Robert A. Pelcovits - AP Physics C: With 4 Practice Tests

Acknowledgments

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my coauthor, Joshua Farkas, an exceptionally gifted former student of mine. Josh contributed the lions share of work to the first edition, developing most of the examples and problems (especially the novel and creative ones), and offering numerous ideas and suggestions as to the best way to present difficult concepts and useful problem-solving strategies. I am very grateful for all he has done in making our book a success. While preparing the fifth edition, I was helped by yet another superb Brown undergraduate, Adam Scherlis. Adam reviewed all of the examples, problems, and practice tests, catching many errors and making many suggestions for improvements. I am very grateful for his expert help.

RAP

I would first of all like to thank Robert Pelcovits for coauthoring this book with me and for his valiant efforts in its revision. To work with a man of his stature, both as a physicist and as a person, is indeed a privilege. This book never could have been possible without him. I would also like to thank Esta Farkas for heroically reviewing the initial drafts of this book for both content and English.

JDF

About the Authors

Robert Pelcovits is a professor of physics at Brown University, where he has taught since 1979. He earned his B.A. and M.S. degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. at Harvard University. The author of over 80 publications in theoretical condensed matter physics, he has lectured on his research at many universities throughout the world. He has taught a wide range of courses at Brown, from introductory to advanced graduate level. In 1999 he was awarded the Philip J. Bray Award for Teaching Excellence in the Physical Sciences by Brown. In 2008 he was named a Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Brown, and in 2011 the university awarded him the Harriet Sheridan Award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching and Learning.

Having earned both Sc.B. and M.S. degrees from Brown University and an M.D. degree from Cornell University, Joshua Farkas is currently an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Vermont. He was also a National Merit Scholar, a Goldwater Scholar, and a Faculty Scholar at Brown University, with experience teaching college-level calculus and calculus-based physics. Having scored 5s on AP exams in BC Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics C, as well as 800s in SAT I Math and on SAT II exams in Math IIC, Chemistry, and Physics, he brought a students perspective to this book.

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Contents

As you review the content in this book to work toward earning that on your AP PHYSICS C exam, here are five things that you MUST know above everything else:

HOW TO REVIEW FOR THE AP PHYSICS EXAM

S olving physics problems is like mastering any sport or musical instrument: If you want to do it well, you have to practice. Do not expect to understand everything immediately and do not be frustrated by the effort required to master some concepts and techniques. Contrary to popular conceptions of a vast divide between physics geniuses who can immediately solve problems and other people who simply cannot, learning physics requires hard work. However, a mastery of calculus-based physics will teach you analytical and mathematical skills that will prove extremely useful in a broad range of other disciplines.

GUIDE TO THIS REVIEW BOOK

Text

The text of the chapters works from the ground up without assuming extensive knowledge of physics on your part. Therefore, the text is appropriate at any stage of your mastery of AP physics. You may find it helpful to read the text along with your textbook when you are first learning the material and studying for course exams, or you may choose to read the chapters together as a review after you have completed most of your AP Physics course.

Questions

Because of space limitations, it is impossible for the questions to work from the ground up (i.e., start with very easy questions and progress to more difficult ones). Therefore, the questions are generally near the AP level and assume that you have some problem-solving experience. The questions are designed to raise you from a competent problem solver to an expert with extensive experience in solving AP problems. If you have difficulty with the questions, you may want to go back and solve some problems in your introductory physics textbook or AP physics textbook, as well as consider the advice in the next paragraph.