Physics 11

Foundations of Physics II

 

Winter Term, 2000

 

Lecture: 11:10 - 12:20 MWF, Youngchild 161

Instructor: Matthew R. Stoneking

Office: Youngchild 87

Phone: X6724

email: stonekim

Office Hours: Tuesday 2 – 3 PM, Thursday 10 – 11 AM, or by appointment

 

Laboratory: 1:10 - 4:00 W or Th, Youngchild 91

Instructor: Paul Fontana

Office: Youngchild 78

Phone: X7020

email: fontanap

Office Hours:Tues/Thurs 9:00–10:30 AM, Fri 1:00–2:30 PM, or by appointment

 

Catalog course description:

A continuation of Physics 10.  Physics 11 is divided between classical and modern topics, including electricity and magnetism, circuits, special relativity, quantum aspects of nature, atomic and nuclear structure, and elementary particles.

 

Course Themes and Emphases:

     the microscopic structure of matter

     fundamental forces and new forms of energy

     extension of human "experience" to small spatial scales (quantum physics) and high velocities (relativity)

 

Text:

Physics, Principles with Applications, 5th Edition, by Douglas C. Giancoli, Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1998).

 

Grades:

Final grades will be based on the following weighted components:

1) Final Exam 25 %

2) Hour Exams (2 X 12.5%) = 25 %

3) Laboratory 25 %

4) Homework 10 %

5) Quizzes 15 %

Exams:

There will be two midterm exams and one final, comprehensive exam. Each exam will be closed book.  Required formulae will be provided on the exam, but you will need to be able to recognize the meaning of the symbols in each formula and how to use them to solve problems such as those encountered in homework and lecture examples.  Exam problems will be a mixture of quantitative problems like those encountered in homework sets and conceptual problems (multiple choice and short answer) like those encountered on weekly quizzes

 

Laboratory:

A list of laboratory topics for each week is given below.  Mr. Fontana will provide details on the operation of the laboratory portion of the course, including grading policies for labs.

Week 1: Electric Field Mapping

Week 2: Electric Circuits I (DC Circuits)

Week 3: Charged Particle Motion in a Magnetic Field (e/m)

Week 4: Electric Circuits II (AC Circuits)

Week 5: Measurement of the Speed of Light (c)

Week 6: Special Relativity Simulation

Week 7: The Photoelectric Effect (h/e)

Week 8: The Bohr Model and the Hydrogen Spectrum

Week 9: Nuclear Physics I

Week 10: Nuclear Physics II

 

Homework:

Every Wednesday, homework sets will be collected for grading.  No late submissions will be accepted.  Homework assignments will focus on quantitative problems.  You are strongly urged to work additional problems on your own, beyond those that are required.

 

Quizzes:

Every Friday (except on Midterm exam days, winter break and the last class of the term) there will be a short (10 minute) quiz.  Weekly quizzes will focus on conceptual problems, will generally be multiple choice, short answer and/or true-false questions that test your understanding of the concepts covered in the lectures and reading assignments for that week.

 

Help Sessions:

Help sessions will be every Tues. and Thurs. evening (beginning on Thursday, January 6) 8-10pm in Youngchild 90.  A student assistant will run most of these sessions.

Some of the information contained in this syllabus can also be found at http://www.lawrence.edu/fac/stonekim/courses.htm

 

Outline of the Course:

I: Electricity and Magnetism

A: Electrostatics (Chapters 16 and 17)

B: DC Circuits (Chapters 18 and 19)

C: Magnetism (Chapter 20)

D: Electromagnetism and AC Circuits (Chapters 21 and 22)

II: Modern Physics

A: The Special Theory of Relativity (Chapter 26)

B: Quantum Theory (Chapters 27 and 28)

C: Nuclear Physics (Chapters 30 and 31)

D: Particle Physics (Chapter 32)

 

Most important chapters for the MCAT exam: 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 28, 30

 

Chapter 29 on Molecules and Solids and Chapter 33 on Astrophysics and Cosmology will not be covered in this course, but I recommend you read these chapters sometime during the term.

 

 

Course Schedule

 

Unit I: Electricity and Magnetism

Week 1

M 1/3: Giancoli Chapter 16      The Laws of Electrostatics

Overview of the course, electric charge, Coulomb’s Law, electric properties of materials, conservation of charge, the principle of superposition.

 

W 1/5: Giancoli Chapter 16      The Electric Field

Definition of the electric field, rules for drawing electric field lines, examples of electric field line maps.

 

F 1/7: Giancoli Chapter 17        Electric Potential                              QUIZ #1

Electric potential energy versus electric potential, the parallel plate capacitor, capacitance, dielectric materials.

 

Week 2

M 1/10: Giancoli Chapter 17-18           Ohm’s Law

Equipotential contours, the ECG, electric current, Ohm’s Law, resistance and resistivity.

 

W 1/12: Giancoli Chapter 18-19           D.C. Electric Circuits

Electric power, DC circuits, combining resistors and capacitors in parallel and series, exponential decay in a RC circuit.

 

F 1/14: Giancoli Chapter 20      The Laws of Magnetism                    QUIZ #2

Permanent magnets, magnetic poles, compass needles, the geomagnet, Oersted’s observation and the magnetic force on a current carrying wire.

 

Week 3

M 1/17: Giancoli Chapter 20    The Magnetic Force

Magnetic forces on straight, parallel, current-carrying wires, definition of the magnetic field and the unit of the Ampere, the Lorentz force law.

 

W 1/19: Giancoli Chapter 20    The Magnetic Field

Rules for drawing magnetic field lines, examples of magnetic field line maps, solenoids, electromagnets, torque on a magnetic dipole in a magnetic field.

 

F  1/21: Giancoli Chapter 20     Electromagnetic Induction   QUIZ #3

Electromagnetic induction, Lenz’s Law, Faraday’s Law, generators, transformers.

 

Week 4

M 1/24: Giancoli Chapter 21    A.C. Electric Circuits

Inductance, inductors, AC circuits, phasors, impedance, resonant circuits.

 

W 1/26: Giancoli Chapter 22    Electromagnetic Waves

Changing electric fields produce magnetic fields, Maxwell’s Equations, electromagnetic waves, radiating antennae.

 

F 1/28: HOUR EXAM #1 (covers chapters 16-22)

 

Unit II: Modern Physics

Week 5

M 1/31: Giancoli Chapter 26    The Principle of Relativity

Galilean relativity, Einstein’s postulates for special relativity, synchronization of clocks, simultaneity.

 

W 2/2: Giancoli Chapter 26      The Twin Paradox

Time dilation, the twin paradox, length contraction and four dimensional spacetime.

 

F 2/4: Giancoli Chapter 26        E=mc2                                                             QUIZ #4

Velocity addition, relativistic momentum and energy, rest mass energy.

 

Week 6

M 2/7: Giancoli Chapter 27      The Electron

A brief history of atomic theory, the cathode ray tube, the electron, Millikan’s oil drop experiment.

 

W 2/9: Giancoli Chapter 27      The Photon

The photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, the photon, Rutherford’s scattering experiment, the plum-pudding model and the planetary model of the atom.

 

Friday 11 February: Midterm Reading Period, no class.

 

Week 7

Monday 14 February: Midterm Reading Period, no class.

 

W 2/16: Giancoli Chapter 27    The Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom

Spectroscopy, atomic spectra, the Bohr model of the Hydrogen atom.

 

F 2/18: Giancoli Chapter 27      Matter Waves                                      QUIZ #5

The wave nature of matter, de Broglie wavelength, X-ray and electron diffraction compared.

 

Week 8

M 2/21: Giancoli Chapter 28    Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, philosophical interpretations, Schrodinger’s cat.

 

W 2/23: Giancoli Chapter 28 Hydrogen Atom and the Periodic Table

Wave functions, quantum numbers, the hydrogen atom, the Pauli exclusion principle and the periodic table of elements.

 

F 2/25: HOUR EXAM #2 (covers chapters 26-28)

 

Week 9

M 2/28: Giancoli Chapter 30    The Neutron

Moseley’s determination of atomic numbers, the neutron, isotopes, the chart of the nuclides.

 

W 3/1: Giancoli Chapter 31      Radioactivity

Radioactivity, radioactive decay

 

F 3/3: Giancoli Chapter 31        Nuclear Medicine                              QUIZ #6

Radiation dosimetry, radiology

 

Week 10

M 3/6: Giancoli Chapter 32      Nuclear Energy

Nuclear binding energy, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion

 

W 3/8: Giancoli Chapter 32      The Neutrino and the Positron

Fundamental forces, mediating (or messenger) particles, Yukawa’s hypothesis, the neutrino, the positron.

 

F 3/10: Giancoli Chapter 32      Quarks

Two body versus three body decay, muons, mesons, conservation of lepton numbers, strange particles. Gell-Mann’s periodic table for elementary particles and the quark model.

 

Final Exam: Tuesday 14 March 8:30 am