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Mission
In 1991, when I was a sophomore physics major with a mountain of ambition and only a particle of sense, I surreptitiously obtained permission to use a university lecture hall after hours. A week prior I had posted fliers around campus aimed squarely at desperate physics students who were running this way and that, fleeing an imminent mid-term examination that was out for blood.

“Physics Review Session Tonight at 6 p.m.”

That night found me at the front of a lecture hall with one hundred or so students waiting for salvation. Hoping for someone to explain what the hell this physics was all about. No one questioned, even for a second, the wisdom of trusting a twenty-year-old nobody to untie all of their little knots of misconception and to lay bare the plain truth of the science of physics. So deep was their fear. Chalk in hand and stage lights in my eyes, I leapt from the edge with a velocity v…

I can’t remember what happened next. I’m sure that many of the things that I said were good. I’m equally sure that some of the things I said were just plain wrong. That night was my debut as a lecturer and, in the nearly twenty years that followed, my passion for lecturing about physics has grown without limit. I have given countless lectures in my capacity as a physics professor, a post that I aspired to for the express purpose of maintaining a steady audience (It turns out that, if you lecture in the city streets, no one listens). I realize that my lectures will never be perfected, but I feel that they have evolved into something good and worthy of sharing. I now aspire to a greater audience.

I intend to give lectures spanning the whole of introductory physics including mechanics, electromagnetism, waves, special relativity, quantum mechanics, optics and thermal physics. I will post each lecture as I complete it. When I am finished (who knows when) Physics Fundamentalized may be the most complete set of lectures on earth. More importantly, my hope is that students around the world will use Physics Fundamentalized to supplement their other resources and find success in their study of physics.

Instead of posters on a student union billboard, we have iTunes. Just as in the beginning, I’m inviting everyone to listen to what I have to say because exams are still looming and they are still out for blood…

Philosophy
You can’t learn physics from Physics Fundamentalized.  It’s true.

Skill in physics is derived from discussion, reading and problem solving combined in thoughtful ways.  You should be watching Physics Fundamentalized AFTER you have listened to your own honest-to-god flesh-and-bone teacher discuss the physics principles of your lessons with you and AFTER you have read and understood your textbook selections.  Physics Fundamentalized should be a fresh perspective, not the first and last word.

Problem solving is the key to deep understanding.  There is no way around this. Students often mistake watching someone perform problem solutions or reading problem solutions from a book without putting a pencil to paper themselves. They convince themselves that they understood what they saw and that this is good enough.  Invariably, when asked to solve problems on an exam, they find that they have accumulated little skill at all. I mention this specifically because there are problem solutions in Physics Fundamentalized and I make problems look easy.  That’s my job.  Your job is to try it for yourself and find your own success.

About Eric Scheidly
I am a graduate of Drexel University, with masters degrees in physics and education.
I now serve as a Drexel University physics professor.  I am also a physics teacher at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.