Instant Physics

Introduction - Ancient ideas - Pythagoras and his followers - Earth and the heavens - Aristotle - Ancient elements - Archimedes (inc. simple machines) - The Aristotelian synthesis - Islamic advances - Medieval physicists - The Copernican Revolution - Galileo's experiments - Kepler's Laws - Descartes - Isaac Newton - Speed, velocity and motion - Mass and weight - Momentum, inertia and vis viva - Friction - Newton's laws of motion - SUVAT equations - Work, energy and power - Kinetic and potential energy - Types of collision - Gravitation and orbits - Putting Newton to work (Lagrangian mechanics) - Harmonic motion (Euler) - Timekeeping - Rigid-body dynamics (angular momentum etc,) - Fictitious forces (centrifugal, coriolis) - The three-body problem - Chaos and complexity - Theories of matter - States of matter - Solids and their properties - Deformation and elasticity - Fluid mechanics - Fluid dynamics (Bernoulli effect etc.) - Ideal gases - Kinetic theory - Chemical elements - The periodic table - Introducing atomic structure - Chemical bonding - Chemical reactions - Ionization - Mass spectrometry - Intermolecular bonds (inc. solutions) - X-ray crystallography - Atomic force microscopy - Light from atoms - Black body radiation - Spectroscopy - Types of wave - Interference (inc. Huygens' principle) - Sound waves - Harmonics - Doppler effect - Electromagnetic waves - Reflection (inc. Maupertuis' principle) - Refraction - Diffraction - Wave scattering - Polarization - Wave modulation - Optical instruments - Telescopes - Microscopes - Interferometry - Holography - Infrared and ultraviolet - Radio and microwaves - X-rays and gamma rays - Waves and particles - Forms of energy - Temperature measurement - Heat transfer - Entropy - Laws of thermodynamics - Heat capacity - Changes of state - Heat engines - Static electricity - Current electricity - Electrical components - Circuits - Magnetism - Magnetic materials - Ampere and Coulomb's laws - Electromagnetic induction - Alternating current - Electric motors - Generators - Piezoelectric effect - Semiconductors - Analogue and digital electronics - Electronic components - Superconductivity - Integrated circuits - Vacuum tubes - Discovering subatomic particles - Atoms - the Bohr model - Nucleons - Isotopes - Fluorescence and phosphorescence - Lasers - Atomic timekeeping - Cerenkov radiation - Nuclear physics - Types of radioactivity - Radioactive decay (series/curves) - Radiometric measurements - Fission energy - Fusion energy - Nuclear power - Nuclear weapons - The quantum revolution - Wave-particle duality - Electron microscopy - Schrodinger wave equation - Quantum mechanics - Copenhagen Interpretation - The uncertainty principle - Schrodinger's cat - Many worlds and other quantum interpretations - Quantum numbers and the Pauli exclusion principle - Spin - Superfluids and superconductors - Quantum degeneracy - Entanglement - Quantum computing - The particle zoo (inc. antimatter) - The Standard Model - Quarks - Leptons (inc. neutrinos) - Detecting particles - Particle accelerators - Fundamental forces (inc. gauge theories) - Quantum electrodynamics - Weak nuclear force - Strong nuclear force (inc. quantum chromodynamics) - The Higgs field - Symmetry - Theories of Everything - String theories and higher dimensions - Origins of relativity - Special relativity - Mass-energy equivalence - Minkowski spacetime - General relativity (inc. field equation solutions) - Gravitational lensing - Gravitational waves - Black holes and other singularities - Virtual particles & Hawking radiation - Wormholes & time machines - The large-scale Universe - The Big Bang theory - Building elements - Dark matter - Dark energy - The Anthropic principle - Glossary and Further Reading.