Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit R - Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent

by Thomas A. Moore

Overview

Six Ideas that Shaped Physics is comprised of six units, providing a unique approach to a two- or three-semester calculus-based introductory physics course. The text is designed to teach students to apply basic physical principles to realistic situations, and to resolve contradictions between their preconceived notions and the laws of physics. Through integrated practice, students learn to solve realistic problems, and organize the ideas of physics into an integrated hierarchy.

The six units are:
Unit C: Conservation laws constrain interactions
Unit N: The laws of physics are universal (Newtonian mechanics)
Unit R: The laws of physics are frame-independent (Relativity)
Unit E: Electricity and magnetism are unified
Unit Q: Matter behaves like waves (Quantum physics)
Unit T: Some processes are irreversible (Thermal physics)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781264877614
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	01/10/2022
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas A. Moore graduated from Carleton College (magna cum laude with Distinction in Physics) in 1976. He won a Danforth Fellowship that year that supported his graduate education at Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1981. He taught at Carleton College and Luther College before taking his current position at Pomona College in 1987, where he won a Wig Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1991. He served as an active member of the steering committee for the national Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP) from 1987 through 1995. This textbook grew out of a model curriculum that he developed for that project in 1989, which was one of only four selected for further development and testing by IUPP.
He has published a number of articles about astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, detection of gravitational waves, and new approaches to teaching physics, as well as a book on general relativity entitled A General Relativity Workbook (University Science Books, 2013). He has also served as a reviewer and as an associate editor for American Journal of Physics. He currently lives in Claremont, California, with his wife Joyce, a retired pastor. When he is not teaching, doing research, or writing, he enjoys reading, hiking, calling contradances, and playing Irish traditional music.

Table of Contents

Unit R
R1 The Principle of Relativity
R2 Coordinate Time
R3 The Spacetime Interval
R4 Proper Time
R5 Coordinate Transformations
R6 Lorentz Contraction
R7 The Cosmic Speed Limit
R8 Four-Momentum
R9 Conservation of Four-Momentum