Basic english for physicists

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with specialized materials of physics in English. The design of this syllabus focuses on the development of the four skills in language teaching and learning: there are separate language materials to develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

The main objective of the course, however, is to develop students' ability to translate papers on physics topics from English to Bulgarian.

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Organization of BASIC ENGLISH FOR PHYSICISTS:

Each unit begins with a concise presentation of the grammar rules for the part

• Grammar questions Students are guided to an understanding of the language rules, and invited to work rules out for themselves.

There are speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar exercises to consolidate the language rules.

• Reading and speaking There is at least one reading text per unit which is integrated with various free speaking activities.

• Listening and speaking There is at least one listening activity per unit. This is also integrated with free speaking activities.

• Writing There are suggestions for writing activities in every unit.

• Vocabulary There is at least one vocabulary exercise per unit.
LANGUAGE REVIEW and TRANSLATION

After every lesson there is a check revision section and translation which encourages students to review what they have been doing and to decide their priorities for future self-study.

Read the passage below. Use a dictionary to check vocabulary where necessary.

Motion occurs all around us. We see it in the everyday activity of people, of cars on the highway, in trees that sway in the wind, and with patience, we see it in the nighttime stars. There is motion at the microscopic level that we cannot see directly: jostling atoms make heat or even sound; flowing electrons make electricity; and vibrating electrons produce light. Motion is everywhere.

When we discuss the motion of something, we describe its motion relative to something else; for example, when we say a racing car reaches a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, of course we mean relative to the track. When we say that a plane flies at 8 kilometers per second, we mean relative to the earth below. Motion is relative.

(From Conceptual Physics)

2. Work in pairs.

Find more examples of motion.
3. Grammar questions.

- What tense are all the verb forms in the text?

Why?

• 
  Why are “can” and “ cannot” used in the text?
  

Grammar.

Put can / cannot into the gaps in the following sentences:

a. A cheetah ………………………… achieve peak speeds of 100 km / h.

b. We ……………… use the words “speed” and “velocity” interchangeably in everyday language, but in physics, we…………………………do this.

c. Penguins ………………………………fly.

d. You ……………………………stand with your heels and back to the wall for a long time.

e. A spaceship ………………………………… measure its speed relative to empty space, but relative to other objects.

f. Children ………………………balance a seesaw even when their weights are unequal.

2 Make the following statements negative. Then give the right information:

a. The sun rises in the west.

b. The sun moves round the earth.

c. Smoking is very good for health.

d. Light travels very slowly.

e. The water in the rivers has a lot of salt.

f. Speed is a measure of how long something is moving.
3 Make the questions to ask about the missing information:

Example : “ I get up at ………………………………”

What time do you get up?

a. Astronomers study ………………………………...............

b. A lot of oil comes from ……………………………………

c. An object accelerates when ………………………………

d. All freely – falling objects have the same acceleration because…………..

e. Copper looks like …………………………………….........

f. The sun rises and sets because ……………………………………………..
4 Make the question “ What determines …… ?”and give the answers :

Example: quantity of heat supplied ……………….. expansion of a metal when heated.

What determines the expansion of a metal when heated?

The quantity of heat supplied determines the expansion.

a. electrodes used ……………………… amount of voltage produced

b. speed of turbine ……………………… amount of electricity produced

c. amount of heat used …………………………….. amount of steam produced

d. amount of steam used …………………………… speed of rotation

2.1 Look around you, say three sentences beginning :

I can see …………………………………

I can hear ………………………………..

First prepare the questions. Then make a conversation between you and your partner

Town / country - Where do you …………………………from?

Family - ………………………………………married?

- Do you have ………………………………..?

- Have you got ……………………………… ?

- How many ………………………………… ?

Occupation - What ………………..…………………… do?

Free time / holiday - What do you ………..…… in your free time?

- Where do you ………...........……on holiday?

• Reading and speaking

Here are some words that may cause problems for you. Use your dictionary to help.
rate (n) instant (n) ( esp . sing) Π instantaneous (adj)

divide (v) interval (n)

legitimate ( dj) indicate (v)

experience (v) whether (conj )

experienced (adj ) variation (n)
“ rate” is a clue that something is being divided by time. Speed is defined as the distance covered per a unit of time. The word “ per” means “ divided by”

Any combination of distance and time units is legitimate for speed – miles per hour ( mi / h); kilometers per hour (km / h ); centimeters per day (the speed of a sick snail?); light years per century – whatever is useful and convenient.

A car does not always move at the same speed. A car may travel down a street at 50 km / h, slow to 0 km / h at a red light, and speed up to only 30 km / h because of traffic. You can tell the speed of the car at any instant by looking at the car’s speedometer. The speed at any instant is called the instantaneous speed.

In planning a trip by car, the driver often wants to know how long it will take to cover a certain distance. The car does not travel at the same speed all during the trip. All the driver cares about is the “average speed” for the trip as a whole. We define the average as follows:

total distance covered

average speed = ---------------------------------------

time interval

We can calculate average speed rather easily. For example, if we drive a distance of 60 kilometers in a time of 1 hour, we say our average speed is 60 kilometers per hour ( 60 km / h ). Or if we travel 240 kilometers in 4 hours, we find:

total distance covered 240 km

average speed = ---------------------------------- = --------------- = 60 km / h

time interval 4 h

Note that when a distance in kilometers ( km ) is divided by a time in hours (h), the answer is in kilometers per hour ( km / h ).

Average speed does not indicate the different speeds and variations that may have taken place during shorter time intervals. In practice, we experience a variety of speeds on most trips, so the average speed is often quite different from the speed at any instant, the instantaneous speed. Whether we talk about average speed or instantaneous speed, we talk about the rates at which distance is travelled.

( From Conceptual Physics )

Complete three definitions below:

a. Speed is the rate at which distance……………………………………

b. Instantaneous speed is the speed ……………………………………..

c. Average speed is the total distance……………………………………

2. Answer the questions:

a. What is the difference between instantaneous speed and average speed?

b. Does the speedometer of a car read instantaneous speed or average speed?

c. How can we calculate average speed?

d. You walk a distance of 10 km in a time of 2 h. Find your average speed.

The word “ speed” is both a noun and a verb. Find two examples in the text to prove that

The speedometer of a car moving northward reads 60 km / h. It passes another car that travels southward at 60 km / h. Do both cars have the same speed? Do they have the same velocity?

2. Look at the small passage (in bold) about velocity. It may help you answer the questions below.

Speed is a measure of how fast an object is moving so it's the distance traveled per unit time. Velocity on the otherhand is the rate at which an object changes a position. Speed is a scalar quantitiy while velocity is a vector quantity. so to measure velocity you also consider the direction of the movement while measuring speed does not.
VELOCITY

3. Are these statements true or false. Restate the false ones:

a. Both speed and velocity refer to the rates at which distance is travelled.

b. A car travelling on a circular track may have a constant velocity.

c. Constant direction means that the motion is in a line.

d. Velocity is a description of how fast.

4. Practice problem:

a. A high-speed train travels from Paris to Lyons at an average velocity of 227 km/h. The trip takes 2:00 h. How far is Lyons from Paris?

b. Is your velocity changing if you sit on a merry-go-round and look straight ahead?
LANGUAGE REVIEW

# Present simple

The present simple is used to express a fact which is always true, or true for a long time. In other words, it is used for general statements of facts.

Translate :

Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen.

2. Rivers run toward the ocean.

3. Science investigates natural phenomena.

4. A vehicle that changes its velocity from 0 m/s (meter per second) to 10 m/s in one second has an acceleration of 10 m/s2. There are three methods of acceleration:

speeding up, slowing down and changing direction.
TRANSLATION FOR HOMEWORK

Whether you realize it or not, whenever you watch almost any sporting event, in which there are balls, you are witnessing projectile motion firsthand. Have you ever realized that balls or any other object flying throught the air have the same shaped path? They are both projectiles and they both have parabolic trajectories. That is because of gravity is accelerating the object in the vertical direction, while the object remains at a constant speed in the horizontal direction (right). When there is no horizontal velocity, the object is in free fall (left). Note how the maximum height decreases the second time the ball in the right picture hits the floor. This occurs because of a loss of mechanical energy to the floor. See the Conservation of Energy section below to see why.