Grammar exercises

Exercise 1. Open the brackets.

1. Galileo, Kepler, and especially Newton … (lay) the foundation for what … (be) now known as classical mechanics.

2. Classical mechanics … (originate) with Isaac Newton’s laws of motion, while quantum mechanics … (not appear) until 1900.

3. Isaac Newton … (improve) this analysis by defining force and mass and relating these to acceleration.

4. Classical mechanics … (provide) extremely accurate results as long as the domain of study … (be) restricted to large objects and the speeds involved … (not approach) the speed of light.

5. The term kinematics … (be) the English version of Ampere’s cinematique which he … (construct) from the Greek word meaning movement.

6. To describe motion, kinematics … (study) the trajectories of points, lines and other geometric objects and their different properties such as velocity and acceleration.

7. Objects only … (move) when a force is exerted upon them.

8. As soon as the force … (go) away, the object … (stop) moving.

9. Newton … (propose) a set of laws that precisely … (describe) the regularities of motion in nature.

10. Classical mechanics … (fail) on the scale of atoms and molecules.

Exercise 2. Translate into Russian.

1. Mechanics is founded upon conservation laws like conservation of energy, conservation of momentum and conservation of angular momentum.

2. Galileo brought together the ideas of other great thinkers of his time and began to analyze motion in terms of distance traveled from some starting point and the time that it took.

3. The term classical mechanics was coined in the early 20^th century to describe the system of physics begun by Newton and many contemporary natural philosophers.

4. The initial stage in the development of classical mechanics is often referred to as Newtonian mechanics and is associated with the physical concepts and mathematical methods used by Newton himself.

5. Dynamics is the study of motion and its relation to forces.

6. Kinematics is used in astrophysics, mechanical engineering, biomechanics.

7. One of the other interesting features of Newton’s laws is that Newton invented calculus to enable him to solve the problems they described.

8. Newton’s laws could explain neither the structure and behaviour of atoms nor the emission and absorption of light.

Follow-up activities

Exercise 1. Choose from the text and read sentences in which the author: a) gives definitions of classical mechanics, kinematics, dynamics, b) formulates Newton’s laws of motion.

Exercise 2. Combine two sentences together omitting less important information.

1. Classical mechanics studies the motion of bodies under the action of forces or when all forces are balanced. Newton laid the foundation of classical mechanics by formulating his laws of motion.

2. Newton’s laws are formulated for pointlike bodies. All intrinsic properties of bodies are not taken into account.

3. Nowadays scientists think that classical mechanics is an approximation arising out of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. Classical mechanics plays an important part in modern physics.

4. Classical mechanics includes kinematics and dynamics. Kinematics studies the motion of bodies not taking into consideration forces. Dynamics is the study of the action of forces in producing motion or static equilibrium.

5. Before Galileo and Newton the description of the bodies motion was inaccurate and uncertain. It was difficult to explain certain kinds of motion, for example, the Earth’s continuous motion around the Sun.

6. Newton formulated three basic laws. His laws describe the motion of bodies.

7. In modern physics Newton’s laws are no longer fundamental. The three conservation laws derived from Newton’s laws are true even in quantum mechanics and relativity.

Exercise 3. Find the key sentence(s) in each paragraph and write them down.

Exercise 4. Use the chosen key sentences in making a short outline of the text.

Exercise 5. Imagine you deliver a lecture on classical mechanics. Include all important facts from the text above and add additional information if necessary.

Exercise 6. Watch the video film “Physics Course of Motion in 1D” and fulfill the tasks given below.

Task 1. Match the terms and their definitions.

Task 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is used to describe the motion of objects?

2. What is necessary to find the position of an object in one dimension?

3. How is displacement represented and what is it equal to?

4. Why is time important in describing motion?

5. What quantity helps to answer the question how fast an object is moving?

6. How is velocity defined and represented?

7. When can an object’s velocity change?

8. What is average acceleration equal to?

9. When motion is in one dimension and the velocity is constant, how can one determine the position of an object?

10. What equation is used to determine the position of an object when motion is in one dimension and the acceleration is constant?

11. What is the most common example of one-dimensional motion?

12. How is the acceleration of a free falling object denoted?

Task 3. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Correct the information given if necessary.

1. The fundamental quantities necessary for the description of the object motion are position, velocity and acceleration.

2. A position vector has a direction and distance.

3. Delta t is equal to the difference in initial and final time.

4. The instantaneous velocity of an object is equal to the slope of the line tangent to the given point.

5. The average velocity of an object depends only on its starting and ending velocity.

6. The average acceleration of an object is equal to the length of the line connecting the two points at the beginning and end of the time interval during which the object moves.

7. We use the same set of equations for describing the motion of an object if both the acceleration and velocity are constant.

8. The acceleration of an object in free fall is due to gravity and equals about 10m/s².

9. Aristotle and Galileo thought that the acceleration of a falling object does not depend on its mass.

Additional texts

Read the text “Kinematics” and translate it in written form.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 955