Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Physics

Understanding Semantic Roles

Unit 6

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation

What is Gravity?

Sir Isaac Newton described gravity as a force of attraction between all objects. This force is proportional to the masses of the interacting bodies. The more massive the objects, the stronger the gravitational pull between them.

The Moon's Rotation

. How is it that gravity is so weak yet so influential? Although gravity it is considered to be the weakest force of nature, it may be weak here on Earth, but it's not so weak across the cosmos. This invisible force varies on all the planets in the solar system and on the exoplanets we've discovered orbiting other suns. And that's because gravity is an additive force. It scales with mass, so the more massive the planet or star, the stronger its... Continue reading "Unraveling the Mysteries of Gravity: From Newton to Black Holes" »

Who Discovered the Finite Speed of Light?

Ole Romer, a Danish astronomer, discovered that light is not instantaneous. He observed that the emergence of Io from behind Jupiter varied depending on the position of the two planets in the sun's orbit. This led him to realize that light takes time to travel from Jupiter to Earth, causing the observed differences in emergence time.

Understanding the Speed of Light

The speed of light is a fundamental constant, moving through space at a finite speed of 299,792,458 meters per second.

Exploring Light Years and Galaxies

A light year is both a measure of distance and time, representing the distance light travels in one year. Andromeda, a spiral galaxy, is nearly the same size as the Milky Way and is home to... Continue reading "Unveiling the Mysteries of Light and the Universe" »

Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, was born in 1903 in Bengal, in the then British colony of India. English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. Orwell was closely connected to his work, in the sense that both he and his writing were the same – he liked to write from experience, which is not very usual among writers.

As for his family, they were from the middle-class. He wasn't very close to his father. His mother took him to England when he was very young, where he had a happy childhood in the countryside and developed an appreciation for the rural English landscape.

At the age of 8, Eric Blair started studying in one of the most successful boarding schools in England at the time: St Cyprian's School. Young Eric attended St... Continue reading "George Orwell: A Life of Struggle and Triumph" »

Native American Literature

The Notion of the Indian

Indian / Native American - Stereotypes - Homogenizing / great diversity (over 500 tribes) - Othering - A non-presence, a void to be occupied.

The American Indian Movement

«Red Power» Influenced by the black civil rights movement - Pan-Indian identity - Occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969) «Trail of Broken Treaties» - march on Washington, 1972 - Native American Demands the 20-point proposal

Native American Literature

Originally oral cultures: myths and rituals, songs, poems, narrative tales, legends, parables. Oral works translated into English by ethnologists. First novels: John Rollin Ridge’s The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta (1857); Wynema, by Sophia Alice Callahan (1891).

Literary

Key Facts

Full Title · Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

Author · Arthur Miller

Type Of Work · Play

Genre · Tragedy, social commentary, family drama

Language · English (with emphasis on middle-class American lingo)

Time And Place Written · Six weeks in 1948, in a shed in Connecticut

Date Of First Publication · 1949

Original Publisher · The Viking Press

Climax · The scene in Frank’s Chop House and Biff’s final confrontation with Willy at home

Protagonists · Willy Loman, Biff Loman

Antagonists · Biff Loman, Willy Loman, the American Dream

Setting (Time) · “Today,” that is, the present; either the late 1940s or the time period in which the play is being produced, with “daydreams” into Willy’s... Continue reading "Death of a Salesman: Key Facts, Themes, and Motifs" »

What is Force?

Force is a push or pull that can deform an object or change its state of rest or motion.

Types of Forces

• Contact
• Non-contact
• Instantaneous
• Constant

Formula of Force

F = m • a

Difference Between Force and Weight

Weight is a force. Everything on Earth is pulled down towards the ground by gravity. The weight of an object is how hard gravity pulls down on it.

Larger objects get pulled more strongly, so they weigh more than smaller objects. When scientists want to talk about how much stuff is inside something, they talk about mass.

Causes of Force

Forces arise when two or more bodies come into contact. For example, when there is a crash or when you push a door.

Bodies, even if they are not in contact, exert a force on others. For example, the... Continue reading "Understanding Force, Motion, and Newton's Laws" »

Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler deduced three fundamental laws of planetary motion:

• First Law: Elliptical Orbits – Planets orbit the Sun in ellipses, with the Sun at one focus.
• Second Law: Equal Areas in Equal Times – A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time. This implies a planet's speed varies as it moves around its elliptical orbit, moving faster when closer to the Sun.
• Third Law: Harmonic Law – The square of a planet's orbital period is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit (P² ∝ a³). This law relates the orbital period of a planet to the size of its orbit.

Galileo Galilei: Key Astronomical Discoveries

Galileo's significant contributions... Continue reading "Foundations of Celestial Mechanics: Key Discoveries" »

The Gothic Novel

Origins and Conventions

Gothic literature, a movement that focused on ruin, decay, death, terror, and chaos, and privileged irrationality and passion over rationality and reason, grew in response to the historical, sociological, psychological, and political contexts of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although Horace Walpole is credited with producing the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764, his work was built on a foundation of several elements. Walpole’s novel was wildly popular, and his novel introduced most of the stock conventions of the genre:

• An intricate plot
• Stock characters
• Subterranean labyrinths
• Ruined castles
• Supernatural occurrences

While it may be comparatively easy to date the beginning... Continue reading "The Gothic Novel: Exploring the Dark Side of Human Nature" »

Earth, Moon, and Space: Key Concepts

1. Day and night are caused by:

   d. Earth's rotation on its axis.

2. Earth's rotation takes about:

   c. 24 hours.

3. One complete revolution of Earth around the sun takes about:

   c. one year.

4. Earth has seasons because:

   c. Earth's axis is tilted as it moves around the sun.

5. When the north end of Earth's axis is tilted toward the sun, North America will experience:

   d. more direct rays and longer days.

6. In the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly overhead at:

   b. 23.5° south latitude.

7. An equinox occurs when:

   a. neither end of Earth's axis is tilted toward nor away from the sun.

8. Because the moon rotates once for each revolution around Earth,

   c. you never see the far side of the moon.

9. The phase of the moon