Physics 231 Workbook: Mechanics and Thermodynamics with a bit of Fluids and Oscillations.
Physics 232 Workbook: Waves, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics
The Purpose of the Workbooks
The end-of-chapter homework problems of all physics textbooks that I have seen may be interesting, challenging, or applicable to life but one thing they are not! They are not designed to teach students how to solve problems. A workbook that teaches students how to solve problems is a collection of problems that are repetitive, starting from basic and slowly building on top of each other. I compiled the workbooks above for my students at NOVA to help them get started with solving problems.
The Content of the Workbooks
The questions come from many standard books such as Young and Friedman’s University Physics, Halliday, Walker, and Resnick’s Fundamentals of Physics, Giancoli’s Physics with Applications, Tipler and Mosca’s Physics for Scientists and Engineers and a handful of others. My contribution to the selection was to simplify the language where it was necessary, to organize the problems thematically, and to add correct answers.
How to Use the Workbooks
Only sections A and B are designed for the students. Sections C hold problems for me – the ones I use as examples in my lectures, the optional ones from topics not required by the curriculum, or simply challenging questions to keep my best students entertained. After many years of using the Workbooks, my students have already caught most of the typos in Sections A and B. Unfortunately, they are still a few persistent ones lurking between the pages. If you find one of those or suspect there is one, contact me.