Instructor: Prof. Massimiliano Galeazzi
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30
am – 11:30 am, Wednesday 11 am –
12 am
Office: James L. Knight Physics Building, Room 319
Office phone: (305)
284-2326 x2, (305) 284-2325 x4 (lab)
E-mail: galeazzi@physics.miami.edu
Text Book: Serway, Moses and Moyer, Modern Physics,
3rd
ed.
Program: PHY 360 is an introduction to the physics of the
20th
century. The course is intended both for students that want an
introduction
to the concepts of modern physics before investigating them in more
detail
in advanced courses and for students that simply want to know a little
more about Einstein, quantum mechanics, and a completely new way of
thinking
about nature. The course will cover concepts such as the relativity of
space and time and its consequences, the mass-energy relation E=mc2,
the quantization of matter, energy, and charge, the uncertainty
principle,
nuclear and particle physics, and many more interesting topics.
Students are invited to attend PHY 362.
Grades: The grades will be based on three midterm
exams,
the Final exam, and student participation (attendance and homework
correction)
50% Midterm exams
30% Final Exam (but with possibility of recover bad midterm grades)
20% Participation (class attendance, homework correction)
Exams:
Equation sheet
Sample of first midterm test
Sample of second midterm test
Sample of third midterm test
Class attendance: class attendance is mandatory; a high number of unjustified absences will affect the final grade.
Homework: The homework is uploaded on the web page every Friday and MUST be returned the following Friday (homework returned on Monday will be graded with half the points, homework returned later than Monday will be corrected, but will receive zero points).
Course organization: Monday and Wednesday will be dedicated to lectures, Friday will be dedicated to problems and homework correction.
Weakly schedule:
This is a just guideline based on the fall
2004 course and may change during the semester
Instructor: Prof. Massimiliano Galeazzi
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30
am – 11:30 am, Wednesday 11 am –
12 am
Office: James L. Knight Physics Building, Room 319
Office phone: (305)
284-2326 x2, (305) 284-2325 x4 (lab)
E-mail: galeazzi@physics.miami.edu
Program: PHY 362 is a 1-credit course to cover special topics that are not covered in PHY 360. The arguments of the seminars will be decided two weeks in advance by the instructor and the students and may cover arguments that are strictly related to topics covered by PHY 360 (e.g., relativity), or topics of more general interest (e.g., astrophysics).
Grades: The grades will be based on class attendance (mandatory) and on a final student seminar
Class attendance: class attendance is mandatory.
Homework: None
Weakly schedule:
This is a just guideline. The topics of the
seminars
will be decided in class two weeks in advance.
| Week | Date | Argument |
| 1 | 1/18 | Observations in Astrophysics (on the blackboard) |
| 2 | 1/25 | The falure of classical physics - Details of the Michelson-Morley experiment |
| 3 | 2/1 | Consequences of relativity: relativity and time travel, relativity in everyday life |
| 4 | 2/8 | Measuring distances in astronomy and the Hubble law |
| 5 | 2/15 | X-ray astrophysics |
| 6 | 2/22 | X-ray astrophysics |
| 7 | 3/1 |
Nuclear Energy production and alternate energy sources (wind-mills, solar cells, etc.) |
| 8 | 3/8 | Nuclear Energy production and alternate energy sources (wind-mills, solar cells, etc.) |
| 9 | 3/15 | Spring Break |
| 10 | 3/22 | General relativity |
| 11 | 3/29 | Historical overview of
Cosmology |
| 12 | 4/5 | student seminar |
| 13 | 4/12 | student seminar |
| 14 | 4/19 | student
seminar |
| 15 |
4/26 |
student seminar |