College Physics 2e PDF Download – OpenStax

Students taking algebra-based introductory physics can download the complete textbook “College Physics 2e” by Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs, and contributors, free as a PDF from OpenStax. It is a two-semester, 34-chapter sequence covering mechanics, fluids, heat, waves and sound, electricity and magnetism, optics, and modern physics — using only algebra and trigonometry throughout, with no calculus anywhere in the book.

Because 34 chapters is a lot to list one at a time, this page groups them into 6 topic blocks — Mechanics and Fluids, Heat and Thermodynamics, Oscillations/Waves/Sound, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics, and Modern Physics — each naming every real chapter number and title it contains in full. The book itself is untouched; this is purely a page-layout choice to keep a 34-chapter book readable on one page.

Book Overview

Chapter List

Topic Block 1: Mechanics and Fluids (Chapters 1–12)

Difficulty: Easy–Medium · College Physics I · Key topics: units and measurement, 1-D and 2-D kinematics, Newton’s laws, friction/drag/elasticity, circular motion and gravitation, work and energy, momentum and collisions, statics and torque, rotational motion, fluid statics, fluid dynamics

Chapters in this block:

• 1. Introduction to Science and the Realm of Physics, Physical Quantities, and Units
• 2. One-Dimensional Kinematics
• 3. Two-Dimensional Kinematics
• 4. Dynamics: Force and Newton’s Laws of Motion
• 5. Further Applications of Newton’s Laws: Friction, Drag and Elasticity
• 6. Uniform Circular Motion and Gravitation
• 7. Work, Energy, and Energy Resources
• 8. Linear Momentum and Collisions
• 9. Statics and Torque
• 10. Rotational Motion and Angular Momentum
• 11. Fluid Statics
• 12. Fluid Dynamics and Its Biological and Medical Applications

This block covers the entire mechanics half of the course — everything a first-semester algebra-based physics class needs before touching electricity. It opens with the physical quantities, SI units, and significant-figure rules every later calculation depends on, then builds motion description from one dimension to two (vectors, projectile motion), before introducing Newton’s three laws as the explanation for why motion changes. From there it applies those laws to friction, drag, and elastic deformation, then to circular motion and gravity (Kepler’s laws), before shifting from force-based to energy-based problem solving: work, kinetic and potential energy, and conservation of energy. Momentum and collisions, statics and torque, and rotational motion (the rotational analogues of force, momentum, and energy) round out rigid-body mechanics, and the block closes with fluids at rest (pressure, buoyancy) and in motion (flow rate, Bernoulli’s equation, viscosity).

Key Points:

• Every calculation in the book depends on correct units and significant figures, set up front in Chapter 1 — dimensional analysis catches setup errors before arithmetic ever starts
• Motion is described first in one dimension (displacement, velocity, acceleration) then extended to two dimensions using vector addition, with projectile motion as the central two-dimensional example
• Newton’s three laws (inertia, F=ma, action-reaction) explain why velocity changes, and every subsequent force analysis — friction, drag, elasticity, circular motion, gravitation — is Newton’s second law applied to a specific situation
• Energy methods (work-energy theorem, conservation of energy) often solve problems that a pure force analysis makes difficult, especially once objects interact through non-constant forces
• Momentum conservation applies even during collisions where kinetic energy is lost (inelastic collisions), which is why momentum and energy are taught as two separate conservation tools, not one
• Rotational motion mirrors linear motion term-for-term — angular displacement/velocity/acceleration parallel their linear counterparts, and torque, angular momentum, and rotational kinetic energy parallel force, momentum, and kinetic energy
• Statics problems (Chapter 9) use the same two conditions every time: net force equals zero AND net torque equals zero — skipping the torque condition is the most common statics error
• Fluid statics uses pressure and depth (Pascal’s principle, Archimedes’ principle) while fluid dynamics adds flow rate and Bernoulli’s equation for fluids in motion — the two halves of Chapters 11–12 are often taught as a distinct short unit at the end of Mechanics I

Practice Tip: Draw a free-body diagram before writing a single equation for any Chapters 4–10 problem — identify every force acting on the object, choose a coordinate system aligned with the motion (e.g. along an incline), then apply Newton’s second law axis by axis. Skipping the diagram is the single biggest source of sign errors in mechanics.

Common Mistake: Treating momentum and energy as interchangeable conservation laws. Momentum is always conserved in a collision with no external force, but kinetic energy is only conserved in an elastic collision — using energy conservation on an inelastic collision (or vice versa, assuming momentum isn’t conserved just because energy is lost) gives a wrong answer even though both are legitimate physical laws.

Important Questions:

• A car accelerates from rest at a constant 3 m/s² for 5 seconds. How far does it travel, and how fast is it going at the end? Using v = v₀ + at: v = 0 + (3)(5) = 15 m/s. Using x = v₀t + ½at²: x = 0 + ½(3)(5²) = ½(3)(25) = 37.5 m. The car travels 37.5 metres and reaches 15 m/s.
• A 2 kg block sits on a frictionless incline at 30°. What is the magnitude of its acceleration down the slope? On a frictionless incline, only the component of gravity along the slope accelerates the block: a = g•sin(θ) = 9.8 × sin(30°) = 9.8 × 0.5 = 4.9 m/s². Notice the mass cancels out — acceleration down a frictionless incline never depends on mass, only on the angle.
• Two ice skaters, masses 50 kg and 70 kg, push off from rest against each other. If the 50 kg skater moves off at 2.8 m/s, how fast does the 70 kg skater move, and in what direction? Total momentum before the push is zero (both at rest), so total momentum after must also be zero: conservation of momentum gives m₁v₁ + m₂v₂ = 0, so (50)(2.8) + (70)v₂ = 0, giving v₂ = -140/70 = -2 m/s. The 70 kg skater moves at 2 m/s in the opposite direction to the first skater — the heavier skater moves slower, exactly as momentum conservation requires.

Topic Block 2: Heat and Thermodynamics (Chapters 13–15)

Difficulty: Medium · College Physics I · Key topics: temperature and the gas laws, kinetic theory, heat and heat transfer methods, the first and second laws of thermodynamics, heat engines, entropy

Chapters in this block:

• 13. Temperature, Kinetic Theory, and the Gas Laws
• 14. Heat and Heat Transfer Methods
• 15. Thermodynamics

This block is the thermal-physics unit that closes out most College Physics I syllabi. It opens by defining temperature and thermal expansion, then introduces the ideal gas law and the kinetic theory that explains gas pressure and temperature at the molecular level. Chapter 14 turns to heat itself — the energy transferred due to a temperature difference — covering heat capacity and phase changes (latent heat), then the three transfer mechanisms: conduction, convection, and radiation. Chapter 15 completes the unit with the two laws of thermodynamics: the first law (energy conservation applied to heat and work) and the second law, introduced through heat engines, Carnot efficiency, refrigerators/heat pumps, and finally entropy as the measure of a system’s disorder and the direction time’s arrow points.

Key Points:

• The ideal gas law (PV = nRT) links pressure, volume, amount, and temperature for a gas, and kinetic theory explains temperature as a direct measure of the average kinetic energy of a gas’s molecules
• Heat is energy in transit due to a temperature difference — it is not the same quantity as temperature, and a small amount of a hot substance can transfer less total heat than a large amount of a cooler one
• Phase changes (melting, boiling) absorb or release latent heat at a constant temperature — all the added/removed energy goes into breaking or forming molecular bonds, not into raising or lowering temperature, which is why a temperature-vs-heat graph flattens during a phase change
• The three heat-transfer mechanisms operate by different physical processes: conduction needs direct contact, convection needs a moving fluid, and radiation needs no medium at all (it’s how the Sun’s heat reaches Earth)
• The first law of thermodynamics (ΔU = Q − W) is just energy conservation applied to a thermodynamic system — internal energy changes by the heat added minus the work the system does on its surroundings
• The second law of thermodynamics sets a direction: heat spontaneously flows from hot to cold, no heat engine can be 100% efficient, and a system’s entropy (disorder) never decreases for an isolated system — three equivalent statements of the same underlying law
• Carnot efficiency (1 − T_cold/T_hot, with temperatures in Kelvin) is the theoretical maximum efficiency any heat engine operating between two temperatures can achieve — real engines always do worse

Memory Tip: Always convert temperature to Kelvin before using it in the ideal gas law, kinetic theory, or Carnot efficiency — these formulas only work with absolute temperature. Celsius or Fahrenheit values plugged in directly give silently wrong answers rather than an obvious error.

Common Mistake: Confusing heat and temperature, or assuming more heat always means a higher temperature rise. During a phase change (melting or boiling), a substance absorbs a large amount of heat while its temperature stays perfectly constant — the heat is going into changing phase, not raising temperature, and this is exactly where students most often misapply Q = mcΔT when Q = mL is the correct formula instead.

Important Questions:

• How much heat is needed to raise the temperature of 0.5 kg of water from 20°C to 80°C? (specific heat of water c = 4186 J/kg·°C) Using Q = mcΔT: Q = (0.5)(4186)(80 − 20) = (0.5)(4186)(60) = 125,580 J, or about 125.6 kJ. No phase change occurs (water stays liquid throughout this range), so the simple Q = mcΔT formula applies directly.
• A heat engine operates between a hot reservoir at 500 K and a cold reservoir at 300 K. What is its maximum possible (Carnot) efficiency? Carnot efficiency = 1 − T_cold/T_hot = 1 − 300/500 = 1 − 0.6 = 0.4, or 40%. This is the theoretical ceiling — no real engine running between these two temperatures can exceed 40% efficiency, no matter how well it is engineered.

Topic Block 3: Oscillations, Waves, and Sound (Chapters 16–17)

Difficulty: Medium · College Physics I · Key topics: Hooke’s law, simple harmonic motion, the simple pendulum, damped and forced oscillations, wave properties, sound speed and intensity, the Doppler effect, resonance in air columns, hearing, ultrasound

Chapters in this block:

• 16. Oscillatory Motion and Waves
• 17. Physics of Hearing

This short but dense block bridges mechanics and the wave phenomena (light, sound) that recur throughout the rest of the book. Chapter 16 starts from Hooke’s law and builds simple harmonic motion — the pattern behind springs, pendulums, and countless other oscillating systems — including its energy, its connection to uniform circular motion, and what happens when damping or an external driving force is added (resonance). It then generalizes from oscillation at a point to waves traveling through a medium, covering wave speed, superposition, and interference. Chapter 17 applies all of this specifically to sound: how sound speed depends on the medium, how intensity relates to the decibel scale, the Doppler effect for moving sources or observers, resonance in air columns (how wind instruments and the ear canal work), and the physiology of hearing itself, closing with ultrasound’s medical and industrial uses.

Key Points:

• Simple harmonic motion occurs whenever a restoring force is directly proportional to displacement (Hooke’s law, F = −kx) — springs and small-angle pendulums are the two canonical examples
• The period of a simple pendulum depends only on its length and local gravity (T = 2π√(L/g)), not on mass or amplitude — a common exam trap is assuming a heavier pendulum bob swings slower
• Resonance occurs when a driving force oscillates at (or near) a system’s natural frequency, producing a dramatic increase in amplitude — the same principle behind musical instruments, radio tuning, and structural engineering failures
• Wave speed depends on the medium’s properties, not on the wave’s frequency or amplitude — sound travels faster in solids than liquids, and faster in liquids than gases, because stiffer/denser media transmit the disturbance faster
• Sound intensity is measured on a logarithmic decibel scale because the ear responds to sound over an enormous range of intensities — every 10 dB increase represents a tenfold increase in actual intensity
• The Doppler effect shifts a wave’s observed frequency whenever the source and observer are in relative motion — frequency rises as they approach and falls as they separate, whether the source, the observer, or both are moving
• Resonance in a tube (open or closed) sets the fundamental frequency and overtone pattern of wind instruments and the human ear canal — a tube closed at one end supports only odd harmonics, while an open tube supports all harmonics

Memory Tip: For simple harmonic motion, remember that maximum speed occurs at the equilibrium position (zero displacement) and maximum acceleration occurs at maximum displacement (the turning points) — velocity and acceleration in SHM are always 90° out of phase with each other, never zero or maximum at the same instant.

Common Mistake: Assuming pendulum period depends on mass, or assuming a louder sound simply means a proportionally larger intensity. A heavier pendulum bob does not swing faster or slower — period is independent of mass. And because decibels are logarithmic, a sound described as “10 dB louder” is ten times more intense, not just 10 units more — treating decibel differences as linear intensity differences gives answers off by orders of magnitude.

Important Questions:

• A mass on a spring oscillates with amplitude 0.1 m and period 2 s. What is its maximum speed? For SHM, maximum speed = amplitude × angular frequency = Aω, where ω = 2π/T = 2π/2 = π rad/s. So v_max = (0.1)(π) ≈ 0.314 m/s. This maximum speed occurs exactly as the mass passes through the equilibrium (zero-displacement) point.
• An ambulance siren emits sound at 700 Hz. If the ambulance approaches a stationary listener at 30 m/s (speed of sound = 340 m/s), what frequency does the listener hear? For an approaching source, the Doppler-shifted frequency is f’ = f × v_sound/(v_sound − v_source) = 700 × 340/(340 − 30) = 700 × 340/310 ≈ 768 Hz. The listener hears a higher pitch than the siren actually emits, and it drops back down as the ambulance passes and recedes.

Topic Block 4: Electricity and Magnetism (Chapters 18–24)

Difficulty: Medium–Hard · College Physics II · Key topics: electric charge and Coulomb’s law, electric fields, electric potential and capacitance, current and Ohm’s law, DC circuits, magnetism and magnetic force, electromagnetic induction, AC circuits, electromagnetic waves

Chapters in this block:

• 18. Electric Charge and Electric Field
• 19. Electric Potential and Electric Field
• 20. Electric Current, Resistance, and Ohm’s Law
• 21. Circuits and DC Instruments
• 22. Magnetism
• 23. Electromagnetic Induction, AC Circuits, and Electrical Technologies
• 24. Electromagnetic Waves

This is the largest block in the book and typically opens the second semester (College Physics II). It begins with static electricity: charge, Coulomb’s law, and the electric field as the way one charge influences the space around it, then converts that field description into electric potential (voltage) and introduces capacitors as devices that store charge and energy in a field. From there it moves to charge in motion — current, resistance, and Ohm’s law — and builds up to full DC circuit analysis with Kirchhoff’s rules and DC instruments. Chapter 22 introduces magnetism as a separate phenomenon before Chapter 23 unifies electricity and magnetism through electromagnetic induction (Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws), the basis of generators, transformers, and AC circuits. The block closes with Chapter 24, where Maxwell’s equations predict that changing electric and magnetic fields propagate together as electromagnetic waves — the theoretical bridge into the optics block that follows.

Key Points:

• Coulomb’s law (F = kq₁q₂/r²) governs the force between point charges, and the electric field (E = F/q) describes the influence a charge exerts on the space around it independent of any test charge placed there
• Electric potential (voltage) is potential energy per unit charge, and it is a scalar, not a vector — this makes potential problems generally easier to set up than field problems, since potentials from multiple charges simply add
• A capacitor stores charge (and energy) in the electric field between its plates; capacitance depends only on the capacitor’s geometry, not on the voltage applied or charge stored
• Ohm’s law (V = IR) relates voltage, current, and resistance for many (but not all) materials, and power dissipated in a resistor is P = IV = I²R = V²/R — three equivalent forms useful in different circuit situations
• Resistors in series share the same current but divide voltage; resistors in parallel share the same voltage but divide current — getting these two rules backwards is the most common DC-circuits error
• Kirchhoff’s two rules (junction rule: current in equals current out at any node; loop rule: voltage changes around any closed loop sum to zero) solve any DC circuit too complex for simple series/parallel reduction
• Magnetic force on a moving charge (F = qvB sinθ) requires the charge to actually be moving — a stationary charge feels no magnetic force at all, unlike the electric force, which acts on charge whether moving or not
• Electromagnetic induction (Faraday’s law) generates an EMF whenever magnetic flux through a circuit changes — by a changing field, a changing area, or relative motion — and Lenz’s law fixes the direction: induced current always opposes the change that caused it
• Maxwell’s equations show that a changing electric field creates a magnetic field and vice versa, so the two fields sustain each other and propagate as a self-perpetuating electromagnetic wave at the speed of light — light itself is one such wave

Practice Tip: Before analyzing any circuit, redraw it clearly identifying every series and parallel combination first, and reduce those to a single equivalent resistance before applying Kirchhoff’s rules to whatever remains — jumping straight to Kirchhoff’s rules on a circuit that could have been simplified first wastes time and multiplies the chance of an algebra mistake.

Common Mistake: Mixing up the series and parallel voltage/current rules, or forgetting that a stationary charge feels no magnetic force. Resistors in series always carry the same current (not the same voltage); resistors in parallel always have the same voltage across them (not the same current) — applying the wrong rule to the wrong configuration is the single most common error in this block, along with assuming a charge at rest in a magnetic field experiences a force, which it never does.

Important Questions:

• Two point charges of +3 μC and −3 μC are separated by 0.2 m. What is the magnitude of the force between them? (k = 8.99 × 10⁹ N·m²/C²) Using Coulomb’s law: F = k|q₁q₂|/r² = (8.99×10⁹)(3×10⁻⁶)(3×10⁻⁶)/(0.2)² = (8.99×10⁹)(9×10⁻¹²)/0.04 ≈ 2.02 N. Since the charges have opposite signs, the force is attractive.
• Three 6-Ω resistors are connected in parallel across a 12 V battery. What is the total current drawn from the battery? For resistors in parallel: 1/R_eq = 1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6 = 3/6 = 1/2, so R_eq = 2 Ω. Total current: I = V/R_eq = 12/2 = 6 A. Each individual resistor carries 12/6 = 2 A, and the three 2 A branch currents sum to the 6 A total drawn from the battery, consistent with Kirchhoff’s junction rule.
• A circular loop of wire has its magnetic flux increase steadily from 0.02 Wb to 0.08 Wb over 0.5 s. What EMF is induced? By Faraday’s law, induced EMF = −ΔΦ/Δt = −(0.08 − 0.02)/0.5 = −0.06/0.5 = −0.12 V. The magnitude of the induced EMF is 0.12 V; the negative sign (Lenz’s law) indicates the induced current opposes the increasing flux, flowing in whichever direction creates a magnetic field fighting the increase.

Topic Block 5: Optics (Chapters 25–27)

Difficulty: Medium · College Physics II · Key topics: reflection and refraction, total internal reflection, dispersion, image formation by lenses and mirrors, the eye and vision correction, microscopes and telescopes, wave interference, diffraction, polarization

Chapters in this block:

• 25. Geometric Optics
• 26. Vision and Optical Instruments
• 27. Wave Optics

This block studies light in two complementary ways. Geometric optics (Chapter 25) treats light as rays traveling in straight lines, governed by the law of reflection and the law of refraction (Snell’s law) — the tools that explain total internal reflection, dispersion (why prisms split white light into colors), and how lenses and mirrors form images, whether real or virtual, magnified or reduced. Chapter 26 applies that ray model to real optical instruments: the human eye, common vision defects and their corrective lenses, color vision, and the magnifying power of microscopes and telescopes. Chapter 27 then switches models entirely: wave optics treats light as a wave, which is the only way to explain interference and diffraction — Young’s double slit, multiple-slit diffraction gratings, single-slit diffraction, thin-film interference, and polarization — phenomena the ray model of Chapter 25 cannot account for at all.

Key Points:

• The law of reflection (angle of incidence equals angle of reflection) and Snell’s law (n₁sinθ₁ = n₂sinθ₂) are the two founding rules of geometric optics, both measured from the normal to the surface, never from the surface itself
• Total internal reflection occurs only when light travels from a higher-index medium to a lower-index one at an angle beyond the critical angle — it cannot happen going from a lower-index medium into a higher-index one, regardless of angle
• Converging (convex) lenses can form either real, inverted images or virtual, upright, magnified images depending on whether the object is farther or closer than the focal length; diverging (concave) lenses always form virtual, upright, reduced images
• The eye’s own lens (assisted by the cornea) forms an image on the retina; nearsightedness and farsightedness are corrected with diverging and converging lenses respectively, which shift where the eye’s own focal point falls
• A magnifying instrument’s power is described by angular magnification (how much larger an object appears), not by literal image size — this is why microscope and telescope magnifications are specified as multiplication factors (10×, 100×) rather than physical dimensions
• Wave optics phenomena — interference, diffraction, polarization — only appear when light’s wave nature matters, typically at length scales comparable to its wavelength; geometric optics (Chapter 25) is simply the limiting case where wavelength is negligibly small compared to the apertures and objects involved
• Young’s double-slit experiment produces bright and dark interference fringes because light from the two slits travels different path lengths to the screen — constructive interference (bright fringes) occurs where that path difference is a whole number of wavelengths
• Polarization filters out light waves oscillating in all but one direction — unpolarized light passing through two polarizers at 90° to each other is fully blocked, a result geometric optics has no way to explain

Memory Tip: Keep a strict sign convention (positive/negative for object distance, image distance, and focal length) and apply it identically to every mirror and lens problem in Chapters 25–26 — the thin-lens equation and mirror equation are algebraically identical, and nearly every wrong-image-type answer traces back to a sign flipped at the start rather than an error in the formula itself.

Common Mistake: Trying to explain interference and diffraction with the ray model of geometric optics, or vice versa. Straight-ray reasoning (Chapter 25) cannot predict interference fringes or diffraction patterns at all — those require treating light as a wave (Chapter 27). Conversely, using wave optics to solve an ordinary image-formation problem is unnecessary complexity; know which model each problem calls for before choosing a formula.

Important Questions:

• Light travels from water (n = 1.33) into air (n = 1.00) and strikes the surface at 40° from the normal. Does total internal reflection occur? (critical angle for water-to-air is about 48.8°) Total internal reflection requires the angle of incidence to exceed the critical angle. Here the light hits the surface at 40°, which is less than the critical angle of about 48.8°, so total internal reflection does NOT occur — most of the light refracts out into the air (bending away from the normal), with only partial reflection back into the water.
• An object is placed 30 cm from a converging lens with a focal length of 10 cm. Where does the image form, and is it real or virtual? Using the thin-lens equation 1/f = 1/d_o + 1/d_i: 1/10 = 1/30 + 1/d_i, so 1/d_i = 1/10 − 1/30 = 3/30 − 1/30 = 2/30 = 1/15, giving d_i = 15 cm. Since d_i is positive, the image is real, forming 15 cm on the far side of the lens (and inverted, since it’s a real image from a converging lens with the object outside the focal length).

Topic Block 6: Modern Physics (Chapters 28–34)

Difficulty: Hard · College Physics II · Key topics: special relativity, quantum physics and the photoelectric effect, atomic structure and Bohr’s model, nuclear physics and radioactivity, medical applications of nuclear physics, particle physics, frontiers of physics

Chapters in this block:

• 28. Special Relativity
• 29. Introduction to Quantum Physics
• 30. Atomic Physics
• 31. Radioactivity and Nuclear Physics
• 32. Medical Applications of Nuclear Physics
• 33. Particle Physics
• 34. Frontiers of Physics

The final block covers the physics that broke classical mechanics apart in the early 20th century, and closes with where the field stands today. Special relativity (Chapter 28) starts from Einstein’s two postulates and derives their strange but confirmed consequences — time dilation, length contraction, and mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²). Chapter 29 introduces quantum physics through the photoelectric effect, which forced physicists to accept that light delivers energy in discrete photons, not a continuous wave, and closes with wave-particle duality and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Chapter 30 applies these quantum ideas to build up atomic structure, from Bohr’s model of hydrogen to the quantum numbers and exclusion principle that explain the periodic table itself. Chapters 31–32 turn to the nucleus: radioactive decay, half-life, binding energy, and their extensive medical uses in imaging and therapy. The book closes with particle physics (the Standard Model’s quarks and forces) and a survey of open frontiers — cosmology, dark matter, and unresolved questions in fundamental physics.

Key Points:

• Special relativity’s two postulates (the laws of physics are the same in every inertial frame, and light speed is constant for every observer) together force time dilation and length contraction — moving clocks run slow and moving objects appear contracted along their direction of motion, as measured by a stationary observer
• Mass and energy are equivalent (E=mc²) — a small amount of mass corresponds to an enormous amount of energy, which is why nuclear reactions (Chapters 31–32) release vastly more energy per reaction than chemical ones
• The photoelectric effect proved light carries energy in discrete packets (photons, E=hf) rather than continuously — increasing light intensity increases the number of photoelectrons ejected, but only increasing frequency increases each electron’s energy, a result classical wave theory could not explain
• Bohr’s model correctly predicts hydrogen’s spectral lines by proposing that electrons occupy only specific, quantized orbits — it was later superseded by full quantum mechanics but remains the intuitive starting point for atomic structure
• The Pauli exclusion principle (no two electrons in an atom can share the same full set of quantum numbers) is what forces electrons into successive shells as atomic number increases, directly producing the periodic table’s structure
• Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of any single nucleus, but statistically predictable in bulk — half-life is the time for half of a large sample to decay, and it is completely independent of temperature, pressure, or chemical environment
• Nuclear binding energy (the energy that would be required to separate a nucleus into individual protons and neutrons) explains why both nuclear fission (splitting heavy nuclei) and nuclear fusion (combining light nuclei) release energy — both processes move toward the more tightly bound nuclei near iron on the binding-energy curve
• The Standard Model organizes all known matter particles into quarks and leptons interacting through four fundamental forces — Chapter 33’s particle physics and Chapter 34’s frontiers content (dark matter, cosmology, unification) represent the edge of confirmed physics, not settled textbook fact

Memory Tip: Keep the two eras of this block mentally separate: Chapters 28–30 (relativity, photons, atomic structure) were confirmed and became standard physics by the 1930s, while Chapters 31–34 build on that foundation with nuclear and particle physics that has direct, everyday applications (medical imaging, power generation) as well as genuinely open research questions in the final chapter — know which parts of Chapter 34 are established science and which are described as open frontiers.

Common Mistake: Applying relativistic formulas at everyday (non-relativistic) speeds, or assuming radioactive half-life can be sped up or slowed down. Time dilation and length contraction are real but utterly negligible below a significant fraction of light speed — using them on a car or a thrown ball wastes effort for an unmeasurably small correction. And half-life is a fixed nuclear property; no chemical reaction, temperature change, or pressure change alters how fast a radioactive sample decays, unlike ordinary chemical reaction rates.

Important Questions:

• A spaceship travels at 0.8c relative to Earth. If 10 years pass on the spaceship’s own clock, how much time passes on Earth, according to Earth observers? Using time dilation, Δt_Earth = Δt_ship/√(1−v²/c²) = 10/√(1−0.64) = 10/√0.36 = 10/0.6 ≈ 16.7 years. Earth observers measure about 16.7 years passing while only 10 years pass for the traveling astronauts — the moving clock (the ship’s) runs slow from Earth’s perspective.
• A radioactive sample has a half-life of 8 days. What fraction of the original sample remains after 24 days? 24 days is exactly 3 half-lives (24/8 = 3). Remaining fraction = (1/2)³ = 1/8. After 24 days, one-eighth of the original radioactive sample remains, regardless of how large or small the original sample was.
• A photon has a frequency of 6 × 10¹⁴ Hz. What is its energy? (Planck’s constant h = 6.63 × 10⁻³⁴ J·s) Using E = hf: E = (6.63×10⁻³⁴)(6×10¹⁴) = 3.978×10⁻¹⁹ J, or about 3.98×10⁻¹⁹ J. This is the energy carried by a single photon of that frequency — converted to electron-volts (dividing by 1.6×10⁻¹⁹), that’s about 2.49 eV, in the visible-light range.

Download College Physics 2e PDF (Free)

This book is free from its official source, OpenStax. Click below to download the complete PDF — a free web-based reader edition (with per-section, linkable pages) is also available on the OpenStax site if you’d rather read online.

How to Study This Book

This page groups College Physics 2e’s 34 chapters into 6 topic blocks rather than one block per chapter, since a chapter-by-chapter page at this length becomes unwieldy to scan. Every block still names its real chapter numbers and titles in full — nothing is hidden or summarized away, and the book itself is unchanged.

Chapters 1–17 (Mechanics and Fluids, Heat and Thermodynamics, Oscillations/Waves/Sound — topic blocks 1–3) form College Physics I at most institutions. Chapters 18–34 (Electricity and Magnetism, Optics, Modern Physics — topic blocks 4–6) form College Physics II. Check your own syllabus, since the exact split can vary by program.

Topic Block 1 (Mechanics and Fluids, Chapters 1–12) is the longest single block and the foundation for everything after it — Newton’s laws (Chapter 4) and energy/momentum conservation (Chapters 7–8) are assumed without re-explanation in every later block, including the electricity and modern-physics blocks.

Topic Block 3 (Chapters 16–17, Oscillations/Waves/Sound) is short but conceptually dense — simple harmonic motion and wave behavior introduced here recur directly in Topic Block 5’s wave optics (Chapter 27), so don’t skip it even if your course de-emphasizes sound.

Topic Block 4 (Electricity and Magnetism, Chapters 18–24) is the largest block by chapter count and typically opens College Physics II — budget the most study time here, especially DC circuit analysis (Chapters 20–21), which is cumulative within the block.

This is an algebra-based text throughout — no calculus appears anywhere in the 34 chapters, which is the key difference from OpenStax’s University Physics series (calculus-based) also on this site.

Used In These Programs

This book is used for the two-semester College Physics I & II course sequence in: BS Physics, Pre-Medical, Engineering (non-calculus track), and other STEM degree programs. Browse all Physics books or all Physics category books.

Who Should Read This

College Physics 2e is written for a first- or second-year university student taking a two-semester algebra-based physics sequence — typically a BS Physics, Pre-Medical, or Engineering student on a non-calculus track. No calculus is used anywhere in the book; algebra, trigonometry, and basic vector addition are all that’s assumed. Its large per-section worked-example sets and Test Prep/Conceptual Questions structure suit a student who wants extensive practice material alongside the theory, and its frequent “real-world connections” callouts (medical, biological, and engineering applications) suit Pre-Medical and Engineering students specifically, not just Physics majors.

Applicable Universities

This book is useful for students at Pakistani universities offering BS Physics, Pre-Medical, or Engineering programs with an algebra-based (non-calculus) physics requirement, including Punjab University, Virtual University, COMSATS, FAST, UET, NUST, GIKI, and other HEC-recognized institutions, where a two-semester College Physics sequence is a common first- or second-year requirement.

FAQs

Related Books

• University Physics Volume 1 – OpenStax (the calculus-based alternative to this book)
• University Physics Volume 2 – OpenStax
• Calculus Volume 1 – Strang & Herman (OpenStax)

College Physics 2e is this project’s third Physics-category book, covering a complete two-semester, algebra-based introductory physics sequence for BS Physics, Pre-Medical, and Engineering students. Browse more Physics books or Mathematics books for the rest of your semester.

College Physics 2e, by Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs, and contributors. OpenStax, Rice University. Free under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Access for free at https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-2e