Physics 214b-2008 Walter F. Smith

Exam 1 Coverage

Book: Chapters 1-2, omitting section 2.9. We also covered several topics in lecture which were not in the reading. One of these, relativistic momentum and energy, is covered fairly well in Tipler 3^rd Ed., pp. 1122-1132. I have sent you a pdf of this. I do not expect you to read this; I hope that my lectures were sufficiently clear. However, I make it available in case you wish to see the presentation of a different author.

Assignments: 1-4, plus part one of assignment 5

Lectures: 1-12 (beginning of semester through and including Monday 2-18-08)

Equation sheet: You should prepare an equation sheet with up to 20 equations for use during the exam. No text or pictures allowed on this.

Topics we have covered in lecture, reading, or assignments:

(The most important topics are underlined, and so you should be absolutely certain to be solid on all of these. However, there will certainly be some exam problems on the topics which are not underlined, so you need to review those as well.)

Relativistic energy and momentum

Understand and be ready to use:

, , and

Be able to solve relativistic collision / explosion problems in three dimensions using conservation of energy and momentum (e.g. problem 1E)

The equipartition theorem

Know what it is, and how to use it to calculate thermal energy

Heat capacity: know definition, be ready to calculate it for a system by starting with the equipartition theorm

Know what a phonon is, and the expression for its energy

Ultraviolet catastrophe: be ready to explain qualitatively what it is, and how it was solved by Planck

Know and understand the Planck distribution, be ready to use it

Know and understand the expression for the energy density in a cavity , be ready to use it

Photons

,

Photoelectric effect: be ready to explain in detail what it shows, and how Einstein explained it

Compton scattering

Be ready to explain qualitatively what it is, and why it was important

Know the Compton formula (on p. 20), and be ready to use it

Aspect anti-coincidence experiment: be ready to describe what it is and why it was important

Aspect single-photon intereference experiment: be ready to describe what it is and why it was important

Probability amplitude for photons:

Know what it means

Be ready for interference problems including effects of phase change upon reflection (such as problem 1.28)

Diffraction gratings

Principle of least time

Matter waves

,

Davisson Germer experiment: qualitative understanding of what it was & why it was important

Bragg diffraction

Schrödinger equation

Know the starting points used for the plausibility argument. (I will not ask you to reproduce the argument itself.)

Know and understand the equation

Know the definition of the momentum operator

Be ready to test a proposed to see if if is a solution for the SEQ

Be ready to test a proposed to see if if is an eigenfunction of

Know the free electron solution to the SEQ

Normalization

Probability density

Probability current

Arbitrariness of oscillation frequency

Wave packets & group velocity

Understand that it is possible to create a wave packet by summing free electron wavefunctions

Know the definition of group velocity

Be ready to explain why the phase velocity of a matter wave is arbitrary

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Know what it is and how to use it for problems such as 2.24

Be ready to reproduce either one (your choice) of the semi-quantitative derivations we did in class

Energy-time uncertainty principle

Expectation values

Know the definition

Be ready to calculate given any wavefunction and operator. (Assume that I will provide you with any needed integrals.)

Be ready to calculate and for a given wavefunction

Miscellaneous

Know the form of a Gaussian. Understand that the w that appears in this form is the standard deviation of the Gaussian.