Course Icon
Physics Honors/AP 1 and 2

Chat times for 2019-2020
Monday-Wednesday (Honors)/Friday (AP)
1:00p - 2:30p ET/10:00a - 11:30a PT

Dr. Christe Ann McMenomy

SO Icon

Required and Optional Texts

Scholars Online Honors and AP Physics Textbooks

The followng texts and materials are required for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 courses (both Honors and AP option):

Physics: Principles with Applications 7/E by Douglas Giancoli, from Pearson.

This is a college level introduction to physics for non-physics majors and requires some algebra and trigonometry, but no calculus. It is available in eText from VitalSource, and in hardcover and paperback versions. Any format of the seventh edition is acceptable.

Do not confuse this text with Giancoli's Physics for Scientists and Engineers, which is calculus-based.

This text is also available from VitalSource at Giancoli, Physics: Principles with Applications 7/E.

A 180-day rental is about $60.

Note that eBook downloads can be tricky and access to the internet may be required for refreshes should you lose your files for any reason. It is also often frustrating to have to page back and forth to look up data in the appendices when doing homework exercises. Also, you don't get permanent access to the text unless you pay a substantially higher price. However, if you anticipate traveling or situations where you must study away from home, eBook versions on your laptop or tablet are far more portable than heavy textbooks.

Note on reading the text

Much of the difficulty in learning physics lies in learning how to apply the concepts, usually through mathematical manipulation, to hypothetical and real situations. Pay attention and work through the examples in the test! If you don't understand how the examples work, email me or ask during chat, or compare the problem to another homework practice problem solution that you do understand.

Like all teachers, the author of your textbook needs to present a lot of material as succinctly as possible. Consequently, he sometimes presents as straightforward and simple fact generalizations which ignore special cases and exceptions. Part of my job will be to offer alternatives to this presentation, or to expand it with more examples, so you see some of the complexity behind Giancoli's summaries. This doesn't mean that we will cover it all! If you run across a topic you want to investigate more, let me know. We may try to work it into the course if there is time, or I can work with you on an independent project.

You may order all texts through Scholars Online Bookstore.