Download Physics Resources: Books

Mechanics Concepts
Vectors
The following website has an applet that allows you to add and subtract vectors while
using both the triangle and the parallelogram law.
http://surendranath.tripod.com/Applets/Math/VectorAddition/Vecto
rAdditionApplet.html
This site is very good if you want students to use their formula. You can show them
the answer and then get them to check to see if it’s right. Some play time.
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/vector-addition/vectoraddition_en.html
Displacement vs. length
http://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash/
ClassMechanics/DisplaceDistance/DisplaceDistance.html
This is a little flash applet showing the difference between displacement and distance.
The page can be saved as a favourite and made available off line.
Acceleration vs. Velocity v’s Displacement
http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph14e/acceleration.htm
This is a very good applet as you can change the inital position, velocity and
acceleration to see how the graph changes. This site also helps with loking a the
difference between velocity and speed.
Acceleration due to gravity.
All objects fall with the same acceleration near the surface of the earth. This is an
animation of Galileo’s Experiment from the tower of Pisa
http://www.seed.slb.com/uploadedFiles/Science/Laboratory/Air_an
d_Space/Galileo_Drops_the_Ball/anim/en/index.html?width=740&
height=570&popup=true
The following website shows the forces that are acting on a skydiver as they are fall
from a plane. It shows how the acceleration and velocity changes as the skydiver fall.
http://www.waowen.screaming.net/revision/force&motion/skydiver
.htm
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PDST: The Professional Development Service for Teachers
A ball in freefall
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/java/Freefall2.html
Friction
This is a really nice demonstration to show the effect of friction.
Interweave the pages from two books and then try to pull them
apart.
The following website shows why when you rub two objects together what happens to
the temperature.
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/friction/friction_en.html
Forces
This website is great for showing the forces acting on an apple it is great for getting
students to think about forces acting on a body.
http://www.absorblearning.com/media/attachment.action?quick=5
b&att=374
Forces on an elevator
This goes through step-by-step how the forces and acceleration change as an elevator
moves up.
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/semester1/c05_elevator.html
Newtons Laws of Motion
This website is great Newton talks you through each of his laws of motion. It has an
animation that illustrates the laws for all those visual learners.
http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/newton/newton.
html
The IoP Supporting Physics Teaching (11 –14) forces CDs are great for illustrating
the laws of motion also they have innovative teaching activities in getting students to
deal with identify forces acting on objects.
A circus of stations can be set up using different objects. They can do this individually
or in groups. They can make arrows to identify where there are forces acting and
explain to others in the group. Such as where is the force, what provides the force etc?
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PDST: The Professional Development Service for Teachers
Momentum
This web page has a small animation showing a block being dropped into a moving
cart it shows how the momentum for both the cart and the block changes.
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/momentum/cbb.cfm
This is a great site as you can see how kinetic energies, momentum and the velocities
change when two objects collide.
http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph14e/collision.htm
A great demo to do in the class to show momentum is to take a basketball and a tennis
ball. Bounce the two separately and then place the tennis ball on top of the basketball
and bounce them together. Be careful though of any glassware.
Energy
This is a great illustration to show how energy is converted and conserved. It shows a
rhino jumping off a building.
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_rhino.html
Pressure
This is an excellent animation showing the relationship between pressure, volume and
temperature.
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/gassesbuoyancy/idealgas.jnlp
SHM / Hooke’s Law
The following website is a very good simulation showing how velocity and
displacement changes when an object moves with SHM. It also illustrates clearly that
a body moving in a circular executes SHM.
http://www.ngsir.netfirms.com/englishhtm/SpringSHM.htm
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/torque
Interesting Websites
The Physics classroom website is also very good for getting animations.
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/u2l1a.cfm
The above clip shows a person travelling in a car without a seat belt.
Also don’t not forget to check out www.thephysicsteacher.ie it is a great resource.
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PDST: The Professional Development Service for Teachers