Physics 105
Semester Review
Serway & Faughn
The listing below is organized with the fundamental idea listed as the main subject heading with the
supporting ideas and important details as subheadings. Note: This outline is intended as a guide to help
you in reviewing the basic concepts of physics which were covered in the course. It is not intended (and will
not be allowed) to be used as a reference sheet in taking the final exam. Therefore do not plan on taking it
in with you.
I. Kinematics (without a mathematical description of motion, you can make no predictions of that motion)
A. Understand vectors and scalars
1. Know how to add vectors.
2. Know how to multiply a vector by a scalar.
B. Know the meanings of velocity, acceleration and speed
1. Both instantaneous quantities and average values.
2. Understand centripetal acceleration (why does there need to be an acceleration if the speed
does not change?)
C. Remember the independence of motion in all directions.
D. Know how the descriptions of linear motion and rotational motion are related to each other (the
equations are virtually identical).
1. Know the analogies between x, v, a and θ, ω, α.
2. Understand the relationships that occur when an object is rolling without slipping.
II. Newton’s Three Laws of motion
A. Know the meaning of all three laws.
1. The first law is just a special case of the second law.
2. Know how to express the second law in two ways
a. Forces
b. Impulse and how it is related to the time rate of change of momentum.
B. Understand the third law and which force acts on which body.
C. Understand free-body diagrams and how to decide which forces act where on which bodies.
D. Understand the rotational equivalents of Newton’s first two laws.
1. Understand what torque is
a. Know what a moment-arm is and how to find it.
b. Remember how to determine its sign.
2. Know how torque relates to angular acceleration.
a. How are m and I related? In what way are they analogous?
E. Understand the conditions for static equilibrium.
1. Forces
2. Torques
III. Conservation of Momentum.
A. Understand what momentum is.
B. Know when it is conserved.
1. Understand what that conservation implies for two bodies interacting.
2. What does that conservation imply for the center of mass of a system?
IV. Conservation of Angular Momentum.
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A. Know what angular momentum is.
B. Know when it is conserved.
1. Remember the vector nature of angular momentum (just as linear momentum is a vector.)
V. Conservation of Energy.
A. Know what energy is and how it relates to work.
1. Define Work.
2. The work-energy theorem.
3. What is power?
B. Understand Kinetic Energy.
1. Linear Kinetic Energy.
2. Rotational Kinetic Energy.
3. When is Kinetic Energy alone conserved?
C. Understand the concepts of Potential Energy
1. When does potential energy exist?
2. How is potential energy related to a conservative force?
3. What is the form of the potential energy for the following:
a. Gravity
b. A spring-type force (Hooke’s-law type force)
4. When is Mechanical Energy (Kinetic plus Potential Energy) conserved?
D. Understand how heat and thermodynamics fit into energy conservation.
1. Understand how heat, internal energy, temperature, and the average kinetic energy of molecules
are related.
2. Understand how conservation of energy and the first law of thermodynamics are related.
3. How are mechanical work and heat related?
4. Understand how calorimetry is an expression of energy conservation.
a. Understand specific heat (constant volume and constant pressure)
b. Latent heat of a phase change (i.e. vaporization or fusion).
E. Understand how energy conservation and the fundamental relations of fluid flow (Bernoulli’s law)
are related.
VI. Second Law of Thermodynamics.
A. Know how to state the second law of thermodynamics in at least three different ways.
B. Know what entropy is (at least qualitatively).
C. Know how to define efficiency.
VII. Miscellaneous Applications of the above principles.
A. Reactions of solids to forces and temperatures
1. Stress-strain relationships
2. Thermal expansion
B. Heat measurement and transfer
1.
2.
3.
4.
Temperature scales
Conduction
Convection
Radiation
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C. Fluids
1. The ideal gas law
a. How does it relate to the kinetic theory of gasses?
2. Pascal’s principle.
3. Archimedes’ principle.
4. The Bernoulli effect.
D. Simple Harmonic motion
1. Understand amplitude, frequency and period.
2. What are the frequencies and periods of
a. Mass-spring system
b. Pendulum (and know what approximation is necessary for the motion of a pendulum to
be simple harmonic).
3. What is the total energy of a simple harmonic oscillator?
4. Understand the concept of resonance.
E. Waves and sound
1. What types of waves exist (and examples of each)
a. Transverse
b. Longitudinal
2. Understand the principle of superposition.
a. Interference
b. Standing waves
3. Relationship between wavelength, velocity and frequency
4. Effect of velocity of source or receiver on wavelength and frequency (Doppler effect).
5. Understand standing waves, harmonics, and resonant frequencies.
a. What are the relationships between the dimensions of the system and the wavelength of
the standing wave?
b. How do harmonics affect the quality of the sound?
6. Understand beats and how they are produced.
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