PHY2004W is a second-year course, aimed primarily at students who are majoring in physics.
Coordinator
Andy Buffler, RW James 5.01
Mawande Lushozi RW James 4.11
Entrance requirements
PHY1004W, a full first-year course in Mathematics, and MAM2000W or (MAM2004H and MAM2046W) as a corequisite.
Course outline
MECHANICS: Review of Newton's Laws; inertial and non-inertial frames; transformations; equations of motion for 1D systems; oscillations; resonance; non-linear systems; Euler's equation; Lagrange's equation; generalized coordinates and constrained systems, Hamiltonian formalism, phase space and Liouville's theorem; effective potentials; planetary motion; systems of particles; angular momentum; collisions; rigid bodies; coupled oscillators; wave equation; special relativity, relativistic mechanics.
ELECTROMAGNETISM: Vector calculus (div, grad, curl), electrostatics, special techniques for potentials, electric fields in matter, magnetostatics, magnetic fields in matter, current, Ohm's law, circuits, electromagnetic induction, electrodynamics, Maxwell's equations.
QUANTUM MECHANICS: The basic assumptions of quantum mechanics, solutions of Schrdinger's equation, properties of wave functions and operators, one-dimensional applications, angular momentum in quantum mechanics, three-dimensional applications, the hydrogen atom, approximate methods.
LABORATORY: Practical work in PHYLAB2.
Lecturers
- Andy Buffler, RW James 5.01
- James Keaveney, RW James 5.06
- Mawande Lushozi, RW James 4.11
- Spencer Wheaton, RW James 4.T4
- Trisha Salagaram, RW James 5.11