This preview introduces revolutionary ideas and heroes from Copernicus to Newton, and links the physics of the heavens and the earth.

Galileo's imaginative experiments proved that all bodies fall with the same constant acceleration.

The function of mathematics in physical science and the derivative as a practical tool.

Galileo risks his favored status to answer the questions of the universe with his law of inertia.

Physics must explain not only why and how much, but also where and which way.

Newton lays down the laws of force, mass, and acceleration.

Newton and Leibniz arrive at the conclusion that differentiation and integration are inverse processes.

The first real steps toward space travel are made as Newton discovers that gravity describes the force between any two particles in the universe.

A look at the Platonic theory of uniform circular motion.

All physical phenomena of nature are explained by four forces: two nuclear forces, gravity, and electricity.

Shedding light on the mathematical form of the gravitational, electric, and magnetic forces.

A dramatic recreation of Millikan's classic oil-drop experiment to determine the charge of a single electron.

According to one of the major laws of physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed.

Potential energy provides a powerful model for understanding why the world has worked the same way since the beginning of time.

What keeps the universe ticking away until the end of time?

The music and mathematics of periodic motion.

Why a swaying bridge collapses with a high wind, and why a wine glass shatters with a higher octave.

With an analysis of simple harmonic motion and a stroke of genius, Newton extended mechanics to the propagation of sound.

An old momentum with a new twist.

From spinning tops to the precession of the equinoxes.

The discovery of elliptical orbits helps describe the motion of heavenly bodies with unprecedented accuracy.

The deduction of Kepler's laws from Newton's universal law of gravitation is one of the crowning achievements of Western thought.

The precise orbit of a heavenly body — a planet, asteroid, or comet — is fixed by the laws of conservation of energy and angular momentum.

Voyages to other planets use the same laws that guide planets around the solar system.

From Kepler's laws and the theory of tides, to Einstein's general theory of relativity, into black holes, and beyond.

A last lingering look back at mechanics to see new connections between old discoveries.

The world of electricity and magnetism, and 20th-century discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Eighteenth-century electricians knew how to spark the interest of an audience with the principles of static electricity.

Faraday's vision of lines of constant force in space laid the foundation for the modern force field theory.

Franklin proposes a successful theory of the Leyden jar and invents the parallel plate capacitor.