First Day

Lay Out Handouts

Syllabus Questionnaire

1st lab Lab Guide

Problem Solving Hints Scientific Method

Conversion Factors

Ask students to fill out questionnaire right away and bring them to the front.

Pass around seating chart a little before 8AM

Introduce myself

Take Roll

Demo Newton’s Cradle

Ask "What does this demonstrate?"

energy potential, kinetic momentum (collisions)

Go over the syllabus

Answer Questions from questionnaires.

Thumb through the textbook.

Talk about the CDROM

book in pdf format on the CD

Talk about course objectives

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER

Brief history of physics

Greeks poor, to no, experiments

Experiments:

Classical Physics: 1600 Galileo 1660 Newton 1860 Maxwell

Modern Physics 1905 Einstein

Advances in technology have led to advances in physics.

telescope 1600’s, electrical equipment 1800’s

vacuum tubes late 1800’s electronics 1900’s

computers 1960’s

Space and Time

They are interconnected (Special Relativity, 1905)

Unit of length 1 meter

Unit of time 1 second

defined using vibrations of light from cesium atoms

1905 Einstein stated that light travels at the absolute speed limit

3 X 10⁸ meters/second about a billion feet/second

*What is an absolute speed limit?

1.27 seconds for light to travel from the moon to the earth

8.3 minutes for light to travel from the sun to the earth

4.2 years to nearest star (not the sun) 100,000 years to travel the diameter of our galaxy

What is the principal error on page Int-2?

I will give a bonus point to the person who sends the first e-mail

to me with the correct answer.

(check your e-mail … I will be sending an e-mail to you … Please reply to that e-mail so I know you can get e-mail from me. I will occasionally revise assignments or give hints via e-mail.)

Convert 1 micro-century (μ-century) into the equivalent number of minutes.

Int-3 Hubble photo of galaxies

As far as we know the physics in distant galaxies is the same as the physics

we experience on earth … light, gravity, etc.

1920’s data All but the closest galaxies are moving away from us.

*What conclusions would you derive from this data?

"Big Bang"

Int-5 Structure of Matter

*What is an "atom?"

*What part of figure 8-25a represents the earth?

*Why are protons said to have positive charge (instead of negative charge)?

For a proton and electron, the electrical force is about 2 x 10³⁹ times

stronger than the gravitational force.

*Why does gravity dominate over the electric force in our classroom?

Int-7 Light

*What did Maxwell do around 1860?

*What was the predicted speed of the wave?

*Does classical physics explain the structure of the atom?

Photons

*What is a photon?

*What experiment gave evidence of the existence of photons?

*Who correctly explained the data from the experiment?

*When? *Is light a wave or a particle?

Int-8 Bohr’s Model of the Atom

*When does an atom emit light?

Demo Hydrogen spectral tube

*What does "quantized" mean?

Particle-Wave Nature of Matter

All matter has a particle-wave nature. Quantum Mechanics

Conservation of Energy

Energy is a bookkeeping device used to solve problems and make predictions.

Energy is not a substance.

The amount of mass and energy before and after a process occurs is constant.

AntiMatter

*What was implied by Dirac’s solution to the relativistic Schrodinger

equation?

positron

Int-13 Particle Nature of Forces

*What is thought to be responsible for the electric interaction?

Gravity

General Relativity gives the best current model for gravity.

*What evidence exists that General Relativity is correct?

*How does string theory differ from prior theories?

Int-16 Summary

Some of the history of the development of physics has been traced through

the discussion of the atom in this text.

Int-17 Nucleus Which is strongest: nuclear force, electrical force,

gravity?

Stellar Evolution, Weak Interaction, Leptons, etc….. second semester.

We will spend some time becoming familiar with the metric system and unit conversions.

We may work some examples of "Fermi Questions."

Copyright© 2001 - 2006 by Greg Clements Permission is granted to reproduce this document as long as 1) this copyright notice is included, 2) no charge above photocopy costs is made, and, 3) the use is for an educational purpose. Editing of the document to suit your own class style and purposes is allowed.