Horizon Science Channel

Episode nineteen of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This is quantum. Covers chapter 29 of the text below. It addresses topic 7 for the AP physics 2 course. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

Episode eighteen of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This is special relativity, with some tangents into particle physics and thermodynamics. Covers chapter 28 of the text below. It is not listed as a topic for any AP physics course. But, it's still fun to learn :-) OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

Episode seventeen of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about wave optics with some quantum mechanics and interference stuff mixed in. Covers chapter 27 of the text below and topic 6 for AP 2. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The sixteenth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about mirrors, adaptive optics, some stuff on quantum mechanics, how the eye works, and the moon's orbit. Covers parts of chapters 25 and 26 of the text below and topic 6 for AP 2. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The fifteenth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about magnetism, electroweak theory, and some circuits. Covers parts of chapters 22 and 24 of the text below and topic 10 for AP 5 for AP 2, and 4 and 5 for AP E&M. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The fourteenth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about magnetism, electroweak theory, and some circuits. Covers parts of chapters 20 and 21 of the text below and topic 9 for AP 1, 4 for AP 2, and 1, 2, and 3 for AP E&M. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The thirteenth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about electric charge, electricity, and some magnetism. Covers parts of chapters 18 and 19 of the text below and topic 8 for AP 1, 10 for AP 2, and 1 and 2 for AP E&M. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The twelvth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This one is about waves and sound. Covers chapters 16 and 17 of the text below and topic 10 for AP 1. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The eleventh episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. We start with a discussion of entropy, then move on to some statistical mechanics. The last half of the piece is looking at oscillations and simple harmonic motion. Covers chapters 15 and 16 of the text below and topic 6 for both AP 1 and Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The tenth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. This video gives an overview of different heat engines. It's a bit of a departure. Less deep content, more practical explanation.

The ninth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. We now talk about compressible fluids, specifically ideal gases. We also cover heat and phase transitions. Covers chapters 13, 14, and 15 of the text below and topic 2 for AP 2. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The eighth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. We move from particles to continuous media and talk about incompressible fluids. 0:00 Introduction and review 1:00 Continuous medium 11:00 Bernoulli's equation (conservation of energy) 24:05 Some examples (airplanes, water fountains, dark matter detectors) 36:30 Pascal and Archimedes 47:00 Capillaries 1:01:00 Laminar and Turbulent Flow 1:06:40 Water Fountains (conservation of matter) 1:15:45 Equations of State (compressible fluids intro) Covers chapters 11 and 12 of the text below and topic 1 for AP 2. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The seventh episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. We talk about gravity, the equivalence principle, Kepler's laws, noninertial reference frames, and the olympics. 0:00 Introduction and review 1:00 Gravity 8:05 Equivalence Principle 16:40 Testing gravity with mirrors on the moon 29:00 Why gravity wins 34:00 Fake News Forces 48:00 Kepler's Laws 1:00:30 Olympic sports Covers chapter 6 of the text below and topic 3 for AP 1 and topic 7 for AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The sixth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. We now consider rotations, angular momentum, and spin (including a bit on quantum spin). 0:00 Introduction and review 4:25 Angular momentum 17:20 Similarities between linear and angular physics 10:00 An alternative formulation (Lagrangians) 28:50 Spin 35:00 Quick overview of upcoming material 38:50 Back to spin, with animations! 53:45 Cool experiment with spin Covers chapter 10 of the text below and topic 7 for AP 1 and topic 5 for AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The fifth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. Now, we look briefly at the nature of friction before exploring an alternative formulation of physics (Lagrangian mechanics). My apologies up front as it was the first time I've tried to present that material. I briefly cover momentum conservation. 0:00 Introduction 0:30 Catching up on energy conservation 6:10 Friction 10:00 An alternative formulation (Lagrangians) 26:18 Newton's second law derived from energy 30:48 Add rotation and Lorentz force 42:03 Momentum Covers chapters 4 and 7 of the text below and topics 4 and 5 for AP 1 and topic 3 for AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The fourth episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. Now, we add physics to the mathematical framework that we've built up in the previous two installments. We cover Newton's laws, the fundamentals of force, and get a preview of some of the conserved quantities that we will explore next time. 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Energy 11:55 Origin of "Force" 21:30 Macroscopic Forces 31:00 Conservation Laws 49:00 Power and Energy Transformation 58:03 Bad Math (1,000,000 Joules / 100 Megawatts) 58:33 Chemical Energy (Burning) 1:06:25 Q&A Basically chapter 7 of the text below and topic 4 for AP 1 and topic 3 for AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The third episode of our deep dive into the material that is covered in AP physics classes. Now, we add physics to the mathematical framework that we've built up in the previous two installments. We cover Newton's laws, the fundamentals of force, and get a preview of some of the conserved quantities that we will explore next time. 0:00 Introduction 1:50 Physics joins the party 16:50 Forces 38:30 Defining a system 45:30 How to win a tug of war 57:13 It's E&M all the way down 1:13:25 Fake News Forces 1:22:10 Q&A Basically chapter 4 of the text below and topic 2 for AP 1 and AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

The second episode where I dig into the deep aspects of the material that is covered in AP physics classes—hopefully providing interesting insights that would otherwise be overlooked. Here I discuss kinematics—how we map what we observe onto a mathematical framework. 0:00 Introduction 6:10 Geometry 28:45 Mapping reality onto coordinate systems 54:00 Q&A Basically chapters 2 and 3 of the text below and topic 1 for AP 1 and AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

This episode is the first in a series where I discuss the fundamental aspects of the AP physics course. Rather than teaching the curriculum, I dig into the deep aspects of the material that is covered—hopefully providing interesting insights into what is otherwise taught in the class. 0:00 Introduction to the series 6:10 Units 36:05 Coordinate Systems 51:11 Accuracy and Precision 1:06:39 Q&A Covers roughly chapter 1 from the text below and is preliminary information from AP 1 and AP Mechanics. OpenStax textbook: https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-ap-courses

This is my attempt to showcase the Pierre Auger observatory. It is an enormous cosmic ray observatory, located in Argentina near the Chilean border. Big detector (3000 square kilometers) = rare events. Image from ASPERA/Novapix/L. Bret

This is a somewhat long overview of the design of the LIGO gravitational radiation detector. LIGO detected the first inspiral of stellar-mass (30~ish solar mass) black holes in 2015. There is a lot to unpack, especially regarding the science. I'll probably have to revisit it to go into some of those details. Image from R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL

This is a brief overview of the Ice Cube neutrino detector at the south pole. It is a cubic kilometer of detector volume to measure the highest energy neutrinos. Image from E. Jacobi/NSF

A quick overview of the Dark Energy Survey to study the properties of Dark Energy. Image from T. Abbott and NOAO/AURA/NSF

So, I had planned to go in a different direction at the start, but there was too much back story. This was the result. I talk about some of the interplay between dark matter, dark energy, gravity, and inflation. I think I will need to revisit this topic at some point in the future to do a better job. But it will need multiple segments... Oh well. Enjoy! Image is from the Fermilab Image Gallery. The sculpture is called "Broken Symmetry". It is located near the west entrance to the laboratory campus. It is orange when viewed from one side, black from the other. The three legs are offset when viewed from this angle, but are symmetrical when viewed from above.

I give an overview of some high pressure physics techniques and then go into some detail about the discovery of room temperature superconductivity using some of these techniques. Image from Salamat Lab