COURSE INFORMATION FOR PHYSICS 107-TV
     fall 1997

There are seven homework sets, due about every two weeks.
There are three evening exams, one on each unit.
There are three live and one online discussion sections.
For more information click on the side-panel buttons to the left.

     description of course

Physics 107 has three units. Unit 1 sweeps from Aristotle through Maxwell, covering more than 2000 years in 11 lectures. While partly historical, and heavily descriptive, this unit does include simple mathematical formulas associated with some of the physics accomplishments of Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton. In Unit 1 you will learn much of the necessary vocabulary and methodology for the course, so the whole class will have the same background as we start 20th Century physics.

Unit 2 is the longest unit, with 17 lectures. It starts with the classical subject of waves, necessary to set up relativity, and a lecture on the recently developed theory of chaos, then it centers on Einstein's theory of special relativity, published in 1905 and one of the two great concepts of modern physics. During these three weeks you will not only grasp the logic behind the relativistic distortion of space and time, but also learn to calculate the magnitude of that distortion. We close the unit with general relativity, also Einstein's theory, then modern cosmology, or how the whole universe evolves. This is a difficult and rewarding unit, which has cured most students of math anxiety.

Unit 3 first races through basic quantum mechanics, the second great concept of twentieth century physics, in just 6 lectures. Since Planck introduced the "quantum" in 1900, physics has exploded, as has the number of physicists. We will become familiar with the work of many Nobel Physics Prize winners. In our final 9 lectures we come up to date with a crash course in modern applications of quantum physics, quantum field theory, and particle physics, capped by a review of the list of Nobel laureates.