Relativity, Spacetime, and Contemporary Physics

Phys 130, Fall 2017

Course Web Page

Brooks Thomas

Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042

Phone: (610) 330-5207
Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu

Contact Info

Physics at Lafayette

Other Resources

• My Personal Home Page
• Lafayette Physics Department
• Physics Courses

• List of NSF REU Sites
• APS Resources for Students
• Society of Physics Students (SPS)
• CUWiP
• SACNAS National Conference

Course Materials and Other Useful Links

• Syllabus
• Resources and Demos Page
• Course Moodle

Textbooks

• Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit R — Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent, 3rd Ed. (McGraw-Hill Education, 2017).

Office hours

• Mon., 3:00 - 4:00 PM
• Wed., 9:00 - 10:00 AM and 3:00 - 4:00 PM
• Fri., 3:00 - 4:00 PM

If you cannot make it during my formal office hours, please email me in order to schedule an appointment. You should also feel free to drop by my office unannounced.

Course Schedule

This schedule includes both lecture and laboratory components of the course. The sources referred to in the "Readings Covered" column are abbreviated as follows:


• "Moore C": Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit C — Conservation Laws Constrain Interactions, 2nd Ed.
• "Moore R": Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit R — Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent, 3rd Ed.
• "Griffiths P": David J. Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles,, 2nd Ed.
• "Griffiths R": David J. Griffiths, Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Physics.
• "Krane": "Kenneth Krane, Modern Physics, 3rd Ed.
• "Taylor": Edwin F. Taylor and John. A. Wheeler, Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity.



Date	Topic	Reading Covered	Homework
Week 1
8/28	Introduction and Overview	Moore C, Ch. 1
8/30	Vectors and Velocity	Moore C, Ch. 2
8/31	Phys 130 Lab: Constant-Volume Gas Thermometer (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/1	Coordinate Transformations	Moore C, Ch. 3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
9/4	Monentum	Moore C, Ch. 4
9/6	Interactions and Collisions	Moore C, Ch. 5
9/7	Phys 130 Lab: Measuring the Speed of Light 1: The Rotating Mirror (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/8	Energy	Moore C, Ch. 6	HW 2 Due
Week 3
9/11	Galilean Relativity	Moore R, Ch. 1.1 - 1.6
9/13	Spacetimes Diagrams and SR Units	Moore R, Ch. 2.1 - 2.3
9/14	Phys 130 Lab: Measuring the Speed of Light 2: Fiber Optics (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/15	Worldlines and Spacetime Diagrams	Moore R, Ch. 2.4 - 2.7	HW 3 Due
Week 4
9/18	Time and The Metric Equation	Moore R, Ch. 3.1 - 3.3
9/20	The Geometry of Spacetime	Moore R, Ch. 3.4 - 3.7
9/21	No Lab Meeting
9/22	Time Dilation and the Lorentz Factor	Moore R, Ch. 4.1 - 4.6	HW 4 Due
Week 5
9/25	Coordinate Transformations	Moore R, Ch. 5.1 - 5.4
9/27	The Lorentz Transformation	Moore R, Ch. 5.5 - 5.6
9/28	Mid-Term Exam I (During Lab Period, from 1:10 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/29	Relativistic Invariants
Week 6
10/2	Length Contraction	Moore R, 6.1 - 6.4
10/4	The Pole/Barn Paradox	Moore R, Ch. 6.5 - 6.6
10/5	Phys 130 Lab: Muon Physics 1 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/6	Causality	Moore R, Ch. 7.1 - 7.3	HW 5 Due
Week 7
10/9	Fall Break (No Class Meeting)
10/11	The Velocity Transform	Moore R, Ch. 7.4
10/12	Phys 130 Lab: Muon Physics 2 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/13	Four-Momentum	Moore R, Ch. 8.1 - 8.3	HW 6 Due
Week 8
10/16	Four-Momentum Conservation	Moore R, Ch. 8.4 - 8.6
10/18	Photons and Other Massless Particles	Moore R, Ch. 9.4
10/19	Phys 130 Lab: Michelson Interferometer (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/20	TBA (Brooks at LightDark 2017 in Pittsburgh)	Moore R, Ch. 9.1 - 9.3, 9.5 - 9.6	HW7 Due
Week 9
10/23	General Relativity and the Equivalence Principle
10/25	The Geometry of Curved Spacetime	Taylor, p. 2-17 - 2-24
10/26	Phys 130 Lab: Polarization of Light (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/27	Black Holes	Taylor, p. 2-24 - 2-41	HW 8 Due
Week 10
10/30	The Atom and its Nucleus	Krane: Ch. 12.1 - 12.4
11/1	Nuclear Decay	Krane: Ch. 12.6 - 12.9
11/2	Mid-Term Exam II (During Lab Period, from 1:10 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/3	Gravitational Waves (Brooks at AAPT Workshop)
Week 11
11/6	The Basic Building Blocks of Nature	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.1 - 1.4
11/8	The Four Fundamental Forces	Griffiths P, Ch. 2.1 - 2.2
11/9	Phys 130 Lab: The Hydrogen Spectrum (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/10	Matter: Quarks and Leptons	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.6 - 1.9	HW 9 Due
Week 12
11/13	Hadrons and the Strong Force	Griffiths P, 2.3
11/15	The Weak Force	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.10, 2.4
11/16	Phys 130 Lab: Nuclear Decay (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/17	Neutrinos	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.5,	HW 10 Due
Week 13
11/20	The Higgs Mechanism, Part I
11/22	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
11/23	Thanksgiving Break (No Lab Meeting)
11/24	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
Week 14
11/27	The Higgs Mechanism, Part II
11/29	Colliders and Detectors
11/30	Phys 130 Lab: e/m for the Electron, Group 1 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
12/1	Redshift and Cosmic Expansion	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.1	HW 11 Due
Week 15
12/4	The Standard Cosmology	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.2 - 5.3
12/6	Dark Matter
12/7	Phys 130 Lab: e/m for the Electron, Group 2 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
12/8	Unanswered Questions	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.4	HW 12 Due
Final Exam
TBA	Final Exam: TBA