The deepest ideas in physics

explained for non-scientists !

from Relativity to Quantum

PHYS 1301

IDEAS OF MODERN PHYSICS

Spring 2010

· Math requirements: Arithmetic (no algebra or calculus).

· Physics requirements: None.

· Satisfies a GEC requirement for laboratory science.

· A good command of English and visual imagination will be helpful.

LECTURER: 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

· Lecture: MW 1:00-1:50 pm in 158 Fondren Science.

· Laboratory Sessions: F 1:00-2:50 pm, 3:00-4:50 pm in 60 Fondren Science.

· Office hours: 207 Fondren Science.

· 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: <sdalley@physics.smu.edu>

INFORMATION

· Syllabus

· Rules

· Laboratories. Example Write-Up

· Homework.

· Extracurricular Activities, Disabilities, Religious Observances, and Attendance Policy

Download free PDF reader here

RESOURCES

· WWW resources:

· A useful internet guide to many ideas of modern physics is Physics 2000.

· Read about Newton and Maxwell, chaps who laid the foundations of Classical Physics (Mechanics and Electromagnetism).

· Planetary features that refute geocentric model, Jupiter, Venus, Moon.

· 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.

· Light clocks at rest and in relative motion

· Particle accelerators move elementary particles close to the speed of light. An old one (0.99c) and the latest one (0.99999c) at CERN laboratory in Geneva.

· Aircraft routes follow geodesics, the shortest path between two points. This is not a straight line because the Earth is not flat (even in Kansas).

· Gravity bends the path of light, producing gravitational lensing of galaxies and black holes

· Our galaxy, the Milky Way.

· The Hubble space telescope has verified many of the predictions of General Relativity in recent years.

· Microwave radiation from the Big Bang fills the expanding universe.

· Quantum Mechanics is so weird, it took many scientists to piece together the model – Planck, Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, Born, Schrodinger, and more..

· Two sources of waves will produce an interference pattern which can also be realized as probability of particle detection.

· Microscopes that use electrons instead of light can see smaller things.

· Electron `waves’ imaged inside an atomic corral

· The line spectra that exist within the spectrum of colours due to absorption of special wavelengths by atoms.

· Development of the LASER as an example of a cooperative Quantum phenomenon.

· Nuclear reactions combine Quantum Mechanics & Relativity to release enormous energy, such as in `atomic bombs’, Crossroads Baker (fission), Tsar Bomb (fusion).

· Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen, explores philosophical and political consequences of quantum mechanics in World War II.

· Unsolved Mysteries of Physics beyond the Standard Model (final PowerPoint lecture)

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