The King's University College
Physics 243 Course Outline
Waves and Related Topics
January 2018

Instructor: Brian Martin
Office: A-207, Phone: 465-3500x8339, or 922-4577 (res.)
Schedule: MWF 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. (S201)
Lab: Friday, 2:00 - 5:00 (S201)

Prerequisites: Physics 241 or equivalent

Calendar Description:

Simple harmonic oscillation, wave motion, sound, light, interference and diffraction, polarization, wave-particle duality, introduction to atomic and quantum theory.

Required Texts:

Free on-line text at OpenStax College - Chapters 16,17,25,27,29-32 https://openstax.org/details/college-physics
Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill 2003. Unit Q
Schedule: follow this link for detailed schedule

Developing a Christian Perspective in Physics

All of creation testifies to God and so it should be no surprise that Physics, by exploring the physical world, also explores God's relationship with creation and us. In this course, we will take time to look at how the laws of the natural world are a reflection of the relationship between Creator and Creation. Clearly our task is to develop skills and understandings but we should also be able to look "beyond" these and see how and where ideas come from.

Evaluation

Assignments

Read this carefully! There will be two kinds of assignment - each with its own purpose:

  1. Daily Assignments: These are optional - do them when and if you wish. You encouraged to do these and to hand in at the start of each class two worked questions from the chapter we will discuss during that class. These questions do three things: they encourage you to read your text!, give you practice and they provide me with feedback on how you are doing. Complete solutions will be posted so that you can compare your solution with an expert solution.

    initial attempt Your initial solutions will be graded on a 0 - 5 point scale:
    0 =
    no effort
    1 =
    poor effort, major errors
    2 =
    fair effort with modest conceptual errors or good effort with major conceptual errors
    3 =
    good effort with minor conceptual errors or fair effort with only minor errors
    4 =
    good effort with only minor errors
    5 =
    good effort with no errors
    correction You will receive your initial attempts the following class with a minimum of comments and a numerical score. The solutions to these questions will be posted at this time! You may receive up to 2 additional points if you correctly identify your mistake and correct it in a different color. You must clearly identify the error (explain what you did wrong not merely rephrase the posted solution!). You have up to (but not exceeding) one week to hand in your corrections.

  2. Weekly Assignments: Every 10 days (or so) you will have a major assignment that reviews material from previous classes. This is a required part of the course and will be used to establish your final course grade.

Mid-Term Exam: TBA

Final Exam

A final exam, based on the entire course will be scheduled for April.

Note: you must pass the lab section of the course in order to pass the course. 

Additional References:

Expanded topics will inlcude Damped Oscillators, Acoustics and Doppler effect.

Mark Distribution in Percent:

Your final grade in the course will be comprised of both lecture and lab marks. The weighting is as follows:

Your final grade will be expressed using the alpha grade system used by The King's University College. See the student calendar for more information

Laboratory 20
Assignments 25
Mid-term exam 20

Final exam

35
Total 100
                   

A More Detailed Description ....

Physics 243 is the continuation of Physics 241. The course will focus on three major topics: wave motion, sound and light. Topics considered will be:

1. Oscillations: the application of Newton's second law to simple vibrating systems will introduce the topic of oscillation. Applications will include the oscillating spring and simple pendulum.

2. Wave Motion: the physics of wave motion will be developed. Included will be a mathematical description of the travelling wave, the principle of superposition, reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction.

3. Sound: the physics of sound waves including measurement of sound intensity, mathematical representation of sound waves, interference and resonance. The Doppler effect and shock wave phenomena will be briefly discussed.

4. Light: combining some very rudimentary ideas about electricity and magnetism this section will introduce the notion that light is an electromagnetic wave. A distinction will be made between mechanical and electromagnetic waves. The electromagnetic spectrum and some simple technological applications (radio, microwave etc.) will be considered.

5. Modern wave-particle ideas will be introduced and applied to atomic systems. This section will include a discussion of the spectrum of atomic hydrogen and some very simple ideas from quantum mechanics.

In addition to the topics discussed above, the historical and cultural dimension of the ideas of physics will, where appropriate, be explored. This will lead to discussions relating one's worldview to one's physics. The discussion of the wave-particle duality, for example, affords a stimulating insight into some of the dilemmas facing 20th century physicists.