What's in College Physics I

College Physics I is the first semester of algebra- and trig-based physics: motion, forces, energy, momentum, rotation, fluids, heat and waves. Encodr's free College Physics I deck covers it in 16 units, 79 chapters and 1,013 study cards, plus a note card at the start of each of the 79 chapters. It follows OpenStax College Physics 2e chapters 1 to 17 and adds two AP Physics 1 topics, center of mass and rolling without slipping. The cards cite 20 sources.

No calculus is needed. If your course is calculus-based, the physics ideas are the same, but your exams will expect derivations this course does not ask for.

How the course is built

Every chapter opens with a note card that holds its equation sheet and key definitions, so you can see the formulas before you practice with them. There are no images. Any problem that would normally lean on a figure is described fully in words, which means every card can be answered from the text alone.

The course uses g = 9.80 m/s^2 everywhere. Calculation cards were checked by script: each numeric answer was recomputed from a formula rather than trusted as typed.

Card types are mixed on purpose. Some ask you to state a definition or law, some are multiple choice built around common mistakes, some are fill-in-the-blank, and 232 are typed calculations where you enter the number yourself.

The 16 units, in order

• Unit 1, Units, measurement and math tools (OpenStax ch 1, 3.1 to 3.3): SI units and conversions, significant figures, estimation, and the trigonometry and vector components the rest of the course leans on.
• Unit 2, One-dimensional kinematics (ch 2): Displacement, velocity, speed and acceleration, the four constant-acceleration equations, free fall and motion graphs. The equations get their own guide: the four kinematic equations and when to use each.
• Unit 3, Two-dimensional kinematics (ch 3): Adding vectors, projectile motion, range and maximum height, and relative velocity. See projectile motion equations with worked examples.
• Unit 4, Newton's laws (ch 4): Force and mass, the three laws, weight, normal force and tension, and free-body diagrams as a problem-solving method.
• Unit 5, Friction, drag and elasticity (ch 5): Static and kinetic friction, drag and terminal velocity, and stress, strain and Young's modulus.
• Unit 6, Circular motion and gravitation (ch 6): Angular velocity, centripetal acceleration and force, banked curves, Newton's law of universal gravitation, satellites and Kepler's laws.
• Unit 7, Work, energy and power (ch 7): Work, kinetic energy and the work-energy theorem, gravitational and elastic potential energy, nonconservative forces, conservation of energy, efficiency, and power, including energy use in the human body. At 98 cards it is the second largest unit.
• Unit 8, Momentum and collisions (ch 8 plus AP center of mass): Momentum and impulse, conservation of momentum, elastic and inelastic collisions, collisions in two dimensions, center of mass and rocket propulsion.
• Unit 9, Statics and torque (ch 9): Torque and the two conditions for equilibrium, stability and center of gravity, simple machines, and forces in muscles and joints.
• Unit 10, Rotational motion (ch 10 plus AP rolling): Rotational kinematics, rotational inertia and dynamics, rotational kinetic energy, rolling without slipping, and angular momentum and its conservation.
• Unit 11, Fluid statics (ch 11): Density and pressure, pressure with depth, Pascal's principle, gauge pressure, Archimedes' principle and buoyancy, and surface tension.
• Unit 12, Fluid dynamics (ch 12): Flow rate and continuity, Bernoulli's equation, viscosity and Poiseuille's law, and turbulence.
• Unit 13, Temperature and gases (ch 13): Temperature scales, thermal expansion, the ideal gas law, kinetic theory, and phase changes and humidity.
• Unit 14, Heat and heat transfer (ch 14): Specific heat, calorimetry and latent heat, conduction, convection and radiation.
• Unit 15, Thermodynamics (ch 15): The first law, thermodynamic processes, heat engines and the second law, Carnot efficiency, heat pumps and refrigerators, and entropy.
• Unit 16, Oscillations, waves and sound (ch 16 and 17): Simple harmonic motion, the pendulum, damping and resonance, wave properties, interference and standing waves, the speed and intensity of sound, the Doppler effect, harmonics in pipes, and hearing and ultrasound. At 101 cards it is the largest unit.

Common trouble spots

Three places where intro students tend to lose points, in the order they come up:

• Kinematics setup (units 2 and 3). The physics is simple; the errors come from picking the wrong equation, losing a sign, or using a level-ground shortcut when the heights differ. The kinematics calculator and projectile motion calculator show every step so you can find where your working went off.
• Free-body diagrams (unit 4 onward). Many dynamics mistakes are a missing or extra force on the diagram, not bad algebra.
• Energy versus momentum (units 7 and 8). Knowing which one is conserved in which situation, especially in inelastic collisions where momentum is conserved but kinetic energy is not.

Studying it

A first physics course is cumulative. Newton's laws use kinematics, energy uses both, and rotation repeats the whole sequence with angular quantities. That makes it a good fit for spaced review, since old units keep coming back. How to study for a physics exam goes through a practical plan, and studying for a cumulative final vs a unit test covers the end of term. If you are taking chemistry or biology alongside it, first-year science courses: biology, chemistry, physics lists all six Encodr science courses. The gas laws in the thermal physics units overlap with chemistry's ideal gas law, PV = nRT, so practice there counts twice.

The whole course is free in the College Physics I deck, one unit at a time or all at once.