I'm a student
I'm an educator
Request full copy

College Physics, 11th edition

Published by Pearson (January 11, 2019) © 2020

  • Hugh D. Young Carnegie Mellon University
  • Philip W. Adams Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge

eTextbook

per month

  • Anytime, anywhere learning with the Pearson+ app
  • Easy-to-use search, navigation and notebook
  • Simpler studying with flashcards
from$175.99

  • Hardcover, paperback or looseleaf edition
  • Affordable rental option for select titles
  • Free shipping on looseleafs and traditional textbooks

Mastering

from$84.99

  • Activate learning for future scientists
  • Tailor your course to fit your needs
  • Support students with guided practice

For courses in college physics.

Connecting problem types and how to solve them

Sears and Zemansky's College Physics has provided the most reliable foundation of physics education for students around the world for more than 5 decades.

With the 11th Edition, author Phil Adams incorporates data from thousands of students detailing their use of worked examples and just-in-time remediation. New Example Variation Problems help students see patterns, make connections and recognize when to use similar steps to solve the same problem type. Expanded problem types and scaffolded support help build conceptual understanding, quantitative-reasoning skills and problem-solving confidence for success on exams.

Hallmark features of this title

Conceptual understanding

  • Key equations include bulleted Notes that guide students through the math and help them relate quantitative expressions to qualitative concepts.
  • Bridging problems at the end of the chapter help students move from single concept worked examples to multi-concept problems.
  • Conceptual Analysis (CA) and Quantitative Analysis (QA) problems provide practice in qualitative and quantitative understanding. QA problems focus on quantitative and proportional reasoning skills needed on the MCAT exam.

Problem-solving skills

  • MCAT-style Passage Problems follow the format used in the MCAT exam and require students to investigate multiple aspects of a real-life physical situation, typically biological in nature, as described in a reading passage.

New and updated features of this title

Problem-solving skills

  • Example Variation Problems build in difficulty by adjusting scenarios, changing the knowns vs. unknowns, and adding complexity to provide a range of related problems that use the same fundamental approach to solve.
  • Test your understanding problems are added strategically throughout the chapters helping students to the important step of ensuring that their answer makes sense in the real world.
  • NEW & REVISED: Worked examples follow a consistent and explicit global problem-solving strategy drawn from educational research, guiding students to set up a problem and lay necessary groundwork before solving or hunting for an equation to plug in.

End-of-Chapter questions

  • Estimation problems engage students as they explore the problem scenario and estimate some of the data based on real-world experience, reasoning, assumptions and/or modeling.
  • Cumulative problems promote more advanced problem-solving techniques, requiring students to integrate knowledge and skills from previous chapters with understanding and skills from the current chapter.
  • Applications highlight interesting examples of real-world physics in science, technology, and everyday life. More than 60 of these real-world applications are from biology and medicine.

Features of Mastering Physics for the 11th Edition

  • NEW: Enhanced End-of-Chapter Questions provide instructional support when and where students need it and include links to Video Tutor Solutions, math remediation and wrong-answer feedback for homework assignments.
  • Interactive Prelecture Videos introduce key topics to help students prepare before lecture and to help professors identify student misconceptions.
  • Quantitative Prelecture Videos now complement conceptual Interactive Prelecture Videos and expose students to concepts before class to help them learn how problems for a specific concept are worked.
  • Video Tutor Solutions walk students through the problem-solving process.
  • Video Tutor Demonstrations feature "pause-and-predict" demonstrations of key physics concepts and incorporate assessment to engage students in understanding key concepts.
  • The Physics Primer relies on videos, hints, and feedback to refresh students' math skills in the context of physics and prepares them for success in the course. The assignable tutorials ensure students practice and maintain their math skills, while tying together mathematical operations and physics analysis.
  • 0 Mathematics Review

MECHANICS

  1. Models, Measurements, and Vectors
  2. Motion Along a Straight Line
  3. Motion in a Plane
  4. Newton's Laws of Motion
  5. Applications of Newton's Laws
  6. Circular Motion and Gravitation
  7. Work and Energy
  8. Momentum
  9. Rotational Motion
  10. Dynamics of Rotational Motion

PERIODIC MOTION, WAVES, AND FLUIDS

  1. Elasticity and Periodic Motion
  2. Mechanical Waves and Sound
  3. Fluid Mechanics

THERMODYNAMICS

  1. Temperature and Heat
  2. Thermal Properties of Matter
  3. The Second Law of Thermodynamics

ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

  1. Electric Charge and Electric Field
  2. Electric Potential and Capacitance
  3. Current, Resistance, and Direct-Current Circuits
  4. Magnetic Field and Magnetic Forces
  5. Electromagnetic Induction
  6. Alternating Current
  7. Electromagnetic Waves

LIGHT AND OPTICS

  1. Geometric Optics
  2. Optical Instruments
  3. Interference and Diffraction

MODERN PHYSICS

  1. Relativity
  2. Photons, Electrons, and Atoms
  3. Atoms, Molecules, and Solids
  4. Nulear and High-Energy Physics

APPENDICES

  • A. The International System of Units
  • B. The Greek Alphabet
  • C. Periodic Table of the Elements
  • D. Unit Conversion Factors
  • E. Numerical Constants
  • Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems

About our author

Philip W. Adams is a Professor of Physics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University in 1986 and then held a postdoctoral research position at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ for two years. He joined the faculty of LSU 1988 and has since become an internationally recognized low temperature experimentalist and has published over 90 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has given many invited presentations on his work at international workshops and conferences on superconductivity and other topics in low temperature condensed matter physics.

Dr. Adams has had a career-long interest in physics education. He has taught introductory physics for engineers and for non-engineers many times in his 30-year tenure at LSU and has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards.

IN MEMORIAM: HUGH YOUNG (1930–2013)

Hugh D. Young was Emeritus Professor of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon in fundamental particle theory under the direction of the late Richard Cutkosky. He also had two visiting professorships at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Young's career was centered entirely on undergraduate education. He wrote several undergraduate-level textbooks, and in 1973 he became a coauthor with Francis Sears and Mark Zemansky of their well-known introductory texts University Physics and College Physics.

Dr. Young earned a bachelor's degree in organ performance from Carnegie Mellon in 1972 and spent several years as Associate Organist at St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh. We at Pearson appreciated his professionalism, good nature, and collaboration. He will be missed.

Need help? Get in touch

Mastering

Engage science and engineering students. Mastering® is a flexible platform that supports the way science students learn best: through active, immersive experiences. With tutorials, real-time analytics, and hints and feedback, you can replicate an office-hours visit and prepare learners for the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Pearson+

All in one place. Pearson+ offers instant access to eTextbooks, videos and study tools in one intuitive interface. Students choose how they learn best with enhanced search, audio and flashcards. The Pearson+ app lets them read where life takes them, no wi-fi needed. Students can access Pearson+ through a subscription or their MyLab or Mastering course.

Video
Play
Privacy and cookies
By watching, you agree Pearson can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

Video transcript (PDF | 46KB) 

Build confidence and help every learner achieve more

With Mastering®, you can use your experiences to combine interactive resources and real-world examples, helping students master challenging material, and gain the confidence they need to succeed — both in and out of the classroom.

Digital Learning NOW

Extend your professional development and meet your students where they are with free weekly Digital Learning NOW webinars. Attend live, watch on-demand, or listen at your leisure to expand your teaching strategies. Earn digital professional development badges for attending a live session.

Explore webinars