Preface Preface
General physics is a calculus-based introductory physics book. This book is a concise form of my lecture notes that I have been delivering in my introductory level physics courses for many years. This text is not a replacement of any textbook that has been recommended by the instructor but designed to provide additional materials as my personal teaching activities in calculus-based physics. It is intended to support introductory level materials at a rapid and an efficient way. Students who want to use this text assume to have a prerequisite knowledge of some basic mathematical skills such as geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and some advanced mathematical tools such as a differential and integral calculus.
Learning skills by memorization that have been built in many students as a regular practice, cannot work efficiently in learning physics. Physics is a logical and conceptual based learning hence it requires a completely different pattern of study than simply trying to memorize lists of formulae or examples. This book is organized into two volumes that covers the syllabus of introductory physics at undergraduate level in various universities and colleges. General Physics I contains Basics of Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermodynamics. General Physics II contains Electricity, Magnetism, Waves, Acoustics, and Optics. These topics have been carefully chosen to provide an introduction to the basic concepts in physics and to give an opportunity to sharpen critical thinking and problem solving skills. The main objective of this book is to learn how to investigate and approach problems in a logical manner. This book strives to guide readers to learn physics in a logical manner. Many examples and practice problems throughout the text may be helpful to refine physical intuition.
To tackle the physical problems the book uses the ’GUESS’ strategy for a systematic gatheing of information and finding realistic and logistic solution. Here is what GUESS stands for.
G: Given, identify the given information and sketch the information if possible.
U: Unknown, identify the unknown that we are looking for.
E: Equation/s, set up the equation from given information.
S: Substitute, substitute the number/s in the equation/s.
S: Solve, solve the equation to obtain the answer.
Comments and suggestions for improvements to the text will be gratefully accepted. -- Author
