Lecture Log for PHY 309L

This page logs lectures of the Elementary Physics (II) course (PHY 309 L) taught by Professor Vadim Kaplunovsky in Spring 2010 (unique #56970). Also, at the bottom of this page there is a list of skipped sections.

To help the students follow the class, this log lists the subjects covered by each lecture, with references to appropriate textbook chapters, sections, and subsections, and also external links, if any.

Since the pace of the course will vary depending on how well (or how poorly) the students understand the material, I would not be able to tell in advance which specific subjects I will cover during a particular future lecture. Therefore, at any particular time, this log will be limited to the lectures I have already given, plus one tentative listing of what I plan to say in the very next lecture.

Lectures

August 26 (Thursday):

Class organisation. Electic charges and their effects; positive and negative charges; electrons (§12.1). Conductors, insulators, and semiconductors; induced charges; dielectric polarization (§12.2).

August 31 (Tuesday):

Coulomb Law for the electrostatic force; units of el. charge (§12.3). Force due to multiple charges; electric field; field lines (§12.4). Eclectrustatic scrubbers (§12.2). Electric potential (§12.5).

September 2 (Thursday):

Electric potential and tension (§12.5). Capacitors and capacitance (non-textbook). Electric field in a dielectric (non-textbook). Electric current; electric curcuits; analogy to water flow (§13.1).

September 7 (Tuesday):

Electric current and voltage; analogy to water folow and pressure (§13.1). Resistance and Ohm's Law (§13.2). Series and parallel circuits (§ 13.3). Internal resistance.

September 9 (Thursday):

Internal resistance and electromotive force (EMF) (§13.2 and non-textbook). Resistivity and its depencence on temperature (non-textbook, but see wikipedia article). Electric energy and power; using and distributing electric energy (§13.4–5).

September 14 (Tuesday):

Alternating currents; effective (RMS) currents and voltages; AC vs DC (§13.5). Magnets; magnetic poles and magnetic foeces; magnetic field lines; Earth as a magnet (§14.1). Magnetic fields of electric currents (§14.2).

September 16 (Thursday):

Magnetic force on a moving charge and on a current-carrying wire (§14.2). Cross product of vectors (non-textbook, but see wikipedia page). Magnetic field of current and magnetic forces between wires; magnetic field of a current loop (§14.2–3).

September 21 (Tuesday):

Magnetic field of a solenoid; electromagnets (§14.3). Magnetic fields in iron and other ferromagnets (non-textbook, but see hyperphysics page). Torques on current loops; electric motors (§14.3). Electromagnetic induction and Faraday's Law (§14.4).

September 23 (Thursday):

Electromagnetic induction: mutual induction, self induction, and Lenz rule (§14.4). Transformers and how they convert AC voltages, currents, and power (§14.5). Electric generators (§14.5). Eddy currents (non-textbook).

September 28 (Tuesday):

Canceled, midterm test rescheduled to 9/28.

September 30 (Thursday):

First mid-term test.

October 5 (Tuesday):

Wave motion; longitudinal and transverse waves; running and standing waves; periodic waves: frequency and wavelength (§15.1); harmonic waves; waves on a string and their speed (§15.2).

October 7 (Thursday):

Periodic waves, λf=u (§15.1). Speed of waves on a string (§15.2); speed of sound (§15.4 and non-textbook); speed of EM waves (non-textbook). Superposition of waves; interference of harmonic waves (§15.3).

October 12 (Tuesday):

Interference of harmonic signals; beats. Standing waves, nodes and antinodes. Resonant standing waves in strings and in air columns; fundamental frequencies and harmonics. (§15.3–5 and my notes). Harmonics in music (§15.5).

October 14 (Thursday):

Electromagnetic waves and their spectrum: radio, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and γ-rays (§16.1). Colors of light and how we see them; colors of objects (§16.2). Thin-film interference.

October 19 (Tuesday):

Thin film interference; two slit interference (§16.3). Multi-wave interference and diffraction; diffractional spreading of light; diffraction gratings (§ 16.4).

October 21 (Thursday):

Light rays; reflection; mirrors and images (§17.1). Curved mirrors; light focusing; virtual and real images (§17.4 and non-textbook).

October 26 (Tuesday):

Second mid-term test.

October 28 (Thursday):

Refraction of light; Snell's law; seeing through water; partial reflection and total internal reflection (§17.2). Prisms bending light; dispersion and spectrum; rainbows (§17.2). Lenses: focusing light and making images (§17.3).

November 2 (Tuesday):

Positive and negative lenses; images and ray diagrams (§17.3). Ray diagrams for curved mirrors (§17.4). Cameras and eyes; microscopes (§17.5).

November 4 (Thursday):

Telescopes and binoculars (§17.5). Atoms; history of the atomic theory; valence; atomic weights (§18.1). Ions and electrons (§18.2).

November 9 (Tuesday):

Cathode rays and electrons; X-rays (§18.2). Radioactivity; α, β, and γ rays; discovery of the nucleus (§18.3). Isotopes; protons and neutrons (§19.1).

November 11 (Thursday):

Isotopes (§19.1) and atomic weights. Nuclear mass and binding energy; nuclear `landscape' (§19.3 and non-textbook). Unstable nuclei and α, β, γ decays; decay chains; exponential decay and half-life times (§19.2).

November 16 (Tuesday):

Nuclear reactions and nuclear energy (§19.3). Chain reaction; uranium fission; nuclear reactors (§19.4). Nuclear weapons; nuclear fusion; controlling fusion (§19.5).

November 18 (Thursday):

Origins of Quantum Theory: blackbody radiation and quanta of light; Bohr's atom and quantization of electron's motion; de Broglie waves; Schroedinger's wave-functions and probability amplitudes; Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (§18.4–5 and non-textbook).

November 23 (Tuesday):

Third mid-term test.

November 30 (Tuesday):

Frames of reference and relative motion; adding velocities (§20.1). Non-existance of the `aether wind' and Einstein's relativity postulates (§20.2). Time dilation and length contraction (§20.3).

December 2 (Thursday):

Time dilation and length contraction (§20.3). Relativity of simultaneousness; spacetime; Lorentz transforms (non-textbook). Relativistic momentum and kinetic energy; mass-energy equivalence (§20.4).

Skipped Sections

When I decide to skip some subjects covered in the textbook, I shall list them here and announce them in class. The exams will not involve the skipped material.

• In chapter 15, I skip the Doppler effect and the musical intervals and scales.
• In Chapter 16, I skip the polarization (§16.5).
• In chapter 20, I skip the non-inertial frames, the twin paradox, and the general relativity.
• The whole chapter 21 is skipped.