General Sites   

The following web sites are good places to begin exploration. If you have a very specific topic to research, you may want to use library resources or the specialized search engine above.

ABC Science Podcasts [iTunes]

"The “ABC” in question here happens to be the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and they have come up with a smashing collection of science podcasts. Visitors can sign up to receive new podcasts via RSS feed, but they should definitely test the waters here by listening to any one of Dr Karl’s “Great Moments of Science” or an edition of “Talking Science”, which features interviews with various luminaries in the worlds of science. Further on down the homepage, visitors will encounter programs that deal with the mind (“All in the Mind”), the world of occupational health (“Life Matters”) and the philosophical musings of thoughtful people (“Ockham’s Razor”). Overall, there is some very delectable material here, and one can imagine that such podcasts could be passed along to science classrooms everywhere." (Reviewed by the Scout Report)

Amusement Park Physics

"It's one thing to learn about physics in a lab, but it can be quite another thing to make a pilgrimage to an amusement park to take in the laws of physics. Users will have to supply their own corn dogs and popcorn, but this rather nice educational resource from Annenberg Media will be quite useful for budding physicists and their teachers. The resource allows users to design their own roller coaster, and along the way they will learn a thing or two about the laws of gravity, pendulums, and kinetic energy. Along with explanatory essays, this resource contains interactive graphics and a glossary of terms. Sit back and enjoy the virtual roller coaster ride, as this site provides a rather novel way of introducing students to physics."  (Reviewed by the Scout Report) 

Astronomy Online

"Ricky Leon Murphy decided to create this website when he was working towards a master’s degree in astronomy, and he still keeps it updated regularly. The site has been the recipient of several awards over the past few years, and visitors looking for basic and accessible information about the world of astronomy will not be disappointed. In the “Our Galaxy” section, visitors will find a number of short and informative essays on our own galaxy, along with pieces about the evolution of formation of other galaxies. Visitors will also appreciate the wide range of images available in the “Astrophotography” section, which happens to include both professional and amateur images." (Review by the Scout Report)

Auroras: Paintings in the Sky

Self-guided lesson by Mish Denlinger, Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception, shows what auroras look like and explains how they are created.

Cal State Fullerton Physics Links

Fewer than 30 links to various physics topics: chaos, quantum mechanics, science, women in physics, e-print archives--a nice, selective set of links.

Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics

"This site contains guides to the archive, a search engine, "fascinating documents" (a mixture of obituaries, scientific treatises, and correspondence), a few unrefereed articles on the history of women in physics, quotations, and a database of reference books and journal articles. Each biography page contains a photograph of the physicist, her major contributions and publications, honors, employment, education, additional information, and recommended reading. Factual information is brief but correct. These pages are most useful for providing starter bibliographies." (Review by Choice Reviews Online)

Cool Cosmos

All about infrared astronomy, includes histrory, explanations, images, and videos.

Eric Weisstein's World of Physics

This site is part of the World of Science , an online encyclopedia created by Eric Weisstein, a Ph.D. in planetary science, "with assistance from the physics and internet communities." He states that the definitions and explanations "are written and maintained...as a public service for scientific knowledge and education. Although it is often difficult to find explanations for technical subjects that are both clear and accessible, this web site bridges the gap by placing an interlinked framework of mathematical exposition and illustrative examples at the fingertips of every internet user."

Fear of Physics

Created by people who love physics, this site was created "to be a friendly, non-technical place for you to come and 'play' with the laws of physics for a while." Includes homework help and a physics dictionary.

History of Physics Online Exhibits

These online exhibits thoroughly cover many topics, including:

• Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity
• Albert Einstein: Image and Impact
• Cosmic Journey: A History of Scientific Cosmology
• Transistorized! - History of the Transistor
• Lawrence and the Cyclotron
• Heisenberg / Uncertainty
• Papers of Great American Physicists
• Sakharov: Soviet Physics, Nuclear Weapons & Human Rights
• The Discovery of the Electron
• The Discovery of Global Warming
• Moments of Discovery: Fission, Pulsar

Infomine-Physical Sciences, Engineering and Math

A collection of Web sites selected and reviewed by librarians. The list can be searched by keyword or browsed alphabetically. From the University of California at Riverside.

Intute: Physics

"The Intute Physics Gateway provides free access to high quality resources on the Internet. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based at UK universities. Our target audience is students, staff and researchers in higher and further education."

Intute: Hot Topics
"Each month a member of the Intute sciences team will choose a subject area of interest and provide links to key sites and resources for that topic."

Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion

"Four hundred years ago, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler described his concept of the laws of planetary motion in his work, “Astronomia nova”. These important laws remain important concepts for students of physics, and those who work with such students will find much of interest on this particular site. Created by David P. Stern (a retired physicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center), the site consists of an overview of Kepler’s laws, with examples, applications, problems and related history. The material is based on a talk that Stern gave in Maryland, and visitors will find that this resource is both accessible and very thorough." (Review by the Scout Report)

Little Shop of Physics: Online Experiments (Last reviewed in the Scout Report on January 25, 2002)

NASA: Rocket Activities [pdf] 

National Academy of Sciences: Biographical Memoirs [pdf]

"The National Academy of Sciences has had many distinguished members, and since 1877 they have published brief biographical sketches of their members who have passed away. During the past year, the Academy has begun to digitize these sketches in order to place them online on this site. Previously only those sketches published since 1995 were available on the site, so this initiative will offer access to an additional 900 works. First-time visitors to the site can browse through an alphabetical list of these profiles, and they may also sign up to receive email updates when new profiles are added to the archive. These profiles include insightful and well-written pieces on John Dewey, Margaret Mead, Thomas Edison, and Louis Agassiz."  (Review by the Scout Report)

NIST Reference on Constants, Units and Uncertainty

The National Institute of Standards and Technology site provides access to the latest values for physical constants. You can search by name, or or display an alphabetical list by category.

The Particle Adventure

The Particle Data Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory "introduces the theory of fundamental particles and forces, called the Standard Model. It also explores the experimental evidence and the reasons physicists want to go beyond this theory."

PBS Physics-related Program Web Pages

These pages supplement PBS television programs, providing transcripts of the television broadcasts, teachers' guides, web links (resources) and more.

Time Travel
Transistorized!
Einstein Revealed
Tesla--Master of Lightning
Faster than Sound

Physics Applets

"Created as part of the Museum Informatics Project at the University of California, Berkeley, this website serves as a clearinghouse of high-quality physics applets that can be used in a variety of settings. The site is divided into a few basic topical areas, such as mechanics, waves, properties of heat and matter, and optics. While a search engine isn't provided, visitors can use the "Find" function provided by most browsers to look for specific items of interest. It is worth noting that the applets dealing with various fields of optics are quite strong, and visitors will no doubt locate at least a handful of applets here that they can use in the classroom or just to increase their own understanding of physics."  (Review from The Scout Report)

Physics 2000

Produced with grants from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and the National Science Foundation, this site uses interactive demos "to make physics more accessible to students and people of all ages and to counter its current negative image."

The Physics Classroom

A high school physics tutorial and Multimedia Physics Studio. Basic physics.

Physics Central

"The American Physical Society represents some 45,000 physicists, and most of our work centers on scientific meetings and publications-the primary ways that physicists communicate with each other. With Physics Central, we communicate the excitement and importance of physics to everyone. We invite you to visit our site every week to find out how physics is part of your world. We'll answer your questions on how things work and keep you informed with daily updates on physics in the news. We'll describe the latest research and the people who are doing it and, if you want more, where to go on the web. So stick with us. It's a big, interesting world out there, and we look forward to showing you around." Part of the American Physical Society site.

Physics & The Detection of Medical X-Rays

If Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist were alive today, he would most likely heartily approve of this very informative and well-designed site dealing with the detection of medical x-rays. This site was created by the Physics Education Research Group at Kansas State University and it serves as a good introduction to the science behind the discovery and subsequent use of x-rays in a variety of medical settings. The site starts with a brief discussion of Röntgen's initial discovery of x-rays, and then goes on to offer a brief history of radiology. After that, visitors can learn about different detection methods, including the use of fluorescence film. One feature of the site that is most useful is the inclusion of links to other relevant sites that cover such topics as the concept of an x-ray dose and reduction measures. Overall, the site will be very welcome for beginning students of radiology and medical technology.   (Review by the Scout Report)

Physics Flash Animations

"The site contains Flash animations that illustrate principles in such categories as optics, sound waves, vectors, and relativity. Visitors are welcome to click on each category, or to scroll down to the specific processes such as the Lorenz Attractor or such principles from classical mechanics as displacement and distance. It is worth noting that the animations are also available in Catalan and Spanish." (Review by the Scout Report)

Physics Hypertextbook

Web-based physics textbook, still under construction. "The books so far on the site are Mechanics, Matter, Thermal Physics, Waves and Optics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Modern Physics. There are two supplements: Foundations and Problem Sets. Each topical section has or will have a discussion of the conceptual, historical, and mathematical aspects of the topic, a summary of the key concepts, problems to work on, and hyperlinked resources to follow for further information. Some sections are complete, some have no content at all, and many of the topical sections are somewhere in between." An alternative Web-based textbook is Light and Matter Physics and Astronomy Resources. (Reviewed by Choice Reviews Online)

Physics Question of the Week

"There's a simple invitation on this site, and it's worth thinking about: "Ask your friends about these questions, discuss them, try to come to a conclusion, and see what you can learn about physics." These fun and compelling physics questions are offered up by the University of Maryland's Department of Physics, and all told, there are about 300 questions available on the site. Visitors can scroll through the questions chronologically, or they can also look through a topically organized list as well. As the questions involve experimental physics, the answers to each problem are complemented in many instances with photographs and short videos. Finally, many of the questions are also available in Chinese, courtesy of translations from Professor Fu-Kwun Hwang."  (Review from The Scout Report)

PhysicsSongs.org

Why physics songs? Walter F. Smith, Associate Professor of Physics, Haverford College, believes "songs about physics can help students to remember critical concepts and formulas, but perhaps more importantly they communicate the lesson that physics can be fun."

Physics to Go

"A collection of more than 500 websites that you can search or browse to explore physics on your own. It's also a biweekly online magazine, with archives containing more than 55 selected physics images." Part of the American Physical Society site.

PhysicsWeb

Concise arrangement of links to companies, educational institutions, reference sources, exhibits, organizations, media.

Physics.org

Maintained by the British Institute of Physics, this site requires registration, but is free to users. Physics.org offers information on a variety of physics topics, including "Physics Equations," a selection of physics relationships useful in problem solving, a game that demonstrates Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, and "Physics Life," which explores the physics of the everyday world. The site received a Scientific American 2004 Science & Technology Web Award.

Physlets

"Understanding how various concepts and processes in physics can be an exasperating experience for students beginning to study the field, so finding sites like this one can be quite a delight. These Java-based applets were developed at Davidson University by Wolfgang Christian. First-time visitors may wish to read through the introduction on using these physlets, and then move on to look through the different sections on the site. In total, there are over 100 physlets here, and they include those that illustrate (or animate) such processes as linear momentum, elastic linear collisions, and the movement of sound waves." (Review by the Scout Report)

Physlink

Created and edited by Anton Skorucak, M.S. Physics, this site has a mission "to provide comprehensive research and education tools, to promote the rich history of physics, and to bring the stories of its successes and trials to the attention of our youth; to be a respected authority in physics education and reference; to be a dynamic advocate for the advancement of physics and science in general, and an interpreter and inspirer for those who are not professional scientists but valued members of our society; to enhance, enchant, enrich and entertain." The webzine format is attractive; provides daily news stories, online forums, "ask an expert," and links to Amazon.com bookstore.

Science.gov: Physics

"Science.gov is a search engine for government science information and research results. Currently in its fourth generation, Science.gov provides search of more than 50 million pages of science information with just one query, and is a gateway to over 1,800 scientific Web sites."

Science Hack

"ScienceHack indexes any science videos from YouTube and anywhere else they can find them and packages them fairly cleanly in one spot. The tagline of ScienceHack says that “every science video on ScienceHack is screened by a scientist to verify its accuracy and quality.” This seems improbable (unless they have a different definition of “scientist” than I do) since the only references provided for the videos are from Wikipedia (no scientific journal articles), and the line between science and entertainment can be rather thin at times. In spite of this complaint, ScienceHack does have some quality videos included and would be well worth the time of the budding seventh-grade scientist or even the thirty-something armchair scientist." (Description from infodoodads)

Snow Crystals

"Although a common meteorological phenomenon, snow crystal growth is a fascinating and poorly understood process, in which remarkably complex and beautifully symmetric structures appear, quite literally, Out of thin air." Can you name the seven principle types of snow crystals? "The many facets of snow crystals are described here, along with our attempts to understand their formation." An impressive page of Snow Links.

Spitzer Space Telescope

"This website, maintained by the California Institute of Technology, describes the two-and-a half-year mission of the Spitzer Space Telescope to "obtain images and spectra by detecting infrared energy, or hear, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of three and 180 microns." Scientists can find images and explanations of the instrumentation, data and analysis, and an overview of the project at the Astronomers' Site. At the Cool Cosmos link, educators and students can find fun classroom activities, a cosmic reference guide, and astronomy tutorials. Everyone can discover the latest news and images collected by Spitzer. The materials for the general public are also offered in Spanish." (Review by the Scout Report)

Timelinescience: One Thousand Years of Scientific Thought

"Timelinescience contains a list of scientific achievements between the years 1000 and 2000, as well as brief articles, student activities, and teacher notes for several major topics of the past millennium. These topics include circulation of the blood, isolation of oxygen, events in Isaac Newton's life, and atomic structure. Major women in the history of science, such as Marie Curie and Caroline Herschel, and non-Western contributions, such as medieval Islamic mathematics, are included. In addition to dates and milestones, each division of the timeline has a "setting the scene" section, which sketches the general scientific and cultural context for that period and which is linked to further commentary on the characteristics of the age." (Description by Choice Reviews Online) 

Wake Forest University Physics Demonstration Videos [Real Player]

"Physics is plenty exciting on its own, but this clutch of physics demonstration videos offered up by Wake Forest University's Physics departments will probably have students running out to learn more about string theory and cosmology. Teachers will definitely appreciate this resource, as they can use these videos in the classroom or just recommend to their students. Visitors can view the videos in their entirety by subject headings, which include "Motion", "Heat", "Optics", and not surprisingly, "Newton". All told there are dozens of videos, including "Bed of Nails", "Cartesian Diver", and the surreal yet appropriately titled "Marshmallow Man". Overall, this resource is a delightful find."  (Review by the Scout Report)

World Year of Physics 2005

A web site to commemorate an international celebration of physics, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "miraculous year," 1905, during which he published three papers that influenced all of modern physics: the "theories of special relativity," the "photoelectric effect," and the paper on "Brownian motion." See the related site, Einstein Year 2005.