Teaching

Here are some teaching related links and materials - please see my faculty profile page for the courses I am teaching this semester.

The Quantum Challenge -  Recitation for Physics 302 2009

• Lectures from Physics 302 2009 - The lecture notes from the course Advanced Quantum Mechanics in 2009 - in progress.

Introductory Physics

• Lectures from Physics 106 2008, 2007 - The lecture notes from the second semester freshman course at Haverford Physics 106 Fundamental Physics II. Each lecture is a separate pdf.

Sophomore Physics

• Lectures from Physics 213 2007, 2006 - The lecture notes from the first semester sophomore course at Haverford Physics 213 Waves and Optics. Each lecture is a separate pdf.

Junior/Senior Level Physics

• Lectures from Physics 302 2007 - The lecture notes from the course Advanced Quantum Mechanics in 2007.
• Lectures from Physics 303 2007- The lecture notes from the course Statistical Physics.
• Lectures from Physics 308 2008- The lecture notes from the course Mechanics of discrete and continuous systems.
• Computational Physics (Physics 304)

This is a new course I am teaching in Spring 08, and Spring 09. The course is divided into two halves. In the first half we cover essential topics in computational physics - numerical solution of first order ordinary differential equations applied to problems in Newtonian mechanics including aerodynamic forces. The relaxation method and solution of problems in electrostatics. Numerical integration and the Biot Savart law for solving magnetostatic problems.  Monte carlo methods, Monte carlo integration and statistical physics.
In the second half of the course the students complete extended projects drawn from many areas of physics. In spring 2008 the projects included:

• A neural network applied to image recognition
• Simulations of galaxy collisions
• Simulations of fluid flow
• A study of methods of numerical solution of the time dependent schroedinger equation.

Movies

Here are some movies produced by Anna Pancoast and Shea Garrison Kimmel reproducing the simulations of Toomre and Toomre's 1972 paper  on galaxy interactions.

• Movie 1
• Movie 2

 -  I recommend vlc player for these movies - they will not work with all players,

In Class demos using Mathematica.

These are a range of demos I have created for use in class. They mostly use Mathematica 6.

Useful Approximations

• A year is 10 million Pi seconds and others

Waves and Oscillations

• Fourier series for periodic step function with audible examples
• Response of damped driven oscillator to periodic step function driving

Quantum Mechanics

Classical Mechanics

• What is the effective potential for the earth orbiting the sun?