Mechanics
Real mechanics for talented middle schoolers.
Online from anywhere · or in-person in Princeton, NJ
A World Through the Lens of Mechanics
Mechanics is one of the four courses of the Physics Lyceum: Middle School curriculum, taught on the Deep Physics model that runs through the whole SoTS Physics Lyceum.
The course runs on theory, problem-solving sessions, homework, and practical laboratory work. The Lyceum provides the equipment, and tuition covers it.
1. Motion: How Things Move
Position, speed, and direction, before any talk of forces. Speed and velocity, the difference between them, and why direction matters. Frames of reference: why a passenger in a train and a person on the platform disagree about who is moving, and why both can be right.
2. Forces and Newton’s Laws
What it really means to push, pull, or hold something up. Forces as vectors with size and direction. Gravity, friction, tension, normal force, and springs. Newton’s three laws, in plain terms: things keep moving unless something stops them; bigger pushes give bigger accelerations; every push has an equal push back.
3. Pressure
Why a sharp knife cuts and a flat snowshoe keeps you on top of the snow. Pressure as force divided by area. Pressure in liquids, why it grows with depth, and why the shape of the container does not matter. Pressure in gases, the atmosphere we live inside, and Pascal’s law.
4. Buoyancy and Density
The rule that decides what floats. Density as mass per volume. Archimedes’ principle: any object in a fluid feels an upward push equal to the weight of the fluid it pushes out of the way. Why heavy ships float and light pebbles sink, predicted on paper.
5. Work, Energy, and Power
A second way of looking at every problem in mechanics. Work as force across a distance. Kinetic energy of moving things and potential energy stored in height or springs. Conservation of energy as a rule with no exceptions: energy changes form, but the total never changes. Power as energy per unit time.
6. Simple Machines and Equilibrium
How a crowbar, a pulley, and a ramp let you do more with less force. Levers and the moment of a force. The rule for when an object is in balance. Mechanical advantage: trading a long pull for a short heavy lift, with the same amount of work done either way.
The specific topics, and the depth given to each, may shift depending on the dynamics of the cohort. The destination, a working understanding of mechanics from motion through simple machines, stays the same.