Preface Student Guide
This website is primarily intended as a collection of pre-class resources that help you learn and practice introductory physics concepts. Most sections are designed to have a few different core elements, each of which has a different purpose.
A central feature of most sections, often occurring at the very start, is a video lesson. The video lessons are usually designed to be short and focused, and it is an excellent idea to take notes on them. The example below shows what a video lessons look like: a playable video embedded in a dark background with a bright banner. (There is no physics in the example video, just a friendly video of a dog chasing a ball.)
In addition to a video lesson, most sections have Key Ideas from the video written out so you have something to reference later. Important aspects you may want to have at your fingertips (in addition to your notes) will be in a box like the one below. The most fundamental ideas—Definitions and Principles—have a bright banner.
Assumption 0.0.2.
Key ideas, including assumptions, representations, sensemaking strategies, and key skills, may be found in colorful boxes like this one!
Principle 0.0.3.
Fundamental building blocks of physics, namely definitions of quantities and physical laws relating quantities to each other, may be found in colorful boxes with a bright banner.
The last major part of each section are the Activities. Each Activity is bounded by a bright, angled border, and is generally something you should try out for yourself (or with a friend!). Some activities also have hints, answers, or solutions embedded within them to help you out if you get stuck.
Activity 0.0.1.
What are the three major things to look for in each section?
Last of all, if you see something clickable (like the example note below), it usually contains extra information or additional detail that is not critical to review before class. This might include historical notes, biographical information, or worked examples.
Note 0.0.4.
Extra information, notes, examples, historical insights, and so on are found in clickable boxes like this one.
