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Prof. Rory Coker Office: RLM 8.312 Phone: (512) 471-5194 (not recommended) Fax: (512) 471-9637 (not recommended) Email: rory coker's civilian mail, coker's physics department mail Office Hours: Thur, 2 - 3 PM, every week; also Tue 3 to 4 PM, in PMA 8.312, on days when there is a Pizza Seminar.  |
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The Spring 2026 unique number is 59800 ; the class meets 12 to 1 PM in PMA 5.120. Attendance is EXPECTED in class. If you need personal help with the homework and are on campus, the Coaching tables are by the elevators on the 5th level of RLM Hall. Coaching is in person this semester. It runs 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Friday. A coaching schedule will be posted when available. When you are on campus you can get instant help with homework and get more explanation of concepts from the coaches. Our Course TA is Noah Lindsell. His office hours are Thursdays, 3 - 4 PM, PMA 2.206A. Shortened URL for this page: https://shorturl.at/mgyWG Coker's web page: https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~coker2/coker.html. Links to all his courses are on this official faculty web page. Text: Modern Physics from α to Z0 by James William Rohlf. There are free pdf and other versions of this book in several places on the internet, and used book dealers sell it for $15 to $25, depending on condition. Four copies are on reserve in the PMA Library. Recent modern physics texts sell for up to $200, and they differ only in the last chapter when compared to books published 20 years ago. Background information: The physics department offers the following upper-division undergraduate physics courses, which extend and detail concepts briefly surveyed in 355--- 362K, atomic and molecular physics; 362L, nuclear and particle physics and astrophysics; 369, thermodynamics and statistical physics; 373, quantum physics. In this course, you should begin by reading Chs. 1, 2 and 3 in Rohlf for historical background. The course lectures will start with Ch. 4 on special relativity. Short Syllabus and first day handout. Basis of course letter grade: Homework, 60%; midterm exam, 25%; class attendance, 15%. Class attendance is NOT OPTIONAL; it is expected, and contributes a significant percentage of the overall course grade. See the course syllabus for more details. The midterm exam will be held in class on March 25.Useful Online Resources: Relativistic Dynamics Class Notes: Special Relativity, Uncertainty, Scattering Class slides: TO BEGIN WITH! Visual Relativity! Matter Waves! Uncertainty! Scattering Experiments! Schrodinger Equation! Hydrogen Atom! Atoms! Molecules! Nuclear Physics! Nuclear Processes! Statistical Physics! Lasers! Scattering of Light! Condensed Matter! Superconductivity 1, Superconductivity 2, Accelerators! Particles! THE EIGHTFOLD WAY! Interactions! Coupling and Mass! Astrophysics! Planets Beyond! MAKING STUFF! Dark Matter! QUARK-GLUON PLASMA! Gravitational Radiation! Neutrino Astronomy! COSMIC INFLATION? DARK ENERGY? SYMMETRIES, ORIGIN OF MATTER? NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY, No Strings Attached! IMPORTANT: These pages are not like PowerPoint Slides that might be used to illustrate a lecture! Instead they offer a condensed version of the actual lecture and you should read them over after class as you would read pages in our textbook. WORKED EXAMPLES: Chapter 4, Chapt 5, Ch 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chs. 9 and 10, Ch. 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 14, Ch.15, Ch. 17 ANSWERS TO IN-CLASS ATTENDANCE QUIZZES: (1) The incorrect statement is that mass and charge will be different in the frame moving with respect to you. (2) The total mass of a system which is bound by an attractive force will always be less than the sum of the masses of its parts. (3) A beam of particles with very well defined momentum which is made to pass through a tiny slit has its momentum information destroyed by the position determination (particles hitting the screen had to pass through the slit). (4) Electrons interact via virtual photon exchange with other charged particles inside the proton. Thus the electrons interact directly only with real (valence) and virtual quarks. But since the quarks are also interacting via gluon exchange at the time they are observed, indirect information about gluons is also obtained. (5) A system with three degrees of freedom will in general need three quantum numbers in its description. (6) A 3p state has ℓ = 1, so has 3 values of mℓ and each of these states can have two values of ms so the state can hold 6 electrons. If it already has 2, it can hold 4 more. MIDTERM EXAM RESULTS: the midterm will be held in class on March 25. Multiple choice format. RUNNING TABLE OF HOMEWORK DUE DATES AND TIMES: HW1, highest grade(s) 100%, lowest 74%. HW 2, highest grade(s) 100%, lowest 54%. HW3, due Feb. 13. HW 4, due Feb. 20. HW 5, due Feb. 27  How to get involved in Undergraduate Research. Important: announcements may appear here. COACHES AND TUTORS: Coaches are present at tables by the elevators on the 5th level of RLM, at various times between 9 AM and 5 PM weekdays. Coaches are there to give you hints on homework problems, and mini-lectures on key concepts in basic physics. A fairly accurate online resource on basic physics is here. RELEVANT CLASS NOTES FROM 317L: Ch. 33, Ch. 34, Ch. 35, Ch. 36,
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