The Varsity Tutors High School Physics Mobile App
Physics is a science that applies to nearly every aspect of your daily life, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easier to comprehend. Luckily, you can take advantage of the Varsity Tutors High School Physics app, available for Apple and Android devices. You can use it to enhance your efforts while studying physics. Whether you need to review every concept or simply need to study a few topics, this free app can help you hone the study process. The app can even be used before the first day of class to give you a head start on the information you’ll learn throughout the year.
Through the app, you’ll have access to a variety of tools. These can be used to introduce you to the concepts of magnetism in motion, thermodynamics, electricity, and mechanics, among many others. Physics is different from other fields of science in that math skills are absolutely necessary for success. You must use math when you work with formulas that will be involved with many of the physics problems you’ll face.
There are numerous full-length practice tests available that can help you determine your competency in physics and identify any problem areas. These practice exams are built into the app to provide a convenient and comprehensive assessment of your abilities. You’ll be able to see your proficiency level in each concept area, the amount of time you spent on the test, and many other performance metrics that can help you create a custom physics study regimen. You can follow up the practice tests with the Learn by Concept feature, which provides a full analysis of each concept, practice questions, and a wealth of other relevant information.
The app also offers a Question of the Day. This is a quick way to test your knowledge of physics, even if you do not have time for a full-blown study session. You simply select the concept you’d like to quiz yourself on and answer a single question. As with the other practice questions, each answer comes with a full review of information such as your solving time, scoring percentile, and other features.
You can also pair up with a study partner to take further advantage of the high school physics app’s capabilities. Try taking practice tests together and comparing scores. You might be able to identify areas in which you can help one another. The flashcards are also great for fast-paced study breaks. Use the flashcards with a study group to transform the task of studying into a friendly competition, or review them on your own when you have free time. You can use the cards to review all, or just some, of the information.
Make studying a breeze using the free Varsity Tutors High School Physics app. You can access it anywhere and anytime to create study opportunities that suit your schedule. Simply download the app from the Google Play Store or iTunes and get started today!
66 mobile apps to choose from for your tutoring needs.
Learn More
High School Physics is often part of common requirements to fulfil physical science course needs. Depending on your school, though, you may just take it as an elective course, or to prepare for a more advanced one such as AP Physics B. From Newton’s laws of motion to the properties of energy and beyond, you’ll get comprehensive knowledge of work and power as well. There is a wide range of other content that may be covered, although standard High School Physics concentrates on mechanics as a launching point.
There is also some math involved. You’ll need to be able to integrate algebra and work with equations and variables. Physics problems often require finding a missing variable. You will encounter such problems in class and in your homework, and they are certain to be on any physics tests you take. During your course of study in High School Physics, you will encounter motion and forces. Linear motion is one of the primary concepts and includes acceleration, center of mass, force, momentum, and Newton’s laws of motion. Newton’s three laws, which involve the relationship of objects and the forces which act on them, are an important foundation of physics.
Next, you’ll learn about speed, velocity, and work. The concept of work in physics involves a force acting on a body, causing a displacement in the direction of a force. You’ll learn all about this before moving forward to rotational motion. Here, concepts such as angular momentum, angular velocity, and centripetal force come into play. More in-depth lessons into circular motion, tangential velocity, and torque will expand your knowledge and understanding of how things work. The force causing objects to follow curved paths affects many things in the world, including the planet itself, so these lessons will prove to be valuable. Gravity, for example, is a source of centripetal force allowing planets to follow their orbits.
As High School Physics focuses in on gravity, you’ll learn about gravitational potential that, at a given location, is equal to the force of gravity’s exertion on a unit of mass if the object moves from one location to a fixed reference point. Newton’s law of universal gravitation explains the attraction of particles affected by all the others in the universe. The force applied is directly proportional to mass and inversely proportional to the square of their distances.
High School Physics demands some math skills to understand certain concepts. These include the Euclidean vector, motion graphs and derivatives, and using a scalar, or a physical quantity that is often part of a unit of measurement. Different variables and measurements associated with Newtonian mechanics are also taught, leading into more fundamentals of High School Physics.
Once you gain a general understanding of motion, gravity, and some applicable math, High School Physics teaches you that energy cannot be created or destroyed, just transformed. This is where the law of conservation of energy applies. The total energy of a system is always there; it can only be changed from one type of energy to another. Conversion of chemical energy to kinetic during an explosion is one example. You’ll also learn concepts such as elastic collision, in which the kinetic energy remains the same before and after two objects interact. Inelastic collision is different in that the kinetic energy is not conserved, in effect releasing heat. Inertia may be a familiar term, and you’ll learn that it’s a resistance to changes in motion, along with its relation to mass and Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
High School Physics course content can vary, but here’s where your syllabus might advance into the world of electricity and electromagnetism. If your teacher covers these topics, you’ll learn about Ampère’s circuital law, which defines the relationship between magnetic fields and electric currents. Coulomb’s law describes the forces between particles that are statically electrically charged. You probably heard of capacitors before the course, but you will learn more about electrical fields, and how this device temporarily stores electrical energy. The course will also shed a new and different light on familiar topics such as electric charge and direct current. You’ll also gain a new understanding of voltage, magnetic fields, and common components such as resistors and transistors. Plasma is another state of matter to learn about, and the course will explain how it interacts with an electromagnetic field and presents itself in nature.
By now, you may be aware that heat, in Physics, refers to more than feeling warm. Regarding this, the next topic you’ll encounter in High School Physics is entropy, which is used to measure the disorder of gas molecules on a microscopic level. The first law of thermodynamics, concerning transforming energy rather than creating or destroying it, is an essential component of entropy. Once you learn about the behavior of gas molecules, the concepts of heat transfer, temperature, and thermal energy are expanded upon. You’ll also learn about volume and work in relation to the field of thermodynamics.
As you advance through the world of High School Physics, you will get more insights into light waves. The intricate principles of light include topics such as diffraction, frequency, and interference. Polarization is often associated with light waves, but can influence gravitational waves as well. It doesn’t, however, affect sound waves in a gas or liquid. Refraction can affect light and sound waves. A mathematical analysis of it is provided by Snell’s Law. Interference is another concept you’ll learn, which happens when two waves interact and create a different wave that can have the same, a greater, or lower amplitude.
Waves have an impact on solid objects as well. Longitudinal or transverse waves, for example, can be exhibited in vibrating strings, which can produce sound through resonance. A vibration in any string is in effect a wave. By adjusting the tension or length of the string, one can create a musical note. Radio waves are another type of electromagnetic radiation that occur in nature and are utilized by man for communications. Any wave also has an apparent change in frequency, based on the observer’s motion in relation to the source. This is known as the Doppler Effect.
High School Physics seeks to explain the universe in terms of what is seen, heard, and moved. From motion to electricity and heat, all the influences of the world are explained and, at this level, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of it all before moving on to more advanced physical subjects. Once you master them, you can be prepared to push further into the world of physics in college.