Spring 2020 Syllabus Physics 20900

Physics 209: Waves and Modern Physics

MW 10:00 – 11:40 am, MR–408

Instructor: Professor Vinod Menon

vmenon@ccny.cuny.edu

Office Hours: MW 11:45 am – 12:45 pm in MR 419 – Chair’s Office, and by appointment

Grading: Homework Assignments = 15%

In-Class Exams = 2 ×25%

Final Exam = 35%

Texts to Consult:

Halliday, Resnick & Walker, Fundamentals of Physics: Extended, 10th Edition, Wiley (2013)

Hecht, Optics, 5th Edition, Pearson (2016)

Krane, Modern Physics, 3rd Edition, Wiley (2012)

Departmental Course Objectives: after successfully completing this course, students will:

  1. understand attributes of electromagnetic waves and their propagation; reflection, refraction, dispersion
  2. understand and solve problems involving interference and diffraction of light, interferometers
  3. understand and solve problems involving polarization including polarizers, dichroism, birefringence
  4. understand and apply special theory relativity to relativistic mechanics
  5. understand the role of important experiments in elucidating the nature of atoms, light, and matter
  6. understand the Bohr model of hydrogen atom and quantization of atomic energy levels
  7. understand elements of quantum mechanics, wave functions; set up and solve the Schrodinger equation for simple systems, such as, potential wells and barriers, and simple harmonic oscillator.
  8. understand the Pauli Exclusion Principle, atomic structure and molecular spectra, and basics of lasers
  9. understand and solve problems involving nuclear size, binding energy, and radioactivity

10. understand structure of solids, energy bands, conduction.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: As stated in Appendix B.3 of the 2009-2011 City College Bulletin, p. 313: Academic Dishonesty is prohibited by the City University of New York and is punishable by penalties including failing grades and expulsion. The CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity is available by clicking on the embedded link.

Problem Sets: Homework will be assigned every week and will be an important learning tool for the course. It is ok to consult/ discuss the problems amongst your classmates. But it important that you eventually solve them on your own as that will be a key to succeed in this course. It will be beneficial if you have thought about and attempted the problems on your own before discussing with others.

Exams: Exam questions will relate to the concepts covered in assigned problems and lectures. Formula sheet will be made available during the exams. There will be two mid-term exams and one final exam in the course. Unless documented emergencies are presented, absence from an exam will result in a zero for the exam score. There will be no repeat exams.

Tentative Lecture Schedule

*Updates to this syllabus will be posted on Blackboard.

Date

Topics

01/27

01/29

The Wave Equation, Maxwell’s equations, Energy of electromagnetic wave, Reflection

02/03

02/05

Reflection, Refraction and Polarization

 

02/10

No Class

Diffraction and Interference

 

No Class

02/19

Failure of classical Physics

Blackbody radiation

02/24

02/26

Photoelectric Effect, Photons, Compton scattering and other photon mediated processes

03/02

03/04

Exam 1 (Monday) / Wave nature of particles: De Broglie hypothesis (Wed)

03/09

03/11

Wave nature of particles: De Broglie hypothesis

Experiments by Thompson, Davisson & Germer exp.

03/16

03/18

Young’s double slit experiment (what happens at the single photon limit?), Uncertainty relationships, Wavepackets, Probabilities

03/23

03/25

Schrodinger Equation

Reflection, Transmission, Tunneling

03/30

04/01

Bound Electrons, Quantization & Confinement

 

04/06

04/07 (Tu)

Exam 2 (Monday), Atomic models (Wednesday)

 

 

SPRING BREAK

04/20

04/22

Single photon experiments, Entanglement

Special theory of relativity, Time Dilation, Length Contraction,

04/27

04/29

Lorentz Transformation, space-time, Addition of velocities, Relativistic Energy and Momentum

05/04

05/06

Solid state physics & Semiconductors

 

05/11

05/13

Review

 

 

Final Exam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: 01/28/2020 10:37