General               

Newtonian Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics are the four subjects that form the foundation for our modern physical understanding of the world, an understanding that can lead to quantitative predictions of many physical processes. Historically, a set of core concepts: space, time, mass, force, momentum, torque, and angular momentum, were introduced in Newtonian Mechanics in order to solve the most famous physics problem, the motion of the planets. The principles of mechanics successfully described many other phenomena encountered in the world. Conservation Laws involving energy, momentum and angular momentum provided a second parallel approach to solving many of the same problems. In Physics I, we will investigate both approaches: force and conservation laws. Our goal is to develop a conceptual understanding of the core concepts, a familiarity with the experimental verification of our theoretical laws, and an ability to apply the theoretical framework to describe and predict the motions of bodies (expert problem solving). This understanding is a necessary prerequisite for additional study of Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics.