Physics of solar power

Hand out a car window pushed by matter (the air)

Laser cutting tool uses (x, y) coordinates on its work stage

Origin of a one-dimensional system

Position and velocity versus time graphs for a round trip between Houston and College Station, TX

ErgoBot rolling down a ramp

ErgoBot traveling up and down a ramp

Velocity vs. time and position vs. time graphs for a baseball thrown upward

Coordinate measuring machine

Coordinates for the laser position in a cutting machine

Kicking a soccer ball as an example of projectile motion

A 360° view around one of the MER mission Mars rovers

Launch of an MER mission rocket with indicators of its speed and acceleration

Different forms of potential energy

Elastic potential energy

Elastic potential energy in your bicep and tricep muscles

Energy and work

Gravitational potential energy

Kinetic energy

Animated model of an internal combustion or piston engine in operation

Conservation of energy

Schematic design of a hydroelectric power plant

Collision in two dimensions

Collision involving a stationary target ball

Comparison between elastic, inelastic, and perfectly inelastic collisions

Is this collision elastic?

Perfectly inelastic collision between two balls

The behavior of Newton's Cradle

Biceps and triceps in the human arm

How the forearm acts as a first- and third-class lever

How the leg acts as a compound machine with three levers

Physics of wind power

Amplitude of an oscillating mass on a spring

Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Oscillator examples

Three pendulums, each with a different frequency of oscillation

Vertical mass and spring oscillator

A wave pulse

Animation of a ripple spreading out in water

Longitudinal waves

Magnetic resonance imaging of a human skull

Standing waves on a long spring

Transverse waves

Two wave pulses on a string interfering destructively in the middle

Wavefronts in plane waves and circular waves

Waves in time and space

A longitudinal wave

Frequency example for sound from 20 to 20,000 Hz

Sound of a cymbal crash

Analogy between the concept of water flowing and electric current

Comparing electric current with water flowing through a pipe

Comparing resistance to upside-down water bottles

Every charge entering a junction equals charge exiting the junction

Potential difference is analogous to the potential energy difference for water

Three water wheels are similar to three resistors in series

How a laser printer works

Model of how the Earth's magnetic field has changed over the past four centuries

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captures ultraviolet light from our active Sun

Electromagnet in a crane in a junkyard

How a loudspeaker works

How the electric generator works

Inside the operation of an electric motor

Physics behind the electric motor

Phases of the Moon

Reflection off a scanning mirror in a laser printer

AM radio waves reflect off of the ionosphere

An oscillating electric charge creates an electromagnetic wave

Brownian motion

Motion of particles in the gas phase

Motion of particles in the liquid phase

Motion of particles in the solid phase

Ordered and random kinetic energy for a handful of ping-pong balls

Solar flare is a plasma in motion

Thermal energy of a solid

Shrinking summertime Arctic ice cap

Newcomen steam engine

Comparing spontaneous emission, stimulated absorption, and stimulated emission

Electron orbital resonances in the Bohr hydrogen atom

Quantum spacetime fluctuations differ from a classical picture of flat spacetime

Stereolithography and ultraviolet lasers

Non-ionizing and ionizing radiation (atom not to scale)

Protons need a lot of energy to bind together into a nucleus

The rotating Sun