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At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:
1. Analyze electric fields and potentials.
2. Relate capacitors to electrostatics.
3. Analyze simple electric circuits.
4. Describe magnetism in relation to electric current and calculate the force on a moving charge.
5. Solve problems related to Faraday's law of induction.
6. Explain the concepts related to geometric optics and optical systems.
7. Apply the concept of wave interference to explain interference patterns.
8. Describe the concepts of special relativity.
9. Explain concepts related to atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics.
Lab objectives:
1. Conduct experiments that apply the scientific method and error analysis to explore physics principles related to electricity, magnetism, light and optics, and modern physics.
2. Use manual and computerized data collection techniques to measure and analyze parameters related to electricity, magnetism, light and optics, and modern physics.
3. Plot, curve fit, and interpret data using a spreadsheet or other analysis tool.
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I. Electrostatics and Fields
A. Electric charges and field lines
B. Coulomb's law
C. Gauss' law
II. Electric Potential
A. Potential difference in a uniform electric field
B. Electric potential of point charges
III. Direct Current (DC) Circuits
A. Batteries and EMF
B. Resistors in series and parallel
C. Resistivity
D. Kirchhoff's rules
E. Capacitors
F. Resistors Capacitors (RC) circuits
IV. Magnetic Forces and Fields
A. Magnetic force on a moving charge
B. Magnetic force on a current carrying conductor
C. Torque on a current loop in a uniform magnetic field
D. Ampere's law
V. Electromagnetic Induction
A. Faraday's law
B. Lenz's law
C. Inductance and transformers
VI. Alternating Current (AC) Circuits
A. Capacitors and inductors in AC circuits
B. RLC circuits
C. Resonance
VII. Electromagnetic Waves
A. Properties of waves: speed, wavelength, frequency
B. Energy and electromagnetic waves
C. Doppler effect and electromagnetic waves
VIII. Geometric Optics
A. Nature of light
B. Reflection and refraction of light
C. Total internal reflection
IX. Lenses, Mirrors, and Optical Instruments
A. Plane and spherical mirrors
B. Lenses and image formation
C. Applications
X. Wave Optics and Polarization of Light
A. Interference
B. Diffraction
C. Polarization
XI. Special Relativity
A. Postulates of special relativity
B. Time dilation
C. Length contraction
D. Equivalence of mass and energy
XII. Quantum Physics
A. Wave-particle duality
B. Blackbody radiation
C. Photoelectric effect
D. Wave nature of matter
XIII. Atomic Physics and the Emission of Light
A. Bohr model of the atom and line spectra
B. Rutherford scattering
C. Quantum mechanical picture of the atom
XIV. Nuclear Physics
A. Nuclear structure
B. Radioactive decay and dating
C. Radiation detectors
Lab Topics:
I. Laboratory Safety and Procedures
II. Writing Lab Reports
III. Measurement Techniques for Electromagnetic and Optical Phenomena
A. Manual data collection with calipers, meter sticks, etc.
B. Computerized data collection with field detectors, spectrometers, oscilloscopes, etc.
IV. Data Processing and Graphing Results with Spreadsheets
V. Error Analysis
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Physics. 12th ed. Cutnell, John and Johnson, Kenneth and Young, David and Stadler, Shane. Wiley. 2022.
College Physics: A Strategic Approach. 4th ed. Knight, Randall and Jones, Brian and Field, Stuart. Pearson. 2018. (classic).
Essentials of College Physics. Serway, Raymond and Vuille, Chris. Cengage Learning. 2007. (classic).
Instructor-prepared lab manual
Online Educational Resources (OER):
College Physics 2e, Urone, Paul P., Hinrichs, Roger. https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-2e Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0. 2022