Physics 7C:
Electromagnetic waves, physical optics, relativity and quantum physics
Key Ideas by Lecture

This is a summary of some of the main ideas. The links point to sites that might be of interest: some are more detailed explanation of what we did in lecture, others are more advanced material than we'll cover in lecture. This is not an official syllabus!

• Mechanical Waves
  • Wave pulse animations from Ohio State
  • Group and Phase velocity from UVA
  • Applets for higher dimensional waves, etc.
  • georgi's book is now available for free online!

• Electromagnetic waves (Giancoli Ch. 32)
  Maxwell's Equations in integral form
  Div, Grad, Curl and Maxwell's equations in differential form
  Electromagnetic waves
  The electromagnetic spectrum
  Poynting Vector
  Radiation Pressure
  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • MIT notes on divergence, grad and curl and the relation to maxwell's equations.
  • Field of an accelerating charge, Caltech
  • Electromagnetic Waves from U. Colorado: connects picture of wave as disturbance above with vector description of EM wave
  • EM wave from Fu_Kwun Hwang
  • The finite speed of light means that things we observe astronomically happened a while ago: some examples of objects and how long ago the light we see was emitted are here.
  • Where to find the Andromeda galaxy at night in the sky, the farthest away object that can be seen with the naked eye.
  • Chart of the electromagnetic spectrum from LBL
  • electromagnetic spectrum from hyperphysics
  • NASA introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum (very basic), more detailed descriptions of different waves are here.
  • What is Infrared radiation page from Caltech
  • Applet for changing the spectrum
  • The Milky Way galaxy at different wavelengths
  • Spectra of some different objects in space (bottom of page) by E. Fortin
  • power output from SF area radio stations
  • EM Waves on Optics page
  • Introduction to Magnetic Monopoles paper (PDF), fairly advanced level. Note: there is a typo in the sign of the magnetic current, given the symmetries claimed (equation 11-12), for equations 7-10.
  • Movies of EM waves

  Reflection and Refraction (Giancoli Ch. 33)

  geometric optics approximation

  speed of light in different media

  reflection angle equals incidence angle

  mirrors: flat, curved

  mirror equation, defintions and sign conventions

  refraction: snell's law

  dispersion

  total internal reflection

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • animation of Huygens principle for reflection and refraction
  • UMD Optics Course site
  • Patterns in Nature rainbows, cameras, ant-frying and other fun stuff.
  • Optics Tutorials
  • NTNU applets
  • Ray-Tracing Applet
  • Lecture Notes on geometric optics from U Texas
  • Optics from Eric Weisstein's treasure trove of physics
  • Wave description of reflection and refraction, Marion and Heald, Classical Electromagnetic radiation, sec. 6.2, 6.3
  • Reflection and Refraction notes from Glenbrook, including elementary more general links and exercises
  • Refraction in geometric optics and waves, University of the Pacific
  • thin lens/mirror applet by Fu-Kwun Hwang (most other pages link this too!)
  • Optics examples from NY State
  • Optics applets and tutorials from U Alabama
  • Geometric optics applets
  • Optics applet, Web Physics
  • Fermat's Principle and reflection and refraction
  • Fiber optic cables and sharks
  • elementary optics at U. Tennessee (mirrors and lenses)
  • basic optics and lenses, Clyde Virtual Univeristy (Scotland)

  Lenses and Optical instruments (Giancoli Ch. 34)

  Thin lens approximation

  Types of lenses

  lens equation and sign conventions

  multiple lenses

  lensmaker's equation

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Imaging with lenses page, Mount Holyoke (has applet)
  • Diverging lens applet, Web Physics at Mississippi State U.
  • Geometrical Ray Tracing, FSU
  • How a pinhole camera works from Howstuffworks.com (caveat, this pops up lots of ads!)
  • List of large astronomy optical telescopes by SEDS and telescope information by N. Strobel
  • Lensing by spacetime (gravitational lensing) and the analogy with optics we covered is described here. A striking example is here, of a galaxy cluster lensing things behind it.
  • also see above links as many discussions consider lenses and mirrors together
  • X-Ray telescopes compared to optical (light) telescopes
  • an extensive discussion on lenses
  • learn more about your eye's blind spot here
  • http://www.educypedia.be/education/physicsjavacolor.htm
  • http://www.cordonline.net/laserapplets/
  • http://mags.linksdb.iop.org/PhysicsWeb/Education/Interactive_experiments/Optics/index.html
  • http://www.lon-capa.org/~mmp/applist/applets.htm
  • http://hyochum.physics.sbc.edu/SBC_courses/physics240_fall2005/physics240schedule_fall2005.htm
  • http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~qiu/handout.html
  • http://www.ub.es/javaoptics/index-en.html
  • http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~avery/course/2049/s2005/readings_applets.shtml

  Interference (Giancoli Ch. 35)

  Huygen's Principle, relation to diffraction and refraction

  Interference

  Young's Double Slit Experiment

  Coherence

  Examples of interference, (possible) phase shift upon reflection

  interferometers

  Holography

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Huygen's principle and diffraction, Launceston College
  • Huygen's principle applet, by W. Fendt (click on next step to get whole discussion)
  • Huygen and Fresnel's principles, University College London
  • Huygen's principle in a lot of detail, mathpages.com
  • Huygen's principle explanation of why it shouldn't work and why it should, by Melvin Schwartz
  • More pictures on diffraction and double slit experiment, by D. Lee
  • MSU applet on Interference (vary the distance between 2 sources)
  • superposition applet (a reminder), and Young's double slit example, by Hwang
  • two more young's double slit expt applets are here and here.
  • Double Slit by Vtorov
  • Young's Paper on his double slit experiment, 1803 (access restricted to computers at institutions subscribing to jstor database)
  • Interferometry using Natural light (ie how to get a coherent source), from optics for kids (PDF)
  • LIGO, an interferometer looking for gravity waves caused by colliding black holes (and other things)
  • Hologram information, Univ. of South Carolina
  • Holograms, from a thesis on holography by Olsen
  • White light reflection hologram, from 3dimagery.com
  • The Edible Hologram, Optics for Kids (PDF) an interesting article about interference and light-reflecting strategies in nature is here
  • applet on dielectric (alternating-layer) mirror here
  • applet on thin films

  Diffraction and Polarization (Giancoli Ch. 36)

  Single slit diffraction

  Diffraction plus interference for double slit

  Multiple slits, diffraction gratings

  Resolution limits due to diffraction

  Polarization, intensity of transmitted light

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Diffraction in terms of waves, MSU
  • MSU applets on diffraction and double slit with diffraction
  • Single slit diffraction, WebPhysics
  • diffraction grating applet, Queensland
  • Diffraction from several slits, Rochester
  • http://www.matter.org.uk/diffraction/
  • differently polarized waves, from Budapest
  • Polarization by reflection, U. Chicago
  • Polarization at HyperPhysics
  • http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/java/polarizedlight/waveform3d/
  • http://webphysics.davidson.edu/physlet_resources/dav_optics/Examples/polarization.html
    
  • http://www.amanogawa.com/archive/Polarization/Polarization-2.html
    
  • http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/polarized.html
    
  • http://www.lon-capa.org/~mmp/kap24/polarizers/Polarizer.htm
    
  • http://fipsgold.physik.uni-kl.de/software/java/polarisation/index.html
    
  • http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/index.php?topic=35
    
  • http://gerdbreitenbach.de/crystal/crystal2.html

  Special Relativity (Giancoli Ch. 37)

  Postulates of Special Relativity

  Why? Michelson Morley experiment

  Time Dilation and Lorentz Contraction

  Lorentz Transformations

  Observer dependence: events, clocks

  "distance" agreed upon in all intertial frames

  Spacetime Diagrams

  Simultaneity

  paradoxes

  Velocity Addition

  Mass and Energy

  massless particles

  (maybe, if time permits) doppler shift

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • newton's statements about absolute time and space
  • on the luminiferous aether, aether drag, etc...
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_drag_hypothesis
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_theories
  • on the global positioning system (gps) and relativity
    • http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html
    • http://www.leapsecond.com/history/Ashby-Relativity.htm
    • http://www.phys.lsu.edu/mog/mog9/node9.html
    • http://metaresearch.org/cosmology/gps-relativity.asp
    • http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/spr/2000-02/msg0021801.html
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity
    • http://physics.syr.edu/courses/PHY312.03Spring/GPS/GPS.html
  • Relativity applets
  • movies on GR
    • a clip from "THe Elegant Universe"
    • gravity waves
    • rubber sheet, deflection of starlight, etc
  • Quotations about the end of science right before relativity and quantum mechanics were discovered, and other "ends", amateur science web page. Note: it is more supportive of "unconventional science" than I (JDC) would be--it is very hard to change a theory just "a little bit" and any explanation you give does have to agree with all previous measurements (which provided the earlier theories)....
  • some context for the Michelson-Morley experiment, from U. Va.
  • Special and General Relativity notes, Mount Allison University
  • Special Relativity Notes, Virginia Tech
  • Some more relativity notes, includes discussion of causality using spacetime diagrams touched upon in class (pages 5-7). Lots of pictures. (PDF)
  • fun java movies on relativity, Univ of Winnipeg
  • Fun with simultaneity, U.C. Riverside
  • Introduction to spacetime diagrams, Visualizing proper time and twin paradox applet, Syracuse U.
  • Special Relativity Notes, U. Colorado, lots of pictures
  • Notes on special relativity, Univ. of Virginia
  • Space-time lab, CalTech
  • relativity and Relativistic Doppler Effect, hyperphysics
  • History of special and general relativity discoveries.

  Motivations for Quantum Mechanics (Giancoli Ch. 38)

  Blackbody spectrum

  Planck's Hypothesis

  Photoelectric effect

  Compton effect

  Wave-particle duality, number-phase duality

  Rutherford's scattering experiment

  Atomic Spectra

  Bohr atom: definition, successes and failures

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Notes on blackbody radiation, U. Virginia
  • Blackbody radiation, hyperphysics
  • Spectra of some different objects in space (bottom of page) by E. Fortin (also above)
  • Black body radiation spectrum applet, MSU
  • Quantum Atom, Colorado
  • Planck black body spectra, Univ. Tennessee
  • Experiments confronting classical physics, U. Guelph
  • An intro to shot noise in laser beams, i.e. number/phase uncertainty for light in EM waves (PDF)

  Quantum Mechanics (Giancoli Ch. 39)

  Uncertainty principle: position/momentum, energy/time, etc.

  Wavefunction

  Predictions using wavefunction: probabilities in q.m.

  Schrodinger equation, time dependent and time independent

  Free particle, wave packets

  Particle in a box, some probabilities for measurements

  Harmonic Oscillator

  Particle in a finite well

  Particle and a step

  Tunneling

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Wave packet spread, Hyperphysics
  • Biographical background for Schrodinger. Schroedinger equation concepts, hyperphysics
  • free particle wavefunction, U. Guelph
  • Simple quantum models, posed and solved, funny gifs (U. Guelph)
  • expectation or average values of quantities in quantum mechanics, Hyperphysics
  • Comparison of Classical and Quantum Probabilities for a Harmonic Oscillator, Hyperphysics
  • finite well applet, Davidson. Well is between x = -0.5 and +0.5.
  • Particle in a finite height box, hyperphysics
  • Physics 137a, Quantum class here, links to lots of things, plus animations at bottom.
  • Animations of QM wave packets, U. Rochester, in particular the spread of a Gaussian.
  • Scattering of a QM wave packet, Silicon graphics
  • Scanning Tunneling Microscope, Nobel prize e-museum
  • Quantum Atomic Tunneling, Cornell group
  • Diagram of how STM works, IAP/TU Wien
  • STM image gallery, IBM
  • Notes on tunneling, esp in NH3, Syracuse
  • Barrier penetration and tunneling notes, UIUC
  • Tunneling in the sun, hyperphysics
  • Tunneling of wavepackets, UIUC
  • New Scientist's Guide to the quantum world, New Scientist Magazine (like Scientific American, but in the UK)
  • Schroedinger's cat , Ecole Normale, France
  • Decoherence web site, Joos

  Hydrogen atom and other atoms (Giancoli Ch. 40)

  review of particle in a box

  Hydrogen Schroedinger equation-particle on a sphere

  Properties of solutions, quantum numbers

  angular momentum

  spin: Stern-Gerlach

  properties of spin systems, quantum computing/cryptography

  multi-electron atoms

  exclusion principle

  nomenclature

  X-rays

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Some details of solving hydrogen Schroedinger eqn, Hyperphysics
  • Hydrogen atom wavefunctions Applet, Davidson
  • Hydrogen Atom wavefunctions pictures, Univ. Bonn
  • Atomic Orbitals Applet, MIT
  • Everything you always wanted to know about the H atom but were afraid to ask, Johns Hopkins U
  • Combining some orbitals, D. Dauger
  • Electron Spin, Hyperphysics
  • Behavior of spin under rotations and exclusion discussion at U Missouri
  • Atomic structure properties, Hyperphysics
  • Rules for filling up shells in atoms (Hund's rules), UCSD
  • Masers and lasers page, from Omni magazine
  • The Quantum Computer, Caltech
  • Quantum Computing, Pro and Con, CalTech (technical article but also just overview)
  • Tutorial on Quantum Cryptography, Dartmouth

  Molecules and Solids (Giancoli Ch. 41)

  Bonds in Molecules:Covalent and Ionic

  Orbital overlap

  Dipoles: Van der Waals Bonds

  Potentials for nuclei in molecules

  Molecular rotation/vibration, quantum descriptions

  Types of bonds in crystals

  Madelung const

  Metals

  Free electron gas, density of states, Fermi energy, probability factor f

  Band theory for solids: conductor, insulator, semiconductor

  holes and particles, doping, transistors

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Orbitron, molecular and atomic orbitals, Sheffield, UK.
  • Molecular orbital pictures for many types of molecules, McMaster, Ontario
  • links on molecular orbital theory, Eth Zurich
  • Molecular Spectra, Hyperphysics
  • Lecture notes with many advanced discussions on spectroscopy, Rutgers
  • Molecular bond notes, Wisconsin (PDF)
  • Fermi Energy E_F, Hyperphysics
  • Notes on Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e. how to derive it. (Univ. of South Dakota)
  • Band theory, bands for solids, metals in periodic table, Hyperphysics
  • Introduction to superconductors, Queensland (these are not closely related to conductors and semiconductors but were asked about).
  • Solid State Physics Course lecture notes, UIUC
  • Semiconductors, Hyperphysics
  • Semiconductors, rough guide to electronics (pictures of holes/electrons)

  Nuclear Physics (Giancoli Ch. 42,43)

  Four forces of nature-strong, weak, electromagnetic, gravitational

  Conservation laws

  nucleus decay: alpha, beta, gamma particles (He nuclei, electrons, photons)

  stability (shell model)

  binding energy

  half life

  fusion

  fission

  MRI

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • Nuclear Structure Concepts, esp. Shell model description, Hyperphysics
  • Synthesis of elements in space, Space Sciences Lab (UCB)
  • How MRI Works, HowStuffWorks.com

  Particle Physics (Giancoli Ch. 44)

  Wavelength and particle momentum

  Particle creation

  Conserved Charges

  Detecting particles

  Particle Zoo

  Quarks, Color

  Leptons (electron, neutrino, etc.)

  Photon and particle exchange, range of interaction

  Particles for other 3 forces

  Standard Model

  Questions: Higgs, neutrino masses, quark masses

  Symmetry and symmetry breaking

  Frontiers: unification,gravity, supersymmetry, strings, extra dimensions

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • What is Matter?, hypermind, several cutting edge researchers giving non-technical descriptions of particle physics models today
  • Particle Adventure and Clickable chart of particle properties, LBL
  • Review of Particle Physics, lists of known particles and their properties and review articles (advanced), LBL
  • Article on using particle tracks, CERN (accelerator in Switzerland/France)
  • little movie of exchange forces, particle adventure
  • Dave's Microcosmos, on particle physics, Saginaw Valley State University, also lots of links to other particle physics pages
  • www.superstringtheory.com, string theory web site, esp the intro pages here and here.
  • slides from intro talk on extra dimensions (Chicago/Harvard)

  Cosmology (Giancoli Ch. 45-3 to end)

  General Relativity: spacetime as an entity itself

  spatial curvature

  expanding universe

  expanding universe + matter + dark energy

  universe today:expnding, cooling, getting more clumpy

  back in time to big bang

  forward in time

  nucleosynthesis, cmb

  structure formation

  Some links for further reading (also see general links):

  • What is theoretical cosmology, UCB
  • Cosmology lecture, UCSD
  • Intro lecture on big bang and dark energy, Center for Cosmological Physics (Chicago)
  • Introduction to Cosmology, WMAP CMB satellite outreach pages and Mission results
  • Course on Cosmological constant/dark energy, Harvard Extension, many links for lecture references
  • Movies of structure formation linked from UIUC, CfCP, UW
  • Cosmology essays/etc, UC Berkeley
  • Basic ideas and examples from foundations of modern cosmology textbook (UVa)

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