> Science    >> Physics
AGE: H.S. & Up Time: 24 to 33 Min. Ea. DVDs: 5
DVD: $99.95 EA.      DVD Series: $499.75         
 
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Can the study of physics be fun? This clever five-part series answers “Yes!” by presenting essential facts, formulas, and laws of physics through real-world examples, illustrative animations, and a likeable field guide named Mr. Physics who makes complicated concepts easier to understand. End-of-section reviews are included throughout each program, and equations are worked out, step by step, on-screen.

Energy

Talking about energy is tricky because everyday words can also have specialized scientific meanings. Through the process of defining key terms like “power,” “work,” and even “energy” itself, this program uses a roller coaster, a harmless train wreck, ice-skaters, a boulder, a human cannonball, night-vision goggles, and a supernova to introduce students to kinetic and potential energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, nuclear energy, and conduction, convection, and radiation of heat.

Forces and Motion

In New York City, there are many ways to travel. Of course, it’s a lot easier if you’re a bird. Using the Big Apple as a living laboratory, this program addresses speed and distance using a pigeon, a taxi, and a tour boat. Additional situations such as the deployment of a Mars rover, a zero-G flight in NASA’s Weightless Wonder, a walk on a conveyor belt and a cruising aircraft carrier, and juggling on the Earth and around the Solar System provide opportunities to study the mechanics of velocity and acceleration as well as contact forces and forces that act at a distance. Vector algebra is demonstrated throughout.

Planets, Stars, and Galaxies

Beginning with the history of astronomy (Ptolemy, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo), this program considers the mathematics of motion (velocity, acceleration); gravity (Kepler’s discoveries, Newton’s laws, center of gravity, astronomical units); the properties of stars (parallax, flux, luminosity, color, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram); relativity (Einstein’s theories, speed of light, space-time); and the large-scale structure of the universe (Big Bang, Cosmological Principle, Hubble’s law). Humankind has come a long way in our understanding of the cosmos—but we’re still only scratching the surface of astrophysics, with discoveries of incalculable value still waiting to be made.

Processes that Shape the Earth

The Earth is like a living, breathing organism. From its molten core to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, nothing is still. How was the planet formed, and what are the forces that continue to sculpt it? This program uses animated topographical maps, a broken pane of glass, a fortune in diamonds, a floor-sanding machine, stalactites, flowing glaciers, a merry-go-round, a greenhouse, and more to help students visualize the structure and composition of the Earth and the processes that shape our world. Dangerous impacts of humankind—most notably pollution and deforestation—are also considered.

The Nature of Matter

An elephant and a racing car don’t have much in common—except for the remarkable fact that they’re made of similar fundamental building blocks. This program takes a simulated subatomic look at a glass of water to better understand the nature of matter, a minuscule world of molecules, atoms, and elementary particles. The behavior of matter under the effects of gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces; the process of scientific experimentation; specifics of atomic structure; the organization of matter via the periodic table; ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonding; the process of radioactive decay; and the death of fusion-fueled stars are scrutinized as well.

 
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