 |
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. [S] [A] [OK] [F] [T] [KC] [T] [T2]  |
 |
|
The Spring 2025 unique number is 57140; the class meets 2 to 3 PM in PMA 7.104. Attendance is EXPECTED in class. If you need personal help with the homework and are on campus, the Coaching tables by the elevators on the 5th level of RLM Hall will be manned, according to the coaching schedule (to be linked when available) regularly on weekdays. When you are on campus you can get instant help with homework and get more explanation of concepts. Course TA: Brian D. Kent, e-mail brian_kent@utmail.utexas.edu. His office hours are Mondays 1-2pm, PMA 9.222 and Fridays 10:30-11:30am, PMA 9.222. 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 long course syllabus for more details. The midterm exam will be held in class on March 24.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! 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, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 ANSWERS TO IN-CLASS ATTENDANCE QUIZZES: (1) Faraday and Maxwell established the fundamental laws of electromagnetism. (2) An object moving with respect to an observer is shorter, along the line of its motion, than the proper-frame distance. (3) Only a particle that is in a momentum eigenstate can have a definite probability wavelength. (4) The universe surrounds us completely. The area of a sphere of radius r is 4πr2 so the solid angle subtended is 4π. (5) In nature we do not find systems which have an uncertain charge; all systems are eigenstates of charge, so if an operator existed it could always be replaced by the eigenvalue, and we would never need an operator. As for time, similarly, we (fortunately) do not see processes where there is a superposition of times... the proper time (co-moving frame time) is the same for every observer in the universe. MIDTERM EXAM RESULTS: RUNNING TABLE OF HOMEWORK DUE DATES AND TIMES: HW 1, statistics: Average 93, highest grades 100, lowest grade 75. HW 2, due Feb. 3. HW 3, due Feb. 10. HW 4, due Feb. 17. HW 5, due Feb. 24.  Here is a way to get extra credit! Here is the Golden Rule of physics problem-solving. Ignore it at your extreme peril. How to get involved in Undergraduate Research. Important: 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 CLASS SLIDES FOR 317L and 303L (worked examples are often linked to these pages): Relativity 1, Relativity 2, Twins! Length Contraction! Binding Energy, Einstein's Theory of Gravity, Ch. 34, , Ch. 35, part 1, Ch. 35, part 2, Ch. 36, part 1, Ch. 36, part 2, Ch 36, pt 3, Ch 37, pt 1, Ch. 37, pt 2, Ch. 38, pt 1, Ch. 38, pt 2, Nuclear Decays, Radiation, Fission and Fusion, Ch 39, pt 1, Early Universe, CLASS SLIDES FOR OTHER CLASSES: The Dark! Deuteron, Then and Now, Dark Matters! Where is it? Atomic forces, Waves, Reflection, Superposition, Standing waves on rope, Group velocity, Wave Applets, Fathers of the Wave, Doppler effect, Diffraction.How to open a corked bottle of wine with just your shoe and a wall.
|
