What are temperature and heat? What is self-organization? What does the sea level tell about the moon and sun? How much energy do animals consume? What are the fastest objects ever thrown? How fast can birds and aeroplanes fly?
This free colour pdf on introductory physics guarantees to be entertaining, surprising and challenging on every page. The text presents the best stories, images, movies and puzzles in thermodynamics, mechanics, and gravity - using little mathematics, and always starting from observations of everyday life. This popular volume is downloaded over 40 000 times per year.
This volume explores everyday motion. It explains the conservation laws, the principles of thermodynamics, the reversibility of motion and the smallest entropy. The text also explores mirror symmetry and presents the principle of least action. The motion of animals, of stones, and of the Moon is explored.
The motion of heat, of water and of gases is presented. Above all, the volume shows that all motion in nature follows rules and patterns, and that exceptions do not occur, even if apparence often seems to suggest the opposite. The volume guarantees to be interesting, vivid and challenging on every page. Enjoy!
Read the volume online, without downloading it, via scribd.com, by clicking here.
![]() |
FALL, FLOW AND HEAT | |
1 | Why should we care about motion? | 15 |
2 | From motion measurement to continuity | 33 |
3 | How to describe motion – kinematics | 72 |
4 | From objects and images to conservation | 90 |
5 | From the rotation of the Earth to the relativity of motion | 123 |
6 | Motion due to gravitation | 151 |
7 | Classical mechanics and the predictability of motion | 195 |
8 | Measuring change with action | 213 |
9 | Motion and symmetry | 229 |
10 | Simple motions of extended bodies – oscillations and waves | 248 |
11 | Do extended bodies exist? – Limits of continuity | 283 |
12 | Fluids and their motion | 301 |
13 | From heat to time-invariance | 319 |
14 | Self-organization and chaos - the simplicity of complexity | 348 |
15 | From the limitations of physics to the limits of motion | 366 |
Appendix A | Notation and conventions | 372 |
Appendix B | Units, measurements and constants | 383 |
Appendix C | Sources of information of motion | 398 |