PHYS 202: College Physics II

PHYS 202: College Physics II



Professor: Dr. Jason Best
Office: Byrd Science Center 115
Office Hours: MWF 9a-11a

Required Text: College Physics, by Jerry Wilson and Anthony Buffa

Companion Website:College Physics Companion Website

Course Overview: This is an algebra- and trigonometry-based treatment of the fundamentals of selected classical and modern physics topics, including: electricity, magnetism, optics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. PHYS 202L (College Physics Laboratory II) must be taken concurrently with PHYS 202.

Course Objectives: I want students to be able to: understand basic physical concepts and methods; understand cause and effect relationships in physics; utilize charts, graphs, and equations to represent functional relationships and explain their meanings; analyze and solve problems in physics, and develop insight into the nature of the Universe. Among the specific content areas to be addressed are:

· electrostatics. This includes understanding charge as a basic property, the force between charges, electric fields, potential (and its relationship to potential energy), and capacitance.

· electric currents. This includes understanding the definitions and interplay among current, voltage, resistance, power, the parameters affecting these values, and the structure of basic circuits.

· magnetism. This includes understanding the pole as a basic(?) property, similarities and differences between magnetic properties and electric properties (such as fields and forces), and the importance of planetary magnetism.

· optics. This includes understanding geometrical concepts such as reflection and refraction (and the interaction between them), and physical concepts such as interference, diffraction, and polarization.

· relativity. This includes understanding the limitations of classical physics, the significance of the Michelson-Morley experiment, the postulates of special and general relativity, and the implication of these theories (such as time dilation, mass-energy equivalence, and gravitational lensing).

· quantum mechanics. This includes understanding the limitations of classical atomic theory, radiative transfer, quantization of energy and light, and the quantum structure of the atom.