PHYS 224 Basic Physics III (2006 Spring)

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PHYS 224 Detailed Syllabus

Course Description (from the Catalog)
This course emphasizes vibrations, wave motion and optics. Topics include mathematical characterization of vibrations and waves, sound, superposition of standing waves, geometrical and physical optics, diffraction, interference and polarization of light.
Prerequisite: PHYS 122
The course requires that students have the background in Physics provided by PHYS121 and PHYS122. Concepts from these courses will be used on a daily basis.
Corequisite: MATH 251
The course requires students to have a good working knowledge of single-variable Calculus. This includes differentiation & integration, formulae for algebraic & trigonometric functions, computation & manipulation of power series, Taylor series, and polar coordinates.

Course Objectives
This course is the third part of the Introductory Physics program for Physics Majors at UMBC, and the stepping stone to almost all the upper-level Physics courses. However, despite its name, it is not really a continuation of the first two courses. Instead it sets the (mainly mathematical) foundation for the upper-level courses. Many of the concepts introduced in this course will be encountered again (& expanded upon) in later courses in Quantum Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Classical Mechanics, Optics etc. Thus the main objective of this course is to provide students an introduction to these fundamental concepts, and a thorough grounding in the mathematical techniques, required in future courses.

By the end of the course, successful students will be able to:

  1. describe several forms of simple harmonic motion, including
    • amplitude, velocity, acceleration & energy exchange as a function of time
  2. write, manipulate & solve the differential equations that describe the behaviour of free, damped & forced oscillators, using both
    • trigonomical functions
    • the complex exponential formulism
    and easily be able to switch between the two.
  3. describe coupled oscillators and normal modes of a system
  4. describe wave motion, including
    • discrimination of transverse vs longitudinal waves
    • discrimination of standing vs progressive waves
    • deriving/solving the equation for a propagating wave
    • deriving/solving the equation for a standing wave
    • description of energy transported by a wave
    • description of resonance
    • have an understanding of boundary effects & Huygen's Principle
  5. describe the propagation of both sound and electromagnetic waves (light), including use of
    • the Poynting Vector
    • Doppler shifts
  6. understand the concept of superposition, including
    • interference & diffraction
  7. understand the propagation of light encountering mirrors and lenses, including
    • the difference between geometric and physical optics
    • refraction & reflection
    • focal points & magnification
  8. introduction to Fourier methods, including
    • Fourier spectral analysis
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