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Light and Matter Index

This page is a table of contents with links to chapters in the entry level physics textbook, Light and Matter by Dr. Benjamin Crowell. Each chapter and subchapter has a dedicated web page that includes the complete open-source text and graphics. However, these pages also have the unique feature of vCalc enabled formulas. Wherever the user sees a solvable formula, vCalc had activated a link behind the formula that pops-up a calculator with that formula preloaded. This give the reader the ability to use the formula in an accurate calculator at moment they encounter it. Furthermore, at the top of every page is a formulary box containing a quick reference of all of the formulas that appear in the chapter. This formulary box is useful for homework assignments associated with that chapter.

This vCalc collection is an index into the different vCalc enabled chapters of Dr. Crowell's open source physics textbook, Light and Matter.

Table of Contents

Click on the name of a chapter to navigate to the page containing that chapter.

Chapter 0 - Introduction and Review
- 0.1 The scientific method
- 0.2 What is physics?
- 0.3 How to learn physics?
- 0.4 Self-Evaluation
- 0.5 Basics of the metric system
- 0.6 The Newton, the metric unit of force
- 0.7 Less common metric prefixes
- 0.8 Scientific Notation
- 0.9 Conversions
- 0.10 Significant Figures
- 0.11 A note about diagrams
- 0.12 Summary
Chapter 1 - Scaling and estimation
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Scaling of area and volume
- 1.3 Scaling applied to biology
- 1.4 Order-of-magnitude estimates
- 1.5 Summary
Chapter 2 - Velocity and relative motion
- 2.1 Types of motions
- 2.2 Describing distance and time
- 2.3 Graphs of motion: velocity
- 2.4 The principle of inertia
- 2.5 Addition of velocities
- 2.6 Graphs of velocity versus time
- 2.7 Applications of calculus
- 2.8 Summary
Chapter 3 - Acceleration and free fall
- 3.1 The motion of falling objects
- 3.2 Acceleration
- 3.3 Positive and negative acceleration
- 3.4 Varying acceleration
- 3.5 The area under the velocity-time graph
- 3.6 Algebraic results for constant acceleration
- 3.7 A test of the principle of inertia
- 3.8 Application of calculus
- 3.9 Summary
Chapter 4 - Force and Motion
- 4.1 Force
- 4.2 Newton’s first law
- 4.3 Newton’s second law
- 4.4 What Force is not
- 4.5 Inertial and noninertial frames of reference
- 4.6 Summary
Chapter 5 - Analysis of Forces
- 5.1 Newton’s Third Law
- 5.2 Classification and behavior of forces
- 5.3 Analysis of forces
- 5.4 Transmission of forces by low-mass
- 5.5 Objects under strain
- 5.6 Simple Machines: the pulley
- 5.7 Summary
Chapter 6 - Newton’s laws in three dimensions
- 6.1 Forces have no perpendicular effects
- 6.2 Coordinates and components
- 6.3 Newton's laws in three dimensions
- 6.4 Summary
Chapter 7 - Vectors
- 7.1 Vector Notation
- 7.2 Calculations with magnitude and direction
- 7.3 Techniques for adding vectors
- 7.4 Vector Unit notation
- 7.5 Rotational Invariance
- 7.6 Summary and Problems
Chapter 8 - Vectors and motion
- 8.1 - The velocity vector
- 8.2 - The acceleration vector
- 8.3 - The force vector and simple machines
- 8.4 - Calculus with vectors
- 8.5 - Summary
Chapter 9 - Circular motion
- 9.1 - Conceptual framework
- 9.2 - Uniform circular motion
- 9.3 - Nonuniform circular motion
- 9.4 - Summary
Chapter 10 - Gravity
- 10.1 - Kepler's laws
- 10.2 - Newton's law of gravity
- 10.3 - Apparent weightlessness
- 10.4 - Vector addition of gravitational forces
- 10.5 - Weighing the earth
- 10.6 - Dark energy
- 10.7 - A gravitational test of Newton's first law
- 10.8 - Summary
Chapter 11 - Conservation of energy
- 11.1 - The search for a perpetual motion machine
- 11.2 - Energy
- 11.3 - A numerical scale of energy
- 11.4 - Kinetic energy
- 11.5 - Power
- 11.6 - Summary
Chapter 12 - Simplifying the energy zoo
- 12.1 - Heat is kinetic energy
- 12.2 - Potential energy: energy of distance or closeness
- 12.3 - All energy is potential or kinetic
- 12.4 - Summary
Chapter 13 - Work: the transfer of mechanical energy
- 13.1 - Work: the transfer of mechanical energy
- 13.2 - Work in three dimensions
- 13.3 - Varying force
- 13.4 - Applications of calculus
- 13.5 - Work and potential energy
- 13.6 - When does work equal force time distance?
- 13.7 - The dot product
- 13.8 - Summary
Chapter 14 - Conservation of momentum
- 14.1 - Momentum
- 14.2 - Collisions in one dimension
- 14.3 - Relationship of momentum to the center of mass
- 14.4 - Momentum transfer
- 14.5 - Momentum in three dimensions
- 14.6 - Applications of calculus
- 14.7 - Summary
Chapter 15 - Conservation of angular momentum
- 15.1 - Conservation of angular momentum
- 15.2 - Angular momentum in planetary motion
- 15.3 - Two theorems about angular momentum
- 15.4 - Torque: the rate of transfer of angular momentum
- 15.5 - Statics
- 15.6 - Simple Machines: the lever
- 15.7 - Proof of Kepler's elliptical orbit law
- 15.8 - Summary
Chapter 16 - Thermodynamics
- 16.1 - Pressure and temperature
- 16.2 - Microscopic description of an ideal gas
- 16.3 - Entropy
Chapter 17 - Vibrations
- 17.1 - Period, frequency, and amplitude
- 17.2 - Simple harmonic motion
- 17.3 - Proofs
- 17.4 - Summary
Chapter 18 - Resonance
- 18.1 - Energy in vibrations
- 18.2 - Energy lost from vibrations
- 18.3 - Putting energy into vibrations
- 18.4 - Proofs
- 18.5 - Summary
Chapter 19 - Free waves
- 19.1 - Wave motion
- 19.2 - Waves on a string
- 19.3 - Sound and light waves
- 19.4 - Periodic waves
- 19.5 - The Doppler effect
- 19.6 - Summary
Chapter 20 - Bounded waves
- 20.1 - Reflection, transmission, and absorption
- 20.2 - Quantitative treatment of reflection
- 20.3 - Interference effects
- 20.4 - Waves bounded on both sides
- 20.5 - Summary
Chapter 21 - Electricity and circuits
- 21.1 - The quest for the atomic force
- 21.2 - Electrical forces
- 21.3 - Current
- 21.4 - Circuits
- 21.5 - Voltage
- 21.6 - Resistance
- 21.7 - Applications of calculus
- 21.8 - Series and parallel circuits
- 21.9 - Summary
Chapter 22 - The nonmechanical universe
- 22.1 - The stage and the actors
- 22.2 - The gravitational field
- 22.3 - The electric field
- 22.4 - Calculating the energy in fields
- 22.5 - Voltage for nonuniform fields
- 22.6 - Two or three dimensions
- 22.7 - Field lines and Gauss's law
- 22.8 - Electric field of a continuous charge distribution
- 22.9 - Summary
Chapter 23 - Relativity and magnetism
- 23.1 - Relativistic distortion of space and time
- 23.2 - Magnetic interactions
- 23.3 - Summary
Chapter 24 - Electromagnetism
- 24.1 - The magnetic field
- 24.2 - Calculating magnetic fields and forces
- 24.3 - The universal speed
- 24.4 - Induction
- 24.5 - Electromagnetic waves
- 24.6 - Symmetry and handedness
- 24.7 - Doppler shifts and clock time
- 24.8 - Summary
Chapter 25 - Capacitance and inductance
- 25.1 - Capacitance and inductance
- 25.2 - Oscillations
- 25.3 - Voltage and current
- 25.4 - Decay
- 25.5 - Impedance
Chapter 26 - The atom and `E=mc^2`
- 26.1 - Atoms
- 26.2 - Quantization of charge
- 26.3 - The electron
- 26.4 - The nucleus
- 26.5 - Relativistic mass and energy
- 26.6 - Proofs
- 26.7 - Two tests of Newton's third law
- 26.8 - Summary
Chapter 27 - General relativity
- 27.1 - Our universe isn't Euclidean
- 27.2 - The equivalence principle
- 27.3 - Black holes
- 27.4 - Cosmology
Chapter 28 - The ray model of light
- 28.1 - The nature of light
- 28.2 - Interaction of light with matter
- 28.3 - The ray model of light
- 28.4 - Geometry of specular reflection
- 28.5 - The principle of least time for reflection
- 28.6 - Summary
Chapter 29 - Images by reflection
- 29.1 - A virtual image
- 29.2 - Curved mirrors
- 29.3 - A real image
- 29.4 - Images of images
- 29.5 - Summary
Chapter 30 - Images, quantitatively
- 30.1 - A real image formed by a converging mirror
- 30.2 - Other cases with curved mirrors
- 30.3 - Aberrations
- 30.4 - Summary
Chapter 31 - Refraction
- 31.1 - Refraction
- 31.2 - Lenses
- 31.3 - The lensmaker's equation
- 31.4 - Dispersion
- 31.5 - The principle of least time for refraction
- 31.6 - Case study: the eye of the jumping spider
- 31.7 - Summary
Chapter 32 - Wave optics
- 32.1 - Diffraction
- 32.2 - Scaling of diffraction
- 32.3 - The correspondence principle
- 32.4 - Huygen's principle
- 32.5 - Double-slit diffraction
- 32.6 - Repetition
- 32.7 - Single-slit diffraction
- 32.8 - The principle of least time
- 32.9 - Summary
Chapter 33 - Rules of randomness
- 33.1 - Randomness isn't random
- 33.2 - Calculating randomness
- 33.3 - Probability distributions
- 33.4 - Exponential decay and half-life
- 33.5 - Applications of calculus
- 33.6 - Summary
Chapter 34 - Light as a particle
- 34.1 - Evidence for light as a particle
- 34.2 - How much light is one photon?
- 34.3 - Wave-particle duality
- 34.4 - Photons in three dimensions
- 34.5 - Summary
Chapter 35 - Matter as a wave
- 35.1 - Electrons as waves
- 35.2 - Dispersive waves
- 35.3 - Bound states
- 35.4 - The uncertainty principle
- 35.5 - Electrons in electric fields
- 35.6 - The Schrodinger equation
- 35.7 - Summary
Chapter 36 - The atom
- 36.1 - Classifying states
- 36.2 - Angular momentum in three dimensions
- 36.3 - The hydrogen atom
- 36.4 - Energies of states in hydrogen
- 36.5 - Electron spin
- 36.6 - Atoms with more than one electron
- 36.7 - Summary

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