An Introduction to Physics

Notes and Exercises for independent learners.

I’ve been working the the local high school here in the valley to teach interested students the basic principles of physics. Of course, these are a collection of brilliant, driven students with a diverse set of interests, so the material is not what you’d normally expect to see in a high school or even college course.

The best college introduction to Physics I’ve seen comes from the STEPS program at Texas A&M University, driven by the Professors Bill Bassichis and Tatiana Eurkhimova. Working with these two experts in physics education, as well as with Bill’s textbooks, Don't Panic: A Guide to Introductory Physics for Students of Science and Engineering have had a profound influence on my teaching.

Aside from communicating the basics, my main objectives are to push the students to be comfortable with the uncomfortable confusion of working through new material and applying physical reasoning to guide them through the mathematics. The main difference I take - given that these are still high school students - is an earlier and rather extreme emphasis on applied planar geometry and algebra.

For the time being, you can find all my resources here.

The Lectures and Exercises

Deep Dives and Advanced Applications

Solutions to Problems

  • Coming Soon