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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 Fall 2025 unique number is 61905; 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 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: David Dzingeleski, e-mail dd37224@my.utexas.edu. His office hours are Tuesdays, 2 - 3 PM, Welch 4.232H. 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 a date TBA.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? 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, Chapter 5, Chapter 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 speed of light is of course the same in all inertial frames of reference, independent of the motion of source or observer. [Everyone in class got this right.] (2) As soon as a precise measurement is made on the position of a quantum particle, all existing information on the particle's momentum, that was carried by the state function, is destroyed. In fact any measurement of any kind necessarily changes the state function to correspond to the result of the measurement. (3) As you view the world around you, every possible line of sight passes through the surface of a sphere of radius r and surface area 4πr2 with you at the center, so the solid angle subtended by the world about you is 4π steradians. (4) The operator for momentum, as we have seen repeatedly in class, is -iℏ∇. So the ∇ operator, up to a constant, represents the momentum of a system in quantum physics, in the coordinate representation. {5) The notation 4p means n = 4 and ℓ = 1. In fact the states are also properly labeled by j, which in this case could be 1/2 or 3/2. For example 4p1/2. (6) Molecules can exhibit transitions between electron excited states, or between vibrational states, or between rotational states. (7) About 48% of the average US radiation exposure comes from medical and dental diagnostic X-rays, and 37% from isotopes of radon gas concentrated indoors. (8) All the statements about bosons versus fermions are correct. (9) Albert Einstein predicted the phenomenon of stimulated emission on which lasers and masers are based. MIDTERM EXAM RESULTS: The midterm exam will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 29, in class. It will cover the material, as presented in class and covered on homework, for Chs. 4 through 10. Multiple choice questions, similar to the attendance pop quizzes. RUNNING TABLE OF HOMEWORK DUE DATES AND TIMES: HW 1, due Sept. 5 , HW 2, due Sept. 15, HW 3, due Sept. 22, HW 4, due Sept. 29, HW 5, due Oct. 6. HW 6, due Oct.~13. HW 7, due Nov. 3.  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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