Solutions at the end of each chapter are written as though a student had written them, to provide models of what good student explanations should look like. In some cases the solutions also present incorrect or inadequate explanations, with appropriate commentary aimed at common misconceptions. Each student must have his or her own kit of simple equipment, to perform desktop experiments that delve very deeply into the fundamental atomic nature of electric and magnetic interactions. These experiments deal with static electricity, electric circuits, and magnetism. Unless a great deal of classroom time is set aside for working through the book, it is important that students be able to take the equipment home, so that they can do experiments at any time convenient to them, while simultaneously working on the theory.
Preassembled kits are available from the publisher.
If you prefer to assemble your own, see the detailed procurement information included in the full Instructor's Manual. We have re-ordered the topics in a way that makes more pedagogical sense. The unifying thread running through all the topics is the concept of field. In the new curriculum the students keep getting practice in the use of electric field, which runs through the entire course. The most radical change we have made is to analyze DC and RC circuits initially in terms of electric field and surface charge on the wires, before introducing the more abstract concept of electric potential.