Table Of Content

PHYSICS DEMYSTIFIED Other Titles in the McGraw-Hill Demystified Series STAN GIBILISCO • Astronomy Demystified RHONDA HUETTENMUELLER • Algebra Demystified STEVEN KRANTZ • Calculus Demystified PHYSICS DEMYSTIFIED STAN GIBILISCO McGraw-Hill New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto McGraw-Hill abc Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-141212-3 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-138201-1 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occur- rence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For more information, please contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at Want to learn more? We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! If you d like more information about this book, its author, or relat- ed books and websites, please click here. DEDICATION To Samuel, Tony, and Tim from Uncle Stan This page intentionally left blank. For more information about this book, click here. CONTENTS Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv PART ZERO A Review of Mathematics CHAPTER 1 Equations, Formulas, and Vectors 3 Notation 3 One-Variable First-Order Equations 9 One-Variable Second-Order Equations 12 One-Variable Higher-Order Equations 18 Vector Arithmetic 20 Some Laws for Vectors 23 CHAPTER 2 Scientific Notation 29 Subscripts and Superscripts 29 Power-of-10 Notation 31 Rules for Use 35 Approximation, Error, and Precedence 40 Significant Figures 44 CHAPTER 3 Graphing Schemes 49 Rectangular Coordinates 49 The Polar Plane 62 Other Systems 64 CHAPTER 4 Basics of Geometry 77 Fundamental Rules 77 Triangles 86 Quadrilaterals 92 Copyright 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for Terms of Use. viii CONTENTS Circles and Ellipses 101 Surface Area and Volume 103 CHAPTER 5 Logarithms, Exponentials, and Trigonometry 113 Logarithms 113 Trigonometric Functions 124 Trigonometric Identities 127 Test: Part Zero 133 PART ONE Classical Physics CHAPTER 6 Units and Constants 147 Systems of Units 147 Base Units in SI 148 Other Units 154 Prefix Multipliers 158 Constants 160 Unit Conversions 165 CHAPTER 7 Mass, Force, and Motion 171 Mass 171 Force 175 Displacement 176 Speed 178 Velocity 181 Acceleration 183 Newton’s Laws of Motion 188 CHAPTER 8 Momentum, Work, Energy, and Power 193 Momentum 193