Lesson 1.

Introduction to Physics
MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term
At the end of this term you should be able
to answer the following general questions:

1. What is Physics?
2. How does motion work in two dimensions?
3. How can knowledge of projectile motion be
applied in sports?
4. How is the use of energy optimized such that
efficient work is done most of the time?
5. Why can I do work with heat energy?
6. How is electricity produced and what does it do
to improve the quality of life of humans?

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

How do we define
Physics?

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

How do we define Physics?

Physics is the science that

investigates the fundamental
concepts of matter, energy,
and space, and the
relationships among them.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

How do we define Physics?

Physics is the most basic of the

sciences, underpinning all other
disciplines of science, medicine,
and engineering.

Mars Rover

NASA

NIST

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

How do we define Physics?

A person who specializes in

Physics is a physicist.

They…
are problem solvers
love new challenges
develop new theories

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

How do we define Physics?

Let’s meet some amazing

and famous Physicists.

They were given credit for their

magnificent contribution to the
realm of Physics.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who
they are.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Albert Einstein
What problem did he solve?

What challenge did he take?

What theory did he develop?

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Albert Einstein
What problem did he solve?

He was able to come up with

extremely powerful bombs of a
new type called “nuclear
fission as a weapon”

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Albert Einstein
What challenge did he take?

Challenged himself for his

popular culture for his mass–
energy equivalence formula E
= mc2

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Albert Einstein
What theory did he develop?

He developed the general

theory of relativity, discovery
of the law of the photoelectric
effect, a pivotal step in the
evolution of quantum theory

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Watt
What problem did he solve?

increased power, efficiency,

and cost-effectiveness
engines

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Watt
What challenge did he take?

took the challenge of

improving the steam engine as
inspired by the boiling kettle:

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Watt
What concept did he develop?

The unit watt was named after

him

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Prescott Joule

What problem did he solve?

His work lead to the law of

conservation of energy, and
the development of the first
law of thermodynamics

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Prescott Joule

What challenge did he take?

Studied the nature of heat

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

James Prescott Joule

What concept did he develop?

Discovered relationship of
heat to mechanical work
The unit joule was named after
him

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Edmond Halley
What problem did he solve?

Halley's work strongly

influenced the development of
actuarial science

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Edmond Halley
What challenge did he take?

One problem that attracted his

attention was the proof of
Kepler's laws of planetary
motion.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Edmond Halley
What concept did he develop?

Physicist who is best known

for computing the orbit of the
eponymous Halley's Comet

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Georg Ohm
What challenge did he take?

Has exerted an important

influence on the development
of the theory and applications
of electric current

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Georg Ohm
What concept did he develop?

Has exerted an important

influence on the development
of the theory and applications
of electric current
The unit ohm, is named after
him.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

André-Marie Ampère
What problem did he solve?
Furthering Ørsted’s
experimental work, Ampère
showed that two parallel wires
carrying electric currents
attract or repel each other, -
this laid the foundation of
electrodynamics.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

André-Marie Ampère
What challenge did he take?

Serious doubts harassed him

at times, and made him very
unhappy during the death of
his wife but took refuge by
reading the bible.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

André-Marie Ampère
What concept did he develop?

was one of the founders of the

science of classical
electromagnetism, which he
referred to as
"electrodynamics". The SI unit
of measurement of electric
current, the ampere, is named
after him.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Alessandro Volta
What problem did he solve?
Volta's invention sparked a
great amount of scientific
excitement and led others to
conduct similar experiments
which eventually led to the
development of the field of
electrochemistry

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Alessandro Volta
What challenge did he take?

In his later years. At this time

he tended to live secluded
from public life and more for he
sake of his family until his
eventual death in 1827 from a
series of illnesses which began
in 1823

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Alessandro Volta
What concept did he develop?

Who is credited as the inventor

of the electrical battery and the
discoverer of methane
The SI unit of electric potential
is named in his honour as the
volt.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Hans Christian Oersted

What problem did he solve?

Ørsted's work also represented

a major step toward a unified
concept of energy.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Hans Christian Oersted

What concept did he develop?
Discovered that electric
currents create magnetic
fields, which was the first
connection found
between electricity and
magnetism. He is still known
today for Oersted's Law

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Let’s recall.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Isaac Newton
What problem did he solve?

His work demonstrated that the

motion of objects on Earth and
of celestial bodies could be
described by the same
principles. He predicted that
Earth should be shaped as an
oblate spheroid

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Isaac Newton
What concepts did he develop?
Newton made strong contributions
to optics, and he shares credit with
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for the
development of calculus,
the laws of motion and universal
gravitation, which dominated
scientists' view of the physical
universe for the next three
centuries
MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term
Guess who they are.

Galileo Galilei
What challenge did he take?
He challenged Aristotle’s idea
which was ”the speed of fall
was proportional to the
weight, and inversely
proportional to the density of
the medium the body was
falling through.”

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Guess who they are.

Galileo Galilei
What theory did he develop?
“Two New Sciences” was the
book of science of motion,
which became a foundation
of physics, and the science
of materials and
construction, an important
contribution to engineering.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Galileo Galilei’s Hypothesis

Bodies of the same

material falling through
the same medium would
fall at the same speed.
This was contrary to what
Aristotle had taught: that
heavy objects fall faster
than lighter ones, in direct
proportion to weight.

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term

Galileo Galilei’s Hypothesis

Galileo dropped two spheres of

different masses one light and one
heavier than the other one, are
connected to each other by a
string. The string will soon pull taut
as the lighter object retards the
fall of the heavier object. But the
system considered as a whole is
heavier than the heavy object
alone, and therefore should fall
faster. (Two New Sciences p.178)

And no, he did not drop it from

the Leaning Tower of Pisa
MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term
Galileo Galilei’s Hypothesis

The two objects

fell together at
the same time
on the ground.

And Galileo found out that

MCHS Grade 9 Science 1st Term
 “Which concept did
Galileo Galilei and Isaac
Newton help develop?”