College Physics (OpenStax) “College Physics meets standard scope and sequence requirements for a two-semester introductory algebra-based physics course. The text is grounded in real-world examples to help students grasp fundamental physics concepts. It requires knowledge of algebra and some trigonometry, but not calculus. College Physics includes learning objectives, concept questions, links to labs and simulations, and ample practice opportunities for traditional physics application problems.”
Introduction to Electricity, Magnetism, and Circuits “This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigour inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result.”
Relativity for Poets This textbook provides a “nonmathematical presentation of Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity, including a brief treatment of cosmology.” It is one of several open textbooks on physics and mathematics by retired Fullerton College professor Ben Crowell.
Open and Zero-cost Resources
Fundamentals of Physics I and II (Open Yale) These two courses from Open Yale are based on lectures by Ramamurti Shankar, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics at Yale.
PhET Physics Interactive Simulations “PhET provides fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. We extensively test and evaluate each simulation to ensure educational effectiveness. These tests include student interviews and observation of simulation use in classrooms. The simulations are written in HTML5 (with some legacy simulations in Java or Flash), and can be run online or downloaded to your computer. All simulations are open source.”
Physics LibreTexts This hub of open physics materials is maintained and revised by faculty, students, and outside experts. Resources include textbooks, homework exercises, visualizations, reference materials, demos, and more.
