Physics I: Introduction to Mechanics and Heat

Physics is defined as the “science that deals with matter and energy and their interactions, the physical processes and phenomena of a particular system, and the physical properties and composition of something”. That pretty much covers everything when you think about it. Ernst Rutherford once said, “Physics is everything, the rest is just stamp collecting.” That might be a bit over the top, but physics is the most fundamental of the sciences since it deals with the study of how the universe operates from the very large to the very small. Since the scope of physics ranges from the large scale structure of galaxies to the small scale structure of fundamental particles, and everything in between, it is important to have a uniform language and method for discussing physical phenomena. Fortunately, we don’t need the full dictionary of physics for the topics that we will be studying in mechanics and heat. We will only need to define and use those concepts that assist us in understanding topics in mechanics such as linear motion, rotational motion, vibrational motion, and wave motion. We will also investigate thermal physics, so when we reach that point we will introduce some new concepts that will enable us to investigate thermal phenomena.