Relativity, Spacetime, and Contemporary Physics

Phys 130, Fall 2018

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., 3:00 - 4:00 PM
• Thurs., 11:00 AM - 12:00 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
8/27	Introduction and Overview	Moore C, Ch. 1
8/29	Vectors and Velocity	Moore C, Ch. 2
8/30	Phys 130 Lab: Constant-Volume Gas Thermometer (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
8/31	Coordinate Transformations	Moore C, Ch. 3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
9/3	Monentum	Moore C, Ch. 4
9/5	Interactions and Collisions	Moore C, Ch. 5
9/6	Phys 130 Lab: Speed of Light 1: Foucault's Rotating Mirror (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/7	Energy	Moore C, Ch. 6	HW 2 Due
Week 3
9/10	Spacetimes Diagrams and SR Units	Moore R, Ch. 2.1 - 2.3
9/12	The Speed of Light (Brooks at Penn State)	Moore R, Ch. 1.1 - 1.6
9/13	Phys 130 Lab: Speed of Light 2: Fiber Optics (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/14	Worldlines and Spacetime Diagrams	Moore R, Ch. 2.4 - 2.7	HW 3 Due
Week 4
9/17	Time and The Metric Equation	Moore R, Ch. 3.1 - 3.3
9/19	The Geometry of Spacetime	Moore R, Ch. 3.4 - 3.7
9/20	Phys 130 Lab: Michelson Interferometer (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/21	Time Dilation and the Lorentz Factor	Moore R, Ch. 4.1 - 4.6	HW 4 Due
Week 5
9/24	Coordinate Transformations	Moore R, Ch. 5.1 - 5.4
9/26	The Lorentz Transformation	Moore R, Ch. 5.5 - 5.6
9/27	Mid-Term Exam I (During Lab Period, from 1:10 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 142)
9/28	Relativistic Invariants
Week 6
10/1	Length Contraction	Moore R, 6.1 - 6.4
10/3	The Pole/Barn Paradox	Moore R, Ch. 6.5 - 6.6
10/4	No Lab Meeting
10/5	Causality	Moore R, Ch. 7.1 - 7.3	HW 5 Due
Week 7
10/8	Fall Break (No Class Meeting)
10/10	Gravitational Waves (Brooks at UC Irvine)
10/11	Phys 130 Lab: Muon Physics 1 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/12	The Velocity Transform	Moore R, Ch. 7.4
Week 8
10/15	Four-Momentum	Moore R, Ch. 8.1 - 8.3	HW 6 Due
10/17	Four-Momentum Conservation	Moore R, Ch. 8.4 - 8.6
10/18	Phys 130 Lab: Muon Physics 2 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/19	Photons and Other Massless Particles	Moore R, Ch. 9.4	HW7 Due
Week 9
10/22	Relativistic Collisions	Moore R, Ch. 9.1 - 9.3, 9.5 - 9.6
10/24	General Relativity and the Equivalence Principle
10/25	Phys 130 Lab: Polarization of Light (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
10/26	The Geometry of Curved Spacetime	Taylor, p. 2-17 - 2-24	HW 8 Due
Week 10
10/29	Black Holes	Taylor, p. 2-24 - 2-41
10/31	The Atom and its Nucleus	Krane: Ch. 12.1 - 12.4
11/1	Mid-Term Exam II (During Lab Period, from 1:10 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/2	Nuclear Decay	Krane: Ch. 12.6 - 12.9
Week 11
11/5	The Basic Building Blocks of Nature	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.1 - 1.4
11/7	The Four Fundamental Forces	Griffiths P, Ch. 2.1
11/8	Phys 130 Lab: The Hydrogen Spectrum (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/9	Matter: Quarks and Leptons	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.6 - 1.9	HW 9 Due
Week 12
11/12	Feynman Diagrams and Interactions	Griffiths P, Ch. 2.2
11/14	Hadrons and the Strong Force	Griffiths P, 2.3
11/15	Phys 130 Lab: Nuclear Decay (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/16	The Weak Force	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.10, 2.4	HW 10 Due
Week 13
11/19	Neutrinos	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.5
11/21	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
11/22	Thanksgiving Break (No Lab Meeting)
11/23	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
Week 14
11/26	The Higgs Mechanism, Part I
11/28	The Higgs Mechanism, Part II
11/29	Phys 130 Lab: Electron Charge-to-Mass Ratio 1 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
11/30	Colliders and Detectors		HW 11 Due
Week 15
12/3	Redshift and Cosmic Expansion	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.1
12/5	Dark Matter
12/7	Phys 130 Lab: Electron Charge-to-Mass Ratio 2 (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 142)
12/7	Unanswered Questions	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.4	HW 12 Due
Final Exam
12/15	Final Exam: 8:00 - 11:00 AM in Hugel 115