View source for Physics self help

==Resources for physics students==

====Math Review Worksheets====

These are low-tech, pre-computer, self-study tutorials. Print out the PDF files. Then you read the stuff in the boxes, answer the questions and turn the page to check the answer. Work the top row of all the pages and then the second row etc.

* [http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/crane/PoT.pdf Calculating with Powers of Ten]
* [http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/crane/algebra.pdf Algebra]
* [http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/crane/triangles.pdf Angles and Triangles]
* [http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/crane/trigonometry.pdf Trigonometry]
* [http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/crane/vectors.pdf Vectors]

(These are provided with the permission of the author, H.R. Crane, Univ. of Michigan.)

*[[Math Diagnostic|Math Diagnostic Test]]
*[http://condor.depaul.edu/jmilton/mathd/mathd.html Another Math Diagnostic Test]

====Problems and techniques for solving them====

[http://www.sfu.ca/phys/100/lectures/lecture7/problem1/prob1.html Interactive Kinematics Problem]

[http://per.physics.illinois.edu/resources/interactive-examples/ More interactive problems] from the University of Illinois (recommended)

[https://online-s.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys212/gtm/No_Login/page.html SmartPhysics Examples] From the University of Illinois. E&M and Optics

[http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/tutorials.html Physics Tutorials] from the University of Guelph

[http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~cls/interactive/ Problem-solving Tutorials] from University of Pittsburg

====Lectures and explanations====
[http://www.physics.harvard.edu/academics/undergrad/limericks.html Physics Limericks] from Harvard

[http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys212/spring12/WE.html Worked E&M examples] Good for Phys141 and Phys121

[http://www.fearofphysics.com Fear of Physics Site]  Fear not! Physics is Explained

[http://www.exploratorium.edu/light_walk/ Bob Miller's Light Walk] Exploratorium classic about light and simple optics.

[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/physics/physics/index.htm MIT Physics OpenCourseware] At the beginning level  (Physics 100)

[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/ Mechanics Lectures] First-year OpenCourseware from Mit, Prof. W. Lewin. Also contains sample assignments, exams and solutions. (recommended but currently down) Try the [http://web.archive.org/web/20080302121130/http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm waybackmachine]

[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/index.htm Electricity &amp; Magnetism Lectures] First-year OpenCourseware from MIT, Prof. W Lewin. Also contains sample assignments, exams and solutions. (recommended but currently down. Try the [http://web.archive.org/web/20130312095712/http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02-electricity-and-magnetism-spring-2002/video-lectures/ waybackmachine])

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEHVhv0SBMpP75JbzJShqw Lewin Lectures] The Lewin Lectures on Youtube, Also with help sessions

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02-physics-ii-electricity-and-magnetism-spring-2007/ MIT TEAL course in E & M] A Studio Course as taught at MIT

[http://www.physicsclassroom.com/ The Physics Classroom]  Tutorials, animations,questions, exercises at the Physics
100 level


[http://www.afrotechmods.com/groovy/oscilloscope_tutorial/oscilloscope_tutorial.htm  Oscilloscope tutorial] Video :)

[http://particleadventure.org Particle Adventure] the universe explained by cartoons.

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/ All MIT open courseware in Physics]

====Simulations====

*[http://phet.colorado.edu/index.php PhET Interactive Simulations] from the University of Colorado, uses Java or Flash.
*[http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html Paul Falstad's Math and Physics Applets] Java
*[http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/Applets.html Physlets Home Page] Customizable Java Applets for Physics
*[http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/applist/applets.htm Michigan State Physics Applets] From the home of Lon-CAPA!
*[http://sydney.edu.au/science/uniserve_science/school/curric/stage6/phys/physapplets.html#tools Australian Applets] plus a long list of others
*[http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/flashlets/home.htm Physics "Flashlets"] from Virginia. (Check out the light clock). ( [http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/flashlets/home_ch.htm Chinese verson big 5] )
*[http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/ National Taiwan Univ. Conceptual Learning Centre] More Physlet-based applets
*[http://ase.tufts.edu/csmt/tools/visualizer.htm Vector Visualizer] from Tufts

====Open Content Textbooks====

There are a number physics textbooks on the [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Physics Wikibooks] site. Many of them are not useful because of lack of content, lack of examples or mistakes and misconceptions by the authors. The [[:wikibooks:FHSST_Physics|wikibooks:FHSST_Physics]] (High School Students Studying Physics) may be the best of the lot right now.

[http://archive.org/details/PhysicsForTheEnquiringMind Physics for the Enquiring Mind] by [[wikipedia:Eric M. Rogers | Eric M. Rogers]]  &mdash;
Inspiring book for a course in physics for non-specialists at Princeton. Though intended for non-science majors, it is not dumbed down.

[http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/college-physics OpenStax College Physics] At the level of 101/102

[http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html The Feynman Lectures on Physics] Volume 1 so far

===Practice Exams===
University of Illinois has on-line computer-scored multiple choice practice exams for its courses.

The links to these practise multiple-choice exams change every year. However, if you go to the UIUC Physics [http://physics.illinois.edu/courses/ Course listing physics course listings ]  look for ''Practice Exams'' on the course web page you will probably find them..
*[http://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys211/practice-exams.asp 120/140-level Mechanics]
*[https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys212/sp2016/exam-information.asp 141-level Electricity and Magnetism]
*[http://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys101/practice-exams.asp 101-level Mechanics, Fluids and Heat]
*[http://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys102/practice-exams.asp 102-level Electricity & magnetism]

MIT Physics [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/ open courseware] provides essay-type exam problems for practice, with solutions.

*[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-1999/exams/ 120/140-level Mechanics]
*[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02-electricity-and-magnetism-spring-2002/exams/ 121/141-level Electricity and Magnetism]

===Videos===
*[http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html The Mechanical Universe..and Beyond] PBS TV series from CalTech. ''Entertaining, inspiring and informative---Flying equations!''.

*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEHVhv0SBMpP75JbzJShqw Lewin Lectures] The Lewin Lectures on Youtube, Also with help sessions

*[http://www.archive.org/details/frames_of_reference Frames of Reference] Hume and Ivey amaze in this classic. Directed by Richard Leacock

*[http://www.archive.org/details/magnet_laboratory_1959 A Magnet Laboratory]  Francis Bitter shows his stuff in his lab. Directed by Richard Leacock

*[http://www.archive.org/details/coulombs_law Coulomb's Law] Manic physics professor Eric Rogers explains the Law. Directed by Richard Leacock,  cameo appearance of Elspeth Leacock.

==Software==
The emphasis here is on free stuff.

*[http://www.vernier.com/downloads Vernier] Logger Lite (free). LoggerPro Linux (free), LoggerPro Win/Mac (30-day demo)
*[http://www.cabrillo.edu/~dbrown/tracker/ Tracker Video Analysis sytem] free, Java-Mac/Win/Linux
*[http://www.compadre.org/OSP/ Open Source Phyics] Simulations, Modelling, Curriculum. Tools etc.
*[http://sourceforge.net/projects/physmo/ PhysMo] Open Source Video Analysis, Java-Mac/Win/Linux, free
*[http://webphysics.davidson.edu/applets/applets.html Physlets] Java applications for simulation and animation, customizable
*[http://phet.colorado.edu PhET] Browser-based java and flash simulations
*[http://maxima.sourceforge.net/ Maxima] Computer Algebra System, Macsyma was a rival of Mathematica and Maple but never successfully commercialized. Maxima is an open-sourced version.
*[http://www.gnuplot.info/ gnuplot] Grand-old data-plotting package that never fails, but may give a headache.
*[http://www.libreoffice.org/ LibreOffice] Version of [http://www.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice], an alternative to MS Office
*[http://www.latex-project.org/ Latex] The place to go to get Latex
**[http://www.overleaf.com Overleaf]    Online Collaborative Latex system. Immediate rendering and has templates  for papers and presentations, Formerly WriteLatex.
*[http://www.python.org/ Python] A good programming language. has complex numbers and numerical packages, eg numpy, matplotlib
*[http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Octave] Matlab clone, open source
*[http://www.scilab.org/ SciLab] Another MatLab-type package, but free and open source  Comments on [[Octave_vs_SciLab]]
*[http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/ ImageJ]  The most comprehensive and best-supported (free) image analysis software.
*Drawing
**[http://inkscape.org/ Inkscape] Vector drawing tool, svg-oriented, cross-platform
**[https://svg-edit.github.io/svgedit/releases/svg-edit-2.8.1/svg-editor.html svg-edit] Browser-based version of Inkscape
**[http://www.xfig.org/ Xfig] Can't leave this out. eps-oriented.
**[http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/ Paintbrush] bitmaps for mac only (sometimes you need it)
**[http://www.gnu.org/software/gpaint/ gnuPaint] Linux bitmap drawing for when [http://www.gimp.org/ gimp] is just too much
**[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electrical_symbols_library.svg Electrical_symbols_library.svg] vector electronic schematic symbols
*[http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/java/AbacusAppJS.html Old School]

===Classroom Response Systems===
There are some inexpensive systems that use wifi and the internet to reproduce some of the functionality of the iClicker systems

*[http://webclicker.org webclicker] open source
*[http://www.polleverywhere.com PollEverywhere] Free trial is limited, Otherwise $14/student/year in 2015
*[http://teachertap.appspot.com/ TeacherTap] Free Students can vote "Got It", "Unsure", "Lost" continually during class,  
*[http://pingo.upb.de  free, PINGO] German.  ABCD 
*[http://www.educause.edu/library/clickers list of systems] at educause.edu