University Physics Volume 2 PDF Download – OpenStax

Students taking University Physics II can download the complete textbook “University Physics Volume 2” by Samuel J. Ling, Jeff Sanny, William Moebs, and contributors, free as a PDF from OpenStax. It is a calculus-based, traditional example-and-exercise-driven physics text — every section works through several fully-solved examples before a large practice-problem set, and every chapter closes with a Key Terms, Key Equations, and Key Concepts review before its Chapter Review Exercises.

This is Volume 2 of OpenStax’s three-volume University Physics series, covering Thermodynamics (temperature, heat, kinetic theory, and the laws of thermodynamics) and Electricity & Magnetism (charges, fields, circuits, magnetism, induction, and electromagnetic waves). Volume 1 covers Mechanics, Waves, and Sound, and Volume 3 continues with Optics and Modern Physics — this volume is designed to stand alone as a complete second-semester course, building on Volume 1’s mechanics foundation.

Book Overview

Chapter List

Chapter 1: Temperature and Heat

Difficulty: Easy · University Physics II · Key topics: temperature and thermal equilibrium, temperature scales, thermal expansion, calorimetry, phase changes, heat transfer mechanisms

This opening chapter turns temperature and heat — words used loosely in everyday speech — into precisely defined physical quantities. It starts from thermal equilibrium (two objects at the same temperature exchange no net heat) and the zeroth law that makes temperature measurable at all, then covers the common temperature scales and how materials expand as they heat up. The chapter’s practical core is calorimetry: using specific heat to calculate how much heat moves in and out of a system, extended to latent heat for phase changes such as melting and boiling. It closes with the three heat-transfer mechanisms — conduction, convection, and radiation — that explain how that heat actually moves from one place to another.

Key Points:

• Two objects in thermal equilibrium are at the same temperature and exchange zero net heat between them
• Heat is energy transferred due to a temperature difference; temperature is not the same quantity as heat or thermal energy
• Thermal expansion is predictable and material-specific — different substances expand at different rates per degree of temperature change
• Calorimetry (Q = mcΔT) calculates heat exchanged from mass, specific heat, and temperature change; latent heat (Q = mL) calculates heat exchanged during a phase change, where temperature does NOT change
• Heat transfers by conduction (direct contact), convection (moving fluid), or radiation (electromagnetic waves, works even through vacuum)

Practice Tip: During a phase change (melting, boiling), temperature stays constant while heat keeps flowing — if a calorimetry problem’s temperature isn’t changing, you need the latent-heat equation, not the specific-heat equation.

Common Mistake: Using Q = mcΔT straight through a phase change. Once a substance starts melting or boiling, all the added heat goes into breaking molecular bonds (latent heat), not raising temperature — mixing the two equations across a phase boundary gives a badly wrong answer.

Important Questions:

• What does it mean for two objects to be in thermal equilibrium? Thermal equilibrium means two objects are at the same temperature, so there is zero net heat flow between them. Heat only flows spontaneously from a higher-temperature object to a lower-temperature one; once temperatures equalize, that flow stops.
• Why does temperature stay constant during a phase change even though heat keeps being added? Because during a phase change, the added heat goes into breaking or forming intermolecular bonds (changing the substance’s phase) rather than increasing the average kinetic energy of the molecules, which is what temperature measures. Only after the phase change completes does added heat resume raising the temperature.

Chapter 2: The Kinetic Theory of Gases

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: ideal gas law, molecular model of a gas, pressure and RMS speed, heat capacity and equipartition, Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution

This chapter explains gas behavior from two directions at once: macroscopically (pressure, volume, temperature, tied together by the ideal gas law) and microscopically (what individual gas molecules are actually doing). The kinetic theory connects the two by modeling a gas as a huge number of molecules in constant random motion, colliding elastically with each other and the container walls — pressure turns out to be nothing more than the statistical result of countless molecular collisions. From there the chapter derives how RMS molecular speed relates to temperature, introduces heat capacity through the equipartition theorem (each degree of freedom gets an equal share of thermal energy), and closes with the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution describing the full spread of molecular speeds in a gas sample, not just their average.

Key Points:

• The ideal gas law (PV = nRT) relates a gas’s macroscopic pressure, volume, and temperature, and holds well for real gases at ordinary densities and temperatures
• Kinetic theory models gas pressure as the statistical result of huge numbers of molecules colliding with the container walls — pressure is a population-level, not individual-molecule, phenomenon
• Temperature is directly proportional to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules — higher temperature literally means faster-moving molecules, on average
• The equipartition theorem assigns an equal share of thermal energy to each degree of freedom (translational, rotational, vibrational), which is why monatomic and diatomic gases have different heat capacities
• The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution shows that gas molecules at a given temperature have a spread of speeds, not one single speed — RMS speed is a statistical summary of that spread, not a literal molecule’s speed

Memory Tip: “More degrees of freedom, more heat capacity” — a monatomic gas (3 translational degrees of freedom only) has a lower heat capacity than a diatomic gas (which also rotates), because there are more places for added energy to go.

Common Mistake: Treating RMS speed as if every molecule in the gas moves at exactly that speed. RMS speed is a statistical average over a distribution (Maxwell-Boltzmann) — individual molecules are constantly colliding and range from nearly stationary to many times faster than the RMS value.

Important Questions:

• According to kinetic theory, what physically causes gas pressure? Gas pressure is caused by the huge number of gas molecules continuously colliding with the walls of their container and bouncing off (transferring momentum at each collision). Pressure is the statistical, population-level result of these countless individual collisions, not a property of any single molecule.
• How does temperature relate to molecular motion in kinetic theory? Temperature is directly proportional to the average translational kinetic energy of the gas molecules. A higher temperature means the molecules are moving faster on average; temperature is fundamentally a measure of molecular motion, not a separate independent quantity.

Chapter 3: The First Law of Thermodynamics

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: thermodynamic systems and state variables, work/heat/internal energy, first law, thermodynamic processes, ideal-gas heat capacities, adiabatic processes

This chapter introduces thermodynamics proper — the study of energy transformations between heat, work, and internal energy — using a car engine as the motivating example of chemical energy converting to heat and then to mechanical work. It defines a thermodynamic system and its state variables, distinguishes work, heat, and internal energy as three related but distinct quantities, and states the First Law itself: energy is conserved, so a system’s internal energy change equals heat added minus work done by the system. The chapter then works through the standard named thermodynamic processes (isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, adiabatic) on a PV diagram, and derives the heat capacities of an ideal gas at constant volume versus constant pressure, closing with adiabatic processes as the case where no heat is exchanged at all.

Key Points:

• The First Law of Thermodynamics is energy conservation applied to heat: ΔU = Q − W, where ΔU is the change in internal energy, Q is heat added to the system, and W is work done BY the system
• Internal energy is a state variable (depends only on the system’s current state); heat and work are NOT state variables — they depend on the specific process/path taken between two states
• On a PV diagram, the area under a process curve equals the work done during that process — a purely geometric way to compute W
• An isothermal process (constant temperature) on an ideal gas has ΔU = 0, so all heat added becomes work done; an adiabatic process (no heat exchanged) has Q = 0, so all internal-energy change becomes work
• An ideal gas’s heat capacity at constant pressure is always larger than at constant volume, because at constant pressure some of the added heat does expansion work instead of all going into internal energy

Practice Tip: Before applying ΔU = Q − W to any process, first identify which of the four named process types (isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, adiabatic) it is — each one eliminates or simplifies at least one term in the First Law.

Common Mistake: Treating heat and work as state variables that depend only on a system’s initial and final state, the way internal energy does. Heat and work both depend on the specific PATH taken between two states — two different processes connecting the same start and end states can involve completely different amounts of heat and work, even though ΔU is identical for both.

Important Questions:

• State the First Law of Thermodynamics and explain what each term means. ΔU = Q − W, where ΔU is the change in the system’s internal energy, Q is the heat added TO the system, and W is the work done BY the system on its surroundings. It is simply energy conservation: any energy added as heat either increases internal energy or leaves as work done.
• Why is internal energy called a “state variable” while heat and work are not? Internal energy depends only on the system’s current state (e.g., its temperature, for an ideal gas) — two systems in the same state have the same internal energy regardless of history. Heat and work, by contrast, depend on the specific process/path taken to reach that state; the same net ΔU can be achieved via very different combinations of heat and work depending on the path.

Chapter 4: The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: reversible and irreversible processes, heat engines, refrigerators and heat pumps, statements of the second law, Carnot cycle, entropy

Chapter 3 established that energy is conserved — but conservation alone doesn’t explain why some processes happen and their exact reverses never do (a dropped egg never spontaneously reassembles). This chapter introduces the Second Law of Thermodynamics to close that gap, starting with the distinction between reversible and irreversible processes. It then analyzes heat engines (converting heat into work) and their opposites, refrigerators and heat pumps (using work to move heat against its natural direction), before stating the Second Law in its classic Kelvin and Clausius forms. The Carnot cycle sets the absolute theoretical efficiency limit for any heat engine operating between two temperatures, and the chapter closes with entropy — both as a macroscopic quantity that never decreases in an isolated system, and microscopically as a measure of a system’s disorder or number of possible molecular arrangements.

Key Points:

• No real process is perfectly reversible — friction, uncontrolled expansion, and heat flow across a finite temperature difference all make a process irreversible, and irreversibility is what gives time a direction in thermodynamics
• A heat engine converts some heat into work but can NEVER convert 100% of input heat into work — some heat must always be exhausted to a colder reservoir, per the Second Law
• The Carnot cycle is the theoretical maximum-efficiency heat engine possible between two given temperatures; its efficiency depends only on those two temperatures, not on the engine’s design or working substance
• The Second Law can be stated equivalently as: heat never spontaneously flows from cold to hot without work being done (Clausius), or no heat engine can convert heat entirely into work with no other effect (Kelvin)
• Entropy is a state variable that measures a system’s disorder (microscopically) or unavailable energy (macroscopically); the total entropy of an isolated system never decreases — this is the Second Law’s most general statement

Practice Tip: For any Carnot-cycle efficiency question, use absolute (Kelvin) temperatures, never Celsius or Fahrenheit — the Carnot efficiency formula (1 − T_cold/T_hot) is only valid with T in kelvin, since it depends on the actual ratio of thermal energies, not an arbitrary zero point.

Common Mistake: Believing a sufficiently clever engine design could reach 100% thermal efficiency. The Second Law makes this impossible for any heat engine operating in a cycle — some heat must always be exhausted to a cold reservoir; only the Carnot engine’s efficiency limit (which is always less than 100% for any finite hot/cold temperature difference) can even be approached, never a perfect conversion.

Important Questions:

• Why can no heat engine be 100% efficient, according to the Second Law? The Second Law (Kelvin statement) says no heat engine operating in a cycle can convert heat entirely into work with no other effect — some heat must always be exhausted to a colder reservoir. Even the theoretically ideal Carnot engine’s efficiency is always less than 100% whenever the cold reservoir’s temperature is above absolute zero.
• What does it mean for the entropy of an isolated system to “never decrease”? It means that for any process occurring within a system that exchanges no matter or energy with its surroundings, the system’s total entropy either increases (for any real, irreversible process) or stays exactly the same (only in the idealized limit of a perfectly reversible process) — it can never spontaneously decrease, which is why processes like a broken egg reassembling never happen on their own.

Chapter 5: Electric Charges and Fields

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: electric charge, conductors and insulators, Coulomb’s law, electric field, field of continuous charge distributions, field lines, electric dipoles

This chapter opens Volume 2’s second unit by introducing electric force as a new fundamental interaction — considerably stronger than gravity in most systems, but unlike gravity, capable of both attracting and repelling. It starts from electric charge itself (a conserved, quantized property of matter) and the practical distinction between conductors (charge moves freely) and insulators (charge stays put), including charging by induction. Coulomb’s Law gives the force between two point charges, which the chapter then reframes as the electric field — a vector quantity filling space around any charge, letting you calculate the force on any test charge placed at a given point without re-deriving Coulomb’s Law each time. The chapter extends this to continuous charge distributions (not just point charges), introduces field lines as a visualization tool, and closes with electric dipoles, a pair of opposite charges that appears throughout later chapters on materials and molecules.

Key Points:

• Electric charge is conserved (never created or destroyed, only transferred) and quantized (always an integer multiple of the elementary charge e)
• Coulomb’s Law gives the force between two point charges: it’s proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, mathematically parallel to Newton’s law of gravitation
• The electric field at a point is defined as the force per unit positive test charge placed at that point — a vector field that exists whether or not a test charge is actually there
• Electric field lines point in the direction a positive test charge would be pushed, originate on positive charges and terminate on negative charges, and their density indicates field strength
• An electric dipole is a pair of equal and opposite charges separated by a small distance, characterized by a dipole moment — a model used throughout later chapters for polar molecules and dielectric materials

Memory Tip: Coulomb’s Law and Newton’s law of gravitation have the identical inverse-square mathematical form — if you already know how to set up a gravity problem, you already know the structure of a Coulomb’s Law problem; only the constant and the fact that charge can be negative change.

Common Mistake: Forgetting that the electric field exists at a point in space independent of whether a test charge is actually placed there. The field is a property of the source charge(s) alone — a test charge is only a hypothetical tool for measuring the field’s strength and direction, not a requirement for the field to exist.

Important Questions:

• How does Coulomb’s Law resemble Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and how does it differ? Both are inverse-square laws: force is proportional to the product of the two quantities (charges vs. masses) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. They differ because electric charge can be positive or negative (giving both attractive and repulsive forces), while mass is always positive (gravity is always attractive), and the electric force is vastly stronger for typical charged particles than gravity is for the same particles’ masses.
• What is the electric field, and why is it a useful concept beyond just using Coulomb’s Law directly? The electric field is the force per unit positive test charge at a given point in space, created by some source charge or charge distribution. It’s useful because once you calculate the field at a point, you can find the force on ANY charge placed there by simple multiplication, without re-deriving Coulomb’s Law from scratch for every new test charge.

Chapter 6: Gauss’s Law

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: electric flux, Gauss’s law, applying Gauss’s law to symmetric charge distributions, conductors in electrostatic equilibrium

This chapter introduces electric flux — a measure of how much electric field “flows” through a given surface — as the foundation for Gauss’s Law, one of the four fundamental Maxwell’s equations that govern all of electromagnetism. Gauss’s Law relates the total electric flux through any closed surface to the total charge enclosed by that surface, and while it is always true, it becomes an extraordinarily powerful shortcut specifically when a charge distribution has spatial symmetry (spherical, cylindrical, or planar). The chapter works through the standard playbook for choosing a Gaussian surface that exploits that symmetry, dramatically simplifying field calculations that would otherwise require difficult direct integration of Coulomb’s Law. It closes by applying Gauss’s Law to conductors in electrostatic equilibrium, explaining why excess charge on a conductor always resides on its outer surface.

Key Points:

• Electric flux measures how much electric field passes through a given surface — mathematically, the surface integral of the electric field over that surface
• Gauss’s Law states that the total electric flux through any closed surface equals the enclosed charge divided by the permittivity of free space — true for ANY closed surface and ANY charge distribution, symmetric or not
• Gauss’s Law becomes practically useful for actually CALCULATING the field only when the charge distribution has enough symmetry (spherical, cylindrical, or planar) to choose a Gaussian surface where the field is constant and known-direction over the whole surface
• For a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside the conducting material is always exactly zero, and any excess charge resides entirely on the conductor’s outer surface
• Choosing the right Gaussian surface (matching the problem’s symmetry) is the entire skill of this chapter — a sphere for point/spherical symmetry, a cylinder for line/cylindrical symmetry, a pillbox for planar symmetry

Practice Tip: Before writing any Gauss’s Law integral, ask what SHAPE of Gaussian surface would make the electric field constant in magnitude and either parallel or perpendicular to the surface everywhere on it — if you can’t find such a surface, the charge distribution isn’t symmetric enough for this shortcut to help.

Common Mistake: Trying to apply Gauss’s Law as a calculation shortcut to a charge distribution with no useful symmetry (e.g., three widely separated point charges arranged asymmetrically). Gauss’s Law is always TRUE, but it is only practically SOLVABLE for the field when symmetry lets you pull the field magnitude out of the flux integral — without that symmetry, direct integration of Coulomb’s Law is required instead.

Important Questions:

• State Gauss’s Law in words, and explain when it becomes practically useful for calculating an electric field. Gauss’s Law states that the total electric flux through any closed surface equals the total charge enclosed by that surface divided by the permittivity of free space. It’s always true, but only becomes practically useful for CALCULATING the field itself when the charge distribution has spherical, cylindrical, or planar symmetry, letting you choose a Gaussian surface over which the field’s magnitude is constant and can be pulled outside the flux integral.
• Why is the electric field inside a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium always zero? If the field inside were nonzero, the free charges in the conductor would keep experiencing a force and keep moving — contradicting the assumption of equilibrium (charges at rest). So in equilibrium, charges have already redistributed themselves (moving to the surface) until the internal field is exactly canceled to zero everywhere inside the conducting material.

Chapter 7: Electric Potential

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: electric potential energy, electric potential and potential difference, calculating potential, relating field and potential, equipotential surfaces, applications of electrostatics

This chapter distinguishes two related but genuinely different concepts that are easy to conflate: electrical potential energy (stored energy, depends on the charge actually placed at a point) and electric potential, or voltage (a property of the field itself, independent of any particular charge) — a motorcycle battery and a car battery can have the identical voltage while storing very different amounts of energy. From potential the chapter derives potential difference, works through calculating potential for common charge configurations, and shows how to recover the electric field itself from a known potential function (a mathematically simpler route than working with the field’s vector components directly in many problems). It introduces equipotential surfaces — regions where potential doesn’t change, always perpendicular to field lines — and closes with practical applications of electrostatics, from lightning to photocopiers.

Key Points:

• Electric potential (voltage) is potential energy PER UNIT CHARGE — it’s a property of the field/location alone, while potential energy also depends on how much charge is actually placed there
• Two objects can have equal voltage while storing very different amounts of energy, because energy also depends on the amount of charge (or, for a capacitor, its capacitance) — voltage alone doesn’t tell you the full energy story
• The electric field points in the direction of steepest DECREASING potential, and its magnitude equals the rate that potential changes with distance — field and potential are mathematically related by a derivative (gradient)
• Equipotential surfaces are always perpendicular to electric field lines at every point, and no work is done moving a charge along an equipotential surface
• Conductors in electrostatic equilibrium are always at a single uniform potential throughout their entire volume and surface — a direct consequence of the field being zero inside them

Memory Tip: “Potential” is a per-unit-charge quantity, like a price-per-item; “potential energy” is the total cost, which depends on how many items (how much charge) you actually have. Two shoppers can see the identical price tag (potential) while paying very different total amounts (energy) depending on how much they buy.

Common Mistake: Assuming equal voltage automatically means equal stored energy. A motorcycle battery and a car battery can both be 12 volts, but the car battery stores vastly more energy because voltage is potential energy PER UNIT CHARGE — total energy also depends on how much charge (or capacitance) the device actually holds.

Important Questions:

• What is the difference between electric potential and electric potential energy? Electric potential (voltage) is potential energy per unit charge — a property of the field or a specific location, independent of how much charge is actually there. Electric potential energy is the actual stored energy for a SPECIFIC charge placed at that location, found by multiplying the potential by that charge’s actual amount.
• How is the electric field related to the electric potential? The electric field points in the direction of the steepest decrease in potential, and its magnitude equals the rate at which potential changes with distance in that direction (mathematically, the field is the negative gradient of the potential). This means you can recover the full field from a known potential function via differentiation, without working with field vector components directly.

Chapter 8: Capacitance

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: capacitors and capacitance, capacitors in series and parallel, energy stored in a capacitor, dielectrics, molecular model of a dielectric

Capacitors are among the most common electrical components in everyday devices, from pacemakers to smartphones, and this chapter builds the theory behind them from the ground up. It defines capacitance as a device’s ability to store charge (and thus energy) at a given voltage, then works through the two basic ways capacitors combine in a circuit — series and parallel, each with a different combination rule, mirroring resistor combinations covered in a later chapter but with the rules reversed. The chapter derives the energy stored in a charged capacitor, then introduces dielectrics — insulating materials inserted between a capacitor’s plates that increase its capacitance — closing with the molecular-level explanation of why dielectrics work: their molecules polarize in response to the applied field, partially canceling it and letting more charge accumulate for the same voltage.

Key Points:

• Capacitance measures a device’s ability to store charge per unit voltage (C = Q/V) — a purely geometric property determined by a capacitor’s shape, size, and the material between its plates
• Capacitors in parallel add directly (like resistors in series); capacitors in series combine as reciprocals, and the total is always LESS than the smallest individual capacitance (like resistors in parallel) — the combination rules are the mirror image of resistor combination rules
• The energy stored in a charged capacitor is proportional to the square of the voltage across it, and this energy is physically stored in the electric field occupying the space between the plates
• Inserting a dielectric (an insulating material) between a capacitor’s plates always increases its capacitance, because the dielectric partially cancels the applied field, letting more charge accumulate for the same voltage
• A dielectric increases capacitance because its molecules polarize (align, even if only slightly, with the applied field) — this molecular-level alignment creates an opposing internal field that partially cancels the capacitor’s own field

Memory Tip: Capacitor combination rules are the OPPOSITE of resistor combination rules: capacitors in parallel simply add (like resistors in series), and capacitors in series combine as reciprocals (like resistors in parallel). If you remember resistor rules, flip them for capacitors.

Common Mistake: Applying the resistor combination rules directly to capacitors without flipping them. Capacitors in parallel ADD directly; capacitors in series combine reciprocally — exactly backwards from how resistors combine in the same series/parallel arrangement, and mixing the two up is one of the most common errors in circuits problems.

Important Questions:

• How do you calculate the equivalent capacitance of capacitors connected in parallel versus in series? In parallel, equivalent capacitance is the simple sum of the individual capacitances (C_eq = C1 + C2 + …). In series, the reciprocal of the equivalent capacitance equals the sum of the reciprocals of the individual capacitances (1/C_eq = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + …), and the equivalent is always smaller than the smallest individual capacitor — the opposite of how resistors combine in the same arrangements.
• Why does inserting a dielectric between a capacitor’s plates increase its capacitance? The dielectric’s molecules polarize in response to the capacitor’s electric field, creating a small internal field that opposes and partially cancels the applied field. With a weaker net field for the same amount of charge on the plates, the voltage needed to hold that charge is lower — and since capacitance is charge per unit voltage, a lower voltage for the same charge means higher capacitance.

Chapter 9: Current and Resistance

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: electrical current, conduction model in metals, resistivity and resistance, Ohm’s law, electrical power, superconductors

This chapter shifts from electrostatics (charges at rest) to the physics of charge actually flowing — electrical current, defined as the rate of charge flow through a conductor. It builds a microscopic model of conduction in metals, where free electrons drift slowly through the material despite their individual random motion being extremely fast, then introduces resistivity (a material property) and resistance (a property of a specific object’s shape and material together) as the quantities that describe how strongly a material opposes current flow. Ohm’s Law ties current, voltage, and resistance together for the many materials that obey it, and the chapter derives electrical power — the rate energy is dissipated or delivered in a circuit. It closes with superconductors, materials whose resistance drops to exactly zero below a critical temperature, enabling technologies like the powerful electromagnets used in MRI machines and particle accelerators.

Key Points:

• Electrical current is the rate of flow of electric charge through a conductor, measured in amperes (coulombs per second)
• In a metal, the actual drift velocity of individual electrons is remarkably slow (millimeters per second) even though the electrical signal itself propagates through the circuit at nearly the speed of light
• Resistivity is an intrinsic material property (independent of shape); resistance depends on both the material’s resistivity AND the object’s specific geometry (length and cross-sectional area)
• Ohm’s Law (V = IR) holds for “ohmic” materials where resistance stays constant regardless of the applied voltage or current — not all materials obey it (e.g. some semiconductor devices are deliberately non-ohmic)
• A superconductor’s resistance drops to EXACTLY zero below a critical temperature, not just to a very small value — enabling persistent currents and extremely powerful electromagnets with no ongoing energy loss to resistive heating

Practice Tip: Resistance and resistivity are not the same thing — resistivity (ρ) is a fixed material property from a table, while resistance (R) also depends on that specific wire or component’s length and cross-sectional area (R = ρL/A). Doubling a wire’s length doubles its resistance even though its resistivity hasn’t changed at all.

Common Mistake: Confusing resistivity with resistance, or assuming a material’s resistance is a fixed constant independent of its shape. Two wires made of the identical material can have very different resistances if they have different lengths or cross-sectional areas — resistance depends on geometry, resistivity does not.

Important Questions:

• What is the difference between resistivity and resistance? Resistivity is an intrinsic property of a material itself (like density), independent of the object’s shape or size, and is found in reference tables. Resistance depends on BOTH the material’s resistivity AND the specific object’s geometry — a longer wire has more resistance, and a thicker wire has less resistance, even when made of the identical material with the identical resistivity.
• What makes a superconductor different from an ordinary good conductor like copper? Below its critical temperature, a superconductor’s resistance drops to EXACTLY zero, not just to a very small value the way an excellent ordinary conductor’s resistance is merely small. This allows a current to persist indefinitely with no resistive energy loss, which is impossible for any ordinary conductor no matter how good, since ordinary conductors always retain some nonzero resistance.

Chapter 10: Direct-Current Circuits

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: electromotive force, resistors in series and parallel, Kirchhoff’s rules, electrical measuring instruments, RC circuits, household wiring and safety

This chapter applies the previous two chapters’ building blocks — capacitors, resistors, current, and voltage — to actual functioning circuits, starting from a real battery’s electromotive force (its ideal voltage) and internal resistance (why a real battery’s usable voltage drops slightly under load). It works through the series and parallel resistor combination rules (the mirror image of the capacitor rules from Chapter 8), then introduces Kirchhoff’s Rules — the junction rule (charge conservation) and the loop rule (energy conservation) — as the general method for solving any circuit too complex for simple series/parallel reduction. The chapter covers how ammeters and voltmeters are built and used without disturbing the circuit they’re measuring, analyzes RC circuits (where a capacitor charges or discharges through a resistor over time, rather than instantly), and closes with practical household wiring and electrical safety, including how circuit breakers and grounding actually protect people and equipment.

Key Points:

• A real battery’s usable (“terminal”) voltage is its ideal electromotive force minus a small drop due to the battery’s own internal resistance — this is why a battery’s voltage sags slightly under a heavy load
• Resistors in series add directly; resistors in parallel combine as reciprocals, and the parallel total is always less than the smallest individual resistor — opposite of how capacitors combine in the same arrangements
• Kirchhoff’s junction rule (total current into a junction equals total current out) is charge conservation; Kirchhoff’s loop rule (sum of voltage changes around any closed loop is zero) is energy conservation — together they can solve any circuit, not just simple series/parallel ones
• An ammeter is placed IN SERIES in a circuit and is built with very low internal resistance so it doesn’t reduce the current it’s measuring; a voltmeter is placed IN PARALLEL and is built with very high internal resistance so it draws negligible current away from the circuit
• In an RC circuit, a capacitor doesn’t charge or discharge instantly — it follows an exponential curve characterized by the time constant τ = RC, which sets how quickly the charging or discharging actually happens

Practice Tip: When a circuit is too complex to reduce with simple series/parallel rules, don’t force it — switch immediately to Kirchhoff’s Rules: write one junction equation per independent junction and one loop equation per independent loop, then solve the resulting system of equations.

Common Mistake: Wiring an ammeter in parallel (like a voltmeter) instead of in series. An ammeter has very low internal resistance by design, so placing it in parallel effectively creates a short circuit, sending a huge and potentially dangerous current straight through the meter rather than through the intended circuit path.

Important Questions:

• What do Kirchhoff’s junction rule and loop rule each represent physically? The junction rule (the sum of currents flowing into any junction equals the sum flowing out) is a statement of charge conservation — charge can’t accumulate or vanish at a junction. The loop rule (the sum of voltage changes around any closed loop in a circuit is zero) is a statement of energy conservation — a charge returning to its starting point after going around a full loop must have zero net change in potential energy.
• Why must an ammeter have very low internal resistance and a voltmeter have very high internal resistance? An ammeter is wired in series, directly in the current’s path, so a low resistance ensures it doesn’t meaningfully reduce the current it’s supposed to measure. A voltmeter is wired in parallel across a component, so a high resistance ensures it draws only a negligible current of its own, leaving the circuit’s actual current distribution essentially undisturbed by the act of measuring it.

Chapter 11: Magnetic Forces and Fields

Difficulty: Medium · University Physics II · Key topics: magnetism and its history, magnetic field and field lines, motion of charged particles in a field, magnetic force on a current, force and torque on a current loop, the Hall effect

This chapter opens the second half of Volume 2’s electricity-and-magnetism unit by shifting from stationary charges to moving ones — “when an electric charge moves, it generates other forces and fields,” and that new force is magnetism. It briefly traces magnetism’s historical discovery before defining the magnetic field and its field lines, then derives the magnetic force on a moving charged particle, which is always perpendicular to both the particle’s velocity and the field itself — producing circular or helical motion rather than the straight-line acceleration seen with electric forces. The chapter extends this to the force on a current-carrying wire (a current is just many moving charges) and the resulting force and torque on a current loop — the working principle behind every electric motor. It closes with the Hall effect, a practical technique for measuring both the sign and density of charge carriers in a material.

Key Points:

• Magnetism arises fundamentally from MOVING electric charge — a stationary charge produces only an electric field, but any moving charge (or current) also produces a magnetic field
• The magnetic force on a moving charged particle is always perpendicular to BOTH the particle’s velocity and the magnetic field direction (given by the right-hand rule), which means magnetic force can change a particle’s direction but never its speed
• A charged particle moving perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field travels in a circle; if it also has a velocity component parallel to the field, it traces a helix instead
• The force on a current-carrying wire in a magnetic field, and the resulting torque on a current loop, is the fundamental working principle behind every electric motor
• The Hall effect (a voltage that develops across a current-carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field) reveals both the sign of the charge carriers in a material and, from the voltage’s magnitude, their number density

Practice Tip: Because magnetic force is always perpendicular to velocity, it can never do work on a charged particle or change its speed — only its direction. If a problem’s magnetic force appears to be speeding up or slowing down a particle, re-check the setup; something else must be responsible for any speed change.

Common Mistake: Assuming magnetic force works like electric force and can accelerate a particle in the direction of the field, speeding it up or slowing it down. Magnetic force is always perpendicular to the particle’s velocity, so it can only change the DIRECTION of motion (producing circular or helical paths), never the particle’s speed or kinetic energy.

Important Questions:

• Why does a charged particle move in a circle when it enters a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to its velocity? The magnetic force on the particle is always perpendicular to its velocity. A force that’s always perpendicular to velocity changes only the direction of motion, never the speed — this is exactly the condition for uniform circular motion, with the magnetic force playing the role of the centripetal force that continuously bends the path into a circle.
• What does the Hall effect measure, and why is it useful? The Hall effect produces a small voltage across a current-carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field, perpendicular to both the current and the field. It’s useful because the SIGN of this Hall voltage reveals whether the moving charge carriers in the material are positive or negative, and its MAGNITUDE (combined with the known current and field) reveals the charge carriers’ number density — information not available from resistance measurements alone.

Chapter 12: Sources of Magnetic Fields

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: the Biot-Savart law, field of a straight wire, force between parallel currents, field of a current loop, Ampère’s law, solenoids and toroids, magnetism in matter

Where Chapter 11 studied the force a magnetic field exerts, this chapter asks where magnetic fields themselves come from — namely, moving charges and currents. The Biot-Savart Law gives the general recipe for calculating the magnetic field produced by any current distribution, which the chapter applies to the classic case of a long straight wire and then to the force between two parallel current-carrying wires (the very definition historically used for the ampere). It introduces Ampère’s Law as magnetism’s parallel to Gauss’s Law — a shortcut that becomes a genuinely powerful calculation tool specifically when the current distribution has enough symmetry, most usefully for solenoids and toroids, both workhorse devices for producing controlled, uniform magnetic fields. It closes with magnetism in matter, explaining why different materials (paramagnetic, diamagnetic, ferromagnetic) respond so differently when placed in an external field.

Key Points:

• The Biot-Savart Law calculates the magnetic field produced by ANY current distribution by integrating the contribution of each small current element — the magnetic analog of using Coulomb’s Law to build up the electric field of a charge distribution
• Two parallel wires carrying current in the same direction attract each other; carrying current in opposite directions, they repel — this force historically defined the ampere itself
• Ampère’s Law relates the magnetic field circulating around any closed loop to the total current passing through that loop — always true, but only a practical calculation shortcut when the current distribution has enough symmetry to choose a useful Amperian loop
• A solenoid (a tightly wound coil) produces a strong, highly uniform magnetic field inside itself and a near-zero field outside — the magnetic analog of a parallel-plate capacitor’s uniform electric field
• Materials respond to an external magnetic field in three broad categories: paramagnetic (weakly attracted), diamagnetic (weakly repelled), and ferromagnetic (strongly attracted and capable of retaining magnetization, as in permanent magnets)

Memory Tip: Ampère’s Law is to magnetic fields what Gauss’s Law is to electric fields — both are always true, and both become genuinely useful calculation shortcuts only when the source distribution (current or charge) has enough symmetry to choose a convenient loop or surface.

Common Mistake: Confusing this chapter’s topic (calculating the field a current PRODUCES, via Biot-Savart and Ampère’s Law) with Chapter 11’s topic (calculating the force a field EXERTS on a moving charge or current). They use related-looking right-hand rules but answer opposite questions — one finds where a field comes from, the other finds what a field does to something placed in it.

Important Questions:

• What does Ampère’s Law relate, and when does it become a practical shortcut for calculating a magnetic field? Ampère’s Law relates the circulation of the magnetic field around any closed loop to the total electric current passing through that loop. Like Gauss’s Law for electric fields, it’s always true, but only becomes a practical calculation shortcut when the current distribution has enough symmetry (such as a long straight wire, or a solenoid) to choose an Amperian loop over which the field’s magnitude is constant and can be pulled outside the integral.
• Why do two parallel wires carrying current in the same direction attract each other? Each current-carrying wire produces its own magnetic field (via the Biot-Savart Law), circling around it. The magnetic field produced by one wire exerts a force on the moving charges (the current) in the other wire; working through the direction with the right-hand rule shows that for currents in the same direction, this mutual force is attractive, and for opposite directions, it’s repulsive.

Chapter 13: Electromagnetic Induction

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law, motional emf, induced electric fields, eddy currents, generators and back emf, applications of induction

This chapter marks a genuine turning point: everything before it treated electric and magnetic fields as essentially separate, static phenomena, but electromagnetic induction shows that a CHANGING magnetic field creates an electric field (and vice versa), unifying the two. Faraday’s Law quantifies this: the induced electromotive force in a circuit equals the negative rate of change of magnetic flux through it, with Lenz’s Law supplying the crucial minus sign’s physical meaning — the induced current always opposes the change that created it, which is really just energy conservation in disguise. The chapter covers motional emf (a conductor physically moving through a field), induced electric fields (a changing field creating an electric field even with no physical wire present at all), and eddy currents (induced currents swirling within a solid conductor, not just a wire loop). It closes with how generators actually produce alternating current by exploiting this exact principle, and surveys further practical applications.

Key Points:

• Faraday’s Law: the induced electromotive force (emf) around a loop equals the negative rate of change of the magnetic flux through that loop — emf is induced by a CHANGING flux, not by flux itself
• Lenz’s Law explains the minus sign in Faraday’s Law: the induced current always flows in the direction that opposes the change in flux that created it — this is required by energy conservation, since the opposite would let a system generate energy from nothing
• Flux can change three ways: the field’s magnitude changes, the loop’s area changes, or the angle between the field and the loop’s normal changes — motional emf is specifically the case where a conductor physically moves through a field, changing the effective area
• A changing magnetic field induces an electric field even in empty space with no wire loop physically present at all — this induced field is fundamentally different from an electrostatic field because it forms closed loops rather than starting and ending on charges
• Eddy currents are induced currents that swirl within the bulk of a solid conductor (not confined to a wire) whenever it experiences a changing flux — used deliberately for magnetic braking, but also a source of unwanted energy loss in transformer cores

Practice Tip: Before applying Lenz’s Law, first determine whether the flux through the loop is INCREASING or DECREASING — the induced current always flows in the direction that would create a magnetic field opposing that specific change, not simply opposing the field itself.

Common Mistake: Believing an induced current is created by the magnetic flux itself, rather than by a CHANGE in flux. A large, perfectly constant magnetic flux through a stationary loop induces zero current — Faraday’s Law depends entirely on the rate of change of flux, not on the flux’s absolute magnitude.

Important Questions:

• State Faraday’s Law and explain what Lenz’s Law adds to it. Faraday’s Law states that the induced emf around a loop equals the negative rate of change of the magnetic flux through that loop. Lenz’s Law explains the physical meaning of that negative sign: the induced current flows in the direction that creates a magnetic field opposing the CHANGE in flux that caused it — a direct consequence of energy conservation, since a current that reinforced the change instead would allow energy to be created from nothing.
• Why does a constant, unchanging magnetic flux through a loop induce no current, even if the flux is very large? Faraday’s Law states that induced emf depends on the RATE OF CHANGE of magnetic flux, not on the flux’s magnitude itself. A perfectly constant flux has a rate of change of exactly zero, so no matter how large that constant flux is, it induces zero emf and therefore zero current.

Chapter 14: Inductance

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: mutual inductance, self-inductance and inductors, energy in a magnetic field, RL circuits, LC oscillations, RLC series circuits

Building directly on Chapter 13’s induction principle, this chapter introduces inductance — a quantity measuring how effectively a changing current induces an emf, either in a nearby second circuit (mutual inductance) or in the very same circuit carrying that current (self-inductance). An inductor is a circuit component built specifically to have significant self-inductance, and the chapter derives the energy stored in its magnetic field, directly analogous to the energy stored in a capacitor’s electric field from Chapter 8. It then analyzes three canonical circuits built from inductors: the RL circuit (current rising or decaying exponentially, mirroring an RC circuit’s voltage), the LC circuit (energy oscillating back and forth between the inductor’s magnetic field and the capacitor’s electric field with no resistance to lose it), and the RLC series circuit, where resistance causes those oscillations to gradually damp out. Real-world applications close the chapter, including wireless smartphone charging via mutual inductance.

Key Points:

• Mutual inductance measures how effectively a changing current in one circuit induces an emf in a SEPARATE nearby circuit; self-inductance measures how effectively a changing current induces an emf in the SAME circuit it flows through
• An inductor opposes any CHANGE in the current flowing through it (not the current itself) — the electrical analog of inertia, resisting sudden changes in current the way mass resists sudden changes in velocity
• The energy stored in an inductor’s magnetic field is proportional to the square of the current flowing through it, directly analogous to a capacitor’s energy being proportional to the square of its voltage
• In an RL circuit, current rises or decays exponentially toward its final value, governed by a time constant τ = L/R — the inductor’s analog of an RC circuit’s τ = RC
• An ideal LC circuit (no resistance) oscillates energy back and forth indefinitely between the capacitor’s electric field and the inductor’s magnetic field; adding resistance (an RLC circuit) causes these oscillations to gradually damp out as energy is dissipated

Memory Tip: An inductor is the electrical version of inertia/mass: it resists sudden CHANGES in current, not current itself, exactly the way mass resists sudden changes in velocity, not velocity itself. A steady, unchanging current flows through an ideal inductor with no opposition at all.

Common Mistake: Treating an inductor as if it opposes current flow the way a resistor does. An ideal inductor offers ZERO opposition to a steady, unchanging current — it only opposes CHANGES in current, generating an induced emf specifically when the current is increasing or decreasing, not when it’s constant.

Important Questions:

• What is the difference between mutual inductance and self-inductance? Mutual inductance describes how a changing current in one circuit induces an emf in a SEPARATE, nearby circuit (the basis of transformers and wireless charging). Self-inductance describes how a changing current in a circuit induces an emf in that SAME circuit, opposing the very change in current that’s causing it — the property that defines an inductor.
• What happens to the energy in an ideal (resistance-free) LC circuit over time, and how does adding resistance change that? In an ideal LC circuit, energy oscillates back and forth indefinitely between the capacitor’s electric field and the inductor’s magnetic field, with the total energy staying constant forever since there’s no resistance to dissipate it. Adding resistance (making it an RLC circuit) causes some energy to be lost to resistive heating on every oscillation, so the oscillations gradually damp out and eventually die away completely.

Chapter 15: Alternating-Current Circuits

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: AC sources, simple AC circuits with R/L/C, RLC series circuits with AC, power in an AC circuit, resonance, transformers

Every circuit analyzed so far assumed direct current from batteries, but household power delivery relies on alternating current, and this chapter explains why: transformers can efficiently step AC voltage up or down for long-distance transmission with far lower energy loss than direct current allows, a capability DC lacks entirely. The chapter starts with a sinusoidal AC source and analyzes how resistors, inductors, and capacitors individually respond to an oscillating (rather than constant) voltage, each with a distinctive phase relationship between current and voltage. It then combines all three into the RLC series AC circuit, introducing impedance as AC’s generalization of resistance, and derives the average power delivered to such a circuit. Resonance — the frequency at which an RLC circuit’s response is maximized — gets its own section, and the chapter closes with transformers, the device that makes efficient long-distance AC power transmission possible in the first place.

Key Points:

• Unlike DC, AC voltage and current oscillate sinusoidally over time rather than staying constant — the whole point of this chapter is analyzing circuits driven by this oscillating source rather than a steady battery
• A resistor’s current and voltage stay in phase in an AC circuit; an inductor’s current lags its voltage by 90°; a capacitor’s current leads its voltage by 90° — these different phase relationships are the key to everything else in the chapter
• Impedance is AC’s generalization of resistance for a full RLC circuit, combining resistance and the frequency-dependent reactances of the inductor and capacitor into a single quantity relating voltage amplitude to current amplitude
• Resonance occurs at the specific frequency where an RLC circuit’s inductive and capacitive reactances exactly cancel, leaving only resistance to oppose the current — at resonance, current amplitude is maximized for a given voltage
• A transformer uses mutual inductance between two coils to step AC voltage up or down while conserving power (ignoring losses) — this capability, unavailable for DC, is why power grids transmit electricity as high-voltage AC over long distances and step it back down for household use

Practice Tip: Memorize the three phase relationships as a fixed rule, not something to re-derive each time: resistor voltage and current are in phase; inductor voltage LEADS current by 90° (“ELI” — in an inductor, E [voltage] leads I); capacitor current LEADS voltage by 90° (“ICE” — in a capacitor, I leads E).

Common Mistake: Assuming Ohm’s Law (V = IR) applies directly to AC circuits containing inductors or capacitors the same simple way it does for a pure resistor. AC circuits with inductive or capacitive elements require IMPEDANCE (which depends on frequency and includes a phase relationship), not plain resistance — using resistance alone ignores the phase lag/lead between voltage and current entirely.

Important Questions:

• Why does the power grid use alternating current rather than direct current for long-distance transmission? AC voltage can be efficiently stepped up to very high levels using transformers (which rely on mutual inductance and only work with changing, i.e. AC, current) for long-distance transmission, drastically reducing resistive power losses in the transmission lines, then stepped back down to safe levels for household use. Direct current cannot be transformed this way at all, making efficient long-distance DC transmission far more difficult.
• What happens to the phase relationship between current and voltage for a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor in an AC circuit? For a resistor, current and voltage stay perfectly in phase (rising and falling together). For an inductor, the current lags 90° behind the voltage. For a capacitor, the current leads 90° ahead of the voltage. These distinctive phase relationships are why AC circuits containing inductors and/or capacitors require impedance analysis rather than simple resistance.

Chapter 16: Electromagnetic Waves

Difficulty: Hard · University Physics II · Key topics: Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetic waves, plane electromagnetic waves, energy carried by EM waves, momentum and radiation pressure, the electromagnetic spectrum

This closing chapter of Volume 2 unifies everything the unit has built — electric fields, magnetic fields, and their mutual induction — into Maxwell’s four equations, which together predict that a changing electric field and a changing magnetic field can sustain each other indefinitely, propagating through space as a self-supporting electromagnetic wave, even through perfect vacuum. The chapter derives the structure of a plane electromagnetic wave (oscillating electric and magnetic fields, perpendicular to each other and to the direction of travel, always moving at exactly the speed of light), then calculates the energy such a wave carries and, more surprisingly, the momentum and resulting radiation pressure it exerts on anything it strikes — a real, measurable force from light alone. It closes with the electromagnetic spectrum, showing that radio waves, visible light, X-rays, and every other named category of “radiation” are fundamentally the identical phenomenon, differing only in wavelength and frequency.

Key Points:

• Maxwell’s four equations, taken together, predict that a changing electric field creates a changing magnetic field and vice versa, allowing the two to sustain each other and propagate through space as a self-supporting wave, with no medium required at all
• In a plane electromagnetic wave, the electric field, the magnetic field, and the direction of wave propagation are all mutually perpendicular to one another
• Every electromagnetic wave travels through vacuum at exactly the same speed — the speed of light c — regardless of its frequency or wavelength
• Electromagnetic waves carry both energy and momentum, even though they consist of nothing but oscillating fields with no mass — this momentum produces a real, measurable radiation pressure on any surface the wave strikes
• The electromagnetic spectrum (radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma ray) is one single continuous phenomenon differing only in wavelength/frequency — visible light is a narrow sliver of a vastly larger spectrum

Memory Tip: Every band of the electromagnetic spectrum — radio, visible light, X-rays, gamma rays — is the SAME physical phenomenon (oscillating E and B fields moving at speed c); only the wavelength/frequency differs. There’s no fundamental difference in what light IS, only in how fast it oscillates.

Common Mistake: Assuming electromagnetic waves need some kind of physical medium to travel through, the way sound waves need air or water. Electromagnetic waves are entirely self-sustaining oscillations of electric and magnetic fields (per Maxwell’s equations) and propagate perfectly well through empty vacuum — this is precisely how sunlight crosses the vacuum of space to reach Earth.

Important Questions:

• According to Maxwell’s equations, how can an electromagnetic wave propagate through empty space with no medium at all? A changing electric field creates a changing magnetic field, and that changing magnetic field in turn creates a changing electric field, and so on — each field’s change sustains the other’s, letting the disturbance propagate indefinitely through space as a self-supporting wave. Because this mechanism relies only on the fields themselves (not on any physical medium being disturbed), it works perfectly well through a total vacuum.
• What distinguishes different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, visible light, X-rays) from one another? All parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same fundamental phenomenon — oscillating electric and magnetic fields traveling at the speed of light. They differ from each other only in wavelength and frequency; radio waves have long wavelengths and low frequencies, while X-rays and gamma rays have extremely short wavelengths and high frequencies, with visible light occupying only a narrow band in between.

Download University Physics Volume 2 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

Chapters 1–4 (Temperature and Heat through the Second Law of Thermodynamics) form Unit 1, Thermodynamics — a largely self-contained block that some University Physics II courses cover only briefly, or skip in favor of jumping straight to Electricity and Magnetism. Check your syllabus before deciding how much time to budget here.

Chapters 5–8 (Electric Charges and Fields through Capacitance) build the electrostatics toolkit — Coulomb’s Law, the electric field, Gauss’s Law, and potential — that every later chapter in Unit 2 assumes without re-explaining.

Chapters 9–10 (Current and Resistance, Direct-Current Circuits) shift from static charge to circuits, and Chapter 10’s Kirchhoff’s Rules are the general-purpose tool you’ll fall back on whenever a circuit is too complex for simple series/parallel reduction.

Chapters 11–14 (Magnetic Forces and Fields through Inductance) are usually the most demanding stretch of University Physics II for most students — magnetism’s cross-product-heavy right-hand-rule geometry, plus induction’s dependence on RATES of change rather than static quantities, both take more practice time than the page count suggests.

Chapter 15 (Alternating-Current Circuits) and Chapter 16 (Electromagnetic Waves) close the book by tying the whole unit together — AC circuits reuse every DC-circuit tool from Chapter 10 with added phase/impedance analysis, and Chapter 16’s electromagnetic waves are the direct consequence of the induction principle introduced in Chapter 13.

This is the second volume of OpenStax’s three-volume University Physics series — Volume 1 covers Mechanics, Waves, and Sound, and Volume 3 continues with Optics and Modern Physics.

Used In These Programs

This book is used for the University Physics II course in: BS Physics and Engineering programs. Browse all Physics books or all Physics category books.

Who Should Read This

University Physics Volume 2 is written for a student continuing into their second semester of calculus-based physics — typically a BS Physics or Engineering student who has completed University Physics I (Mechanics) and is ready for Thermodynamics, Electricity, and Magnetism. Like Volume 1, it uses derivatives and integrals throughout its derivations, so calculus fluency remains essential. Its traditional, example-and-exercise-driven style, with large end-of-section problem sets and a full Chapter Review for every chapter, suits a student who learns best by working through many worked examples before attempting problems independently.

Applicable Universities

This book is useful for students at Pakistani universities offering BS Physics or Engineering programs, including Punjab University, Virtual University, COMSATS, FAST, UET, NUST, GIKI, and other HEC-recognized institutions, where a calculus-based University Physics II course is a standard second-semester requirement.

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Related Books

• University Physics Volume 1 – OpenStax (Mechanics, Waves, Sound)
• Calculus Volume 2 – Strang & Herman (OpenStax)

University Physics Volume 2 is this project’s second Physics-category book, covering Thermodynamics, Electricity, and Magnetism for BS Physics and Engineering students. Browse more Physics books or Mathematics books for the rest of your semester.

University Physics Volume 2, by Samuel J. Ling, Jeff Sanny, William Moebs, 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/university-physics-volume-2