Principles & Practice of Physics, 2nd Edition

Reach every student with Modified Mastering Physics

Mastering™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools developed to engage students and emulate the office-hour experience, Mastering personalizes learning and improves results for each student. Mastering Physics extends learning and provides students with a platform to practice, learn, and apply knowledge outside of the classroom. Learn more about Mastering Physics.

An expanded user-friendly and interactive approach for students 

• NEW - Key features from the Practice volume now appear in the Principles volume, giving students access to content and features in one location. 
• Practice problems and Chapter Summaries are now located in the Principles eText.
• NEW - All Practice volume content and features are now located in Mastering Physics.
• Developing a Feel helps students to develop a quantitative feel for the quantities introduced in the chapter and to learn to make valid assumptions and estimates.
• Worked and Guided Example videos give students the opportunity to review a worked example before they attempt to solve a similar problem. Hints and questions guide them through each problem. The videos are embedded in the eText and available for practice in the Study Area of Mastering. 
• Review Questions in the Pearson eText provide links that direct students to correlating places in the eText and interactive media and are assignable in Mastering Physics.
• NEW - Self-check features are now interactive in the eText to engage students and are closely integrated into the learning program. 
• Checkpoint questions often serve as the springboard for the next phase of the discussion. 
• Each Concepts section ends with a Self Quiz that lets students test their understanding of the material before proceeding. 

 A 21-century approach to physics

• Conservation laws are the backbone of contemporary physics. The text develops conservation of momentum and energy before Newton's laws, and emphasizes symmetry, conservation, and unity throughout. In mechanics, this approach avoids many of the pitfalls related to the concept of force, leads naturally to the two-body character of forces, and enables students to solve a range of problems before bringing in calculus.
• Concept of a system is used explicitly and consistently throughout the text. Many ideas in physics depend on distinguishing system from surroundings and selecting an appropriate system is a key skill for solving many types of problems. 
• Both Galilean and special relativity help to explain many ideas of physics. This text introduces reference frames in Chapter 6, and it covers special relativity in Chapter 14, rather than at the end of the second semester.
• Statistical treatment of thermodynamics in the text builds thermodynamics on a more logical and coherent foundation, starting with an accessible treatment of the statistical basis for entropy.

 The structured learning architecture with research-based instruction help students learn physics

• Each chapter is divided into a Concepts section and a Quantitative Tools section to help students build a robust understanding of the material instead of focusing too quickly on equations. The Concepts section develops the ideas in qualitative terms, using words and pictures and building from specific observations to general principles. The Quantitative Tools section formalizes the ideas mathematically.
• The core ideas of mechanics are developed in one dimension, helping students to concentrate on learning them before tackling the mathematical complexities of two-dimensional analysis. Chapter 10, "Motion in a Plane," introduces the second dimension.

• Strong connection to experiment and experience. When possible, the text develops ideas from experimental observations that the student can make to help students work out the reasoning that leads from observations to principles. The text often reads like a dialog between author and reader, rather than the traditional authoritarian approach that states definitions and principles backed up with derivations and examples.
• Strong visual instruction presents figures as visual explanations and ideas in visual terms. In accordance with research on visual instruction, visuals incorporate explanation and are quite schematic, highlighting key relationships and omitting unnecessary detail. If figures do not require a third dimension, they do not use one. Many figures show multiple representations that combine a situation sketch with a graph or bar diagram.

Reach every student with Modified Mastering Physics

Teach your course your way: Your course is unique. So whether you’d like to build your own auto-graded assignments, foster student engagement during class, or give students anytime, anywhere access, Mastering gives you the flexibility to easily create your course to fit your needs.

• NEW - Chapter Launch videos provide students with a brief introduction to surprising or interesting phenomenon related to physics concepts being covered in the chapter. The videos are embedded in the eText and assignable in Mastering Physics.
• NEW - Lecture video series developed by and featuring author Eric Mazur provides students with real world connections to create a foundation for a deeper understanding of physics. For educators, the lecture series provides a visual guide and assistant for using Just-in-Time (JIT) learning in their own course. The videos are embedded in the eText and assignable in Mastering Physics.

• NEW - Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules make use of teaching tools for before, during, and after class, including guidance on how to teach the course using the physics education research (PER) approach and Mazur’s popular peer-to-peer instruction techniques. Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules incorporate the best that the text, Mastering Physics, and Learning Catalytics have to offer and can be accessed through the Instructor Resources area of Mastering Physics. Learn more here.

• UPDATED - Prelecture Reading Questions check students’ familiarity with key concepts, prompting them to do their assigned reading before class. Additional open-ended questions help students identify the topics they found most difficult and assist instructors with “just-in-time” teaching.
• NEW - With Learning Catalytics, you’ll hear from every student when it matters most. You pose a variety of questions that help students recall ideas, apply concepts, and develop critical-thinking skills. Your students respond using their own smartphones, tablets, or laptops.  You can monitor responses with real-time analytics and find out what your students do — and don’t — understand. Then, you can adjust your teaching accordingly, and even facilitate peer-to-peer learning, helping students stay motivated and engaged. 
• An expert in peer-to-peer instruction and a primary creator of Learning Catalytics, Mazur provides questions and in-class activities that are specific to the text and that use book specific assets for instructors to implement in their classroom.

 Empower each learner: Each student learns at a different pace. Personalized learning, including adaptive tools and wrong-answer feedback, pinpoints the precise areas where each student needs practice and gives all students the support they need — when and where they need it — to be successful.

• NEW - Direct Measurement Videos are short videos that show real situations of physical phenomena. Grids, rulers, and frame counters appear as overlays, helping students to make precise measurements of quantities such as position and time. Students then apply these quantities along with physics concepts to solve problems and answer questions about the motion of the objects in the video. The problems are assignable in Mastering and can be used to replace or supplement traditional word problems, and they can serve as open-ended questions to help develop problem-solving skills.
• NEW - The Physics Primer relies on videos, hints, and feedback to refresh students’ math skills in the context of physics and prepares them for success in the course. These tutorials can be assigned before the course begins or throughout the course as just-in-time remediation. They ensure students practice and maintain their math skills, while tying together mathematical operations and physics analysis.
• NEW - Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience available within Mastering. It allows students to easily highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place—even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. 
• UPDATED - Dynamic Study Modules are now specific to Principles and Practice of Physics. The assignable modules pose a series of question sets about a course topic. The questions adapt to each student’s performance and offer personalized, targeted feedback to help them master key concepts. As a result, students build the confidence they need to deepen their understanding, participate meaningfully, and perform better — in and out of class. Students can use their computer or the MyLab and Mastering app to access Dynamic Study Modules. Available for select titles. 
• NEW - Adaptive Follow-Ups (AFUs) provide targeted practice and coaching to help students master the material. Relying on findings from cognitive psychology studies, Adaptive Follow-Ups incorporate spacing — the practice of repeatedly presenting information over spaced intervals — to help students retain information. Each assignment is broken into sets of questions that target gaps in understanding based on the student's past performance on course work to date, including homework, tests, and quizzes. 

 Deliver trusted content: We partner with highly respected authors to develop interactive content and course-specific resources that keep students on track and engaged. 

• NEW - Interactive, digital features developed specifically for Principles of Physics can be accessed in Mastering Physics or as interactives in the Pearson eText. Brief, assignable Check Point videos summarize key concepts at the end of chapters and can be accessed in Mastering Physics. Review Questions, Guided Examples and Developing a Feel provide students with practice. 
• NEW - Enhanced End-of-Chapter Questions provide instructional support when and where students need it including links to the eText, math remediation and wrong-answer feedback for homework assignments.

Improve student results: When you teach with Mastering, student performance often improves. That’s why instructors have chosen Mastering for over 15 years, touching the lives of over 20 million students.  Learn more in this efficacy report.

Check out the preface for a complete list of features and what's new in this edition.