PHY009: Foundations of Physics#
PHY010: Elements of Physics#
Mechanics Section#
Welcome to the course notes for the Mechanics parts of PHY009 and PHY010 for those students with an A level in Physics.
A note on these notes
These notes have been written new for the 2024/25 academic year. I have done my best to ensure everything has compiled correctly and that there are no typos but if you do spot any please let me know and I will correct them as soon as possible.
About me#
I’m Dr Matt Mears (he/him or they/them), and I’m a Senior University Teacher in Physics.
You get the delight(!) of me teaching you the Mechanics course in your very first semester, as well as some other topics later in the module (specifically Electromagnetism and Thermal physics).
Office: D29, Hicks Building
Office Hours: TBC
Email: m.mears@sheffield.ac.uk
Structure of this course#
By “course” I am referring specifically to the Mechanics section, which will be delivered via three hours of lecture per week alongside problems classes and homework questions.
I have produced these notes to be used in parallel with the lecture slides and what is written on the boards during the lectures. The course notes are pretty complete in terms of the curriculum content but you’ll benefit from attending lectures and problems classes in order to ask any questions or get more clarification on particular points.
It’s also important to read around the subject, particularly those topics that may not be clear immediately from the notes or lectures. Different books explain concepts in different ways so another author may spark that lightbulb moment. Textbooks are also a great resource for getting more practice questions to consolidate your understanding.
The list of 5 topics are below. Each topic is aligned to one week of the semester though depending on the pace of lectures balanced with spending more time to go through worked examples there may be a little flexibility with the timings. Topic 6 is not a topic in physics itself but is aimed at preparing you for the Mechanics test and your other exams later in the academic year.