Haverford College Physics 106b-2011 -- Fundamental Physics II
Meets: MWF 11:30-12:30, INSC H109, optional recitation TBA
Labs (every other week): Tuesday or Wednesday, 1:15-4:00, Harris 105
Physics Clinic: W and Th evenings, 7:00-10:00, H107

Lecturer: Walter F. Smith (X1332, INSC L110)
Office hours: M 1:30-2:30, Tu 11-12, Th 2:30-3:30, F 1:30-2:30 or by appointment
                       
Lab instructors: Peter Love (INSC L105, X6505), Scott Shelley (INSC L207, X1310)

Syllabus (choose a format) Web Page .. PDF .. Word Format

Assignments
Exams

#1 (due 1-28): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#2 (due 2-4): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#3 (due 2-11): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#4 (due 2-25): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#5 (due 3-4): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#6 (due 3-18): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#7 (due 3-25): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#8 (due 4-1): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#9 (due 4-16): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#10 (due 4-22): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#11 (due 4-29): Web Page .. PDF .. Word

Exam 1: coverage .. practice problems
Exam 2: coverage .. practice problems
Final Exam: coverage .. practice problems

 

Solutions for assignments and exams (password required)

Course evaluation form

Lecture summaries

Monday
Wednesday
Friday
MLK Day
1-19-11
Coulomb's Law, the electric field
Web page .. PDF .. Word
1-21-11
Superposition of electric fields, electric field lines, electric fields of continuous charge distributions
Web page .. PDF .. Word
1-24-11
Insulators in electric fields (polarization), voltage, Finding E from V
Web page .. PDF .. Word
Laser tweezer movies:
chimp sperm .. cutting chromosomes
1-26-11
Finding V from E, finding V from charge distribution
Web page .. PDF .. Word
Mathematica notebook
1-28-11
Metals in electric fields, graphical form of Gauss's Law, definition of electric flux
Web page .. PDF .. Word
1-31-11
Gauss's Law, Using Gauss's Law to find E due to a symmetrical charge distribution
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-2-11
Electric field of spherically symmetric charge distributions, total electric field at the surface of a metal
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-4-11
Shielding a transmitter, shielding a receiver (Faraday cages), charge accumulates at points on a conductor, definition of capacitance
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-7-11
Energy stored in a capacitor, air pressure analogy, how to calculate capacitance, parallel plate capacitors
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-9-11
Energy density of the electric field, capacitors in series and parallel, begin capacitors and dielectrics
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-11-11
Dielectric constant, electric current, Ohm's Law, microscopic view of conduction
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-14-11
Electrical power, series and parallel resistance, Kirchoff's rules, internal resistance
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-16-11
Review session for exam 1
2-18-11
Drift velocity, Drude model
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-21-11
RC discharging, exponential growth and decay, guessing solutions to DEQs
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-23-11
RC charging, low-pass filters, the magnetic field, Gauss's law for magnetic fields
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-25-11
Oersted's experiment, Lorentz force, motion of charges in a uniform magnetic field
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-28-11
Force on a current-carrying wire, DC motors, Hall effect
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-2-11
Magnetic field due to a moving point charge, Biot-Savart Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-4-11
Permanent magnetism, Ampere's Law for constant E
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-14-11
Definition of "threading", Example of applying Ampere's Law, solenoids, Faraday's discovery, photo of his original apparatus
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-16-11
Motional emf, generators
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-18-11
Summary of right hand rules, Faraday's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-21-11
More on Faraday's Law, Eddy currents
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-23-11
Magnetic recording, transformers
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-25-11
Corrected version of Ampere's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-28-11
Practice with circulation, are plane waves compatible with Maxwell's equations?
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-30-11
Electromagnetic waves, speed of light
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-1-11
Creating and detecting radiation, intensity, radiation pressure, Poynting vector
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-4-11
Exam 2 review session
4-6-11
The nature of light, photons, begin polarization
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-8-11
Polarization, Huygen's principle, two-slit diffraction
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-11-11
Single-slit diffraction, Rayleigh criterion
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-13-11
Multiple-slit diffraction, Introduction to special relativity
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-15-11
Time dilation
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-18-11
Synchronization, length contraction, numerical example
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-20-11
Train and tunnel paradox, Lorentz transformation
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-22-11
Relativity problem solving procedure, why nothing can go faster than c, Lorentz velocity transform for parallel velocities
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-25-11
Lorentz velocity transform for orthogonal velocities, relativistic momentum, relativistic energy
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-27-11
Numerical examples with E = mc2, example problem with spaceship and comet
Web page .. PDF .. Word
Comet problem writeup (PDF)
4-29-11
Presentation of student projects (postings coming soon!)

Handouts:
Mathematica keyboard shortcuts & physical constants
(This is a Mathematica notebook; save it to your computer first, then double-click to open it with Mathematica)

Sample long-form lab report

Walt's hints for a better lab report

Relativity fundamentals explained well

Famous paradoxes


Historical Notes, demonstrator applets, songs, etc.

Math Appendices -- Helpful mathematical material collected by Haverford and Bryn Mawr Physics majors some years ago, edited by Lyle Roelofs.

Charles Coulomb biography


1736-1806

The Physics 106 Syllabus Song: Lyrics & Chords

Electric Field Hockey! To get started, click on "Run Now". Arrange the positive and negative charges (drag them out of the supply) so that the puck goes into the goal. Be sure to click the buttons for "field" and "trace"!


Here's a nifty two-dimensional electric fields and voltage applet. Use the slider bar to determine the strength and polarity of a charge, then click to place it. For me, the "Go" feature doesn't work well, since I can't see the charges while they're moving. But, the displays of the field configurations and equipotentials are pretty neat. Red equipotentials correspond to positive voltages (relative to the voltage infinitely far away) and blue to negative voltages.

Carl Friederich Gauss biography Note: Gauss did so much, especially in math, that you will not find his law explictly mentioned here! Instead, it is referred to as the "law of quadratic reciprocity". He originally derived it as a purely mathematical result for functions that fall off as 1/r^2, and then it was applied to the electric field.



Gauss in 1803
Oersted Song
(Including link to Techno version by Aziz Khan!)

A really nice DC motors demonstration

Michael Faraday:
Song & video about induction and transformers

Short biography

Complete biography, written in 1872

Tesla Song: lyrics & chords .. mp3 (Guitar by Matt McCutchan)

Nikola Tesla:

PBS website (very detailed!)

The Mechanical Universe:
Maxwell's Equations

Free registration required. Choose episode 39.
Poynt Little Vector song: lyrics .. mp3 (guitar by Matt McCutchan)
A fairly nice applet about single-slit diffraction.

 

The Mechanical Universe:
Special Relativity

Free registration required. Choose episode 42. The segment we watched in class begins at 07:55.
 
Background image: A rare triple lightning strike (this is not a multiple exposure), taken on the great plains by Dr. Steven Horsburgh.