Waves and Optics
Instructor: Jorge Moreno
Office: KINSC
L-104
Phone: 896-4934 (office)
OFFICE HOURS Monday 3pm -4pm or by appointment
Course
Requirements:
Two 90 minute class meetings and a one-hour recitation
period per week. Class periods
will usually be devoted to lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be based on two exams, a final, and weekly
problem sets. The accompanying laboratory, Physics 211, consists of experiments
in the areas of electronics, waves and optics. Although it need not be taken concurrently with Physics 213,
all physics majors are required to complete the laboratory.
Location and times:
Lecture: TTh 11:30 – 1:00 in E309. Attendance and participation are expected. Lecture will begin promptly at 11:35; please be on time.
Recitation: TBA Th 7.30pm-8.30pm. Attendance and participation are expected.
Office hours: L104 Monday 2-3pm, or by appointment
Laboratory: Physics 211 See separate course website and syllabus
Exam schedule:
Exam #1 given out Friday, Oct 2nd, Due on Friday October 9th (Week Before Fall break)
Exam #2 given out Friday, November 13th, Due on Friday November 20th (Week Before Thanksgiving)
Final exam (self scheduled) covers all the material with some extra emphasis on the material covered after exam #2.
No extensions on exams or variances on exam dates are permitted without a Deans excuse
Assignments
and Tests:
Written work will be due each Wednesday at 5:00 pm outside my office (L-104).
There will also be assigned readings to prepare you for class discussion. It is essential for your understanding that you stay ahead of class in your readings. Some assignments will include so-called individual problems. It is expected that you work on these problems without collaborating with other students. You may ask questions of the instructor concerning these problems, and any information given to you in response will also be sent to the rest of the class via email.
There will be two time-limited, take-home exams and a self-scheduled, cumulative final. The schedule below gives coverage and dates. Exams will cover both concepts and problem solving. Time pressure in exam settings, while not the goal of the instructor, is not entirely avoidable. You should prepare to be able to work efficiently on the material covered and avoid poor time management choices during the exams.
Recitation:
Attendance is expected. The purpose of the recitation is to answer questions which you feel aren't appropriate for class, to work additional problems, and for reviews.
Grading procedures:
Course grade -- will be computed using the following weighting:
Written exercises 35% (Note the very high weighting assigned.)
Tests 30% (2 @ 15%)
Final exam 30%
Class participation 5%
A separate grade is given for Physics 211a, the associated laboratory.
Exams: Credit will be given for displaying understanding and for correct execution of problem solutions. Partial completion of a problem will receive credit. Clear explanations of your work are required.
Late
policy -- Assignments will be collected exactly at 5pm on Wednesdays. After that, you will be penalized with one fourth of the credit (after one week of the deadline), or three fourths of the credit (after two weeks of the deadline). No work will be accepted after three weeks of the deadline.
I will DISCARD your two worst problem set grades. However, you should NOT use
this as a license to ignore two assignments - completion of the
assignments is required in order that you understand the material and
complete the exams. Work must be submitted to qualify for discarding.
No
other extensions will be granted, except for significant illness, serious
family matters, etc.; in such cases, a Deans excuse is required.
Course
Description: The second year of the physics curriculum focuses on the
physics of waves, introducing classical waves and optics in the first semester
and matter waves (quantum mechanics) in the second. Physics 213 introduces oscillations and waves in mechanical,
electronic, and optical systems.
The course also presents the relevant mathematical methods, including
complex variables, Fourier analysis and the eigenvalue problem. Topics include: free and driven
oscillations, resonance, superposition, coupled oscillators and normal modes,
traveling waves, Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves, interference,
diffraction and Fourier optics. Oscillations and waves are
ubiquitous in modern Physics. In this course we will study many mechanical
systems described by Newtonian mechanics. Beginning with one oscillator, we
will move to complicated systems of many oscillators, before considering wave
motions. Beyond Newton, the two revolutions of the past century, quantum
mechanics and relativity, both rely on wave phenomena. Electromagnetic waves
propagate at the speed of light, and relativity replaces instant Newtonian
action-at-a-distance with influences propagating at the speed of light, as
waves. Quantum mechanics replaces Newtonian trajectories with wave functions
describing quantum objects, sometimes waves, sometimes particles. The mathematical description of
waves requires one to think in terms of time-varying functions defined over one
or more dimensions of space. For
example, one might describe a water wave by a function h(x,y,t) representing
the height of the water surface as a function of position on that surface, i.e.
x and y, and as a function of time, t. The behavior and analysis of such
functions and the wave equations they satisfy are necessarily more complicated
than the trajectories, x(t), and static fields, e.g. E(x,y,z), that you studied in 1st year physics. The payoffs for your extra effort are
the novelty and interest of wave behavior, the power and usefulness of the
mathematics you will learn in order to investigate it and most importantly, the
wealth of applications in physics and nature more broadly. Mastering this
subject will be interesting and very useful to you in all the other math and
science courses you will take. Readings: Texts: Waves
and Oscillations: The Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics, by W. F. Smith.
A.
P. French, Vibrations and Waves (Norton,
1971). Because the first several
chapters of the above are a revised version of this classic text, and because I
will be assigning exercises from it, you are required to purchase this text. Other
useful sources on reserve in Science Library: H.
J. Pain, The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 5th ed. (Wiley, 1999). Pain is one of
the few authors to cover all the correct material for this course at the
correct level with emphasis on phenomena and applications. Although you may find the treatment
very dry and overly formal, this is an excellent reference work. Howard Georgi, The
Physics of Waves (Prentice-Hall, 1993) [elegant and theoretical] Grant R.
Fowles, Introduction to Modern Optics
2nd ed. (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975). [best treatment of optics available at the level of
this course] Thomas D.
Rossing and Neville H. Fletcher, Principles of Vibration and Sound (Springer-Verlag, 1995) [excellent on sound, music and musical instruments] K. U. Ingard, Fundamentals
of Waves and Oscillations (Cambridge
University Press, 1988) [not
that useful, but it does have some computer program listings] Eugene Hecht, Optics , 3rd ed. (Addison-Wesley, 1998) [the bible of optics texts] K. D. Mšller, Optics (University Science Books, 1988) E. G. Steward, Fourier
Optics: An Introduction (Wiley, 1983) [complete coverage of Fourier
aspects of optics] S. G. Lipson
and H. Lipson, Optical Physics, 3rd ed.
(Cambridge University Press, 1995)
[good if you like very succinct treatments] Honor Code Issues: The important guiding principle of academic honesty is that
you must never represent the work of another as your own. The following
guidelines should govern your behavior in the course; please request
clarification if you find yourself in any doubtful situations. You may seek assistance for the Instructor or work together
with other students (except on individual problems) in doing the weekly
assigned exercises and in preparing for class discussions. If working with other students in the
course avoid situations in which you are either contributing too much or too
little to the collaborative effort.
(Neither results in optimal learning, but are not violations of the
honor code.) While working
together is permitted and even expected and therefore does not need to be
acknowledged, merely copying the work of another student without indicating
that you have done so is clearly a representation of his or her work as your
own and so is a violation of the code. The exams
must be entirely your own work. You
must also follow all procedures and respect time limits without deviation. Accommodations:
Students
who think they may need accommodations in this course because of the impact of
a disability are encouraged to meet with me privately early in the semester.
Students should also contact Rick Webb, Coordinator, Office of Disabilities
Services (rwebb@haverford.edu,
610-896-1290) to verify their eligibility for reasonable accommodations as soon
as possible. Early contact will help to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and
delays.