By Walter Lewin | Physics I: Classical Mechanics Lecture 2 of 35
This lecture is an introduction to kinematics which ultimately leads (in Lecture 4) to trajectories in three-dimensions. Professor Lewin begins with a description of one-dimensional motion of a particle. He talks about average velocity, the importance of + and - signs, and our free choice of origin. He moves into a conversation about average speed vs. average velocity, instantaneous velocity (reviewing when velocity is zero, positive, and negative), and instantaneous acceleration. He shoots a bullet through two wires, calculating the average speed from the distance between the wires and the elapsed time.
This course is a first-semester freshman physics class in Newtonian Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Kinetic Gas Theory. In addition to the basic concepts a variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: Binary Stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Resonance Phenomena, Musical Instruments, Stellar Collapse, Supernovae, Astronomical observations from very high flying balloons (lecture 35), and you will be allowed a peek into the intriguing Quantum World.
