Electronic Handouts
NOTE: Many of these handouts (those listed as "PDF" format ) require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed.
Any electronic handouts refereed to in class are listed here.
Date Posted |
Format |
Notes |
|
January 1 |
An electronic version of the syllabus handed out on the first day of class. |
||
| Companion Website to Modern Physics textbook | December 18 | Web Page | This is the companion Website for our texbtook. |
| Review of Classical Physics | December 19 | This is a 30-page document by Harris (the author of our textbook) reviewing all the classical physics you need to know to tackle Modern Physics. | |
| Lecture 2: Consequences of Einstein's Postulate | |||
| Relativity of Time | January 14 | Website | This site includes an animation useful for illustrating Time Dilation. |
| Nice Animation of the Terrell-Penrose Effect | January 14 | Website | This site includes a nice animation of Terrell-Penrose Rotation which suggests relativistic "length contraction" is unobservable. |
| Animations of Special Relativistic Effects | February 2 | Website | This site contains some downloadable videos illustrating special relativistic effects. Very slick animations (unfrotunately, in RealVideo format) |
| Lecture 9: Matter behaving as Waves | |||
| Group versus Phase Velocity | February 9 | Java Animation | To help illustrate Harris' point about particle/wave velocities on page 108 examine this java applet. This java applet helps illustrate the difference between phase velocity (wave velocity) and group velocity (particle velocity). As a particle can be considered a matter wave (which itself is a superposition of waves), the particle ("group") velocity is not given by the wave equation, f(lambda) = v. |
| Lecture 12: Fourier Transforms Discussion | |||
| Fourier: Making Waves | February 23 | Web Page (and Java Application) | This is one of the Unviersity of Colorado's PhET simulations, this one showing how discrete and continuous Fourier Transforms work. What you want to do is run the simulation, then click on the "Discrete to Continuous tab". There you can play with the Fourier components you mix together. The top panel shows the amplitude of the components with different wavenumber that you are mixing, the middle panel shows all the waves you are mixing, and the bottom panel shows the result of the mixed wave, a wave packet (or packets). |
| Lecture 14: Bound States (Finite well) | |||
| Quantum Bound States | March 3 | Web Page (and Java Application) | This page contains a simulation of an finite square well where you can see the effects of adjusting the well's parameters on the allowed energy levels, their wave functions, and the corresponding probability densities. You can create a "Superposition state" (look for the button) of two energy states and see how the wave oscillates between the two states. |
| Lecture 23: Quantum Tunnelling | |||
| Quantum Tunneling | April 9 | Web Page (and Java Application) | This page contains a simulation of a variety of potential barriers so you can see how quantum tunnelling occurs. One thing we will not be discussing is how wave packets can get dispersed over time, but you can see that in these simulations as well. |
| Lecture 27: The Hydrogen Atom (continued) | |||
| Hydrogen Atom Probability Density Applet | April 20 | Web Page (and Java Applet) | This page contains a applet that creates a visualization of the electron probability density around a hydrogen atom. |
| Hydrogen Wave Function Simulation | April 27 | Web Page (and Java Applet) | This page contains another nice visualization that also simultanesouly plots up the radial probability density and the angular probability density. |
| Models of the Hydrogen Atom | April 20 | Web page (and Java Applet) | This page contains another Java Applet that is a neat simulation of the interaction of the hydrogen atom with incoming light through a variety of models of the hydrogen atoms, including the quantum model. |
| Lecture 29: Spin and Two-Particle Systems | |||
| Stern-Gerlach Simulator | May 5 | Web page (and Java Applet) | A simple (somewhat inflexible) simulation of one through three Stern-Gerlach apparatus operating in tandem |
Mid-term Study Guides, Solutions, and Statistics
Exam study guides will be developed for Modern Physics during the semester. These study guides are provided at least a week before every mid-term and contain a review of the concepts you should be familiar with and a practice exam.
| Exam (Date) | Study Guide |
Answer Key |
Exam
Results |
Mid-Term I Tuesday, February 24 |
MidTerm 1 Study Guide |
MidTerm 1 Sample Solutions | Midterm
#1 Results |
Mid-Term II Thuesday, April 23 |
MidTerm 2 Sample Solutions | Midterm
#2 Results |
|
Final Exam Thursday, May 14, 2009, 12 noon - 2:30 pm |
Final Exam Study Guide | Final Exam Sample Solutions | Final Exam Results |