PHYSICS 242E
General Physics III - Modern Physics
Classes: Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45am, Room 203, Physics Department.
Problems: Monday 4:00-4:50pm, Room 218, Physics Department.

Instructor: Simonetta Liuti, Room 312C, e-mail: sl4y@virginia.edu; Grader: Andrew Inglis, e-mail: ai2v@virginia.edu.

Office Hours: Tuesday, 4:00-6:00 pm. and on request.

Textbook: Fishbane Gasiorowicz Thornton Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Volume II, Prentice-Hall, Second Edition.

Organization and Grading:

• 1st midterm: Tuesday, February 22nd, 9:30-10:45.
• 2nd midterm: Tuesday, April 4th, 9:30-10:45.
• Final (Tuesday, May 9th 2:00 to 5:00pm).

Midterms: 25%. Homework: 25%. Final: 50%.

There is a homepage for the course, reachable from the Physics Department's Homepage (under Classes), containing the relevant information as the course weekly progresses. Your comments and questions are welcome.

The homework assignments will be posted on the Webpage on Thursday and collected on the following Thursday, every week.

Syllabus

• Jan. 20th: Mini-review of Maxwell Equations (Ch. 35).
• Jan. 24th-28th: Light (Ch. 36).
• Jan. 31st-Feb. 4th: Mirrors and Lenses (Ch. 37).
• Feb. 7th-11th: Interference and Diffraction (Ch. 38 and Ch. 39).
• Feb. 14th-18th: Quantum Physics, Electromagnetic radiation (Ch. 41).
• Feb. 22nd: 1st Midterm.
• Feb. 24th-Mar. 3rd: Wave properties of particles (Ch. 41).
• Mar. 6th-10th: Quantum Physics: Quantization of Angular Momentum (Ch. 42).
• Mar. 13th-17th: Spring Break.
• Mar. 20th-24th: Quantum Physics: Models of the Atom, Molecules (Ch. 42).
• Mar. 27th-31st: Statistical Physics (Ch. 43) .
• Apr. 4th: 2nd Midterm.
• Apr. 6th-14th: Solid State Physics (Ch. 43/44).
• Apr. 17th-21st: Special relativity (Ch. 40).
• Apr. 24th-May 2nd: Nuclear forces and elementary particles (Ch. 45/46)
• May 9th (2:00-5:00pm): FINAL.