Phys 2403H.001 (Fall 2009)

Week 12

2009-11-23T16:06:26Z

This week's lectures are on the physical ideas behind General Relativity.

There is no homework due. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday!

Supplementary Material for Relativity (Updated)

2009-09-08T15:32:42Z

This item is restricted: please visit the website to view it.

Week 11 (Updated)

2009-11-13T20:00:46Z

This week is mostly Electromagnetism and the Principle of Relativity. The lectures do not parallel the text. For the moment I ask you to go by the blackboard photos. You can find my lecture notes on Electromagnetism and Relativity in the Links and Downloads. Tuesday I posted the first set, and Wednesday's lecture will be posted later.

Quiz 2 Histogram, Average 38/50 = 76%
2403H_Quiz_2_Histogram.pdf

posted November 16, 2009 at 10:59am

Homework for Week 11
2403S09HWweek11.pdf

posted November 16, 2009 at 9:38am

Week 10 (Updated)

2009-11-06T18:13:39Z

We finish four momentum conservation this week and move on briefly to electromagnetism.

As a reminder, blackboard images (inverted to make them printable) are at fizmn.blogspot.com and the MP3 audio files are at

https://itunes.umn.edu/ITunesU.pl

where it should ask for an X.500 login and then show a link when the system acknowledges you as registered for 2403.

You are responsible for sections 25-27, 30, 31 and 35 in Chapter V of Rindler. Problems due Thursday are Rindler, Chapter V, #7, #8, #12, #15.

You should start reading Chapter VI of Rindler. However, this material is quite difficult, as it uses four vectors and tensors from the start. I will do this differently in lecture and I will have different problems.

Here is a rough plan through the end of Relativity: Week 10 on four momentum and relativistic dynamics moving on to electromagentism; Week 11 on electromagnetism and relativity; Week 12, and one lecture in Week 11, on the physical origin of ideas in General Relativity. At the end of Week 13 there will be a last quiz, on the remaining material in Special Relativity. That would be Friday, December 4.

This will leave us a short three weeks on the fundamentals of Modern Physics (really the fundamentals of quantum physics). There will be supplementary reading on this, as well as supplementary problems in addition to the lectures.

The final exam will be Saturday, December 19, 8:30-11:30 and will probably have 6-7 problems, one or two on Thermodynamics, two or three on Special Relativity and two or three on the Modern Physics material. This last won't be covered on any quiz.

Week 9

2009-10-30T19:29:05Z

There is a quiz Friday on the special relativity material through relativistic optics.

Please read Rindler, Chapter IV (Spacetime), sections 19 through 23. This is background to the actual subject this week, which is Chapter V, on Relativistic Particle Mechanics, which you should also read.

Problems due Thursday are Rindler, Chapter V, #4, #5, #6 (the first half) plus supplementary problem #13.

Week 8 (Updated)

2009-10-27T14:19:06Z

The front office tells me that our final exam is Saturday, December 19, 8:30-11:30

This week we are on Chapter III of Rindler--"Relativistic Optics". Pay particular attention to the material at the end of the chapter, there is a problem on this.

Problems due are Rindler: Chapter III, #12, #13, #16, #21

We will need a second quiz, at the end of next week, on Friday, November 6, on relativity through optics (Chapters I through III). Accelerated motion will not be on the quiz. Remember--the trickiest part of relativity is the lack of simultaniety for frames in relative motion.

Problems due are Rindler: Chapter III, #12, #13, #16, #21

Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQnHTKZBTI4

Week 7

2009-10-16T18:20:57Z

We are moving on to relativistic kinematics, Chapter II of Rindler.

Problems due this week are: Rindler, Chapter I, Exercises I, #11 and #12 and Chapter II, Exercises II, #2, #5

I decided to defer the question posed at the end of Friday's lecture, but you may want to think about it. It is, roughly, the following. When in the frame of the tunnel does an observer at the rear of the train "see" the front of the train strike the closed door at the far end of the tunnel. Is the rear of the train inside or outside the tunnel when this happens? Ditto for an observer on the moving train.

Week 6 (Updated)

2009-10-09T19:14:36Z

You should reread Chapter 1 of Rindler and start Chapter 2.

An incomplete (2+minute) Hewitt's twin "paradox" video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6OW6ltO5q8 if anybody finds the full 12 minute video, let me know.

The problems for this week are from Rindler, Chapter 1: #3, #4, #5, #6

1401 Puzzle: Explain This
Metronomes3.mov

posted October 9, 2009 at 2:21pm

Week 4 (Updated)

2009-09-25T19:33:14Z

Read Van Ness and the supplementary material, Chapter 25, on entropy and the material in Van Ness on statistical physics.

Problems due Thursday are from Chapter 25, #14, #15, #17, #18

There is a quiz Friday, with three word problems similar in style to 1401 and 1402 quizzes. You can use a 3x5 card of notes, a calculator, writing implements and nothing else. Problems will be similar to those in the supplementary chapters, mostly drawn from assigned homework or similar problems. The quiz will cover all the thermodynamics material. Solutions to HW 1, 2 and 3 are now posted in the links and downloads section. HW 4 solutions will be passed out Thursday.

Quiz 1 Histogram, avg 33.4 = 67%
2403F09Quiz1Histo.pdf

posted October 8, 2009 at 11:40am

Quiz 1 Solutions
2403F09Quiz1Sols.pdf

posted October 7, 2009 at 11:01am

Week 5 (Updated)

2009-10-03T01:04:27Z

Read the introduction and Chapter 1 of Rindler and try to do as many of the questions or problems at the end as you can. This is a good way to see if you are following the reasoning. Please realize that this is not your standard textbook and that you will have to read the material more than once. There is no fluffy stuff here.

I have posted the english translation of Einstein's "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" and by way of introduction I will probably mostly follow this through about section 4 in the initial lectures. So you should read this by way of comparison. Rindler's Chapter 1 is somewhat like this also. After the first week I may choose to head off in a different direction more congenial to my own take on relativity. We will see how parallel or divergent Rindler's path and mine are.

I have also posted some of my lecture notes from 2005. I don't like them much, but maybe they will be of some use to you.

Given his experimental interests and the fact that he enjoyed playing the violin, Einstein could have invented the electric guitar or, more likely, the electric violin. However, he was pretty picky concerning music and may have not have patented the electric instrument because he disliked the sound.

Links and Downloads has some supplementary problems. For Thursday, do #3, #4,#5 and problem #1 in Rindler, chapter 1.

Supplementary Material for Thermodynamics (Updated)

2009-08-31T18:13:49Z

This item is restricted: please visit the website to view it.

Week 3 (Updated)

2009-09-18T20:37:06Z

Read Chapters 5 and 6 of Van Ness and Chapter 25 of the supplementary material (from the 1965 printing of Halliday and Resnick, if you are interested--a very good physics text). Chapter 25 will slop over into next week.

Problems due Thursday are Chapter 25, #2, #4, #6, #11.

There will be a quiz on all the thermodynamics material on Friday, October 2. Three word problems as in 1401-1402. The problems will be adapted versions of the ones in the supplementary reading, including odd numbered ones whose answers I will post later this week (along with the assigned problems).

Week 2 (Updated)

2009-09-11T19:42:17Z

Please continue reading Van Ness and the supplementary Chapter 22. Also read supplementary Chapter 23. Problems due Thursday are Ch. 22 #20 and Ch. 23 #2, #27, #28.

I have put a PDF of the discussion on reversibility in Nash on the Links and Downloads page. It is easy to follow and I recommend it.

MP3 audio files of two of the lectures are at https://itunes.umn.edu/ITunesU.pl I would appreciate feedback on whether this works or not and whether or not it is useful.

As before, pictures of the blackboard are on fizmn.blogspot.com ; there were problems with the Friday lecture, so it is not posted. I am still working on getting clear and complete images up.

Supplementary Material for Modern Physics (Updated)

2009-09-08T15:33:08Z

This item is restricted: please visit the website to view it.

Week 1

2009-09-04T18:24:01Z

Reading for this week is Van Ness, Chapters 1 and 2 and, from the supplementary material, Chapters 21 and 22.

Four solved problems will be due at recitation Thursdays. If not turned in then, they will not be graded. Because of limited TA time, two of the four will be graded, chosen at random. For this week the problems due are from the supplementary material, Ch. 21 problems 4 and 18 and from Ch. 22 problems 5 and 14.

My current plan for the grade breakdown is 40% best two of three quizzes, 50% final and 10% homework. Grades assigned pretty much as in 1402.

The recitation sections will be run by our TA, Thomas Dunn, dunn@physics.umn.edu.

Week 0 (Updated)

2009-08-27T21:39:43Z

We will spend approximately 3-4 weeks on thermodynamics, to close out our discussion of nineteenth century physics, then about 8 weeks on special relativity. (There will be a week on the physical ideas behind general relativity included in this.) At the end comes 3-4 weeks on topics in modern physics. This will be mostly on the foundation ideas of the quantum mechanics plus a bit of atomic and nuclear physics.

More in the syllabus when it is done, sometime during the first week of class.

You will find supplementary material on thermodynamics in the "Links and Downloads" section. I will refer to this when needed and use the problems there.

Our thermodynamics text is Van Ness, but an excellent supplementary text is Nash, "Elements of Chemical Thermodynamics". It is a Dover book at a reasonable price. I recommend it highly. Some of the lecture material will be from Nash.

Physics 2201 is the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics course for physics majors. To judge from the text "Thermal Physics" by Ralph Baierlein, there is not much overlap with 2403. The focus in 2403 is classical thermodynamics.

I have had mixed results posting summer 1301 material, as iphone photos of the blackboard, on fizmn.blogspot.com. I will try to continue this for 2403 to make note taking easier. But it may not work. We shall see.