Physics web sites compiled by participants in the seminar for prospective Physics majors in 2008. Thinking of being a physics major? Join us next year in PHYS 190: Exploring Physics & Astronomy. For more information, contact Prof. Kristen Larson or Prof. Andreas Riemann.

Recommender: Imtiaz Arshi

Site: Resources in Physics

Address: http://units.sla.org/division/dpam/subjects/phys.html

Sponsor: The site is maintained by the Special Libraries Association (SLA), a nonprofit organization that focuses on serving information professionals in corporate, academic and government fields. The SLA tries to serve information specialists in any way it can. Information specialists are employees in industries that focus on using knowledge and resources to advance the goals of their employers/firms/organizations. A key example of an information professional is a librarian, whose primary purpose to share informational resources within the community. As one of its services, the SLA hosts this list as a service to the information specialists in the field of physics.

Description: Serving the SLA’s primary goal, the site is essentially just a list of web resources for physics professionals. It has a series of links to other websites with interesting information. The list itself is divided into different categories, with the web links grouped by their content. Some cool links include a link to Albert Einstein’s digitized manuscripts, a section of links to useful physics constants and reference tables, and a list of websites for breaking physics news. I chose this site because it is an all-in-one source of information. While it may not contain information itself, it is definitely a great place to check for any of your physics needs.

Must-See Feature: The biography and history links provide for some great reading. Check ‘em out and you’ll find some great stories about physics discoveries.

Recommender: Eric Buxton

Site: Science Daily Astrophysics

Address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/astrophysics.htm

Sponsor: It is a free website that is supported by advertisements.

Description: Any prospective physics major is fascinated by astronomy.  This site gives engaging overviews of some of the most interesting astronomical topics today, like cosmology and space-time.  It also has a user-friendly layout that ensures easy navigation and easy to understand terminology.

Must-See Feature: On every page there is up to date news articles that relate to your current topic of research.  Mostly the article on black holes is especially noteworthy.

Recommender: Colleen Cheng

Site: A Century of Physics

Address: http://timeline.aps.org/APS/Timeline/

Sponsor: The American Physical Society sponsors this website.

Description: This website has over a century worth of physics facts from 1896 through present day. It contains quick biographies about various people who have discovered many aspects of physics that we now know and use today. This also contains multimedia links that show applets and external links about the topic.  The reason I chose this site is because when taking a physics class we get all this known information and this is the background to it all.  You can visually see on the time line how and why things were discovered to become these “common sense” ideas that we know today.

Must-See Feature: The best part and the “not to be missed feature” is the multimedia links.

Recommender: Alexander Fahad

Site: Nova PBS science

Address: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/relativity/

Sponsor: Nova is a PBS subsidiary so it is publicly funded by contributors.

Description: I have always had an interest in Einstein’s theory of relativity, and PBS almost always has interesting programs on there network, especially Nova. I did a quick Google search and this site came up so I gave a good look at it and it seems to have a good explanation to relativity and other ideas of his. Other physics majors would find this site interesting because it offers a good summarization of Einstein’s big ideas without leaving you confused. It also has some fun animations to watch.

Must-See Feature: The one not to be missed feature about this site would have to be the computer animated video of Einstein in an elevator, demonstrating how gravity and acceleration are the same. A must see, and if anything you get a good laugh at how he looks!

Recommender: Aimee Fischer

Site: Physlink.com

Address: http://www.physlink.com

Sponsor: PhysLink.com is a result of a creative effort of a number of volunteers and physics and astronomy enthusiasts. They based in California and are always welcoming new volunteers, editors and contributors.

Description: The PhysLink.com is a comprehensive physics and astronomy online education, research and reference web site.  In addition to providing high-quality content, PhysLink.com is a meeting place for professionals, students and other curious minds.  This website contains many tools that would be helpful to a perspective astronomy or physics major.  Such as links to other physics websites, an ask the experts application, a collection of scientific essays, useful reference materials, a whole page of jokes and cartoons, and my favorite “you might be a physics major if.....”

Must-See Feature: When searching this site one thing that you shouldn’t miss is the “ask the experts” feature.

Recommender: Drew Grennell

Site: Physics Education Technology

Address: http://phet-web.colorado.edu/new/index.php

Sponsor: It is a website designed and funded by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Description: The site provides a bunch of different computer animated simulations of many different topics in Physics. The simulations include things like Work and Energy, Motion, Electricity and Magnetism, and even Lasers and Semiconductors. Many of the simulations are interactive and enable the user to get involved in the process.

Must-See Feature: This site provides a more hands on experimental approach to many interesting topics. If you are a person who learns by doing experiments and going through the process yourself rather than reading or listening to a lecture this site is definitely for you.

Recommender: John Hayes

Site: Physicsworld.com

Address: www.physicsworld.com

Sponsor: The organization that runs and publishes the journal is the Institute of Physics (IOP). The IOP is a group that claims it is, “devoted to increasing the understanding and application of physics.” In addition to its publication of Physics World the IOP also creates many different teaching aids, as well as lobby for scientifically friendly policy.

Description: Physicsworld.com is an extension of the publication Physics World. The website contains various articles about recent research in various fields of physics at level that is slightly deeper than Discover. The articles are exciting and easy to read, yet contain enough skepticism to give a realistic view of the implications of such interesting research. I chose this site because most of the fairly recent news is available to non-subscribers and it does a pretty decent job of maintaining a constant stream of physics-related headline news. Overall, I think it is a quality website for those with a healthy interest in physics.

Must-See Feature: One not-to-be-missed feature of the site is its headline news section. Almost daily one article is added to the section about the ongoings of the physics world.

Recommender: Nicholas Henscheid

Site: Hyperphysics

Address: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Sponsor: Georgia State University

Description: Hyperphysics is a very useful and interesting website that uses a web of hyperlinks to teach various areas of physics.  You begin by selecting an area of interest (Mechanics, Heat & Thermo, E & M, Quantum, Nuclear, Astro, Relativity, Light/Vision, Condensed Matter) then follow links to your hearts content.  Kind of the Wikipedia of physics.

Must-See Feature: Just click any of the keywords along the right hand side to take you to a specific article.  Try “Angular Momentum”.

Recommender: Brent Kauffman

Site: US Weather Research Program

Address: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/research/uswrp/

Sponsor: NOAA, NASA, DOE, DOT, USDA

Description: The primary focus of the website is to gather several sects of the scientific community to improve the forecasting of events such as rainfall, hurricanes and other weather related events. I chose this website because I have a personal interest in storm forecasting in regard to winter sports. I also enjoy that this project brings several sects of the environmental, governmental and other organizational entities together.

Must-See Feature: The program reports were very interesting, much was beyond my comprehension but interesting.

Recommender: David Martin

Site: Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics

Address: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/

Sponsor: Wolfram Research, Inc

Description: When in need of a specific equation or just a little information on a topic in physics sometimes I don’t feel like looking through my entire book or don’t have my book with me. Most of the time I have access to a computer so a website with a wide range of equations and information is useful. I have found that this website allows me to look up anything I may need.

Must-See Feature: When looking for an equation there is an easy category system that is easy to navigate. There is nothing you can’t find elsewhere but I think that the value of this site is the span of the information here.

Recommender: Trevor Morgan

Site: Richard Nakka’s Experimental Rocketry Web Site

Address: http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/index.html

Sponsor: Richard Nakka a dedicated rocket enthusiast has dedicated his time to write this website. 

Description: This website isn’t only great for rocket enthusiast but also people who enjoy physics.  He records all his rocket experiments and explains exactly what he designed, and does an in-depth explanation of what went wrong if anything did after the flight.  He makes his own rocket fuel and does a wide variety of them to find one’s that have the best thrust.  Part of his website also goes into the theory of amateur rockets, he’s not just loading a bunch of black-powder into a rocket and sees what happens.  If you’re interested at all in how rockets fly or what fuels work best for better thrust than this web side is a great read.  

Must-See Feature: I would say the number one feature of his website is that after every test he does he posts a video of the rocket launch.  These videos are great fun to watch.  

Recommender: Wesley Payne

Site: Physics World

Address: http://www.physicsworld.com

Sponsor: Physics World is written and funded by the IOP, or the Institute of Physics.

Description: Physics World online is  the electronic version of the  normally print publication.  While it does not boast as many articles  as the print version it is regularly updated. I found the sight to have a good mix of both lay terms and a slightly higher degree of scientific precision in its writing. This is well suited to physics enthusiasts as they can get an overview of what is happening in physics news without having to spend a long time reading through a full paper, while at the same time obtaining a good understanding of the news. Instead of the brief surface level summaries of science one finds in everyday news sources Physics World finds a healthy medium between understanding and depth that I feel any reader would enjoy.

Must-See Feature: The In-Depth section on the site is a personal favorite. It leaves the reader with a healthy understanding of the science at hand, without taking up hours of time, perfect for a busy academic term.

Recommender: Marry Stelling

Site: Physics.org

Address: http://www.physics.org/

Sponsor: The sponsor of the website is IOP: Institute of Physics.

Description: What really grabbed my attention about this site is the look. It’s easy to read, there’s pictures and links to all kinds of sites. I also chose this site because of the first article I read. There is a picture of a spider that grabs the viewer’s attention right off the bat. When exploring the link associated with the spider, I came upon an article about the “spider-man suit.” 

Must-See Feature: I definitely would look into the “spider-man suit” article. The article tells the reader about the new discoveries which are making it possible for a human being to climb walls without support (to be like a gecko).

Recommender: Rachel Werther

Site: American Chemical Society Publications

Address: http://pubs.acs.org/index.html

Sponsor: American Chemical Society

Description: The site is a product of the American Chemical Society - a chemistry organization - but includes a searchable, current database of articles, including articles on physical chemistry. This is physics as it applies to the biological sciences, as well as the wider world of the physical chemistry of all compounds.

Must-See Feature: The best part is the search feature on the homepage.

Recommender: Steven Whitacre

Site: Fear of Physics

Address: http://www.fearofphysics.com/index.html

Sponsor: The website is sponsored by a group of people who are passionate about physics. They claim to have been involved with physics for over 15 years, have Ph.D. degrees and taught at the university level. Aside from this information which can be found on the “About FOP” page very little sponsor information is on the website although they do provide an email address for contacting them which is fopcontact@gmail.com.

Description: Fear of Physics is a website devoted to making physics more accessible and simple to newcomers in the field, helping reduce the “fear” associated with physics. The site accomplishes this through many interactive demonstrations, short videos, quizzes, sample problems, a homework help section and a physics dictionary. The subject matter of the website covers a wide range of physics topics including sound, gravity, friction and many more and offers a “visual physics” section with demonstrations of over 20 topics. After selecting one of these topics a visual demonstration is offered with dropdown menus allowing the user to change variables and pick answers. This website is very interactive and is fun to experiment with and has a lot of useful information for beginning and prospective physics students. Although it does not go in depth with many of the more complex functions in physics it is definitely recommended.

Must-See Feature: One not to be missed feature of Fear of Physics is the collision simulator. This simulator allows you to set up what types of objects you want to see collide, such as an SUV and a motorcycle, then it allows you to pick a speed for each one in either meters per second or miles per hour. After this is done an animation will show simulating the results of the collision you set up. This simulator teaches physics while demonstrating an entertaining scenario, to see this page go to http://www.fearofphysics.com/Collide/collide.html.