Physical World and Measurement
Humans have always been curious about the world around them. The world has an astonishing variety of materials and bewildering diversity of life and behaviour. The inquiring and imaginative human mind has responded to the wonder and awe of nature in different ways. This human endeavour led, in course of time, to modern science and technology.
Kinematics
Mechanics, the oldest physical science, is the study of motion of objects. It is applied in calculation of the path of an artillery shell, a space probe sent from earth to Mars, etc.
Laws of Motion
Whenever we push or pull an object, we do so by means of a force. Force is an interaction between two bodies which causes acceleration, or simply, motion.
Work, Energy and Power
Newton's laws of motion help us to analyse many kinds of motion. But the analysis is complicated, requiring details about the motion that we simply do not know.
Motion of System of Particles and Rigid Body
Physicists love to look at something complicated and find in it, something simple and familiar. Here is an example. If you flip a baseball bat into the air, its motion as it turns, is clearly more complicated than that of a non-spinning tossed ball, which moves like a particle.
Gravitation
Astronomy has been a fascinating subject from ancient times. The geocentric system (around the 2nd century A.D.) considered the Earth to be at the centre with the sun and other planets revolving around it.
Mechanics of Solids and Fluids
A spider web is stronger than steel of the same thickness. Its elastic limit is greater than that of steel.
Heat and Thermodynamics
Heat is a form of energy. Heat energy is also called thermal energy. When heat is given to a body, its temperature increases and when heat is removed from a body, its temperature decreases.
Oscillations
Oscillatory motion, or periodic motion, is the most common type of motion. Heartbeat of animals, the seasons of the year, the swinging of the pendulum of a clock and the vibrations of atoms in solids are periodic in nature.
Waves
Very often, energy is generated at one place but consumed elsewhere. The transportation of energy from its source to the receiving end can be done in two ways: By actually moving the matter carrying kinetic energy and delivering it to the other end.
