Physics - Dynamics for High School and AP Physics 1

Name: Physics - Dynamics for High School and AP Physics 1
Rating: 4.7 (184 reviews)

Master forces, free body diagrams, Newton's laws, friction, tension, circular motion, and dynamics problems

Created byCorey Mousseau

Last updated 6/2026

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Have a deep understanding of the concepts of dynamics such as Newton's Laws, Centripetal Motion, and Gravitation.

Course content

11 sections • 34 lectures • 6h 3m total length

Introduction6:46
Define forces as pushes or pulls and illustrate them with free body diagrams, including weight, friction, normal force, applied force, and tension; introduce net force and upcoming Newton's laws.
Physics Course Online Course Map

Newton's First Law - Inertia11:51
Newton's first law, inertia, states that objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion in a straight path unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
Newton's Second Law - F=ma20:48
Learn how Newton's second law F = ma links net force, mass, and acceleration, using free body diagrams and concepts like weight, normal force, and constant velocity.
Newton's Third Law - Action Reaction15:20
Explore Newton's third law, identifying action-reaction force pairs that are equal and opposite but act on different objects, and distinguish these from equilibrium where net force is zero.
Examples 119:27
Explore Newton's laws with free body diagrams, weight, normal force, and friction to quantify net force and acceleration in two dimensions.
Elevator Dynamics11:16
Explore elevator dynamics, distinguishing weight from the normal force as up or down accelerations change apparent weight and relate weightless states to freefall and constant velocity.
AP Physics Only - Examples 2 - Tension - AP Physics Only18:25
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!
AP Physics Only - Examples 3 - Lawn Mower - AP Physics Only7:00
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!

Friction 119:39
Learn how friction opposes motion, how static friction can exceed kinetic friction, and how surface texture, normal force, and the coefficient of friction determine motion and equilibrium.
Friction 28:31
The demonstration shows how friction scales with normal force and surface type, revealing static and kinetic friction, including maximum static friction, and the coefficient of friction.
Friction Examples15:23
Explore friction dynamics through high school and regents-style problems, deriving static and kinetic friction from the normal force, and applying Newton's second law to find acceleration and displacement.
AP Physics Only - Friction Examples 2 - AP Physics Only17:36
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!

Inclined Planes 117:32
Explore inclined planes by analyzing weight, normal force, and friction, and learn how gravity’s components parallel and perpendicular to the plane determine equilibrium or motion, with static and kinetic friction.
Inclined Planes 2 - Examples8:36
Analyze free body diagrams for inclined planes, focusing on equilibrium, friction directions, gravity components parallel and perpendicular, and examples like constant velocity motion and tensioned ropes.
AP Physics Only - Inclined Planes 3 - Examples 2 - AP Physics Only10:06
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!
AP Physics Only - Inclined Planes 4 - Examples 3 - AP Physics Only7:30
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!

Centripetal Motion 119:35
Explore centripetal motion and the center-seeking force that keeps objects in circular paths. Learn how velocity is tangent, acceleration follows v^2/r, and the centripetal force equals m v^2/r.
Centripetal Motion 219:08
In centripetal motion, the apparent centrifugal force is not real; the inward centripetal force arises from friction or an applied force, with normal force, gravity, and inertia shaping circular paths.
Centripetal Motion 3 - Examples10:40
Explore centripetal motion with high school problems. Compute centripetal acceleration v^2/r, tension forces, and maximum speed before the string breaks using mass, radius, and velocity examples.
AP Physics Only - Centripetal Motion 4 - Non-Uniform Circular Motion15:30
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!
Frequency vs. Period11:33
Define frequency as revolutions per second and period as the time for one revolution, with hertz and seconds as units. Learn their inverse relationship and apply to circular motion examples.

Universal Gravitation 113:47
Explore Newton's universal gravitation, including the inverse-square law F = GM1M2/r^2 and the role of distance and mass. Learn how g and gravitational fields relate to weight on Earth.
Universal Gravitation 2 - Examples 115:16
Practice universal gravitation by calculating the Earth–Moon force with F = G M1 M2 / r^2, using Earth and Moon masses and the mean distance, then explore surface gravity.
Universal Gravitation 3 - Examples 27:28
Explore how universal gravitation between two objects scales with mass and distance, using F ∝ M and F ∝ 1/r^2, including doubling masses and distance scenarios.
AP Physics Only - Universal Gravitation 4 - AP Physics Only7:57
AP Physics 1 Content - Not in Regents Curriculum!

Requirements

Students should have already completed Algebra and Geometry courses.

Description

This course is one of several Mousseau Physics courses designed for students in high school physics, AP Physics 1, and introductory algebra based college physics. In this course we focus on dynamics, the study of why objects move the way they do. Students will study force, mass, acceleration, Newton's laws, free body diagrams, normal force, friction, tension, weight, inclined planes, connected objects, and circular motion.

The videos and resources use clear lectures, demonstrations, diagrams, and worked out example problems. Students will practice drawing useful free body diagrams, choosing coordinate systems, writing net force equations, and connecting the physical situation to the math. Those habits are the difference between guessing at dynamics problems and solving them with a repeatable process.

This course is a strong fit for students preparing for high school physics tests, AP Physics 1, or introductory college physics. It does not require calculus. The explanations focus on algebra based reasoning, conceptual understanding, and practical problem solving. Students who struggle with force problems often discover that the issue is not the math itself, but the setup.

By the end of the course, students should be more confident identifying forces, explaining Newton's laws, solving multi-force problems, and using dynamics as a foundation for later mechanics topics such as energy, momentum, torque, and rotational motion.

Students can work straight through the course as a full unit or use individual lessons as targeted support alongside a class. The videos are built to be paused, rewound, and practiced with pencil and paper, so the course works well for homework help, test review, exam preparation, or rebuilding a topic that did not fully click the first time.

Who this course is for:

Any student enrolled in High School or AP Physics as well as any introductory College Physics Student.

Physics - Dynamics for High School and AP Physics 1

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to Dynamics2 lectures • 7min

Workbook - Dynamics Part 11 lecture • 1min

Newton's Laws7 lectures • 1hr 44min

Workbook - Friction, Inclined Planes, and Atwood Machines1 lecture • 1min

Friction4 lectures • 1hr 1min

Inclined Planes4 lectures • 44min

Atwood Machines - AP Physics Only3 lectures • 24min

Workbook - Centripetal Motion and Gravitation1 lecture • 1min

Centripetal Motion5 lectures • 1hr 16min

Universal Gravitation4 lectures • 44min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: