Conceptual Physics

Citation

Hewitt, P. G. (2015). Conceptual Physics (12th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The book has 36 chapters in eight parts, followed by five short appendices. Sections within chapters are numbered, and each part ends with a multiple-choice practice exam.

Chapter 1: About Science

A short opening chapter on what science is: measurement, the scientific method, and how facts, hypotheses, laws and theories differ. It also places science alongside art and religion and presents physics as the base on which the other sciences rest.

Part I, Chapters 2–10: Mechanics

The longest part runs from Newton's First Law of Motion: Inertia and Linear Motion through Newton's Second Law of Motion: Force and Acceleration and Newton's Third Law of Motion: Action and Reaction. It then turns to Momentum and Energy (impulse, conservation, the work-energy relation, efficiency), Rotational Motion (torque, angular momentum), Gravity (universal gravitation, tides, black holes) and Projectile and Satellite Motion (trajectories, orbits, escape speed).

Part II, Chapters 11–14: Properties of Matter

Atomic Nature of Matter introduces atoms, isotopes, antimatter and dark matter. Solids, Liquids and Gases and Plasmas then cover density, elasticity, pressure, buoyancy, surface tension and the fourth state of matter.

Part III, Chapters 15–18: Heat

Temperature, Heat and Expansion and Heat Transfer (conduction, convection, radiation, the greenhouse effect and climate change) are followed by Change of Phase (evaporation, boiling, melting) and Thermodynamics, which states the first and second laws and introduces entropy.

Part IV, Chapters 19–21: Sound

Vibrations and Waves covers pendulums, wave speed, interference and the Doppler effect. Sound and Musical Sounds continue with resonance, beats, loudness, pitch, tone quality, instruments and Fourier analysis.

Part V, Chapters 22–25: Electricity and Magnetism

Electrostatics (charge, Coulomb's law, fields, shielding, potential), Electric Current (resistance, Ohm's law, circuits, power), Magnetism (fields, domains, electromagnets, Earth's field) and Electromagnetic Induction (Faraday's law, generators, transformers, power transmission).

Part VI, Chapters 26–31: Light

Properties of Light treats light as electromagnetic waves and discusses transparency. Color (additive and subtractive mixing, scattering, rainbows), Reflection and Refraction and Light Waves (diffraction, interference, polarization, holography) follow. Light Emission covers spectra, incandescence, fluorescence and lasers, and Light Quanta the photoelectric effect, wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle.

Part VII, Chapters 32–34: Atomic and Nuclear Physics

The Atom and the Quantum moves from the Bohr model to quantum mechanics and the Higgs boson. Atomic Nucleus and Radioactivity covers half-life, detectors, transmutation and dating methods. Nuclear Fission and Fusion treats reactors, mass-energy equivalence and attempts at controlled fusion.

Part VIII, Chapters 35–36: Relativity

Special Theory of Relativity starts from the Michelson-Morley experiment and the postulates, and goes on to time dilation, length contraction, relativistic momentum and E = mc². General Theory of Relativity covers the equivalence principle, bending of light, gravitational redshift, spacetime curvature and gravitational waves.

Appendices

A. Systems of Measurement; B. More About Motion; C. Graphing; D. More About Vectors; E. Exponential Growth and Doubling Time. They give the minimum mathematical support the main text relies on.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: About Science

• Scientific method: observation, hypothesis and testing as the way scientific claims are checked.
• Fact, hypothesis, law, theory: the distinct roles these terms play in science.

Chapters 2–10: Mechanics

• Inertia and net force: motion changes only when a net force acts, and the change depends on mass.
• Action and reaction: forces always come as interaction pairs.
• Conservation of momentum and energy: quantities that stay constant in an isolated system and let outcomes be predicted without following every detail.
• Torque and angular momentum: the rotational counterparts of force and momentum.
• Gravitation and orbits: one inverse-square law that explains falling bodies, tides and satellites.

Chapters 11–18: Matter and Heat

• Density, pressure, buoyancy: macroscopic properties of solids, liquids and gases that follow from their atomic makeup.
• Heat transfer: conduction, convection and radiation as the three routes of thermal energy.
• Entropy and the second law: the direction in which natural processes run.

Chapters 19–25: Waves, Electricity and Magnetism

• Superposition and resonance: waves add, and driven systems respond strongly at natural frequencies.
• Charge, field, potential: the vocabulary for electric interactions, extended in the current and circuit chapters.
• Induction: a changing magnetic field produces an electric field, the basis of generators and transformers.

Chapters 26–36: Light, Atoms and Relativity

• Wave-particle duality: light shows both wave and particle behaviour.
• Half-life: the characteristic time for half of a radioactive sample to decay.
• Time dilation and length contraction: consequences of the constancy of the speed of light.
• Spacetime curvature: the general-relativistic account of gravity.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A conceptual route into the whole of physics. The book follows the conceptual approach that Pearson says Hewitt pioneered in teaching physics at City College of San Francisco, with ideas explained first and mathematics kept light. Appendices on graphing, vectors and exponential growth cover the supporting mathematics the text needs.
• Built-in self-testing. Check Yourself and Check Your Answer boxes sit inside the text, Practicing Physics boxes turn a chapter's idea into a small activity, and the end-of-chapter material includes Conceptual Ranking exercises. Each part ends with a multiple-choice practice exam.
• Breadth. In a single volume it moves from Newton's laws to general relativity, so a reader sees how mechanics, heat, waves, electromagnetism and modern physics connect.
• Current applications. According to the publisher, this edition updates its treatment of digital technology, the environment and energy, and adds QR codes that link to the author's video demonstrations.

Limitations

• Not preparation for a quantitative course. The book is conceptual by design. Students who will go on to engineering or physics majors need a calculus-based text for problem-solving practice; this book gives them the vocabulary and intuition, not the technique.
• Brief treatment of late topics. Quantum physics, nuclear physics and relativity each receive one to three chapters, enough for the main ideas but not for calculation.
• Some of the extras depend on online access. The video demonstrations behind the QR codes and the Mastering assignments are separate from the printed text.

Where It Fits in the Course

Hewitt is the gentlest book in this introductory physics list and the one that assumes the least mathematics. OpenStax's College Physics is a free algebra-based course that adds quantitative problem solving and suits students who have algebra and some trigonometry. Fundamentals of Physics, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Principles of Physics and University Physics are calculus-based textbooks for science and engineering students, with much larger problem sets; Hewitt's chapters on the same topics are good previews of their intuition, and a useful check on whether the idea is understood before the equations arrive.

For readers who want conceptual depth rather than technique, The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a concept-driven introduction that works through physical arguments and thought experiments on many of the same topics, and 200 Puzzling Physics Problems is a problem collection with hints and full solutions for those who have finished a first course. Kleppner and Kolenkow's An Introduction to Mechanics is a demanding calculus-based treatment of mechanics alone.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at students who need a general picture of physics rather than a technical preparation, as in a general-education course, and at anyone who wants to build intuition before a calculus-based sequence. No calculus is needed, and the appendices cover the mathematics that is.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 1–10 (science and mechanics) give the foundation for everything else. Read in order; the Newton's-laws chapters are cumulative.
• Then choose by interest or course: the heat, sound, electricity and magnetism, and light parts are largely independent of each other once mechanics and energy are done.
• Optional: Parts VII and VIII (atomic and nuclear physics, relativity) work as a final tour and can be read on their own once the earlier parts are familiar.

Work through the Check Yourself questions before reading the answers, attempt the Practicing Physics activities, and use the part-end practice exams to find gaps. Students heading into a calculus-based course can pair each part with the matching chapters of one of the textbooks above after finishing it.