Wondering About Physics: Using Spreadsheets to Find Out

by Dewey I. Dykstra Jr., Robert G. Fuller

This companion to introductory physics books gives readers practice solving problems on a computer--almost any computer running almost any spreadsheet software will do. Your spreadsheet program must be able to do trig and inverse trig functions, and exponential and logarithmic (base "e") functions (graphing capability is a plus). Working through these investigations provides excellent professional' practice, yet no calculus is used. Contains 53 investigations, including freely falling objects, finding the center of mass, launching a rocket, the Doppler shift, Rutherford scattering, and relativistic speeds of electrons in a linear accelerator.

122 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1988