Physics 100: The Quantum World
Spring 2017
Welcome to the Physics 100 WWW page!
Classes:
Tues, Thurs: 9:30 - 10:50,
Morton 102
Grading Scheme:
Team Project: 40%
One-page Reaction Papers (several): 20%
Class Participation & Discussion: 20%
Homework Assignments: 20%
Text and Readings:
The primary texts will be
-
``The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics''
by Daniel
F. Styer
(Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0 521 66780 1).
The text has a useful associated
WWW site
- check it out!
- ``Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality?" by Alastair Rae (Cambridge University Press; 2 edition, ISBN-13: 978-9814360890)
In addition, we will include a large number of other readings from the technical
and semi-technical literature; a preliminary listing (subject to change) can be found
here. The readings will be posted on Blackboard, and
announced in class.
Homework:
Homework assignments will be posted here, as well as on Blackboard.
Team Project:
The ability to convey scientific (and other) concepts to an audience
in means other than the traditional academic essay or scientific paper
will be explored here. Midway through the semester, we will form
groups of 3 or 4 students each. Each group will choose a topic from
the course and a "mode of expression". These modes of expression could
include:
- Creating a short (approx. 8 minute) video or podcast explaining some topic relevant to the course, or storyboard a longer
version. This could include an interview with a scientist, scholar, or historian who works in an area
relevant to the course, a "mini-lecture" aimed at the general public, or a 5 minute "elevator speech".
- Creating a blog or website related to the course that incorporates media (video, images, etc.)
in addition to text.
- Writing and performing a scripted debate on a topic relevant to the course.
- (insert your creative idea here).
Each group will need to provide an initial citation list to me for
feedback, two weeks after the project topic is selected.
The first draft versions of the projects will
be presented to the instructor two weeks before the end of classes
for feedback. Final presentations and evaluations of the team projects
will be conducted during the final exam time slot for the course:
Monday May 8, 9:00-noon.
Your team project grades will be an equal combination of: grades
assigned by your team peers that assess your individual contributions
to the teams' effort, grades assigned by the instructor on the overall
quality of the final products, and grades assigned by the rest of the
class evaluating how succesfully the essential ideas of the chosen
topic were conveyed. A grading rubric will be provided.
Reaction Papers:
These short (typically one page) papers will be based on selected
readings of supplementary material. Each student will be asked to be
ready to provide a concise, unscripted oral summary of the most
important aspects of the reading; students will be selected for each
class in which the reading is discussed to present these. Grades for
the Reaction Papers will be based (15%) on the written paper and (5%)
on these oral summaries.
Description of the Course
Quantum mechanics is the basis for almost all of modern physics, and
is accepted essentially without question by working
physicists. Certain aspects of quantum mechanics, lying both in the axioms
at its foundations, and in the behavior that it predicts (and that is
observed in experiment) are quite counter-intuitive. Thus the
practicing physicist learns to abandon some of his or her intuitive assumptions
about the way nature "must" behave.
The need to abandon these intuitive assumptions, however, has
profound philosophical implications, and also makes the subject fascinating
for the layperson. Questions arise as to whether or not determinism
can be salvaged, what is the role of the observer (and human
consciousness) in a measurement, and even if strict causality (i.e.
cause always preceding effect) is obeyed in nature. The
"received wisdom" for a philosophical framework in which to place
the mathematics of quantum physics is the so-called Copenhagen
Interpretation, largely due to Niels Bohr and collaborators. It is
not clear that this is a philosophically acceptable interpretation, and
it is certainly far from clear that it is the only interpretation
that is both logically consistent and not in contradiction with the ultimate
arbiter, experiment.
A wealth of work has been done over the years by philosophers and
physicists on the interpretation problem, and several alternative
interpretations have been proposed. Many have been eliminated through
experiment (for example via tests of the famous Bell Inequalities),
but many more remain viable. As well, there has been a plethora of
popular science books that discuss the counter-intuitive nature of
"modern" physics, and in some cases attempt to relate this to such things
as Eastern mysticism, telepathy, etc.
Until recently, these counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics
have been largely considered in the physics community as being
interesting features, but without having much "practical" significance. In
the last dozen years or so, there has been an explosion of interest
with the realization that rather important technological importance
appears to be attached to them including quantum computing and quantum
cryptography, with applications ranging from the financial sector to
national security. We will explore several of these applications.
The course will use two experiments, the double-slit
electron experiment, and the EPR correlation experiment(s), as the focus
of our introduction to quantum physics. A careful study of both of these
systems will lead us to all the challenging questions of the
interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the nature of reality.
Supplemental reading will be done using various articles in the technical and
semi-technical literature, i.e. from sources such as
Physics Today,
The American Journal of Physics,
and
The Physics Teacher.
We will read and critically analyze a number of popular science
treatments of the subject, and delve into several of the alternatives
to the Copenhagen interpretation.
COLL 100
PHYS 100 satisfies William & Mary's COLL 100 requirement as a
component of the general education ("COLL") curriculum.
Intellectually, COLL 100 courses are about "big ideas" - the significant
questions and concepts, beliefs and creative visions, theories and
discoveries that have shaped our understanding of the world. Students
will encounter and learn about the discoveries, texts, and knowledge
that are fundamental to further study in one or more academic
disciplines. Among the goals of these courses, which can be taught
within or across departments, are to give students a sense of the
excitement of scholarly inquiry, and to challenge students to think
rigorously about important ideas.
Accesibility
William & Mary accommodates students with disabilities in accordance
with federal laws and university policy. Any student who feels s/he
may need an accommodation based on the impact of a learning,
psychiatric, physical, or chronic health diagnosis should contact
Student Accessibility Services staff at 757-221-2509 or at sas@wm.edu
to determine if accommodations are warranted and to obtain an official
letter of accommodation. For more information, please see
www.wm.edu/sas
http://physics.wm.edu/~armd/P100.html
Dept. of Physics
William and Mary
armd@physics.wm.edu
last updated: March 22 2017