PHYSICS 123, 133, 143 -- GENERAL PHYSICS III


PHYSICS 123 -- GENERAL PHYSICS III: WAVES, OPTICS & MODERN PHYSICS

Level

Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker

Prerequisites

Physics 122 and completion of, or concurrent registration in, the third quarter of a calculus sequence.

Syllabus

  1. Mechanical Waves
    1. Type of waves, pulses, definitions
    2. Propagation of transverse and longitudinal waves
    3. Propagation of waves in a compressible fluid, in an ideal gas, velocity of sound
    4. Rate of energy transfer in wave motion
    5. Principle of superposition
    6. Reflection of pulses at boundaries
    7. Standing Waves
    8. Interference of waves
  2. Specific Applications to Sound
    1. Traveling longitudinal waves
    2. Standing longitudinal waves, organ pipes
    3. Interference of sound waves, coherent sources
    4. Beats
    5. Pitch, quality, ear response, units
    6. Doppler effect
  3. Optics
    1. Nature and sources of light
    2. The velocity of light, Roemer, Fizeau, Michelson Methods
    3. Huygens' Principle and geometrical optics
    4. Reflection and refraction of a plane wave
    5. Total internal reflection
    6. Refraction by a prism, dispersion
    7. Spherical mirror, paraxial approximation, focal point and plane
    8. Thin lenses, focal points, lensmaker equation, thin lens equation, ray tracing
  4. Optical Instruments
    1. Simple microscope, compound microscope
    2. Telescope
    3. Eye, camera, etc.
  5. Interference of Light
    1. Interference from thin films
    2. Wedge, Newton rings, coating of optical parts
    3. Michelson interferometer
  6. Diffraction of Light
    1. Fresnel diffraction, Fraunhofer diffraction
    2. Fraunhofer diffraction of a single slit.
    3. Resolving power of lenses
    4. Double slit, Young experiment
    5. Diffraction grating, dispersion, resolving power
    6. X-ray diffraction, Bragg's law
  7. Polarization of Light
    1. Malus law, Brewster law
    2. Double refraction, uniaxial crystals
    3. Dichroism, Polaroid
    4. Scattering of light, optical activity
  8. Quantum Physics
    1. Photons, photoelectric effect
    2. Work function, stopping potential
    3. Einstein Formula
    4. Atomic Spectra, the hydrogen series
    5. The Bohr Model, energy levels, binding energy, ionization potentials
    6. Emission of X-rays, Bohr Model
    7. Wave-particle duality
    8. DeBroglie wavelength, electron diffraction
    9. Atomic structure
    10. Uncertainty principle
    11. Wave mechanics
  9. Nuclear Physics
    1. Natural radioactivity, radiation detectors, radioactive decay law, half life
    2. Radioactive series
    3. Fission
    4. Applications

Lecture Demonstrations

The instructor will make extensive use of lecture demonstrations to make more vivid the phenomena being discussed.

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS - PHYSICS 123


PHYSICS 133, 143 -- GENERAL PHYSICS III: WAVES, OPTICS & HEAT

Level

  Physics 133:

Physics, by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane

  Physics 143:

Intro to Wave Phenomena, by Hirose & Lonngren
Physics, by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane

Prerequisites

Physics 132 or 142 and completion of, or concurrent registration in, the third quarter of a calculus sequence.

Notes:

Syllabus

  1. The Wave Equation
    1. Types of waves; longitudinal,, transverse, compression.
    2. Properties of the Wave Eqn; co-moving solution; speed.
    3. Wave propagation speed. Speed of sound.
    4. Phase of the wave.
    5. The vibrating string. Derivation of the mechanics.
    6. Energy transfer in the wave.
    7. Pulses; superposition, interference.
    8. Positive and negative-going solutions. General solutions. Standing wave solution.
    9. *Complex numbers and complex solutions to the wave equation.
    10. Boundary conditions. Reflection and Transmission. *Phase shifts. *Impedance.
    11. Resonance.
    12. Beat waves.
  2. *Coupled Oscillations
    1. Coupled harmonic oscillators
    2. Normal coordinates; normal modes
    3. Eigenvalues; eigenvectors
    4. Molecular vibrations
  3. *Fourier Analysis
    1. Solutions of the wave equation.
    2. Fourier series. Periodic functions.
    3. Fourier decomposition of standing wave. Obtaining amplitudes. Spectrum analyzer.
    4. Energy in Fourier components.
    5. Phase and group velocities.
    6. Continuous Fourier amplitudes; Fourier transform.
    7. Sampling limitations. Uncertainty relations.
    8. Lens as a Fourier analyzer; Fourier spatial filter.
  4. Physical Optics
    1. Diffraction vs interference.
    2. Huygens construction.
    3. Doppler shift.
    4. Methods of direct vector construction; phasors.
    5. *Fourier transform methods.
    6. Young's interference.
    7. Single slit diffraction. Babinet's principle.
    8. Diffraction grating.
    9. Interferometers; thin film interference. Bragg interference.
  5. Geometric Optics
    1. Refraction. Snell's law. TIR. Fermat's method. Dispersion.
    2. Lens-makers' formula. Ray-tracing for thin lens.
    3. Mirrors and parallax.
    4. Magnification.
    5. Compund instruments.
  6. Polarization and scattering
    1. *EM waves from Maxwell's equations.
    2. Components of polarization. Malus' law. Multiple polarizers. Brewster angle.
    3. Circular polarization.
    4. Birefringence. Quarter-wave, half-wave plates.
    5. *Dipole scattering; frequency dependence.
  7. Kinetic Theory and Ideal Gases
    1. Ideal gas law
    2. Kinetic theory: pressure, temperature
    3. Zeroth law
    4. Work; Internal energy
    5. *van der Waals equation of state
    6. *Maxwell-Bolzmann speed & energy distributions
  8. Thermodynamics
    1. Heat capacity; specific heat
    2. 1st law of thermodynamics
    3. reversible, irreversible processes
    4. heat transfer
    5. *heat/diffusion equation
    6. 2nd law of thermodynamics
    7. heat engines; refrigerators; Carnot cycle
    8. entropy: reversible & irreversible processes
    9. *blackbody radiation
    10. *Planck formula

* topics normally omitted in 133

 

Lecture Demonstrations

The instructor will make extensive use of lecture demonstrations to make more vivid the phenomena being discussed.

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS - PHYSICS 133, 143

 


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