Links to other physics song
pages (not yet complete -- I'm
working on it!)
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The best way to start a search by keyword,
author, instructional level, etc. is to use the PhysicsSongs.org
database. However, since only about 40% of all known physics
songs have been entered so far, you can also use this page for
supplemental searching.
KEY: To search by instructional level: Look
at the color of the text on this page: general
science courses,
introductory physics
courses, introductory
& sophomore, advanced undergraduate
& graduate.
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To search by subject: Type Ctrl+f
to find keywords of interest.
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To find recently-added links:
type Ctrl+f and type "New!" into the dialog
box.
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Songs That Have Recordings Available Online:
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Songs Set to Familiar Tunes
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Songs Set to Original or Less-Familiar
Tunes |
| Walter
Smith and Marian McKenzie:
Lyrics, chords,
mp3's, and RealAudio for 5 songs (plus
others set to less familiar tunes) about Maxwell's equations,
waves, Hilbert Space, and Bravais Lattices. My favorite: "Lost
in Hilbert Space", to the theme from "Lost in Space" |
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Zaret and Lou Singer:
47 mp3's
of 1950's-style physics songs (plus several other science
songs) with lyrics by Hy Zaret, lyricist of "Unchained
Melody" and dozens of other movie songs. The music is
written by Lou Singer. The songs are performed by Tom
Glazer (above left) and Dottie
Evans. They were encoded into mp3 format by Jef Poskanzer.
Here are the lyrics
and RealAudio versions of five
of these songs (all of this subset are about space travel
and astronomy). As far as I can tell, the original
recordings of these songs are no longer available for
sale. They
Might Be Giants (above
right) recorded one of these songs, "The Sun is a Mass
of Incandescent Gas" in 1993. It's available on their
EP "Why
Does the Sun Shine". |
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| Students of Darren White: Lyrics and
some mp3's for 11
songs about
Newton's Laws, the relation between velocity, distance and time,
gravity, and the life of a physics student. |
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Chromatics: Here are
Lyrics,
mp3's, lesson plans, and background information as
well as a
list of underlying science concepts for
7 catchy acapella songs about astronomy, the sun, the
planets, and Doppler shift from the CD "Astrocapella",
which is sold out. (Lesson
plans and background info on
all 13 songs are available on the web, however.) They
now have a new multimedia CD, "Astrocapella
2.0", but no materials from
this are yet on the web. This is one of the very best
sites, featuring great songs, excellent supporting materials,
and good site navigation. My favorite song: "Doppler
Shifting" |
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Chan and Ken Ferrier: 2
songs: "Mathematical Pi"(mp3
.. lyrics
& chords, set to "Bye, Bye,
Miss American Pie") and "The Sound of Friction"
(mp3,
set to "The Sound of Silence). These
are really quite funny. Ken is married to the sister of
Lindsay Barton, co-writer of "Physics
213 is Amazin'" !! These
songs are hosted by AllTooFlat.com,
a self-proclaimed "dorky website" which features (among
many other things) scientist
trading cards! |
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| Jodi
Huff and Steve Saladino: 1 song for
elementary school students (complete with body motions), set
to Chubby Checker's "Let's twist again", featuring lyrics
and a Quicktime recording of the students
singing. |
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Silvano
de Gennaro: 9 songs (lyrics,
mp3's and RealAudio) about the exciting mix of physics
and romance! These are performed by "Les Horribles Cernettes"
(Not much physics, but a lot of fun!) Topics include quarks,
antimatter, and the web. |
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| Anthony Costantino: Lyrics
and piano recording for 1 song about
the trials of studying for the AP physics exam (set to the theme
from "Gilligan's Island".) |
Walter
Smith and Marian McKenzie:
Lyrics, chords, mp3's,
and RealAudio for 12 songs (plus others
set to familiar tunes) about electricity and magnetism, Maxwell's
equations, the ether (and the Michelson-Morley experiment),
relativity, waves, oscillations, normal modes, and electronics
(including capacitors and equivalent noise bandwidth). My favorite:
"The Ampere's Law Song". |
| Steve Kalafut: Lyrics
for 1 song about how hard it is to learn
Maxwell's equations (set to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer",
by the Beatles) |
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Peter Dong: Lyrics
for 22 songs from his musical "Les Phys".
Most of the songs are about the life of a physics student
(and what a life!). My favorite line, "I feel our love
like an exothermic process within my soul, And the enthalpy
between you and me makes me burn out of control." The
songs touch on rigid body rotation, orbital mechanics, special
relativity, general relativity, quarks, and several other
subjects. You can contact
Peter directly to order a recording. |
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| Jeff Hale: Lyrics
and mp3's for 7 songs about
atoms, the spectrum of visible light, atoms, energy, kinetic
theory, magnetism, and internal combustion engines. These
are performed by the group "Scientific Jam", which tours
schools in California. The links for the mp3's don't work
in the normal way: to download the mp3, right-click
on the link, choose "save as...", then once it's saved
to your disk, rename it so as to eliminate the .html which
appears at the end. |
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Mike T. and the Trilobites:
3 songs about the planets, gravity, and levers. My favorite: "Astronomy
Blues", which features the great line, "I can name
all seven planets, except for three". Unfortunately, these
are no longer available on the web. I'm trying to get
permission to post the recordings on this site. |
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Tom
Lehrer: The famous "Elements
Song". Here's an absolutely
wonderful flash animation
which plays with the song in the background, and here
are lyrics
(with clickable links for each of
the elements). Boy, he can
sing fast! He has recently come out with a 3-CD boxed
set, which you can purchase here
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Michael
Flanders and Donald Swann: Perhaps
the most famous physics song ever, the "First and Second Law"
of Thermodynamics, was written in the early 60's. Here are
lyrics,
and here is an mp3
recording from their album
"At
The Drop of Another Hat". |
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Hitachi
Corporation: Get
Perpendicular, a wonderful Flash animation/song about
the advantages of magnetic recording with bits oriented
perpendicular to the hard disk surface. A must see!! |
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Paul Fontana and James H. Latimer: Lyrics,
RealAudio, .wav, and .au files for
1 song about why physics is cool. This is used as the theme
for the physics demo show Wonders
of Physics. |
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NEW!
Jeff Cranson: The
Twin Paradox Song (wav files) (Scroll
down about halfway on the page.) There are three different versions
available -- I like the "Dance Remix" version best.
This is a serious effort (OK, as serious as you can get in a physics
song!) to explain the twin paradox from special relativity in
a 5 minute song / lecture. |
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Don
M: mp3 of "Cassini's
Theme", a new age / classical piece (with no
lyrics) which is supposed to represent the construction
and launch of the Cassini spacecraft, which explored Saturn's
rings. Quite nice, actually, once you get past the first
couple of minutes. |
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"MC Hawking": lyrics
and mp3s for two songs, "Entropy" and "UFT for
the MC" (about unified field theory, sort of). These are
done with a simulation of Stephen Hawking's voice in gangsta-rap
style, and are famous in some circles. "Entropy" is pretty
good. Beware that the other tracks available on this site are
not physics-related, and contain lyrics that many will find
offensive. |
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Songs That Have No Online Recordings:
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Songs Set to Familiar Tunes
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Songs Set to Original or Less-Familiar
Tunes |
| Jon
U. Bell, the director of the Hallstrom
Planetarium, has created the Astronomer's
Songbook. This wonderful resource
includes words and guitar chords for 84 songs by various authors
(including Jon) about astronomy including songs about the sun,
moon, stars, constellations, solar system and astronomers. The
songs are nicely categorized. Highly recommended!! My
favorite: "Ballad of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram".
Nice topical quotes are included along with many of the songs. |
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| David and
Ginger Hildebrand and others:
2 sound
samples from 14 songs on the CD "Physics
Pholk Songs". This is the most
serious example I know of actually incorporating
physics songs into a curriculum. There are suggested exercises
to go with each song, developed by Priscilla
Laws and her collaborators.
Song topics include: motion detectors, Isaac Newton, Newton's
Laws, pulleys, momentum, kinetic energy, elastic collisions,
simple harmonic oscillators, history of electricity and
magnetism, colors, the elements, the first and second
laws of thermodynamics, quarks, and astronomy. Two songs
of note are Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" and "The First
and Second Law" by Flanders and Swann. |
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Brother Robert
W. Harris: 4 songs, including
midi
(piano) files and lyrics.
Topics include Newtons laws, mirror reflections, 1D kinematics,
and general advice on physics problem solving. (My favorite:
"There's No Disputin' Sir Isaac Newton", to the tune of
"I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover".) |
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NEW! The
Big Bang Band: Lyrics
for 12 songs about astronomy, including
supernovas, stars, galaxy formation, and the hardships of
observational astronomy. You can purchase a CD of these
songs here. |
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| Brother Robert W.
Harris: 7 physics Christmas carols,
including midi
(piano) files and lyrics. Topics include
gravity, refraction, and photons. (My favorite: "Oh Gravity"
to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree".) |
Michael
Offutt: 9 songs on the tape "Physics
SongBag", available from the author. These are professionally
recorded, including some very nice guitar accompaniments. Topics
include: Newton's Laws, projectile motion (a wonderful
and less violent version of the monkey and hunter problem),
momentum, static electricity, wave motion, reflection off curved
surfaces, photons, and my favorite "Inverse Square Love" (about
inverse square laws). |
| Various: Lyrics
to 26 physics songs (and a few about chemistry).
My favorites include: "Over the Rainbow", by John Roeder, Judy
Doyle, and others; "Here in Static Equilibrium" (to the tune
of "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland"); and "Twenty-three factors
of ten, and then some", by Bill Franklin. Topics include: static
equilibrium, gravity, Newton's laws, momentum, kinetic energy,
potential energy, impulse, reflection, rainbows, moles, Avogadro's
number, Einstein, photons, lasers, atomic orbitals, quarks,
and general relativity. This site also has the lyrics for the
Monty Python song from the "Meaning of Life" about the galaxy,
etc. |
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Dan
Bennett: Lyrics
for three songs about electrons, the history of quantum
mechanics, and excited states. Recordings are available
on his tape, Lavender
Wine. My favorite: "Wot no electrons". |
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| Various: Lyrics
to 17 physics songs set to Christmas carol
tunes, some taken from back issues of "The Physics Teacher".
Topics include: Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, photons,
special relativity, Coriolis force, photocells, superconductivity
(including High Tc), Feigenbaum, the trials of studying physics,
and my favorite: Cold
Fusion. |
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Teacher and The Rockbots:
Sound
sample, lyrics, and educational worksheets for
5 electronica-type songs about electricity and magnetism,
light, the solar system, and simple machines. These are
designed for elementary school presentation, and are from
the CD "Science", available for purchase
here. |
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| Kevin
Krisciunas: Here are lyrics
to 1 song about the constellations,
and 7
other songs about astronomy, supernovas, quasars,
etc.. My favorite line from the constellations song
(set to Gilbert & Sullivan's "Major General"
song): "The constellations in the sky were
not put there to bore us / There's Antlia, Andromeda,
Aquarius, and Taurus". Together with Margaret
Lynn Harshbarger, Kevin has even written a whole
astronomy-oriented comic opera
about an eclipse! He has also
created a musical show, "The All Star Revue",
which is available in streaming
video. |
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Norm
Walker: Lyrics for a song about Ohm's
Law ("a television theme song for a science fiction
western action drama, starring Georg Simon Ohm")
and another about three-phase
electric motor theory. Norm
is an electrician instructor; these are from his album
"T Time -- Time Tested Tales, Tall and True". |
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| Various: Maureen O'Brien has done a terrific job of organizing
the genre known as "filksongs". Here is a
page with 12 physics songs that I culled from her "Technology
Filk" links page, and here is her directory to "Darn
near all the filk on the web". |
Jordin Kare is the best-known physics songwriter from the
"filksong" tradition. He has written four songs about physics
and astronomy, but only one of them has been released as a recording,
"Psi Nought, the vacuum state". (This is on his "Parody Violation"
CD, which you can purchase here
-- type "violation" into the search window.) |
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Alan
Chodos: Lyrics for 1
song about the various Divisions of the American Physical
Society, set to the "Major General Song" by Gilbert
& Sullivan! This is a physics song amongst physics
songs! It scans so nicely that it's really worth checking
out. I particularly like the lines "There's DPF and DNP
who study tiny particles / And then report their findings
in impenetrable articles." |
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Various: Here's a fairly complete
listing
of popular songs with space themes (from
Yuri's Night.net) |
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Doug Craigen: Here are
lyrics
to 6 songs, one about Maxwell's
equations, and the rest about the trials of being a physics
student. Doug runs DC
Physics, which has lots of content
including physics humor, an extensive and well-organized
list of links, and listings of errata for popular physics
texts. |
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| Physics students from the University
of Delaware, collected by Marie
T. Conte: Here are lyrics
to 9 songs set to Christmas carols. Topics
include: photons, quarks, the Big Bang, the early Nobel
Prizes, and op
amps (my favorite). |
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| Greg
Crowther (aka "Gregorio del
Laboratorio"): Lyrics for 9 songs, mostly set to pop music
tunes. Greg has written many songs
about chemistry and biology, but
these nine songs also have physics themes: 3.14159
(set to "867-5309", recording
also available), The
Ballad of Roy G. Biv (original
tune, sheet
music also available), Delta-G
(about the Gibbs Free Energy, Set to "Delta Dawn"),
Figure
Needs a Legend (about frustrations grading lab reports,
set to "Dude Looks Like a Lady"), Show
Me the Data (original tune, sheet
music available), The
Swedish Thing (about the Nobel
prizes, set to "The Sweetest Thing" by U2), Twinkle,
Twinkle T2* (about NMR, set to "Twinkle, Twinkle,
Little Star"), "What's
the Frequency, Kenneth" (about
MRI aka NMR, set to the REM song of the same name),
and my favorite: Calibration
(about instrument calibration, set
to "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang). |
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| Students of Tom
Robinson, Kentridge High School, Kent
WA: Here are lyrics
to 19 songs set to Christmas carol tunes.
Most are about the trials of being a physics students. There
is one song about Newton's Laws, and another (my favorite) about
the frictional forces on car tires ("The
Physics Song"). |
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| Students of Ron
Revere: Lyrics to 11 physics
carols. Topics include Newton's first
law, projectile motion, gravity, terminal velocity, conservation
of energy, refraction, diffraction, photons, and my favorite:
static
equilibrium. |
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| Members of the Kavli
Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB: Lyrics
for 11 songs, mostly set to Christmas carol tunes. Topics include
string theory, High-Tc superconductivity, the Nobel prizes,
and the trials of working at KITP. My favorite: "I'm
a self-important physicist". And here are lyrics
for 11 more songs about quantum computing and life at KITP. |
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| John A. Barrett:
Here are lyrics
for 1 song ("Physics Theoretical" aka "Pi-rates of Penzance"),
originally published in Physics Today (Feb 1990, p. 160), about
being a theoretical physicist, set to the Gilbert and Sullivan
"Major General" song. I can personally attest that this
is a wonderful tune for making up new lyrics; here
is my version (about the Bravais Lattices), and here
is Alan Chodos's version about the Divisions of the American
Physical Society (!). |
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| Georg C. F. Greve
and Rene J. Hornung: Here are lyrics
for 1 song about the trials of doing experiments
in nuclear physics. |
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Scholarly Articles |
| A terrific scholarly article
on Astronomy Songs for use in the classroom, by Andrew Franknoi
(includes some wonderful appendices listing astronomy-related
songs). |
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Back to PhysicsSongs.org
homepage ...... Send e-mail
to suggest a link for posting above
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