Instructor:
Eckhard
von Toerne
Office/phone: CW011/532-1638
Email: evt@phys.ksu.edu
Office hours:
Monday.
Text: * 'Special
Relativity' (M.I.T. Introductory Physics Course) by A.P. French
Paperback, Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393097935
* 'Vibration and Waves' also by A.P. French
Paperback, Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393099369
Grading: The final grade will be based on homework (30%), midterm exam (30%) and final exam (40%).
Homework will be due every other week on Fridays: 08/29, 09/12, 09/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/07, 11/21.
The midterm exam will be held during class on Wednesday October 29th.
The final exam is a take-home exam to be distributed on Monday, December 1st. It is due on Wednesday, December 10th . The basis of determining final grades is
· A 85% of all points or more
· B 70% of all points or more
· C 60% of all points or more
· D 50% of all points or more
· F under 50% of all points
It is expected that all
students will adhere to the University's undergraduate honor system. Please
refer to the “Academic Dishonesty'' policy in the K-State Undergraduate
Catalog and the Undergraduate Honor System Policy on the KSU web
page at http://www.ksu.edu/honor/. The
honor pledge (“On my honor as a student, I have neither given nor received
unauthorized aid on this academic work") must be written out and signed by
the student on all exams and homework in order for the grade to be recorded.
Please note that you are
encouraged to work on homework problems with other students, or to ask
instructors for help in doing homework assignments. However, if you work with
someone, please acknowledge it: put “I worked with ...'', or “I had help from
...'' on your homework. This will not reduce your grade.
If you have any condition
such as a physical or learning disability which will make it difficult for you to
carry out the work as outlined here, or which will require academic
accommodations, please notify the lecturer and contact the Disabled Students
Office (Holton 202) during the first two weeks of class.
Course Outline, Phys 623 (Fall 2003)
Aug 20 – Sep 5 Oscillations
simple harmonic oscillator,
differential equations, complex numbers and relation between trigonometric and
exponential functions, damped and forced oscillations, LC circuits,
oscillations around an equilibrium point, coupled oscillators
Sep 8 – Oct 1 Waves
waves on a string, conserved
quantities and partial differential equations, dispersion, damping, sound waves,
Doppler effect, water waves
Oct 3 – Oct 29 Electrodynamics and Waves
laws of electro- and magnetostatics, Maxwell’s equations, field of a moving charge, electromagnetic
waves, linear antenna, polarization, electro-magnetic waves in a medium
Oct 31 – Nov
24 Relativity
principle of relativity, Michelson
Morley experiment, time dilation, Lorentz
transformations, addition of velocities, experimental tests of relativity,
four-momentum, lorentz invariant quantities
Dec 1 – Dec 8 Relativistic
formulation of classical Electrodynamics
relativistic formulation of Maxwell’s
equations, field tensor Fmn,
“dP/dt is not a four-vector”, gauge conditions
Dec 10
“Things that are nice but do not fit into a one-semester course”
general relativity, nonlinear
differential equations, complex-valued wave equations
Oscillations and Waves are phenomena that can be found in many areas of science or everyday life - from fluctuations in predator-prey populations to the surf of the ocean. A study of certain electromagnetic wave phenomena, the Michelson-Morley experiment, provoked Einstein's discovery of special relativity and many aspects of Einstein's theory will be discussed in this course.
The material in this course allows us to introduce useful physics tools like differential equations, complex numbers, vector calculus, stokes law.