Great Ideas of Classical Physics

By: Steven Pollock, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Steven Pollock

Classical physics is about how things move, why they move, and how they work. It's about making sense of motion, gravity, light, heat, sound, electricity, and magnetism, and seeing how these phenomena interweave to create the rich tapestry of everyday experience. It is, in short, the hidden order of the universe. And if it sounds complicated to you, Professor Pollock hopes you will think again - because you already know more physics than you think, In this mind-expanding series of 24 lectures, Professor Steven Pollock takes you step by step through the great ideas of classical physics, demonstrating that its landmark concepts - such as Newton's laws of motion - are intuitively understood by anyone who has ever ridden a bike, thrown a ball, slid across ice, or simply picked up an object and set it down.

Created over the course of three centuries by a series of brilliant thinkers, including Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk Maxwell, classical physics is an elegant system of ideas that connect a range of seemingly unrelated phenomena - everything from the acceleration of a car, to the orbit of a planet, to the deflection of a compass needle, to the baking of a cake, to the flow of electricity through the light bulb illuminating these words.

All these - and much more - are linked by the basic principles you will learn in these lectures - presented largely without math. Instead, Professor Pollock relies on metaphor, life experience, ordinary logic, and common sense to present the discoveries, theories, insights, methods, and philosophical points of view at the heart of classical physics.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2006 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2006 The Great Courses

Loved It.

Wish I could afford to study under Prof. Pollock to achieve my degree.
Thank you

Very enjoyable lecture on classic physics

Although I have a significant background in the material (I'm a physical chemist), I bet much enjoyed these series of lectures. The material is presented with the last person in mind, and does not require an understanding of advanced mathematics to appreciate the material. The quality of the lectures are first-rate -- they're clear, lots of clever real-works examples, and presented in an inviting manner. Recommended.

Great Introduction

Made for people who don't have any back round or experience with science or physics.

if you are interested in physics

I'm going to teach physics in the fall, so I'm going through some review material over the summer. This teacher does a great job of explaining complicated subjects in a manner very easy to understand.

Good overview

Great ideas of Classical Pyshics gives you an overview of the physics that suround us every day. If you are new to physics it is well spent time.

good refreshing recall of physics concepts

narration and cohesive story made this book interesting. Narrator could bring the examples live in readers brain which helps to understand the concepts very clear

Wish I listened to this for HSC Physics

What did you love best about Great Ideas of Classical Physics?

Explains difficult concepts by breaking it down to the fundamentals in an easy way to understand.

a nice conversational approach

For those who are looking for an overview of Newtonian physics, this is a good launching pad to open your mind to what can turn into further study of the sciences.

Great course, but could be even better

I enjoyed this course very much and even managed to learn something starting from a very low base. Professor Pollock is a great scholar and a wonderful teacher who wants his students to learn something. In my opinion Prof. Pollock could improve his teaching grade from an A to an A+ by studying elocution for a few hours. His speaking voice is very grating and full of non-works like ta (to), ya (you), gonna, wanna, and so on. It’s the sort of voice you might expect to hear scream “Hey, Ernie, one pastrami on rye with hot musta. Hold the pickles.” I’m not suggesting that he needs to sound like William F. Buckley, Margaret Thatcher, or, in the extreme case, the Duchess of Sussex. I do think, however, he should shoot for unornamented, clear pronunciation similar to Ronald Reagan or Milton Friedman. Just a quibble from a lonely sailor who last studied the subject back at the Academy.

our universal

loved it and learned so much about the world and the universe that we live in.