These pages are the cumulative readings for the class. The ones you had to summarize in MP are in green boldface. As the class goes on, the new readings will be added at the bottom.

Introduction to the class

• Science as making models 
• The disciplines: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Math 
• What Physics can do for Biologists

Thinking about Thinking and Knowing

• The nature of scientific knowledge
• Models of memory
• An evolutionary model of memory 

Modeling with mathematics

• How math in science is different from math in math
• Measurement
• Dimensions and units
• Complex dimensions and dimensional analysis
• Changing units 
• Estimation  
• Useful numbers

The Main Question: How do things move?

Where and When? 

• Coordinates
• Time 
• Graphs
• Vectors
  

Values, change, and rates of change

• Derivatives
• What is a derivative, anyway?

Kinematic Variables

• Velocity
• Average velocity
• Instantaneous velocity
• Calculating with average velocity 
• Acceleration
• Average acceleration
• Instantaneous acceleration
• Calculating with constant acceleration
•  

Newton's Laws

Physical content of Newton's Laws

• Object egotism
• Inertia
• Interactions
• Superposition
• Mass
• Reciprocity

Newton's 2^nd law 

• Reading the content in Newton's 2^nd law 
• Newton 2 as a stepping rule
• Newton 0
• System Schema Introduction
• Free-body diagrams
• Newton's 3rd law
• Using System Schemas for Newton's 3rd law
• Formulation of Newton's Laws as foothold principles
• Quantifying impulse and force 
• Newton 2 on a spreadsheet

Kinds of forces 

• Springs 
• Realistic springs
• Normal forces
• A simple model of solid matter 
• Tension forces
• Resistive forces
• Friction
• Viscosity
• Drag
• Gravity
• Flat-earth gravity
• Free-fall in flat-earth gravity
• Electric forces
• Charge and the structure of matter
• Polarization
• Coulomb's law
• Coulomb's law -- vector character
• Electric field  
• Reading the content in Coulomb's law

Linear momentum

• Restating Newton's 2nd law: momentum
• Momentum conservation

Coherent vs. random motion

• The role of randomness: Biological implications 
• Diffusion and random walks 
• Fick's law
• The gradient -- a vector derivative

The Micro to Macro Connection

• Kinetic theory: the ideal gas law

Fluids

• Pressure
• Archimedes' Principle
• Buoyancy
• Internal cohesion
• Surface tension 

Fluid flow

• Quantifying fluid flow
• The continuity equation
  
• Internal flow -- the HP equation

Energy: The Quantity of Motion

• Kinetic energy and the work-energy theorem 
• Reading the content in the Work-Energy theorem
• Energy of place -- potential energy
• Gravitational potential energy 
• Spring potential energy
• Electric potential energy
• The conservation of mechanical energy
• Mechanical energy loss -- thermal energy
• Interpreting mechanical energy graphs
• Forces from potential energy  
• Energy at the sub-molecular level
• Interatomic forces  
• Atomic and Molecular forces  
• Chemical bonding   
  
• Thermal properties of matter
• Measuring Temperature 
• Thermal energy and specific heat 
• Heat transfer
  

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

• The 1^st law of thermodynamics
•  Why we need a Second Law of Thermodynamics  
  
•  Implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics