FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS

MECHANICS
Matter
 Any substance that has mass and occupies
space by having volume is matter. All objects
that can be touched are composed of atoms. In
simple words, "matter" includes atoms and
anything made up of them, and any particles
that act as if they have both mass and volume.
 Matter exists in different states such as solid,
liquid, and gas – for instance, water exists as ice, liquid water, and gaseous steam.
 Water as gas is seen in water vapor and the particles move around freely. For both the liquid
and gas, these particles are close together.
 Plasma is defined as a type of gas but the particles are very far apart compared to the other
three states of matter. Plasma can be seen in neon signs.
 Generally we imagine atomas a nucleus of protons and neutrons, and a surrounding "cloud"
of revolving electrons andoccupies space. However, this is only partiallytrue, because
subatomic particles and their properties are governed by their quantum nature, which means
they do not act as everyday objects seem to act.
 According to Standard Model of particle physics, matter is not a fundamental perception
because the elementary elements of atoms are quantum entities which do not have an
essential "size" or "volume" in any everyday sense of the word.
Mass& Weight
 Mass is not only a property of a physical body but also a measure of its resistance to
acceleration when a net force is applied. An object's mass also decides the strength of its
gravitational attraction to other bodies.
 The basic SI unit of mass is the kilogram (kg).
 In physical science, mass is not equivalent of weight,
even though mass is often determined by measuring
the object's weight using a spring scale, rather than
balance scale comparing it directly with known
masses.
 Anthing on the Moon would weigh less than it does on
Earth gravity on the moon is less, but its mass would
be the same.
 Weight is a force, while mass is the property that)
determines the strength of this force.
 The weight of an object is related to the amount of
force exerted on the object.
 Weight can be defined as a vector quantity, the
gravitational force acting on the object.
 Weight can also bedefined as a scalar quantity, the
magnitude of the gravitational force.
 The unit of measurement for weight in the International System of Units (SI) is the newton.
For example, an object with a mass of one kilogram has a weight of about 9.8 newtons on the
surface of the Earth, and about one-sixth as much on the Moon. Density
Density
 The densityvolumetric mass densityof an object is its mass per unit volume. The symbol
commonly used for density is ρ.
 Density is defined as mass divided by
volume:p=m/V
where ρ is the density, m is the mass, and V is
the volume.
 In some cases, density is loosely defined as its
weight per unit volume,although this is
scientifically inaccurate – this quantity is more
specifically called specific weight.
 Different materials have different densities, and density may be related to buoyancy, purity
and packaging.
Force
 A force is a contact thatwill change the motion of an
object if it is uninterrupted.
 A force can cause an object to alter its velocity. Force
can also be described as a push or a pull. A force has
both magnitude and direction, making it a vector
quantity.
 It is measured in the SI unit of newton and represented
by the symbol F.
 According to Newton's second law the net force acting upon an object is equal to the rate at
which its momentum changes with time.
 Concepts related to force include: thrust, which increases the velocity of an object; drag,
which decreases the velocity of an object; and torque, which produces changes in rotational
speed of an object.
Surface Tension
 Surface tension is shrinking of fluid surfaces into the minimum surface area possible. Surface
tension helps insects, usually denser than water, to float and slide on a water surface.
 Surface tension results from the greater attraction of liquid molecules to each other.The
surface comes under tension from the imbalanced forces, which is probably where the term
"surface tension" came from.
 Due to the relatively high attraction of water molecules to each other through a series of
hydrogen bonds, water has a higher surface tension (72.8 millinewtons per meter at 20 °C)
than most other liquids. Surface tension is an important factor in the phenomenon of
capillarity.
Motion
 Motion is the change in position of an object with respect to its surroundings in a given
interval of time. Motion is described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity,
acceleration, and speed.
 If the position of an object is not changing with respect to a given frame of reference, the
object is said to be at rest.
 Momentum is a quantity used for measuring the motion of an object.
 An object's momentum is directly associated with the object's mass and velocity. The total
momentum of all objects in an isolated system does not change with time, as described by the
law of conservation of momentum.
Frictional Forces
 Frictional forces are present everywhere in our daily life. It is simply impossible to reduce
them completely. Frictional forces are equally useful in some situations as they are a
hindrance in others. If you look for a definition of this term in the physics text glossary you
will find:
A force that resists the relative motion of objects that are in contact with each other.
 Frictional forces exist between surfaces of two objects being in contact. Their direction is
always parallel to that surface and opposite to the direction of the intended motion of an
object. It is important to emphasize the word intended as frictional forces exist even if there
is no motion.
 The term surface means much more than the
surface of a table, floor, road or any other
surface from our daily life.
 A very important field related to friction is
motion of solid objects in the air or in water.
In this case the frictional force is called drag
force. In spite of a quite different name the
drag force is also a frictional force and only the mechanism which creates this type of friction
is very different from the one creating the friction between two solid objects.
Work, Energy and Power
 Work and energy are mutually connected and must be considered together as work is often
defined in terms of energy and vice versa.
Work can be generally defined as transfer of energy.
 In physics we say that work is done on an object when you transfer energy to that object. In
one object transfer (gives) energy to a second object, then the first object does work on the
second object.
Energy can be defined as the capacity for doing work.
 The simplest case of mechanical work is when an object is standing still and we force it to
move. Consider a small car with a broken engine in the center of the street. The drive can
apply force, push it and move to the side of the street. The driver transfer energy to the car.
 While the car is in motion (very slow one, but motion) it has energy.
The energy of a moving object is called kinetic energy.
 Work done by a Constant Force―When a force causes displacement of a body, work is
done. By work we means mechanical work, as defined in physics.
THERMODYNAMICS
 Thermodynamics is a branch of physics which studies the laws that govern the conversion of
energy from one form to another. It studies the direction in which the energy flows and the
availability of energy to do work.
 It is based on the assumption that in an isolated system there is a measurable amount of
energy called internal energy which is usually denoted by letter U. This is the total energy of
this isolated system and it is a sum of kinetic and potential energy of the atoms and
molecules of the system of all kinds.
 It can be transferred directly as heat to other systems if we “connect” these systems. This
definition of internal energy U excludes nuclear and chemical energy. The value of U can be
changed only if we “remove” the isolation of the system by connecting it to other one. In
such a case we can change the internal energy by transferring among the system:
Mass, heat, or work being done on or by the system
Temperature and Heat
 Temperature and heat are not the same
phenomenon. When we touch a piece of ice,
we feel that it is cold. A glass with freshly
prepared coffee is hot. This we know
without studying physics. We can
 distinguish between a glass of just prepared coffee and one that has stood on the table for 20
minutes. The temperature of these glasses is different.
 In other words,
―Temperature is the measure of intensity of hotness accumulated in a body.This is nota
definition of temperature, but rather a description of what temperature is. More precisely, the
temperature of a body is a macroscopic
measure of the average speed of the
body’s atoms and molecules.
―Heat is a measure of the quantity of
heat energy present in a body.If we have
two containers with hot water, one of
volume 1.0 milliliter (milliliter = 10–3)
and the other of volume 1.0 liter, there is
1000 times more thermal energy or heat
in this second one.
 The amount of heat energy “stored” in a body depends on its mass, temperature, and on some
internal property, which is called specific heat.

Heat
 Heat is energy in transfer from a thermodynamic system by mechanisms including
conduction, through direct contact of immobile bodies, or through a wall or barrier that is
resistant to matter; or radiation between separated bodies.
 When there is aappropriatetrail between two systems with varying temperatures, heat transfer
necessarily takes place, immediately, and spontaneously from the hotter to the colder system.
 Thermal conduction takes place by the stochastic motion of microscopic particles. In
contrast, thermodynamic work is defined by mechanisms that act macroscopically and
directly on the system's whole-body state variables.
 The definition of heat transfer does not require that the process be in any sense smooth. For
example, a bolt of lightning may transfer heat to a body.

Evaporation
 Evaporation occurs on the surface of a liquid when it transforms into the gas state. When the
molecules of the liquid strike, they transmit energy to each other based on the way they strike
with each other.
 When a molecule absorbs enough energy to overcome the vapor pressure, it will escape and
enter the surrounding air as a gas.
 When evaporation takes place, the energy removed from the vaporized liquid will reduce the
temperature of the liquid, resulting in evaporative cooling.
 The evaporation continues until an equilibrium is reached when the evaporation of the liquid
is equal to its condensation.

Transfer of Heat
 Heat transfer is concerned with the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal
energy between physical systems.
 Heat transfer can be classified into different mechanisms like thermal conduction, thermal
convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of
energy by phase changes.
 Conduction
 Heat conductionis the direct microscopic
exchange of kinetic energy of particles
through the boundary between two
systems.
 When an object is at a different
temperature from another body or its
environs, heat flows so that the body and
the surroundings reach the same
temperature, at which point they are in
thermal equilibrium.

 Radiation
 Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles
through space or through a material medium.
 Radiation includes electromagnetic radiation, particle radiation, and gravitational
radiation.
 X-rays from medical radiography and muons, mesons, positrons, neutrons and other
particles that constitute the secondary cosmic rays that are produced after primary cosmic
rays interact with Earth's atmosphere.
 Convection
 Convection is transfer of heat due to the large scale movement of molecules within fluids
such as gases and liquids.
 Convection includes sub-mechanisms of advection and diffusion .
 Convection does not occur in most solids because bulk current flows and diffusion of
matter do not take place.
LIGHT
 Luminous bodies emit light. Non-luminous bodies do
not. Instead, nonluminous objects usually reflect light.
Changing the condition of nonluminous object may
make it luminous. Incandescent bodies emit light
when they are heated.
 Light travels in straight lines (except in a strong
gravitational field). This is called rectilinear propagation.
The path followed by light is represented by rays. (Rays
do not actually exist in nature. They are geometric
constructs used to help explain the behavior of light).
 A beam can be thought of as a collection of rays.
 Transparent objects transmit light (absorbing and
reflecting some as well). Translucent materials scatter
and transmit light, preventing objects from being seen
 clearly through them. Opaque materials prevent light from passing through them.
 Shadows form when opaque objects are placed directly in the path of light. A total shadow is
called an umbra. A partial shadow is a penumbra. During a solar eclipse, a total eclipse can
be observed within the umbra of the shadow.

Reflection
 Using simple words reflection is the phenomenon
when light is returned after impinging on a surface.
To accept reflection we must accept the wave nature
of light, because reflection has to do with waves.
Part of light wave or whole the wave remains at the
same medium after the reflection.
 During reflection the angle between the direction of
motion of the oncoming wave and the perpendicular
to the reflecting surface (angle of incidence) is
equal to the angle between the direction of motion of the reflected wave and a perpendicular
(angle of reflection).
 When light meets with a mirror is reflected and what follows is the representation of our
image onto the mirror. What we just described is not the usual situation, because a mirror is
considered to be a perfect surface without convolutions.
 Most of the times light does not meet with such perfects surfaces. An orange of orange
colour, for example, has a surface―definitely not perfect―which reflects the orange
component of "white" light (the "white" light includes all the components of colours),
whereas it absorbs all the other components, the red one, the green one etc.This makes
possible the vision. Now we can say we are talking about specular reflection and the similar
phenomenon of diffuse reflection. Although someone has a certain idea about reflection in
his mind, he does not realize the fact that diffuse reflection is much more critical.
 Another part which has to do with reflection is the phenomenon when light meets surfaces
which can reflect it but they are not flat. The surface of a spoon is the perfect example we all
learnt during school years. The surface of a spoon is not a mirror but at the same time it is
something similar to it.
 We generally use two terms to describe such non flat mirrors: The concave mirror which
could be represented by the inner surface of a spoon and the convex mirror which could be
the outer surface. In both phenomena the reflected image appears misshapen. Concave
mirrors are widely used in light telescopes where the light that reaches the telescope is not
enough to represent an image.
―The concave mirror concentrates the rays to a single point, thus we achieve the
representation.
―On the other hand, we take advantage of convex mirrors in motorways where a convex
mirror offers a wider field of vision than a usual mirror. The mixture of concave and convex
mirrors are usual at fun fairs where one could be scared of his appearancetotally misshapen.
 Reflection plays an important role to modern microscopes. Light is successively reflected
from mirrors and at the same time it is magnified. Finally, we are able to take a satisfactory
magnification of the element we examine.
Mirrors and Images
 Images in flat mirrors are of the same size as the object
and are located behind the mirror.
 Security mirrors form images that are smaller than the
object. We will use the law of reflection to understand
how mirrors form images, and we will find that mirror
images are analogous to those formed by lenses.
 In Figure 1, two rays are shown emerging from the
same point, striking the mirror, and being reflected Figure 1

into the observer’s eye. The rays can diverge slightly,

and both still get into the eye. If the rays are
extrapolated backward, they seem to originate from a
common point behind the mirror, locating the image.
 Using the law of reflection—the angle of reflection
equals the angle of incidence—we can see that the Figure 2
image and object are the same distance from the
mirror. This is a virtual image, since it cannot be projected—the rays only appear to originate
from a common point behind the mirror. Obviously, if you walk behind the mirror, you
cannot see the image, since the rays do not go there. But in front of the mirror, the rays
behave exactly as if they had come from behind the mirror, so that is where the image is
situated.
 In Figure 2, Rays of light that strike the surface follow the law of reflection. For a mirror that
is large compared with its radius of curvature, as in Figure 2a, we see that the reflected rays
do not cross at the same point, and the mirror does not have a well-defined focal point. If the
mirror had the shape of a parabola, the rays would all cross at a single point, and the mirror
would have a well-defined focal point. But parabolic mirrors are much more expensive to
make than spherical mirrors. The solution is to use a mirror that is small compared with its
radius of curvature, as shown in Figure 2b.
 To a very good approximation, this mirror has a well-defined focal point at F that is the focal
distance f from the center of the mirror. The focal length f of a concave mirror is positive,
since it is a converging mirror.
 The convex mirror shown in Figure 3 also has a focal point. Parallel rays of light reflected
from the mirror seem to originate from the point F at the focal distance f behind the mirror.
The focal length and power of a convex mirror are negative, since it is a diverging mirror.
 Ray tracing is as useful for mirrors as for lenses. The rules
for ray tracing for mirrors are based on the illustrations just
discussed:
 In figure 3, Parallel rays of light reflected from a convex
spherical mirror (small in size compared with its radius of
curvature) seem to originate from a well-defined focal point
at the focal distance f behind the mirror. Convex mirrors
diverge light rays and, thus, have a negative focal length.
―A ray approaching a concave converging mirror parallel
to its axis is reflected through the focal point F of the mirror
on the same side. (See rays 1 and 3 in Figure 2b.)
Figure 3
―A ray approaching a convex diverging mirror parallel to
 its axis is reflected so that it seems to come from the focal point F behind the mirror. (See
rays 1 and 3 in Figure 3.)
―Any ray striking the center of a mirror is followed by applying the law of reflection; it
makes the same angle with the axis when leaving as when approaching. (See ray 2 in Figure
4.)
―A ray approaching a concave converging mirror through its focal point is reflected parallel
to its axis. (The reverse of rays 1 and 3 in Figure 2.)
―A ray approaching a convex diverging mirror by
heading toward its focal point on the opposite side is
reflected parallel to the axis.
Refraction
 Refraction is the change in direction of a wave
passing from one medium to another or from a
gradual change in the medium. Refraction of light is
the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other
waves such as sound waves and water waves also
experience refraction.
 How much a wave is refracted is determined by the change in wave speed and the initial
direction of wave propagation relative to the direction of change in speed.
 Consider a wave going from one material to another where its speed is slower as in the
figure. If it reaches the interface between the materials at an angle one side of the wave will
reach the second material first, and therefore slow down earlier. With one side of the wave
going slower the whole wave will pivot towards that side.
 This is why a wave will bend away from the surface or toward the normal when going into a
slower material. In the opposite case of a wave reaching a material where the speed is higher,
one side of the wave will speed up and the wave will pivot away from that side.
Laws of Refraction
 First law of refraction states that the incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the
interface all lie in the same plane.
 Second law of refraction states that for two given media, the ratio sin is in r =constant,
where i is the angle of incidence and r is the angle of refraction.

ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

 Electricity and magnetism are strongly related field of
physics.
 It is hard to find an example where magnetism exist
without electricity and electricity without magnetism
associated with it.
 Any motion of electric charges constitutes an electric
current and any electric current is a source of a magnetic
field.
Electrostatics
 Electrostatics is a branch of electricity which deals with
electric charges which are not in motion–they are static.
 There are plenty of things to learn about electrostatics and you will see how many
phenomena observed in everyday life can be associated with electric charges and with static
electricity.
 Electrostatics is the branch of physics explaining phenomena arising due to the existence of
electric charges, which do not move–they are static.
 Electrostatics can explain numerous physical phenomena observed in everyday life. With
static electricity it is a subject of extensive studies, which are directed towards eliminating,
controlling or–just the opposite–producing electric charges.
Electric Charge
 The Greeks were the first to discover electricity about 2500 year ago. They found that when a
piece of amber was rubbed with other materials it would attract small objects such as dried
leaves, or straw. The Greek word for amber is electron. The word electric was derived from
it and meant “to be like amber.”
 There are numerous materials which possess a similar property. The explanation of this
mechanics, for example. In mechanics we see the objects, we can measure and “feel” the
force acting on it. Everything is in a macroscopic scale.
 The phenomena of attracting by amber other materials is somehow mysterious. There is no
way to observe any macroscopic change of amber after it is rubbed. We must use our
imagination and propose some “mechanism” or model for such behavior.
 Any net electric charge present in nature is always a multiple of the unit charge associated
with an electron (only the sings may vary). The effect of the existence of electric charges can
be observed everywhere. If you walk on a carpet in dry weather and then you bring your
finger close to a metal doorknob you produce a spark between the finger close to a metal
doorknob you produce a spark between the finger and the metal.
Magnetism
 Similarities which scientist observed between electricity and magnetism led them to suggest
that magnetic properties are possibly the result of forces between electric charges in motion.
 Substances which can be induced to become magnetized in a magnetic field are called
ferromagnetic. Soft ferromagnetic materials become demagnetized spontaneously when
removed from a magnetic field. Hard ferromagnetic materials can retain their magnetism,
making them useful in the production of permanent magnets.
 A compass is a magnet which can align itself within
the earth’s magnetic field.A magnet contains a north–
seeking pole (north pole) and a south–seeking pole
(south pole).
 Similar magnetic poles repel. Opposite magnetic poles
attract. (Law of Magnetic poles)
 A magnetic field is a region in space where a
magnetic force can be detected.The magnetic field is
strongest at the poles of a magnet.
 Magnetic lines of force are a way of representing a
magnetic field.The magnetic poles of the earth are not
located at the geographic poles.
 The angle between the geographic North Pole and the
 magnetic “north” pole is called the magnetic declination.The angle of declination depends
on ‘one’s location of earth.

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