PHYS 280: CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS

Office: CWSC 131
Phone: 368-3778
Email: roharmon

Office Hours:	Monday 10:00-11:50
	Tuesday 3:10-5:00
	Wednesday 1:10-3:00

Text:	Modern Physics, 5th edition (2008), by Paul A. Tipler &Ralph A. Llewellyn
	Underlying Physics, by Barbara Andereck

Additional books and material of interest are on reserve in the library.

If you can't meet with me during my regular office hours, please don't hesitate to set up an appointment for a more convenient time. You can just stop by if you are in the area, but it's a good idea to phone first since I might not be there or might be busy with something. In any case, don't be shy about contacting me - I want you to succeed, and I'm here to help!

Course overview: Most or all of the physics you learned in PHYS 110-111 or in equivalent "freshman-level" courses was already known in 1900. This semester you will be introduced to the exciting and revolutionary developments in physics that occurred in the Twentieth Century: the theories of relativity and of quantum mechanics.

You will learn that the properties of time and space are different and richer than your intuition suggests, and that the laws governing the microscopic world are of a very different character from the laws governing macroscopic objects (tables, chairs, blocks, people, stars...) which you learned in earlier physics classes. (Of course, the laws governing the microworld are ultimately responsible for the laws governing the macroworld; the macroscopic laws of physics with which you are familiar are approximations which apply to physical systems which are much larger than atoms.)

Relativity and quantum mechanics will require you to think about the world in new ways. This ties in with one of the major goals of this course: to begin to learn how to "think like a physicist." It is difficult to give a concise and complete definition of what this means, but in general it involves the kinds of questions (astro)physicists ask when confronted with a problem, the approaches taken on the way to a solution, the kinds of approximations we make, and so forth. In this case, the only way to learn is by doing!

Many of the topics we'll cover in learning to think like a physicist are never formally covered in an undergraduate curriculum. Instead, many physicists encounter them for the first time in graduate school as they are doing research. Our hope as a department is that by making you aware of aspects of physics outside of solving homework problems and doing lab experiments that you will begin to appreciate what is involved in pursuing a career in science.

In support of these goals Dr. Andereck has produced a manuscript called Considering Physics. She wants your feedback so that she can continue to make it better. In her words: "Although I have received feedback from the last three years’ PHYS 280 classes and have made modifications based on their input, I still need significant feedback from you. I need to know what you understand and what you don’t understand. I need to know what is interesting and what is not.  I need to know what I should keep, what I should change, what I should eliminate and what I should add.  I need to know where I have typos or awkward sentences." To encourage you to participate in this process you will receive homework credit for submitting useful and well-reasoned feedback.

In addition, you will learn to use Mathematica in order to perform symbolic computations and LaTeX to write scientific papers.

Exams and homework: There will be two exams during the course of the semester and a comprehensive Final Exam. The first exam will be on Thursday, October 2; the second exam will be on Thursday, November 13. The Final Exam will be cumulative and will take place on Tuesday, December 16 at 8:30 AM.

Homework problem sets will be collected about once per week. Homework is due at the beginning of the period. Late homework will incur a penalty of 20% of the assignment's total value for each weekday (not class period) it is late.

You may collaborate with other students when working on your homework assignments, unless otherwise instructed. This can be one of the best ways to improve your understanding. Note, though, that not working on the homework yourself and looking over a friend's solutions does not constitute collaboration! Turning in duplicate solutions or solutions which are essentially identical constitutes plagiarism! You must show me that you understand the solutions yourself, by stating the reasoning behind the solutions in your own words. This means that you and those with whom you collaborate must not work together during the time that you are putting your solution on paper to turn in. Furthermore, you may not allow any other students to see your written solutions, or a draft copy of them, before turning them in.

You are allowed to use Mathematica when doing homework problems. You may also use math tables such as those in the CRC Handbook.

Paper: A 5- to 7-page paper on a physics or astrophysics topic of your choice which has been approved by me will be due on the Thursday before Thanksgiving Break. If you have completed or been exempted from English 105 and would like to earn an R (writing option) from this course, you may do so by writing a longer paper. In this case you'll need to submit a rough draft of your paper in early November and make as many revisions in consultation with me as are necessary to yield an acceptable final paper by the last week of the semester.

In order ensure that everybody makes timely progress on the paper, you will be required to adhere to the following schedule: 

Last day to declare R option:	September 4 (Week 2)
Paper topic due:	September 11 (Week 3)
Bibliography and outline due:	October 9 (Week 7)
Rough draft for writing option due:	November 6 (Week 11)
Paper due (if not doing writing option):	November 20 (Week 13)
Revised paper for writing option due:	December 11 (Week 15)

More information about the requirements for the paper can be found here. For a list of suggested paper topics, see here.

Grading: All of your work (each exam problem, and each homework problem) will be graded on a 4-point scale, which you can think of as being like a "GPA": 4 points is an A, 3 points is a B, 2 points is a C, 1 point is a D, and 0 points is an F.

The relative contributions of the quizzes and exams to your final grade will be as follows:

Your final letter grade for the course will correspond to the average "GPA" obtained from all your work weighted as given in the table above. I modify the translation from "GPA" to grade a bit from the way it is done on your report card to keep A's from being too hard to get and to keep D's and F's from being too easy to avoid. This is how it works:

Letter Grade	"GPA"
A+	3.80-4.00
A	3.50-3.79
A-	3.35-3.49
B+	3.20-3.34
B	3.00-3.19
B-	2.67-2.99
C+	2.34-2.66
C	2.00-2.33
C-	1.80-1.99
D+	1.70-1.79
D	1.60-1.69
D-	1.50-1.59
F	0.00-1.49

The image in the navigation bar is a portrait of Albert Einstein. (Duh!)

  Last update: August 23, 2008