This book is a journey through the world of physics and cosmology, and an exploration of our role in this universe. We will address questions such as: What if the force of gravity were a little stronger? What if there were more of fewer atoms in our universe? What if Newton and not Einstein had been right? Would we still be here? Can the universe exist without us to observe it? Can chance explain the world around us, as well as us?

The purpose of this book is to phrase these questions and pursue the consequences of potential answers through rigorous scientific reasoning; in the process we will learn how the very small and the very large are interconnected, and even how we can affect events that happened six billion years ago.

Licensed CC-BY-4.0 with attribution instructions on page 2 of the document.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7
The fundamental forces 10
The force of gravity 18
What if … the force of gravity were different? 23
The electric and magnetic forces 26
The electric force 27
What if … the electric force were different? 39
The magnetic force 48
What if … the magnetic force were different? 58
The strong and weak forces 59
What if … ? 65
How do forces work? 74
The history of the universe 85
What if … ? 94
The history of our species 106
Odds 124
The building blocks of the universe 128
What if … ? 140
Dark energy 150
What if … dark matter were more interesting? 159
When you do not look…. 162
Manifestations of the wave nature of matter 169
The delayed choice experiment: Affecting the past 186
What if … ? 191
The story so far 195
Unification and our role 199
Fine-tuning? 214
The Multiverse and aliens 226
The laws of physics 234
The Anthropic Principle and Puddle Theory 237
Post mortem 249
Further reading and chapter notes 251

This textbook outlines the major processes and features of the world's oceans. Content starts with a review of important fundamentals of the natural and physical science related to oceanography. Following chapters focus on Earth history and evolution of life through time.

Full Curriculum, Newtonian Mechanics whereby fundamental concepts (momentum, energy, force, motion) are introduced on the first day and developed in parallel. Access entire curriculum: comprehensive lecture videos with questions, textbook (calculus based, algebra based, and conceptual), exams, syllabus, past student evaluations.

This is not a typical e-book; it is a free, web-based, open-source “textbook” available to anyone interested in using mapping tools to create maps. This e-text focuses primarily on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—a geospatial technology that enables you to create spatial databases, analyze spatial patterns, and produce maps that communicate more effectively. While this GIS textbook is principally an introduction to GIS, most of the chapter’s concepts are applicable to other geotechnologies including remote sensing, global positioning systems (GPS), Internet mapping, and virtual globes.

Creating good maps and analyzing spatial data is a time consuming and challenging practice, but recently, a new set of powerful mapping tools has enabled almost anyone with a computer to make maps easily and to perform at least some low-level analyses. The results, however, are not encouraging. Most of the new mapmakers do not have adequate training in mapping concepts and spatial analysis principles, and their maps are often improperly designed and do not communicate easily nor effectively. This e-text—GIS Commons—seeks to help you analyze spatial data and communicate more effectively. In short, GIS education is our goal.

This survey should give you enough knowledge to appreciate the impact of chemistry in everyday life and, if necessary, prepare you for additional instruction in chemistry. Throughout each chapter, I present two features that reinforce the theme of the textbook—that chemistry is all around you. The first is a feature titled, appropriately, “Chemistry Is Everywhere.” Chemistry Is Everywhere” focuses on the personal hygiene products that you may use every morning: toothpaste, soap, and shampoo, among others. These products are chemicals, aren’t they? Ever wonder about the chemical reactions that they undergo to give you clean and healthy teeth or shiny hair? I will explore some of these chemical reactions in future chapters. But this feature makes it clear that chemistry is, indeed, everywhere. The other feature focuses on chemistry that you likely indulge in every day: eating and drinking. In the “Food and Drink App,” I discuss how the chemistry of the chapter applies to things that you eat and drink every day. Carbonated beverages depend on the behavior of gases, foods contain acids and bases, and we actually eat certain rocks. (Can you guess which rocks without looking ahead?) Cooking, eating, drinking, and metabolism—we are involved with all these chemical processes all the time. These two features allow us to see the things we interact with every day in a new light—as chemistry.

Physical Chemistry is the application of physical principles and measurements to understand the properties of matter, as well as for the development of new technologies for the environment, energy and medicine. Advanced Physical Chemistry topics include different spectroscopic methods (Raman, ultrafast and mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic and electron paramagnetic resonance, x-ray absorption and atomic force microscopy) as well as theoretical and computational tools to provide atomic-level understanding for applications such as: nanodevices for bio-detection and receptors, interfacial chemistry of catalysis and implants, electron and proton transfer, protein function, photosynthesis and airborne particles in the atmosphere.

We are happy to welcome you to our second Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook, Biochemistry Free For All. Biochemistry is a relatively young science, but its rate of growth has been truly impressive. The rapid pace of discoveries, which shows no sign of slowing, is reflected in the steady increase in the size of biochemistry textbooks. Growing faster than the size of biochemistry books have been the skyrocketing costs of higher education and the even faster rising costs of college textbooks. These unfortunate realities have created a situation where the costs of going to college are beyond the means of increasing numbers of students.

Short Description:
CHEM 1114 - Introduction to Chemistry is designed for a one-semester introductory chemistry course. For many students, this course provides their first introduction to chemistry. As such, this textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn some of the core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. The text has been developed to meet the scope and sequence of most introductory chemistry courses, including an initial emphasis on the skills required (chapter 1 and 2) for the laboratory portion of the course.

Word Count: 160213

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Students first discover what they want from their education, then build a plan to get there. This content takes students through the steps to successfully navigate their journey in higher education. Topics include planning for success, choosing a career path, setting and attaining goals, understanding financial management, developing critical thinking skills, making healthy choices, using effective communication, managing time, developing learning strategies, developing meaningful relationships. Content is available in PDF and Open Document formats and is licensed CC BY. Learning Objectives also are provided. Full course offering available at https://www.cengage.com/c/opennow-college-success-1e-opennow-cengage

This Introductory Chemistry textbook was developed by the Chemistry faculty at Montgomery College, and provided by Professor Patricia Takahara. The book is meant for students with very little or no background in chemistry. Concepts here are presented at a very basic level in order to provide the foundation for college-level general chemistry. This book is used in Introductory Chemistry, a non-credit, preparatory course at Montgomery College (Maryland).

Analytical chemistry spans nearly all areas of chemistry but involves the development of tools and methods to measure physical properties of substances and apply those techniques to the identification of their presence (qualitative analysis) and quantify the amount present (quantitative analysis) of species in a wide variety of settings.

Learning and Understanding Mathematical Concepts in the Areas of Water Distribution and Water Treatment

Chemistry and the Environment is designed to accompany a one-semester course in chemistry-based discussions of important environmental issues such as air pollution, the ozone layer, climate change and water quality. Chemical principles are introduced, followed by environmental ‘focus’ sections to base discussions on the scientific principles and societal intricacies of the individual topics. Instructors can also use the focus sections as a resource for presentation slides. Chemistry 2e is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the two-semester general chemistry course. The textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.

Essentials of Geographic Information Systems integrates key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications. Recognizing that many potential GIS users are nonspecialists or may only need a few maps, this book is designed to be accessible, pragmatic, and concise. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems also illustrates how GIS is used to ask questions, inform choices, and guide policy. From the melting of the polar ice caps to privacy issues associated with mapping, this book provides a gentle, yet substantive, introduction to the use and application of digital maps, mapping, and GIS.

Intended for all audiences, this textbook is an introduction to the nature of the universe. Use it to research or review our solar system, stars, galaxies, and the history of the universe. Each chapter has a set of corresponding homework questions.

Electromagnetics Volume 1 by Steven W. Ellingson is a 225-page, peer-reviewed open educational resource intended for electrical engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree program. It is intended as a primary textbook for a one-semester first course in undergraduate engineering electromagnetics. The book employs the “transmission lines first” approach in which transmission lines are introduced using a lumped-element equivalent circuit model for a differential length of transmission line, leading to one-dimensional wage equations for voltage and current.

Suggested citation: Ellingson, Steven W. (2018) Electromagnetics, Vol. 1. Blacksburg, VA: VT Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21061/electromagnetics-vol-1 CC BY-SA 4.0

Three formats of this book are available:
Print (ISBN 978-0-9979201-8-5)
PDF (ISBN 978-0-9979201-9-2)
LaTeX source files

If you are a professor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook please help us understand a little more about your use by filling out this form: http://bit.ly/vtpublishing-updates

Additional Resources
Problem sets and the corresponding solution manual are also available.
Community portal for the Electromagnetics series https://www.oercommons.org/groups/electromagnetics-user-group/3455/
Faculty listserv for the Electromagnetics series https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/forum/electromagnetics-g
Submit feedback and suggestions http://bit.ly/electromagnetics-suggestion

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Preliminary Concepts
Chapter 2: Electric and Magnetic Fields
Chapter 3: Transmission Lines
Chapter 4: Vector Analysis
Chapter 5: Electrostatics
Chapter 6: Steady Current and Conductivity
Chapter 7: Magnetostatics
Chapter 8: Time-Varying Fields
Chapter 9: Plane Waves in Lossless Media
Appendixes
A. Constitutive Parameters of Some Common Materials
B. Mathematical Formulas
C. Physical Constants

About the Author: Steven W. Ellingson (ellingson@vt.edu) is an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in the United States. He received PhD and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University and a BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Clarkson University. He was employed by the US Army, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Raytheon, and the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory before joining the faculty of Virginia Tech, where he teaches courses in electromagnetics, radio frequency systems, wireless communications, and signal processing. His research includes topics in wireless communications, radio science, and radio frequency instrumentation. Professor Ellingson serves as a consultant to industry and government and is the author of Radio Systems Engineering (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

This textbook is part of the Open Electromagnetics Project led by Steven W. Ellingson at Virginia Tech. The goal of the project is to create no-cost openly-licensed content for courses in undergraduate engineering electromagnetics. The project is motivated by two things: lowering learning material costs for students and giving faculty the freedom to adopt, modify, and improve their educational resources.

Accessibility features of this book: Screen reader friendly, navigation, and Alt-text for all images and figures.

Publication of this book was made possible in part by the Open Education Faculty Initiative Grant program at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. http://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer/grants

This book is written for anybody who is curious about nature and motion. Curiosity about how people, animals, things, images and space move leads to many adventures. This volume presents the best of them in the domain of everyday life.

Carefully observing everyday motion allows us to deduce six essential statements: everyday motion is continuous, conserved, relative, reversible, mirror-invariant – and lazy. Yes, nature is indeed lazy: in every motion, it minimizes change. This text explores how these six results are deduced and how they fit with all those observations that seem to contradict them. In the structure of modern physics, shown in Figure 1, the results on everyday motion form the major part of the starting point at the bottom. The present volume is the first of a six-volume overview of physics. It resulted from a threefold aim I have pursued since 1990: to present motion in a way that is simple, up to date and captivating.

In order to be simple, the text focuses on concepts, while keeping mathematics to the necessary minimum. Understanding the concepts of physics is given precedence over using formulae in calculations. The whole text is within the reach of an undergraduate.

In order to be up to date, the text is enriched by the many gems – both theoretical and empirical – that are scattered throughout the scientific literature.

In order to be captivating, the text tries to startle the reader as much as possible. Reading a book on general physics should be like going to a magic show. We watch, we are astonished, we do not believe our eyes, we think, and finally we understand the trick. When we look at nature, we often have the same experience. Indeed, every page presents at least one surprise or provocation for the reader to think about. Numerous interesting challenges are proposed.

The motto of the text, die Menschen stärken, die Sachen klären, a famous statement by Hartmut von Hentig on pedagogy, translates as: ‘To fortify people, to clarify things.’ Clarifying things – and adhering only to the truth – requires courage, as changing the habits of thought produces fear, often hidden by anger. But by overcoming our fears we grow in strength. And we experience intense and beautiful emotions. All great adventures in life allow this, and exploring motion is one of them. Enjoy it!

This resource is a PDF of an organic chemistry laboratory textbook designed for the undergraduate organic chemistry student who has never before taken a college-level organic chemistry course. It can also be used for students engaging in upper division courses or independent research who wish to have a refresher in basic laboratory techniques. This resource was not designed with graduate students in mind, and therefore may not be all inclusive in laboratory techniques experienced at that level.

The discipline of structural geology studies the architecture of the solid Earth and other planets. Rock deformation patterns are exciting features beacause of their aesthetic beauty and their economic interest to man. Knowledge of the subsurface structure is vital for the success of a variety of engineering and mineral exploration pograms. A thorough understanding of rock structures is essential for strategic planning in the petroleum and mining industry, in construction operations, in waste disposal surveys and for water exploration. Deformation structures in the country rock are important further for locallizing hazard zones, such as potential rockslide masses, ground subsidence, and seismic faults. Research activities concentrate on rock defomation structures in he shallow continental crust.

The focus of this textbook is to introduce students to the foundations of General, Organic and Biological Chemistry and prepare students to be successful in health-related degree programs. The first part of the textbook focuses on the basic fundamentals of measurements in chemistry, the scientific method, an introduction into atoms, elements and trends of the periodic table. The second part of the textbook focuses on chemical bond formation, stoichiometry and chemical reactions, an introduction to organic chemistry, and the relationship of concepts to biological systems is carried throughout the text with a focus on medical and health-related aspects.