law yields U = 1/2 k x squared.

Explore spring potential energy using f = -kx and u = 1/2 kx^2, with k = 200 N/m and x = 0.15 m to obtain 30 N and 2.25 J.

apply conservation of energy to a falling ball, converting gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy using u = mgh and k = 1/2 mv^2; compare with a kinematics solution to the final speed.

Calculate spring energy with ½ k x^2 for a 0.3 kg cart. Apply conservation of energy to equate it to the cart’s kinetic energy and find velocity, about 3.65 m/s.

Explore energy conservation as a 5 kg block on a frictionless 2 m slope transfers gravitational potential energy to a fixed 800 N/m spring, yielding a 0.5 m compression.

Apply conservation of energy to a pendulum, linking gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy and deriving v = sqrt(2 g L (1 - cos theta)).

Explore how work links force to energy as a change in energy, using the work formula and vector concepts like displacement, cosine theta, and parallel components.

Relate work to energy by showing work equals force times displacement and its link to gravitational potential energy, classify forces as conservative or non-conservative, present work–energy theorems with sign conventions.

Analyze a 1 kg object falling 10 m, note gravity as a conservative force with no air resistance, and compute gravity work as 100 joules using F·D.

Explore mechanical energy as the sum of kinetic and gravitational potential energy, and how non-conservative forces like friction dissipate it, with conservation cases and a ramp example.

Explore the momentum concept as p = mv, a vector aligned with velocity, and learn why momentum is conserved except when external net forces act.

Explore how momentum relates to force through the impulse concept and the change in momentum. See how force equals the rate of change of momentum, linking velocity, mass, and acceleration.

Explore momentum conservation in collisions by distinguishing internal versus external forces, using mass, velocity, and direction, and applying sign conventions for accurate momentum calculations.

Learn how momentum is conserved in collisions while kinetic energy may not be; distinguish elastic, inelastic, partially inelastic, and perfectly inelastic cases, and how equal final velocities simplify problems.

Practice solving a two-block collision with momentum conservation, where a 2 kg block at 3 m/s hits a 1 kg block at rest, resulting in 4 m/s and elastic collision.

Explore a perfectly inelastic collision: a 0.5 kg clay moving at 4 m/s sticks to a 1.5 kg block at rest, yielding a velocity of 1 m/s by momentum conservation.

Explore how perfectly inelastic collisions lose kinetic energy and how elastic collisions with equal masses swap velocities, preserving momentum and kinetic energy.

Explore how total momentum is conserved: sum of momenta of all objects remains the same before and after interactions, with momentum exchanged during collisions.

Learn how the center of mass, a weighted average of an object's mass, locates a balance point and key for momentum and collision problems, with a two-object example.

Tackle the final physics class by solving cross-topic problems, using questions shown in the video, hints, and step-by-step solutions to connect topics and test your understanding.

explain how to solve a horizontal projectile problem by splitting vertical and horizontal motion, finding the time from height, then computing the speed needed to reach a ground target.

In free fall under gravity, displacement from rest grows with the square of time. The eight-second fall is four times farther than the four-second fall.

Use energy conservation to compare speeds at three points. Higher height lowers kinetic energy, so Q is slower than P and R, which have equal speeds at the same height.

Explore momentum conservation and energy conservation in a pendulum collision where a bullet embeds in a block in a perfectly inelastic collision, then the combined mass rises to 0.05 meters.

Treat the two connected blocks as a 20 kg system; they accelerate at 1 m/s^2 under a 20 N pull, with rope tension 15 N.

Celebrate completing intermediate physics by applying algebra and math to your view of the world, and explore high school physics, AP Physics 1, and Feynman's six easy pieces.