The accompanying laboratory work is designed to illustrate the material discussed in the lectures. A course designed to give prospective or active teachers of science a laboratory orientation to the processes and concepts involved in interpreting the physical surroundings. A one-semester course introducing the fundamentals of physics through technological applications, many of which are in aerospace science. Topics include measurement, motion, temperature, heat, properties of fluids, sound, oscillations, waves, and electricity and magnetism. The experimental aspects of physics are emphasized in the classroom and in the laboratory.
Considerable time is devoted to problem-solving.
Course content includes measurement, vectors, kinematics, dynamics, gravitation, energy, momentum, rotational motion, properties of matter, heat, thermal properties of matter, thermodynamics, wave motion and sound. The course is algebra-based. Topics include electricity and magnetism, electromechanical devices, AC circuits, geometrical and physical optics and modern physics. The first semester of a one-year sequence in laboratory work that emphasizes experimental techniques, procedures and formal report writing. Laboratory experiments reinforce or extend the work of the lecture portion of the course.