PHY 371- Fall 2015
Instructor: Paulo Bedaque, Physics Building, room 2105
Office hours: Mondays 2:00pm
Textbook: Modern Physics: An Introductory Text, 2nd edition. We will not be following the text closely and will cover the first four parts of the book (and, maybe, a few selected topics of the rest). On the other hand, our discussion of relativity will be deeper. You may want to read a chapter of D. Morin's book on classical mechanics is available for free (link below) which covers relativity in a spirit similar to ours. Finally, Introducing Quantum Theory by J.P.McEvoy and Oscar Zarate is a little comics book with a lot of the historical and some of the physics of the early quantum mechanics. I encourage you to read it during the first month of class, before we actually discuss these topics in the lecture.
Grades: The grade will be based on frequent
homeworks (10%), two midterms (20% and 30% ) and one final (40%).
Syllabus and objectives: The goal of this class is to discuss relativity and quantum theory, the two pillars of modern physics. We will spent about a month discussing special relativity, including spacetime diagrams and the formalism of four-vectors. We will then discuss the experiments leading to the demise of classical mechanics and the conceptual revolutions they led to, from the evidence for the existence of atoms to the creation of the quantum mechanics. Time permitting, we will have a simplified discussion of a few more advanced topics.
Special Relativity
Galilean relativity
Speed of light is same all frames/ Michelson&Morley
and other experiment
Notion of space-time
Lorentz Transformations and invariance of the space time-interval
Applications of relativistic kinematics (eg. velocity addition;
Doppler effect) â—‹Resolution of relativistic paradoxes
4-vector notation
Energy-Momentum four-vector
Applications of relativistic dynamics in collisions and decays.
General relativity: curved spaces and the equivalence principle
Atoms
simple kinetic theory; free classical gases
Chemistry
Rutherford scattering
Quantum Mechanics
Blackbody radiation
Photoelectric effect and notion of photon
Wavenumber and momenta of photon/Compton effect
Bohr atom and concept of atomic transitions
de Broglie hypothesis/ particles as waves
Davisson-Germer experiment
Motivating the Schrodinger equation
The infinite square well
Probability interpretation of wavefunction
Uncertainty principle at a qualitative level
Some qualitative phenomena: tunneling, quantization of spectra, stability of atoms
Spin
Identical particles: bosons, fermions, periodic table
Advanced topics
Interesting links
A (free!) text
on special relativity, suitable for the kinematics part
of relativity
Excellent applet
illustrating the Michelson-Morley experiment
English translation of Einsteins' "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies". Over a century older and perfectly understandable.
English translation of the E=mc^2 paper. Notice that the equation E=mc^2 doesn't actually appear anywhere.
A more update site with modern tests of special relativity.
Michelson-Morley by the man himself.
New York Times
announces the eclipse results and makes Einstein a household name.
first-hand account of the discovery of spin.
You can buy your very own blackbody, for instance, here.
A comparison between sunlight (at the top of the atmosphere, before many frequencies are absorbed) and a blackbody spectrum.
Original article decribing the Compton.
Homework
homework_10 Movies: A B C D
Useful links:
