On the Trail of Light

Time: MTh 1:30-3:00
Place: SciBldg 216
Text: Ralph Baierlein's Newton to Einstein: the Trail of Light and other various supplements.

General Info

On the Trail of Light is a "physics appreciation" course. The analogy I often use is to music courses: on the one hand, if you want to actually play music, you might well take a piano lab that through repetive, tedious but necessary exercises trains your fingers to play the proper scales. Some people actually enjoy this. On the other hand, if you want to listen to Mozart, sip some wine, and discuss the merits of his work, then you want a music appreciation course - not a piano lab. In a similar vein, this course intends to expose you to some ideas of physics, without trying to convey a mastery of the various problem solving techniques.

The content of the course will focus on several of the major theories of physics, including quantum mechanics and relativity - in many ways the most exotic of the topics on the standard list of undergraduate physics. We'll follow people's various notions of "light" as a common theme, but that isn't really what the course is all about - in spite of the title. Baierlein's book, with supplements as we go, should provide a reasonable framework.

Since I've never taught this course before, I'm not sure exactly how all of it will work - we'll see how things go and adjust accordingly. I expect that there will be some math - the language which physics is written in, though not too much, and none that you can't ignore if you really have to. I will set up some demonstrations and give some assignments which will have you playing around in the lab, but again, that is not the thrust of what we will be about.

Syllabus

Should be posted here soon.

Assignments

for the week of Mon Sept 8
- Read the preface and the first chapter in the text, which basically tries to start you thinking like an experimentalist. I will set up some equipment in the lab that will let you explore some of the experiments described.
- For next Thursday, write a short (a few pages) paper describing your own observations of light: what exactly it does under what circumstances. Use only your own direct experience. You're welcome to reproduce what you read about, or work in collaborative groups; however, reading about something and then describing it is not allowed - only say what you have seen and measured. This is an open ended question; take it as far as you feel comfortable in the time allotted. As a few starting points,
  - Does it move in straight lines? How do you know?
  - Does it bounce/bend/whatever through glass? Lenses?
  - How about through water? Fog?
  - What about color, prisms, spectrums, and vision?
for the week of Tues/Thurs Sept 16/18
- Read chapter 2 in the Trail of Light text
- Peruse Newton's Optics, at least the Queries and Part II beginning
- Read Introduction & preface to chapters 1 and 3 in Great Experiments in Physics
- Peruse Newton's biography Never at Rest, at least near pg 156 where some of his optics work is described.
- Start thinking about your first 5 page paper, due Thurs Sept 25. Hand in a short description of your proposed topic on Thurs the 18th. The assignment is to write on either
  - an aspect of life in the late 1600's, especially one that touches on the tools and methods available to Newton, such as how time was measured, or what methods of travel and communication were available, or
  - a biography of a scientist contemporary to or immediately precding Newton, such as da Vinci, Galileo, Hooke, Halley, etc.
  In either case the goal is to better understand the context within which Newton worked.

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