Physics 201: Modern Physics
Fall 2009

Class schedule: M,W,F 10:00-10:50am, Tyler Hall, Room 336
Tutorial: F 1-1:50pm, Millington Hall, Room 117
Office hours: T,W 3-5pm

Instructor - Josh Erlich
Small Hall, Room 223
Office Phone: 757-221-3763
Email: erlich@physics.wm.edu

Grader - Christopher Carlin, crcarlin@wm.edu

Course website:  http://physics.wm.edu/~erlich/201F09/

Course Summary:

In the 20th century the classical understanding of physical law was replaced by a new world view. The speed of light became a fundamental constant; the notions of space and time were redefined; and the outcome of experiments could no longer be predicted with certainty. This course will cover the experiments and concepts underlying Special Relativity, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics. We will also discuss some applications of these revolutionary theories, selected from the fields of Atomic, Condensed Matter, Nuclear, Particle, and Gravitational Physics.

Text:  J.R. Taylor, C.D. Zafiratos and M.A. Dubson, Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Second Edition

Prerequisites:

This course assumes a background in first year physics at the level of Phys 101-102 or Phys 107-108, and calculus at the level of Math 111-112.

Course requirements and grade:

Problem Sets:

Problem sets will generally be due on Fridays and returned the following Friday. Questions about the grading should first be addressed to the grader. After speaking with the grader if you feel that a grading issue was not adequately addressed, then see me.

Problem Set 1, due Friday, Sept 11. Solutions.
Problem Set 2, due Friday, Sept 18. Solutions.
Problem Set 3, due Friday, Sept 25. Solutions.
Problem Set 4, due Friday, October 2. Solutions.
Problem Set 5, due Friday, October 9. Solutions.
Problem Set 6, due Friday, October 16. Solutions.
Problem Set 7, due Friday, October 23. Solutions.
Problem Set 8, due Friday, October 30. Solutions.
Problem Set 9, due Friday, November 6, Solutions.
Problem Set 10, due Friday, November 13, Solutions.
Problem Set 11, due Friday, November 20. Solutions.
Problem Set 12, due Wednesday, December 2. Solutions.

Exams:

Exam 1 Cover Page
Sample Exam 1 (from Fall, 2007)
Sample Exam 2 (from Fall, 2008) -- only problems 1,4,6 are relevant for this year's Exam 2.
Sample Final Exam (from Fall, 2008)

Supplementary Material:

A collection of historic physics papers is available here and here.

Evan Pierce's "Lock and Key Paradox" paper from the American Journal of Physics, a fun journal that you have online access to through the College network here. To access journals from outside the network, use Google Scholar and search for William and Mary in Scholar Preferences.

A pdf file of the 1923 English translation of Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper," Annalen der Physik, 17:891, 1905 was prepared by John Walker and is available at http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/index.html.
The German version is available here.

English translation of Einstein's E=mc^2 paper, prepared by John Walker.

Notes on the invariant interval and causality.

Schrodinger's 1926 paper describing the Schrodinger equation

Feynman lectures, courtesy of Bill Gates!