Oscillatory and Wave Phenomena

Phys 218, Spring 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

• Walter Fox Smith, Waves and Oscillations (Oxford University Press, 2010).
• John R. Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2nd Ed. (University Science Books, 1997).
• Brooks Thomas, Slightly Disturbed: Oscillations, Waves, and the Mathematics Behind Them (lecture notes).

Office hours

• Mon., 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• Wed., 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• Fri., 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

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

Note: readings marked "Smith" are from Waves and Oscillations by Walter Fox Smith, readings marked "Taylor" are from "Error Analysis" by John. R. Taylor, and readings marked "Thomas" are supplementary readings from my own lecture notes.



Date	Topic	Reading	Homework
Week 1
1/22	Introduction
1/24	Simple Harmonic Motion	Smith 1.1-1.5, Thomas 1.2-1.3
1/26	Complex Numbers	Smith 1.6-1.9, Thomas 3.1-3.3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
1/29	An Introduction to Mathematica	TBA
1/31	Simple Pendulum	Smith 2.1-2.2; Thomas 2.1
2/2	The Harmonic Approximation	Thomas 2.6-2.7	HW 2 Due
Week 3
2/5	Error Analysis	Taylor 1-4
2/7	Oscillations of Materials: Deformation and Shear	Smith 2.4-2.5
2/9	Linear Differential Equations: Basic Techniques	Thomas 4.1-4.3	HW 3 Due
Week 4
2/12	Drag Forces and Damping	Smith 3.1, 3.6; Thomas 5.3
2/14	Damped Harmonic Oscillator	Smith 3.2-3.4; Thomas 5.4
2/16	Mid-Term Exam I
Week 5
2/19	Under-, Over-, and Critical Damping	Smith 3.5; Thomas 5.5
2/21	Error Propagation	Taylor, 4-5
2/23	Driven Oscillations and the Method of Undetermined Coefficients	Smith 4.1; Thomas 6.1-6.2	HW 4 Due
Week 6
2/26	Resonance Phenomena	Smith 4.2-4.4; Thomas 6.3-6.5
2/28	Superposition and Transients	Smith 4.5, 4.7; Thomas 6.7
3/2	Complex Impedances and RLC Circuits	Smith 4.6; Thomas 6.6	HW 5 Due
Week 7
3/5	Numerical Methods in Python	TBA
3/7	Non-Linearity and Chaos	Smith 4.8
3/9	Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.1-5.2; Thomas 9.1-9.2	HW 6 Due
Week 8
3/12	Spring Break (No Class)
3/14	Spring Break (No Class)
3/16	Spring Break (No Class)
Week 9
3/19	Normal Modes	Smith 5.3-5.6
3/21	Damped, Driven Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.7-5.8	HW 7 Due
3/23	Mid-Term Exam II
Week 10
3/26	Vector Spaces and Hilbert Space	Smith 6.1-6.3; Thomas 9.4-9.5
3/28	Matrices and Linear Algebra	Smith 6.6; Thomas 9.6-9.8
3/30	Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors, and Normal Modes	Smith 6.4-6.5; Thomas 9.9
Week 11
4/2	Curve Fitting	Taylor 8	HW 8 Due
4/4	Asymmetric Coupled Oscillators	Smith 6.7
4/6	Many, Many Coupled Oscillators	Smith 7.1-7.3; Thomas 9.10
Week 12
4/9	From Oscillations to Waves	Smith 7.3-7.6; Thomas 9.1	HW 9 Due
4/11	k-space	Smith 7.7-7.8
4/13	Fourier Series	Smith 8.1-8.4; Thomas 7.1-7.6
Week 13
4/16	The Fourier Transform	Smith 8.4-8.5; Thomas 7.7-7.8	HW 10 Due
4/18	Applications of Fourier Analysis	Smith 8.7
4/20	Mid-Term Exam III
Week 14
4/23	Discrete Fourier Transform	Smith 8.6
4/25	Traveling Waves	Smith 9.1-9.5
4/27	The Medium and the Message	Smith 9.6-9.11	HW 11 Due
Week 15
4/30	Dispersion, Group and Phase Velocities	Smith 9.12
5/2	Waves at Interfaces	Smith 10.1-10.3
5/4	Reflection and Transmission	Smith 10.5-10.7	HW 12 Due
Final Exam
TBA	Final Exam (Date and Time TBA)