Retired Physics Resources
If you are a student looking for help, there are a few non-internet things you can do (in no particular order):
- Talk to your teacher. We can always explain things different ways. In addition, a conversation with your teacher will help them figure out what your difficulties are. Please don't wait and let confusions fester for wekks. Physics builds on itself, and you really do need to figure things out as you go through the class.
- Read your book. Odds are that the book will present things in a slightly different way from your teacher, and maybe that works better for you. Some people really benefit from reading the book first, so that when the material is gone over in class it won't all be brand new.
- Do some more problems. But be careful! I strongly suggest doing more of the "easy" problems in your book. Doing well in physics is all about building fluency in the ideas. The best way to learn that is practice. Easier problems will be focused on one idea at a time, and this will let you internalize the idea a little better.
- Don't wait until the night before the test! I know you are probably doing way too many things, but it is far more beneficial to spend a little bit each day on physics than cramming it all into one night. Basically, just keep up with the work in class, asking questions as you go, and you should be fine. Some of key phsics ideas are "hard" because they go against most people's internal models of how the world works, which means you have to make some mistakes along the way to really figure out what is happening. It's better to do that on a random homework assignment than on a test.
These links are a few sites that I have used or my students have used and found helpful. I don't intend this to be encyclopedic in nature. Some of these are more geared for teachers.
Great physics education videos. The mechanics part of the Physics C exam is the AB AP physics, so that is the level that my handouts are geared for. A great start if you are unclear on a topic or are just looking for some review.
The University of Colorado has built up a pretty extensive collection of simulations for a variety of science topics. This link goes to the physics simulations. These are all decent to excellent, and can be very helpful in trying to figure out relationships and key concepts in physics.
This is a pretty neat site developed by Nave from the Georgia State University Department of Physics and Astronomy. It is concept-map oriented with a lot information presented in little chunks.
This is a site that I love. It has extensive biographies on mathematicians throughout history and from all over the world. It also has some nice summaries of historical issues. Most everyone that will ever be named in class has a page in here.
This publication comes with membership in the the
The American Association of Physics Teachers which I highly recommend joining if you are a physics teacher. It was a great source of inspiration for labs and how to do things.
page last updated 6/21/23 by david mcclung, copyright 2023, all rights reserved.