PHYS 108 - TENTATIVE OUTLINE FOR SPRING 2005:

${\cal H}$ = look it up in the HyperTextBook or the Skeptic's Guide.

Week Date Reading TOPICS  
 1.  5 Jan. ${\cal H}$, Ch. 21 Statistical Mechanics vs. Thermodynamics
    ${\cal H}$ "Count the ways" - defining ENTROPY
    ${\cal H}$ "What's Hot?" - defining TEMPERATURE
 2. 10 Jan. ${\cal H}$ Boltzmann - occupation probabilities
    ${\cal H}$, Ch. 22 Ideal Gases - equipartition & pressure
    ${\cal H}$, Ch. 22 Particle in a Box - Maxwellian velocity distibutions
 3. 17 Jan. ${\cal H}$, Ch. 25 "Charge! " - Coulomb's Law
    ${\cal H}$, Ch. 26 Action at a Distance - why invent a "field"?
 4. 24 Jan. ${\cal H}$, Ch. 27 Symmetric Conservation - Gauss' law for $\vec{g}$ & $\vec{E}$
 5. 31 Jan. First Midterm Examination
    Ch. 28 Potential vs. Capacity
    Ch. 29,30 "C & thee" - capacitance explored
 6.  7 Feb. Ch. 31 "R & I" - resistance vs. current; Kirchhoff's rules
      "RC" - time constant in DC circuits
    Ch. 31 Transport Theory
  14 Feb. Spring Reading Break
 7. 21 Feb. Ch. 32 "I cross B" - the Lorentz force and why we invent $\vec{B}$
    Ch. 33 "Do $\vec{B}$, do $\vec{B}$, do! " - moving charges make $\vec{B}$ (Biot & Savart)
      "Link the loop with symmetry" - using Ampère's law
 8. 28 Feb. Ch. 34,36 "Don't change that flux!" - inductance, Faraday & Lenz
      "Inductive logic" - defining, calculating and using L
 9.  7 Mar.   TRIUMF tour
    Second Midterm Examination
10. 14 Mar. Ch. 37 LCR circuits & Alternating Current
    Ch. 38 Maxwell's "Displacement Current"
11. 21 Mar. Ch. 38,39 Maxwell's equations: "Let there be light!"
    ${\cal H}$, Ch. 41 Thin film interference
12. 28 Mar. ${\cal H}$, Ch. 41 N slit interference
    Ch. 42,43 Diffraction
13.  4 Apr. ${\cal H}$ Concept Maps
      Review
  mid-Apr. Final Examination



Jess H. Brewer