PHYSICS 106: Light, Perception, Photography and Visual Phenomena

 

Please note : Students under the CORE Program requirements must take both the lecture (PHY 106) and the associated laboratory course (PHY 107) during the same semester in order to receive CORE credit.  The lecture part of the course alone does not count as a non-lab science course under CORE requirements.

 

 

Instructor:      Rajarshi Roy

                        Office:  Room 3347 A.V. Williams Building

                        Phone:   5-1636

                        e-mail:   rroy@glue.umd.edu

 

Classes:          MWF: 2:00 – 2:50 p.m., Room Physics 1412

 

Text:  Seeing the Light, by D. Falk, D. Brill and D. Stork (John Wiley, New York, 1986)

 

Recommended reading:  Catching the Light, by A. Zajonc (Oxford University Press, 1993)

 

Objective:  The objective of this course is to learn about light and phenomena associated with it.  We will interrogate an experimental apparatus each week and see what answers it gives us to questions that we will ask.

 

Homework: Homework  will be assigned weekly.  It will count for 20% of the grade for the course.

 

Exams:  There will be two midterm exams and a final.  The midterm exams will be March 6 and April 15.  The final exam will be on Monday, May 20 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m..  All exams will be closed book.

 

Grading:  The course grade will be determined based on the following weights (subject to change)

 

Midterm I: 25%,

Midterm II: 25%,

Final Exam: 30%,

Homework and class participation: 20%,

 

Office Hours: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays

 

Course Outline: The following outline is only approximate, and is given only to indicate roughly the material that will be covered.  It is very important to be present in class, since demonstrations, discussion and experiments will be an integral part of the course.

 

            Jan 29 – Feb 3:            Introduction to the course – what is light? (Chapter 1)

 

            Feb 5 – 10:                  Principles of Geometrical Optics (Chapter 2)

 

            Feb 12 – 17:                Mirrors and Lenses (Chapter 3)

 

            Feb 19 – 24:                The Camera and Photography (Chapter 4)

 

            Feb 26 – Mar 3:           The Human Eye and Vision I (Chapter 5)

 

Mar 5:                          First Midterm

 

            Mar 7:                          Discuss exam

 

March 10 – 14             Optical Instruments (Chapter 6)

 

            Mar 17 – 21:                The Human Eye and Vision II (Chapter 7)

 

Mar 24 – 30:                Spring Break

 

            March 31 – April 4:                  Color (Chapter 9)

 

            April 7 – 11:                 Color Perception Mechanisms (Chapter 10)

 

April 14:                       Second Midterm

 

April 16:                       Discuss exam

 

            April 18 – 23:               Color Photography (Chapter 11)

 

            April 25 – 30:               Wave Optics (Chapter 12)

 

            May 2 – 7:                   Holography

 

May 9 – 14:                 Light in Modern Physics (Chapter 15)              

 

May 20:                       Final Exam. 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.