I have found Gaskell's "Introduction to Metallurgical Thermodynamics" to be excellent, with clear sections on statistical thermodynamics and excellent sections on entropy changes due to phase mixing, and a mathematical treatment of everything from integrating the specific heat with respect to...
Dear Physics Forum community,
I teach AP Physics and general physics at a small independent school. One of my colleagues asked me if I could recommend a book on relativity for the son of a friend, who is a bright 11th grade student. Sadly, I have not read many books in the popular science...
I guess I'll answer my own question. According to the authors of the textbook, they subcontract the review questions/conceptual self-test questions at the end of each chapter to other people. It looks likely that there may be an error in the solution set.
A question from Chaisson & McMillan's "A Beginner's Guide to the Universe" is as follows:
If the Moon orbited Earth twice as fast, but in the same orbit, the frequency of solar eclipses would (a) double; (b) be cut in half; (c) stay the same.
The answer key states that the correct answer...
I teach a semester-long Astronomy elective for juniors and seniors at an independent college preparatory high school. For the past few years, I have used Chaisson and McMillan's Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, which has served my purposes well. The course will be changing so...
I am aware of the derivation for the dry adiabatic lapse rate using the enthalpy approach: ncpdT+VdP=0, but I can't seem to spot the error in my own derivation. If anyone sees it, I would be especially grateful.
dU=\deltaQ-\deltaW
ncvdT=0 - PdV
\frac{dT}{dV}=-\frac{P}{nc_{v}}...
Error on page 4
Awww, this one's an easy one. There may be other mistakes, but clearly the author errs in point (g) on page 4. While the atmosphere is gravitationally bound to Earth, it does not orbit the Earth, in the sense that its kinetic energy is half the gravitational potential energy...
In one of my textbooks, the authors claim that luminosity depends on the cube of the mass, yet several online resources say that luminosity varies as mass to the fourth power. Which one is correct?
I haven't posted here in a while, and it feels good to be back. Here's my dilemma. I have taught AP Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism at a private school for a few years now. My background is not in Physics, however, and therefore I have not taken some of the standard courses that a...
Chaisson and McMillan's Astronomy textbook gives the following explanation for the strong magnetic fields in neutron stars:
"The original field of the parent star is amplified as the collapsing core squeezes the magnetic field lines closer together, creating a magnetic field trillions of...
solution
In this problem you have three unknown normal forces, three unknown friction forces and one unknown applied force P. You will get two equations for the x and y components of the net force on the ball, two equations for the x and y components of the net force on the wedge, one equation...
potential difference during lightning strikes
Richard Feynman has a good discussion of thunderstorms in his three volume Lectures on Physics (see Volume 2, Chapter 9). He estimates that the charge on the bottom of a cloud during a thunderstorm is large enough to produce a potential difference...