Haverford College Physics 106b-2013 -- Fundamental Physics II
Meets: MWF 10:30-11:30 (Harris 108) or MWF 11:30-12:30 (Sharpless 217)
optional recitation in H105: Sunday 5:00-6:00 or Monday 9:30-10:30 am or Monday 3:00-4:00 pm

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 11:30-12:30, Th 3:00-4:00, F 1:30-2:30 or by appointment
                       
Lab instructors: Dan Cross (INSC 107, X2908), Scott Shelley (INSC L207, X1310)

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

Assignments
Exams

#1 (due 2-1): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#2 (due 2-8): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#3 (due 2-15): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#4 (due 3-1): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#5 (due 3-8): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#6 (due 3-22): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#7 (due 3-29): Web Page .. PDF .. Word
#8 (due 4-5): PDF .. Word
#9 (due 4-19): PDF .. Word
#10 (due 4-26): PDF .. Word
#11 (due 5-3): PDF .. Word



Exam 1 topics

Exam 2 topics

Final Exam topics

 

Solutions for assignments and exams (password required)

Additional documents:
Relativity fundamentals explained well

Famous paradoxes

Lecture summaries

Monday
Wednesday
Friday
MLK Day
1-23-13
Coulomb's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
1-25-13
The electric field, electric fields of continuous charge distributions
Web page .. PDF .. Word

1-28-13
Example of finding the electric field of a continuous charge distribution, electric field lines
Web page .. PDF .. Word
Mathematica notebook

1-30-13
Sketching electric field lines, definition of voltage, connection between E lines and equipotentials, V due to a point charge
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-1-13
Quantitative connections between E and V, voltage due to continuous charge distributions
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-4-13
Electric fields in and near conductors, part 1
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-6-13
Qualitative form of Gauss's Law, electric flux
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-8-13
Quantitative form and application of Gauss's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-11-13
Electric fields in and near conductors, part 2
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-13-13
Capacitance, energy stored in capacitors, parallel plate capacitors
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-15-13
Energy denstiy of the electric field, series and parallel capacitors
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-18-13
Exam 1 review session
2-20-13
Dielectrics, electric current, Ohm's law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-22-13
Electric power, internal resistance
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-25-13
Series and parallel resistors, resistivitiy, microscopic view of conduction
Web page .. PDF .. Word
2-27-13
RC circuits, guessing solutions to differential equations, low pass filters
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-1-13
The Magnetic field, Oersted's experiment
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-4-13
Magnetic force on a particle, trajectories in uniform magnetic fields
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-6-13
Magnetic force on a wire, motors, Hall effect
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-8-13
Sources of B, Biot-Savart Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-18-13
Ampere's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-20-13
Definition of threading, field of a solenoid, Faraday's discovery
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-22-13
Derivation of motional emf from magnetic force
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-25-13
Faraday's Law, why we need transformers
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-27-13
Transformers, magnetic recording, Lenz's Law
Web page .. PDF .. Word
3-29-13
Using Faraday's law to find induced E, eddy currents, summary of right-hand rules
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-1-13
Correction to Ampere's Law, Summary of Maxwell's equations
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-3-13
Are plane waves allowed by Maxwell's equations? (part1)
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-5-13
Are plane waves allowed by Maxwell's equations? (part 2), speed of light, methods of detecting em radiattion
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-8-13
Exam 2 review
4-10-13
Producing em waves, intensity, Poynting vector, radiation pressure
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-12-13
Superposition, Huygen's principle, two-slit interference
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-15-13
Single slit diffraction, two slit interference with finite slits
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-17-13
Rayleigh Criterion, diffraction gratings
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-19-13
Atomic emission spectroscopy, uncertainty principle interpretation of diffraction, intro to special relativity
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-22-13
Time dilation
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-24-13
Synchronization, Length Contraction
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-26-13
Numerical example, train and tunnel paradox, Lorentz transformation
Web page .. PDF .. Word
4-29-13
Relativity problem solving procedure, relativistic velocity transforms, why nothing can go faster than c
Web page .. PDF .. Word
5-1-13
Relativistic momentum and mass
Web page .. PDF .. Word
 

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)

 

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

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"!


Coulomb's Law song (karaoke version!)
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.

Volta's Triumph song

Gauss's Law Song
(
At the time I wrote this, our textbook used n-hat times dA, instead of d-vector-A, but the meaning is the same -- n-hat is a unit vector that points in the same direction as d-vector-A.)

An Ode to Capacitors (This is the original version, which is for a vacuum between the plates. You can squeeze in the "kappa" just before the epsilon-naught if you like, but it screws up the meter somewhat.)
No Magnetic Monopoles Song
Oersted Song
(Including link to Techno version by Aziz Khan!)

A really nice DC motors demonstration

A Physics Utopia (Faraday's Law Song)

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. The part we watched in class starts at 19:15.

Ampere's Law Song Poynt Little Vector song: lyrics .. mp3 (guitar by Matt McCutchan)
The ether song E = h nu song

The Mechanical Universe:
Non-simultaneity in relativity

Free registration required. Choose episode 42. The part we watched in class starts at 6:57.

 
Background image: A rare triple lightning strike (this is not a multiple exposure), taken on the great plains by Dr. Steven Horsburgh.