Oscillatory and Wave Phenomena

Phys 218, Spring 2021

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

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

During the times designated as my office hours below, I will have a Zoom meeting open, which you can join from the office-hours Zoom link provided on the course Moodle. If I am meeting with another student at the time you join the Zoom meeting, I may ask you to wait in the waiting room for a bit. However, if you and other students in the course have the same question, you can certainly meet with me as a group.


• Mon., 10:00 - 11:00 AM Eastern
• Wed., 3:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern
• Thurs., 11:00 AM - 12:00 noon Eastern
• Fri., 2:00 AM - 3:00 PM Eastern

If you cannot make it during my formal office hours, please email me in order to schedule an appointment.

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
2/8	Introduction
2/10	Simple Harmonic Motion	Smith 1.1-1.5, Thomas 1.2-1.3
2/12	Complex Numbers	Smith 1.6-1.9, Thomas 3.1-3.3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
2/15	An Introduction to Mathematica	TBA
2/17	Simple Pendulum	Smith 2.1-2.2; Thomas 2.1
2/19	The Harmonic Approximation	Thomas 2.6-2.7	HW 2 Due
Week 3
2/22	Error Analysis	Taylor 1.1-4.6
2/24	Oscillations of Materials: Deformation and Shear	Smith 2.4-2.5
2/26	Linear Differential Equations: Basic Techniques	Thomas 4.1-4.3	HW 3 Due
Week 4
3/1	Drag Forces and Damping	Smith 3.1, 3.6; Thomas 5.3
3/3	Damped Harmonic Oscillator	Smith 3.2-3.4; Thomas 5.4
3/5	Mid-Term Exam I (8:30 - 9:50 AM Eastern)
Week 5
3/8	Under-, Over-, and Critical Damping	Smith 3.5; Thomas 5.5
3/10	Continuous Probability Distributions	Taylor 5.1-5.8
3/12	Driven Oscillations and the Method of Undetermined Coefficients	Smith 4.1; Thomas 6.1-6.2	HW 4 Due
Week 6
3/15	Resonance Phenomena	Smith 4.2-4.4; Thomas 6.3-6.5
3/17	Superposition and Transients	Smith 4.5, 4.7; Thomas 6.7
3/19	Complex Impedances and RLC Circuits	Smith 4.6; Thomas 6.6	HW 5 Due
Week 7
3/22	Non-Linearity and Chaos	Smith 4.8
3/24	Numerical Methods in Python	TBA
3/26	Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.1-5.2; Thomas 9.1-9.2	HW 6 Due
Week 8
3/29	Normal Modes	Smith 5.3-5.6
3/31	Spring Break (No Class)
4/2	Damped, Driven Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.7-5.8
Week 9
4/5	Vector Spaces and Hilbert Space	Smith 6.1-6.3; Thomas 9.4-9.5
4/7	Matrices and Linear Algebra	Smith 6.6; Thomas 9.6-9.8
4/9	Mid-Term Exam II (8:30 - 9:50 AM Eastern)
Week 10
4/12	Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors, and Normal Modes	Smith 6.4-6.5; Thomas 9.9
4/14	Curve Fitting	Taylor 8
4/16	Asymmetric Coupled Oscillators	Smith 6.7	HW 7 Due
Week 11
4/19	Many, Many Coupled Oscillators	Smith 7.1-7.3; Thomas 9.10
4/21	From Oscillations to Waves	Smith 7.4-7.6; Thomas 9.11
4/23	k-space	Smith 7.7-7.8	HW 8 Due
Week 12
4/26	Fourier Series	Smith 8.1-8.4; Thomas 7.1-7.6
4/28	The Fourier Transform	Smith 8.5; Thomas 7.7-7.8
4/30	Applications of Fourier Analysis	Smith 8.7	HW 9 Due
Week 13
5/3	Discrete Fourier Transform	Smith 8.6
5/5	Traveling Waves	Smith 9.1-9.5
5/7	Mid-Term Exam III (8:30 - 9:50 AM Eastern)
Week 14
5/10	The Medium and the Message	Smith 9.6-9.11
5/12	Dispersion, Group, and Phase Velocities	Smith 9.12	HW 10 Due
5/14	Waves at Interfaces	Smith 10.1-10.3
Week 15
5/17	Non-Instructional Day (No Class)
5/19	Reflection and Transmission	Smith 10.5-10.7	HW 11 Due
5/21	Reading Day (No Class)
Final Exam
5/24	Final Exam: 8:00-11:00 AM Eastern