MODERN
PHYSICS
LEAD INSTUCTOR: Dr. Simon Dalley
Required Texts:
Inside Relativity by Delo. E. Mook and Thomas Vargish
Princeton University Press (1987) ISBN 0-691-02520-7, paperback.
The New Quantum Universe by Tony Hey and Patrick Walters
Cambridge University Press (2003) ISBN 978-0521564571, paperback
· Sessions: Every Wed 5:30-8:30 pm, Fondren Science, SMU
· Contact:
o Call or leave a message at (214) 768-2109, or
o Leave a note in my mailbox in Physics Department Office, 102 Fondren Science
o send me e-mail: mailto:%3csdalley@physics.smu.edu%3e
INFORMATION
·
Postest
·
Syllabus
·
Lab Manuals Available online in the lab. No need to print out.
Hubble's Law: An Introductory Astronomy Lab,
long version (Univ. of Washington):
Age
of the Universe activity (Univ. of Michigan):
https://dept.astro.lsa.umich.edu/ugactivities/Labs/cosmo/intro-cosmo.html
Particle ID
http://www.physics.smu.edu/~sdalley/particlelab/home.html
· Quizzes Consult before relevant class.
·
Lecture note templates
Print out and add your own notes in class
If you need one, download free PDF reader here
LINKS
· Why should you know about the ideas of modern
physics?
· minutephysics animations. Big ideas explained in less than 60 seconds.
The Particle Adventure: http://www.particleadventure.org/
The Universe Adventure: http://www.universeadventure.org/
Sixty Symbols: http://www.sixtysymbols.com/
Physics for the 21st Century: http://www.learner.org/courses/physics/index.html
· Projectile Motion depends on who’s looking at it.
· The medical technique of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) uses solenoid magnetic fields and electromagnetic radio waves to detect water content in the body.
· CT (Computerized Tomography) scans use 3-dimensional arrangements of X-rays to reconstruct images for medical diagnosis.
· Read about Einstein, the creator of Relativity.
· Particle accelerators move elementary particles close to the speed of light at CERN laboratory in Geneva, where they are collided in the ATLAS detector.
· Gravity causes time to slow down; the effect must be taken into account in GPS satellites
· How to imagine extra dimensions.
· The Hubble space telescope has verified many of the predictions of General Relativity in recent years.
· The expansion of the universe is accelerating (2011 Physics Nobel prize), implying the existence of Dark Energy in General Relativity.
· Quantum Mechanics is so weird, it took many scientists to piece together the model – Planck, Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, Born, Schrodinger, and more..
· Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment illustrates the strange interpretation of reality in Quantum Mechanics
· The line spectra that exist within the spectrum of colours due to absorption and emission of particular wavelengths by atoms.
· Standing waves, the idea that explains the stability of electron waves inside atoms.
· Development of the LASER as an example of a cooperative Quantum phenomenon. The same cooperative phenomenon causes superfluidity and superconductivity.
· Nuclear reactions combine Quantum Mechanics & Relativity to release enormous energy, such as in `atomic bombs’, Crossroads Baker (fission), Tsar Bomb (fusion).