PHYS 101

Welcome to Our Physical World at Tulane University. This course is intended to provide an understanding of the basic principles of science, their applications in our world and the relation of science to philosophy, politics and other aspects of human activity. The course will focus on concepts. Mathematics will be deemphasised, but not eliminated. Much of the course grade will be based on weekly essays.

Text: "Conceptual Physical Science" by Hewitt, Suchocki and Hewitt.

Lectures: MWF 1-1:50 in or near Boggs 104.

Laboratory: weekly in or near Percival Stern 2020.

Office Hours: MW 10 - 10:30 in PS 5066 (or by appointment).

Course Requirements

	Weekly essays 	65%
	Laboratory	10% (However, passing the lab is required to pass the course.)
	Mid term exam	10%
	Final exam 	15%
	Project (optional):
		 increase of one full letter grade
	   	 or exemption from the final with
		 grade of A.  The project is to do
		 something important.

Homework Essays and Syllabus

An essay of 300 or more words is due each week. The essays are an important part of the grade in this course. These essays will be graded critically. To receive an above average grade, material outside the lecture and text will be required. Essays are expected to take several hours per week.

Problems assigned weekly are to be turned in with your essays. Exam problems will be taken from problems assigned below and also other problems at the end of the chapters (not assigned) as well as problems from other sources. It is recommended that you do as many additional problems as necessary to do as well as you wish in physics. Problem solutions will be given in class or in office hours upon request.

List of Possible Topics for Our Physical World

• The Universe
• The Atom
• Energy
• Newton's six laws
• x(t) -- knowing how to predict what happens to everything
• Mechanics
• Work and Energy
• Conservation of Momentum
• Relativity
• The Bomb -- Do we bomb Japan?
• Pythagoras to Newton -- the stars and planets
• Gravity and fields
• Electric and Magnetic fields
• Circuits
• Computers
• Waves
• Huygen and Fermat
• The band width theorem, tunneling and other wave phenoemna
• Quantum waves
• Schroedinger's Equation
• Einstein and de Brogie
• Bohr and the atom
• Lasers
• The periodic table
• Molecules
• DNA
• Thermodynamcis
• The Second Law -- if disorder is inevitable, is human progress doomed?
• Oscillation
• Sound, Light and Music
• Solids and Fluids
• Astromony
• Geology
• Continental Drift

Recent syllabus

Problems assigned weekly are to be turned in with your essays. Exam problems will be taken from problems assigned below and also other problems. Problem solutions will be given in class or in office hours upon request.

Tentative schedule -- changes may occur and will be announced in class.

Please use the syllabus handed out in class and not this one to do your assignments.

• The Universe: Chapter 29: E: 22,23,24,25,27; P: 1. Essay: The Big Bang.

• How we describe things: Chapter 1: E: 1,3,6,7,8,9,11,14,17; P: 1,6,10 Chapter 15: E: 12 Chapter 4: E: 22,24 P: 1 Essay: Motion.

• Forces, Fields and Newton: Chapter 2: E: 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,15,16,18; P: 1,3,4 Chapter 4: E: 15 Essay: The impact of Newton on the 21st Century.

• Electricity and Magnetism: Chap. 9: E: 2,4,7,10,16,30 Chap. 10: E: 3,7,8,17 Essay: Electricity in nanostructures.

• Review (Mardi Gras week) Exam 1.

• Special Relativity: Chapter 29: E: 1,8,10,11,17,18,20. Essay: Paradoxes of relativity.

• Fission, Fusion and the Bomb: Chapter 14: E: 14,15. Chapter 16: E: 5,8,23,26. List 3 reasons for and 3 reasons against dropping the H bomb on Japan in 1945. Essay: Essay: Nuclear reactions.

• Non-linearity and chaos: Chapter 2: E: 22,27,28,30,35,37,38; P: 7. Problems: a) How large a box did the mathematician need to collect his reward for inventing chess? b) Plot linear and exponential growth vs. time. c) Show that $1,000. invested at 14% per year will retrun $1,024,000. in 50 years. d) Repeat the above problem for a rate of 17.5% per year. Essay: Chaos.

• Energy: Chapter 3: E: 1,2,3,9,13,17,20,24,26,29,30; P: 3,4,5,7,8. Essay: How will energy be different in the 21st Century than in the 20th Century?

• Waves: Chapter 11: E: 4,5,6,7,8,15,22,23,31,38 P: 1,2,3,5,6. Chapter 12: E: 1,3,4. Essay: Physics and music.

• The Atom: Chapter 14: E: 2,3,5,11,12,18,19,20,21,24; P: 2. Chapter 13: E: 47,48. Essay: Quantum mechanics, Heisenberg uncertainty and free will.

• Chemistry and Biology: Chapter 18: E: 5,6,13. Chapter 20: E: 1. Chapter 21: E: 2. Chemistry Chapter 8: E: 30,31. What is entropy? Give three examples of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. How is reproduction of DNA related to the 2nd Law? Essay: Essay of your choice.

• Fluids: Chapter 24: E: 1,2,15 P: 1,2. Chapter 5: E: 1,3,4,14,19,29,37,42,46,48. Essay: Fluids in the environment.

"always the more beautiful answer who asks the more beatuiful question" -- ee cummings