Physics needed for participation in the project "Astrophysics Research by High School Students"

1. Kinematics of circular motion.

2. Newton's laws, the law of universal gravitation. Gravitational potential energy .

3. Laws of conservation of linear and angular momentum, mechanical energy.

4. Oscillations and waves - wave properties, interference, standing waves, diffraction, polarization.

5. Ideal gas law, absolute temperature, the average kinetic energy of gas particles and the temperature of gas.

6. Electric charges and electric field - Coulomb's law, potential energy of interaction of two charges and of one charged object, potential difference, ionization, energy of ionization.

7. Electric current. Ohm's law.

8. Magnetic field - the effect of magnetic field on moving charged particles. Radius of curvature of a moving charged particle in a given magnetic field.

9. Electromagnetic induction. Electromagnetic waves. Accelerated charged particles and radiation of e/m waves.

10. Geometrical optics. Laws of reflection and refraction, mirrors and lenses, how to build images.

11. Wave optics. Interference and diffraction. Diffraction grating. Resolving power.

12. Quantum optics. Plank's constant, quanta of energy, emission and absorption of light.

13. The structure of atoms. Bohr's postulates, different spectra, energies and wavelengths of photons radiated or absorbed by hydrogen.

14. Nuclear physics - what is inside nuclei, bonding energy, different types of decays and the reasons they occur. Fusion and fission.


Here are some possible Websites to recommend your students to study these topics:

1. GRAVITY

Exlporing Gravity Tutorial

http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/phys-sci/gravity/index2.htm

Gravity Simulator

Hey, check out my interactive gravity modeler

http://www.arachnoid.com/gravitation/

 

2. WAVE MOTION

Superposition Principle of Wave

http://www.dipmat.unict.it/vpl/ntnujava/waveSuperposition/waveSuperposition.html

Interference Between Two Sinusoidal Waves

http://plabpc.csustan.edu/general/tutorials/oscillations/interference.htm

Superposition Principle

http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/Superposition/Superposition_EX.html

 

3. IDEAL GAS LAWS

Molecular Model for an Ideal Gas

http://www.dipmat.unict.it/vpl/ntnujava/idealGas/idealGas.html

Temperature and Kinetic Energy

http://plabpc.csustan.edu/general/tutorials/temperature/temperature.htm

Charles' Law

http://plabpc.csustan.edu/general/tutorials/temperature/CharlesLaw/CharlesLaw.htm

THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM

http://javalab.uoregon.edu/virtuallab/Thermodynamics/index.html

Particles in Plasma Movies

http://space.ucsd.edu/htmls/movie.html

Wave-Particle Interactions in Plasmas.

http://space.ucsd.edu/space/index.html

Pure Electron Plasma Simulation

http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~mitchell/java/XYpic/XYpic.html

Black Body Simulator

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/~scharein/a311/Sim.html

 

4. ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS

VRML Gallery of Electromagnetism

http://physics.syr.edu/courses/vrml/electromagnetism/

Charges and Fields (JAVA Applet)

Add terminals and "test charges" and drag things around to see how the forces change.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/nforcefield.html

Electric charges in JAVA

This applet allows you to see in a graphical way concepts like electric and potential fields. Furthermore, there is no danger to receive a deadly discharge.

http://www.dcc.uchile.cl/~sebrodri/JAVA/Proyecto/ProyectI.html

Charges and Fields (JAVA Applet)

Click to place a static "test charge" showing strength and direction of the field at that point. Click and Drag to place a lot of them. Press 'R' to randomly place 500 charges.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/forcefield.html

 

Electric Field (JAVA Applet)

http://www.bekkoame.or.jp/~kamikawa/electricfield/elefi_e.htm

Lorentz Force I (JAVA Applet)

This java applet tries to show the motion of a charged particle in a uniform and constant electric/ magnetic field

http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/java/emField/emField.html

Lorentz Force II (JAVA Applet)

This Java applet demonstrates the Lorentz force, exerted on a current-carrying conductor swing in the magnetic field of a horseshoe magnet.

http://home.a-city.de/walter.fendt/physengl/lorentzforce.htm

Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion

http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/reference/orbits/orbit_sim.html

Virtual Telescope

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/Telescope/

Planet data calculator - one-day version

http://alife.mic.dundee.ac.uk/Astronomy/Astronomy/observe.html

 

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