How to Read and Take Notes from a Physics Textbook

Make sure you understand the definitions of the words you are saying! Stay away from criminals in college. Suppose you have friends who knowingly pirate digital content and understand the consequences. In that case, they have no ethics, and if they get in trouble, they will blame you without hesitation! You MUST-MUST-MUST understand this: (those with integrity) criminals are liars and abusive people—they will blame you for their crime because that is what criminals do!

How to Effectively Read a Physics Textbook

The following is how I prepare for studying. It’s like stretching at the gym or doing some quick cardio before intense exercise to loosen and prepare the mind.

1. First, read everything before chapter one and everything after the last chapter.
2. Before reading, isolate and rephrase in your own words all bold text.
3. Once you have collected all the bold words, now collect all the formulae, equations, definitions, and theorems and organize them.
4. At this point, once you are warmed up and have collected the data, take a break. Go for a walk, make dinner, relax. (Stay away from drugs and alcohol until you are 28 or, at the very least, have graduated.)
5. Now, after you take a break, come back and start at paragraph one from chapter one. Read paragraph one until you understand fully. Once you understand completely, then move to paragraph two and repeat.
6. Do step 5 with the same concept for the example problems. Make sure you can solve all the ‘worked example’ problems like an exam without referencing anything before you attend the lecture on the chapter. (If you want to make the course as easy as possible and get an A with minimal effort and maximum understanding.)

NOTE* All of this seems like it takes a long time, and it does for the first few chapters. Once you get the ball rolling, it becomes easy and fast, and you will learn 10x as much and work 10x less! I guarantee it!

Suppose you are two 2-weeks ahead of the semester before it starts. In that case, the long part of this process will have already been completed. You can begin the easy part of this learning process and spend more time on other classes or learning additional skills for the workforce. (Anything you do during your college education should be something that can be put on your resume.)

For Example-Questions: Attempt to solve it based on what you read before using their solution. If you cannot solve it based on what you read, then follow the provided solution.

Repeat (not all at once) until you can solve the example question(s) without referencing the book, as if it were an exam question, timed and in a stressful environment.

Take your solution to office hours, ask the professor to grade the solution the same way they would an exam, to make sure you understand what the professor wants to see, for the purpose of maximizing points on exams!

Chapter 1 Vocabulary

• Theory: A theory is an idea or set of ideas that explains how something works based on evidence and reasoning.
• Range of validity: Refers to the conditions or limits within which a particular theory, formula, or law accurately applies.
• Model: A simplified representation or description of a system or phenomenon used to explain, predict, or analyze its behavior.
• Particle: A small object, often treated as having no size, used to represent matter or energy in physics.
• Physical quantity: Refers to a measurable property of nature, like length, time, or mass, expressed with a value and a unit.
• Operational definition: Explains a concept by describing the specific process or method used to measure or observe it.
• Unit: A standard measurement used to express the size, amount, or quantity of something.
• International System (SI): A standardized system of measurement used worldwide.
• Uncertainty: The estimate of the possible error or variation in a measurement or calculation.
• Error: The difference between a measured value and the true or accepted value.
• Accuracy: How close a measured value is to the true or accepted value.
• Fractional error: The ratio of the error to the true value.
• Percent error: The fractional error expressed as a percentage.
• Significant figures: Digits in a number that carry meaningful information about precision.
• Scientific notation: Writing numbers as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10.
• Order of magnitude: An approximate value by the nearest power of 10.
• Scalar quantity: Has magnitude only.
• Vector quantity: Has magnitude and direction.
• Vector sum: The total of two or more vectors added together.
• Resultant: The single vector representing the combined effect.
• Dot product: Scalar multiplication of vectors.
• Cross product: Vector perpendicular to both original vectors.
• Right-hand rule: Determines cross-product direction.
• Right-handed system: Coordinate system using the right-hand rule.

Vector Formulas (Jetpack LaTeX)

Vector components:

$$ \vec{A} = \langle A_x, A_y \rangle = \langle A \cos \theta,\; A \sin \theta \rangle $$

Magnitude:

$$ |\vec{A}| = \sqrt{A_x^2 + A_y^2} $$

Angle:

$$ \tan \theta = \frac{A_y}{A_x}, \qquad \theta = \tan^{-1}\!\left(\frac{A_y}{A_x}\right) $$

Dot product:

$$ \vec{A}\cdot\vec{B} = A_x B_x + A_y B_y $$

$$ \vec{A}\cdot\vec{B} = |\vec{A}|\,|\vec{B}| \cos \theta $$

Cross product:

$$ \vec{A}\times\vec{B} = \begin{vmatrix} \hat{i} & \hat{j} & \hat{k} \\ A_x & A_y & A_z \\ B_x & B_y & B_z \end{vmatrix} $$

$$ \vec{C} = \vec{A}\times\vec{B} = \langle A_y B_z – A_z B_y,\; A_z B_x – A_x B_z,\; A_x B_y – A_y B_x \rangle $$

Final Study Strategy

Read! You must read!

After collecting the necessary data, use the worked examples. Work them until you can administer yourself an exam and solve them all without referencing the book.

Interval learning is extremely effective. Learn in short intervals so the brain can build real physical connections and memory.

To recap: Complete this process before the semester begins and stay two weeks ahead.