Deep Physics: Mechanics for Talented Middle Schoolers, Princeton
Real mechanics, taught from motion and forces through energy, pressure, and simple machines. For talented middle schoolers.
A World Through the Lens of Mechanics
Mechanics is the oldest subject in physics, and still its foundation. The same handful of ideas explains how a thrown ball lands, how a boat floats, how a crowbar lifts something you cannot, and why a pendulum keeps swinging back to where it started.
Throw a ball into the air with the same speed each time, but at different angles. The path is always a curve. There is one angle that throws the ball the farthest. Which one? Why?
Two skaters of very different sizes push each other apart on smooth ice. They both move backwards. The smaller one moves faster. There is a quantity that is exactly the same on both sides, before and after.
A steel paperclip sinks. A steel ship floats. Both are made of the same metal. The ship weighs thousands of times more than the paperclip. There is a rule that decides which one floats, and it was figured out 2,200 years ago.
A crowbar lets you lift a rock you could never lift by hand. The crowbar is not magic. It does not give you extra strength. So where does the lifting power come from?
A small set of ideas, forces, energy, pressure, and equilibrium, explains every one of these. The same ideas explain a swing in a playground, a submarine, an arrow flying through the air, and a bridge holding up a highway.
This camp teaches you what physicists actually know about it. From the beginning.
You will:
- Predict where a thrown ball lands, given the angle and speed.
- Use forces to explain why a sliding box slows down, why a parachute opens, and why your feet feel heavier in an elevator going up.
- Use energy to solve problems where forces would be hard to keep track of.
- Figure out, on paper, whether an object will float or sink before you put it in water.
By the end, you will think about motion, force, and energy the way a physicist thinks about them.
What You Will Actually Understand
By the end, you will understand six core ideas of mechanics.
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.
Schedule, Pricing & Enrollment
Formats: Fall and Spring semester course (paired with Thermodynamics), or Summer single-topic camp.
Schedule, format, tuition, refund policy, and transcripts apply to every Lyceum course and camp. They live on the Physics Lyceum: Middle School overview.
To enroll, schedule a call. We confirm the right format and starting point for your student.
Part of the SoTS Physics Lyceum
Mechanics is one of four middle school topics in the SoTS Physics Lyceum: Middle School program in Princeton, NJ.
Mechanics. Thermodynamics. Electricity and magnetism. Optics. A motivated student finishes all four during 7th and 8th grade and arrives at the high school Lyceum already grounded in classical physics.
The Lyceum is built on the Deep Physics methodology: clear theory built up step by step, paired with thought experiments and problems worked together in seminar.