On the Trail of Light

 1	Jan 24 - 25	Newton; mechanics; intro  (Bae chap 2) + Newton readings. 

Also discuss powers of 10, units, nature of science
 2	    28 -  1	Waves			  (Bae chap 3) + conceptual phys.
 3	Feb  4 -  8	Interference		  (Bae chap 4) and some optics
 4	    11 - 15	Electromagnetism	  (Bae chap 5 + others)
 5	    18 - 22	more electromagneticsm: current, voltage, induction
 6	    25 -  1	photon			  (Bae chap 6)
 7	Mar  4 -  8	wave/particle duality	  (Bae chap 7)
 8	    11 - 15     continue quantum readings - Bell's ineq, heisenberg,...

                        spring break

 9	Apr  1 -  5	recap - finish QM; read about Einstein (Ideas & Opinions)
10	     8 - 12	special relativity	  (Bae chapr 8 - 13; other)
11	    15 - 19	continue special relativity
12	    29 -  3	field theories and beyond - read from Hawkings book
13	May  6 -  8  

1. for Thurs Jan 31
   
   • Read chapters 1 and 2 in Baierlein.
   • Read any piece of Opticks that strikes your fancy - at least one of Newton's claims and experiments to check it out.
   • Check any one of the observations in Baierlein chap 1 yourself. Describe what you did, and what you saw.
   • Answer questions 2 and 13 from chapter 1 in Baierlein, pg 27 or thereabouts.
2. for Thurs Feb 7
   • Read chapters 3 and 4 in the text.
   • Answer questions 3-3, 3-4.
   • Play around with the optics equipment in the lab. Measure experimentally the index of refraction of the plastic used in the lightbox kit.
3. for Thurs Feb 14
   • Read chapter 5 in the text, on electricity
   • Answer questions 4-2, 5-1, 5-6 in the text.
4. for Thurs Feb 21 - electromagnetic fields
   • Reserve reading week - all these are in the library.
   • Read part 5, pgs 277-343 of Conceptual Physics, on reserve. This is a lot of material; the goal is to get an overall feel for the subject. Write down questions and bring them to class.
   • Peruse "Great Experiments in Physics", on reserve, to see how the original physicists talked about the work. Look at chapters 5 (Coulomb), 10 (Faraday), 13 (Hertz), and appendix 1 (Maxwell). The introduction to each gives a nice overview of the person and their work.
   • Briefly describe
     (a) what causes an electric field,
     (b) what an electric field does,
     (c) what causes a magnetic field, and
     (d) what a magnetic field does.
     Give some examples.
   • Running a comb through your hair can leave a static charge on the comb. Since the charges create an electric field, will moving the comb back and forth create an electromagnetic wave? Is this light? If so, why can't you see the light? Is there a way (at least in theory) to move it that will make visible light?
5. for Thurs Feb 28
   • Read chapter 6 in our text, on the photon
   • Answer questions 6-1, 6-4
   • Explain in your own words what the photelectric effect is, and what it says about the nature of light.
6. for Thurs Mar 7
   • Read chapter 7 in the text, on the Wave-Particle duality.
   • Read the quantum chapter in "Mr. Thompkins in Wonderland", on reserve
   • From the readings, is light a particle, a wave, or what? Explain briefly, including the experiments that point in each direction.
7. for Thurs Mar 14
   • Read chapters 8 and 9 in the text, which start Special Relativity.
     (We'll continue this after the break.)
   • Read the first, relativity chapter in "Mr. Thompkins in Wonderland", on reserve
   • Answer questions 9-2, 9-6, 9-11 in the text.
8. for Thurs April 4
   • Read chapter 10 in the text
   • Do 10-5 and 10-6
   • Sketch a space-time diagram that shows the journey of a space-ship which goes from here to a nearby star (4 light-years away) at 99% the speed of light, both there and back. What is the "interval" (ct2 - x2) between the rockets departure from earth and arrival at the star? How is this broken up between time and distance for the folks on the earth compared with the folks in the rocket?
   • Here are the first and second pole vault paradox pictures I discussed in class. Describe what these diagrams show.
9. for Thurs April 11
   • Finish Baerlien, namely read chapters 11 and 12. (Skip 13.)
   • Browse Einstein's "Opinions", on reserve
   • Read the last chapter in "Spacetime Physics", on reserve (General Relativity)
   • Chandra clinches case for black hole
   • General Relativity is based on the notion of a "curved surface". Can you tell if a surface is curved without being "outside" it? In particular, can an ant walking on an apple tell that the apple is curved? How?
   • Gravity will cause two isoloated objects in space, far from other influences, to move toward each other. How does general relativity explain this? Does either object feel a "gravitational force" in its reference system? Explain.
   • What are you going to do your term paper on?
10. for Thurs April 18
    • Browse Kip Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps", on reserve
    • Start reading Stephen Hawking's "Universe in a Nutshell", on reserve (We're going to finish this over the rest of the term.)
11. for Thurs April 25
    • Read Cindy Schwartz's "The Subatomic Zoo", on reserve, chaps 1-5
    • Do these problems from that text: self tests on pg 36, pg 53, pg 66, and #6 on pg 67.
12. for Thurs May 2
    • Finish reading "Universe in a Nutshell" and looking at the pretty pictures. (on reserve).
    • browse through these sites:
      • The Particle Physics Adventure
      • Scientific American Dec 1999 article on Grand Unification
      • CERN
      • Grand Unified picture
      • Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial
      • The Official String Theory Website
    • Mon May 6 (last class)
      • work on your papers
      • Here's some stuff on chaos that is worth perusing.
        • The Chaos Hypertextbook
        • period doubling route to chaos, x(n+1)= a x (1-x)
        • Patterns, Programs, Links for Game of Life
        • What is the Game of Life?

• Physics Time-Line - chronological list
• Skeptical Inquirer
• demos
  • NTNU Virtual Physics Lab - includes nice color mixing demo and others
  • 2D waves demo
  • physicsweb virtual lab listings
• images
  spherical harmonics (electron orbitals, i.e. quantum states of electrons around nucleus which have definite angular momenta)