One of the important skills for students to learn in this physics course is how to develop of sense of scale -- to quantify one's knowledge and experience and learn to estimate reasonable values for quantities.

Readings 

• Estimation
• Scales in biology
• Useful numbers

Associated Readings

• Measurement
• Dimensions and units
• Complex dimensions and dimensional analysis
• Changing units
• Natural scales  
• Considering change
• The parameters of matter

Problems and Activities

• Filling volumes (clicker questions)
• Your bacterial component
• Bacteria on your skin
• Estimating charge (solution)
• Counting charges
• Estimating with air 1
• Estimating with air 2 
• Scales in a gas
• Diffusion in time and space
• Bacterial mass

     Molecular Scales

• Cellular and molecular scales 
• How big is a protein molecule? (solution)
• Estimating the length of DNA in the human body
• Packing DNA (solution)

     Cellular Scales

• Moving through a cell (solution)
• Sensing molecular signals (solution)
• Muscle contraction (solution)
• How many ions?
• The power of a nerve (solution)

     Organismal Scales

• Walking on water (solution)
• Gecko toes
• Bulk modulus

     Medical Problems

• Atorvastatin-Calcium
• Blood and breath (solution)
• Estimating capillaries (solution)
• Hold the mayo! (solution)
• Laser eye surgery (solution)

Standard Estimations*

General

• Picking up the books (solution)
• Byting the disk (solution)
• Building a physics building (solution)
• Birthdays (solution)
• Water for LA
• Building a physics building (solution)
• How much pizza?
• Ping-pong ball packing (solution)
• Counting up the deficit (solution)
• Cherry blossom time (solution)
• Drifting continents (solution)
• Driving with taps (solution)
• What if the Greenland ice cap melts? (solution)
• How much gasoline is in the food we eat?
• Population growth: I (solution)
• Population growth: II (solution)
• Borg penguins
• Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe (solution)
• Paying more for gas
• Can trees save the planet? (solution)
• Converting to solar power
• Flying Low
• How green is a Tesla Roadster?
• A trillion dollars!
• Carbon footprint (solution)

     Mechanics

• Tailgating (solution)
• Kids in the back! (solution)
• Are you OK to drive? (solution)
• The ice-skating professor (solution)
• Continental drift
• Jumping into a haystack (solution)
• Hybridizing your car (solution)
• Child on a trampoline
• Preventing velociraptors (solution)
• I felt the earth move! (solution)
• Tree on the house (solution)

     Properties of Matter

• The Magdeburg hemispheres
• The concrete canoe
• How high's the sky?
• The meteor and the dolphin (solution)
• Scales in a gas
• Dormitory under pressure (solution)
• Now you're cookin'!
• Air flow current

     Heat, Temperature, & Thermodynamics

• The penny and the jelly donut (solution)
• KE and temperature
• The cold water diet plan
• Boiling molecules

     Oscillations and Waves

• Swingin' in the rain (solution)
• The damped oscillator
• Bungee jump (solution)
• Building a pipe organ

     Electricity and Magnetism

• Estimating charge (strong)
• Building a water heater (solution)
• Saving on your electric bill (solution)
• The size of an oil drop (solution)
• The resistance of a pocket calculator (solution)
• Solar power for your house
• But it's just a leetle bit different (solution)
• Buying a mass spectrometer
• Building a generator

     Optics

• Measuring the speed of light a la Galileo
• Speed of light and the GPS system (solution)
• Boiling water in a microwave
• Insolation of the earth (solution)

* From the collection, "Thinking Problems in Physics." For access to solutions, contact redish@umd.edu