1. Fundamental units and measurement
Students will measure, apply, and compare standard units, measurement instruments and procedures associated with introductory mechanics including those determining time, mass, force, position, displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration, momentum and energy.
2. Velocity and acceleration
Students will define, calculate, algebraically manipulate and create and interpret graphs of position, velocity and acceleration in one and two dimensions. Students will use simple predictive models of point particle motion at constant velocity or constant acceleration to predict and determine motions of objects.
3. Gravity and falling bodies
Students will describe and calculate gravitational forces using Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation. Students will describe, calculate, graph and predict simple point particle motion near the Earth's surface.
4. Vectors
Students will calculate, draw and analyze physical phenomena using one, two and three dimensional vectors representing displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, and momentum. Students will add and subtract vectors graphically and algebraically.
5. Newton's laws of motion
Students will explain and employ Newton's Three Laws of Motion to describe the motions of simple objects via Free Body Diagrams and calculations. Students will describe and employ common simple contact (friction, normal, tension) and non-contact (gravitational) forces in mechanical analyses.
6. Balanced and unbalanced forces; equilibrium
Students will define stable and unstable equilibrium, and apply Newton's Three Laws of Motion as appropriate to predict, describe and compare motions of simple objects experiencing balanced and unbalanced forces.
7. Work, energy and power
Students will define and describe energy transformations in physics, using energy transformations to describe and predict the motions of simple objects. Students will calculate and interpret energy transformation quantities such as various mechanical energies, work, and power.
8. Laws of conservation of energy and momentum
Students will define and describe both the law of conservation of energy and the law of conservation of momentum, and use these principles to analyze, calculate, and predict motions and interactions of simple objects.
9. Rotation
Students will extend physical descriptions of linear motion into rotational motion. Students will transform linear kinematics (velocity and acceleration), Newtonian dynamics (Newton's Laws), energy and momentum into rotational analogues and use these analogues to analyze and predict rotational and linear motions. In particular, students will define and describe the law of conservation of angular momentum, and use this principle to analyze, calculate, and predict motions and interactions of simple rotating objects.
10. General properties of matter
Students will use simple atomic and molecular theory to describe and analyze properties of matter, physical interactions and energy transformations such as friction, Newton's Third Law for contact forces and Hooke's Law.
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