Spring 2007 General information
Physics 224A
Instructor: Prof. David Thouless
Lectures: MWF 10:30 - 11:20 a.m., A110
Physics Astronomy Building
TEXT BOOKS:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers by R. D Knight, chapters 15
through 19, or Physics for Scientists and Engineers by D. C.
Giancoli, third edition, chapters 13 and 17 through 20. If you have a
different first-year physics text book let me know what it is, and I will
take a look at it. Since neither of these books covers the material at a
suitable level, you may want to consult parallel or more detailed books for
some purposes, such as D. V. Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal
Physics. I will see that some relevant books are put on reserve in
OUGL or in the Physics-Astronomy Library. I have made notes available
that cover the course at a suitable level, but these are short on worked
examples and illustrations.
These notes, as well as solutions to the problem sets and midterms,
assignments, and additional reading, will be put on the Web page
http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/thouless/224A/.
PREREQUISITES: MATH 126, MATH 129, or MATH 136, any of which may be
taken concurrently; PHYS 122 which may be taken concurrently. In fact the
course will use heavily concepts from basic mechanics, such as energy,
momentum, force, and will also stress units and dimensions. The
mathematics needed includes basic calculus for functions of one variable,
vector algebra, partial derivatives, and integration of a function of
several variables along a path. If your knowledge of the last two topics
is a bit shaky this course will give you some practice. Little physics
material from Physics 122 will be used, but Physics 122 also uses
integrals along a path in more than one dimension.
OFFICE HOURS: My office hours are Mondays 2-3, in PAB B417 (look in my
office, B423, if I am not in the seminar room), and the TA, Gary Howell
will be in B417 on Tuesdays, 3-4. My e-mail address is
thouless@u.washington.edu, and my office number is PAB B423. Students are
welcome to send me questions or comments, and I will try to reply to them
promptly. My phone number is 206-685-2393. If you want to see me at
other times, either arrange a time by e-mail or phone, or come up and look
for me.
The Teaching Assistant for this course is Gary Howell. His e-mail
address is gthowell@hotmail.com.
GRADES AND EXAMINATIONS: Some homework problems will be graded, and
there will be ten minute tests on Mondays. There will be a midterm
examination and a final examination. The date for the midterm
examination is Monday, April 30. The Final Examination will be on Monday,
June 4, 8:30-10:20 am. You will be expected to bring a calculator into
examinations, and will be permitted to bring with you a single 11 inch by
8.5 inch sheet of notes and reminders with you.
The homework and short tests will count for one unit in the grading
scheme, the midterm will count for one unit, and the final will count for
two units. The unit with the lowest score (after normalization) for each
student will be dropped, and the total of the highest three units
used to determine the grade. The homework will be much more heavily
weighted than the tests, which are primarily intended to tell both you
and me what needs more work and discussion
AIMS: I hope to help you understand an important aspect of the physical
world, and help you to learn how physicists think about such problems. I
will include some historical background because I think it is important to
be aware where our understanding comes from. You may have different aims,
such as satisfying a prerequisite for something else you want to study,
getting a good grade, or developing problem-solving skills. These are all
legitimate aims, so let me know if there seem to be difficulties in
reconciling these aims. Slow me down if I am going too fast.
HOMEWORK: Approximately 8 homework assignments will be handed out.
These are generally due at 5 pm on Wednesdays, and should be handed in to
me in class, in my mailbox in room C125 (in the tower, just to the right
of the entrance to the Physics Department main office), or in my office.
Solution sets will be available when the problems have been handed in. Do
not restrict your attention just to the graded problems, as thinking about
problems is an essential part of studying. Please think critically
about my solutions, particularly for any problems that you did
not manage to work out for yourselves.
I will assign some open-ended questions both in the problem sets and in
the exams, as a reminder that learning to do short problems should not be
your only aim for the course.
I will set aside about some class time on Mondays for use as an examples
class, and expect to be asked for hslp with the surrent problem set in
my office hours.
Work with other students if you can. Learning from one another can be as
good as, or better than, learning directly from the instructor. The best
way to learn thoroughly something you partly understand is to explain it
to someone else. Getting or giving help with the homework is not cheating
in this course, but is an important way of learning. Copying someone
else's work is cheating, and does not help you to learn. Asking for help
from the instructor or Teaching Assistant is also fine. When the solution
sheets appear, read through them carefully to see if there are things you
missed. Many of the exam questions will be look-alikes of the homework
problems. If you are unfamiliar with the homework problems, you will find
yourself short of time during the examinations.
READING AND LECTURE NOTES: The texts were chosen because most of you have
one of them already. They, together with some notes that I shall make
available, will cover the essential material of the course, but you are
likely to have to read beyond these essential sections in order to
understand the material thoroughly. In particular, Knight's book seems to
say nothing about heat transfer and Giancoli only uses five pages for it;
there is only a very brief discussion of the use of probability arguments.
Most other books, such as the book by Schroeder, assume that you have
already met the basic ideas of thermal physics in an introductory college
physics course.
I shall not attempt to give lectures that substitute for the assigned
reading in Knight (or Giancoli), but will try to give a different
perspective on the same material. I will be more detailed on the topics
not covered in the assigned texts. Read ahead of the lectures, so
that you can get the most out of the classes, and can ask questions when
there are points you do not understand in the reading, problems or
lectures.
THE WORLD AROUND YOU: Examples of the subject-matter of this course are
all around you, in your kitchen, in your heating system, and in the
outside world. Use your eyes and your mind to get a better understanding
of how things work. This is one of the areas of physics where what you see
and feel is close to what you learn about.