Oscillatory and Wave Phenomena

Phys 218, Spring 2024

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 Society of Black Physicists

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, 3rd Ed. (University Science Books, 2022).
• Brooks Thomas, Slightly Disturbed: Oscillations, Waves, and the Mathematics Behind Them (lecture notes).

Instructor Drop-In Hours

My instructor drop-in hours this semester will be held in Hugel 125. (These are sometimes referred to as "office hours," but in this case that's a misnomer in this case because Hugel 125 is not my office.) These drop-in hours are listed below:


• Mon., 3:00 - 4:00 PM
• Wed., 1:30 - 3:30 PM
• Fri., 1:00 - 2:00 PM

The default assumption is that my drop-in hours will take place in person. However, if the need arises for you to attend my drop-in hours virtually at any point during the semester (e.g., because of a winter-weather emergency or because you are isolating due to COVID-19), please email me in advance to schedule a virtual drop-in-hours meeting.

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 3.1-4.6
2/7	Oscillations of Materials: Deformation and Shear	Smith 2.4-2.5
2/9	Separation of Variables	Thomas 4.1-4.2	HW 3 Due
Week 4
2/12	First-Order Linear Differential Equations	Thomas 4.3-4.4
2/14	Drag Forces and Damping	Smith 3.1, 3.6; Thomas 5.3
2/16	Mid-Term Exam I (8:30 - 9:50 AM Eastern)
Week 5
2/19	Damped Harmonic Oscillator	Smith 3.2-3.4; Thomas 5.4
2/21	Under-, Over-, and Critical Damping	Smith 3.5; Thomas 5.5
2/23	Continuous Probability Distributions	Taylor 5.1-5.8	HW 4 Due
Week 6
2/26	Examples: Damped Oscillations and Probability Distributions
2/28	Driven Oscillations and the Method of Undetermined Coefficients	Smith 4.1; Thomas 6.1-6.2
3/1	Resonance Phenomena	Smith 4.2-4.4; Thomas 6.3-6.5	HW 5 Due
Week 7
3/4	Superposition and Transients	Smith 4.5, 4.7; Thomas 6.7
3/6	Complex Impedances and RLC Circuits	Smith 4.6; Thomas 6.6
3/8	Non-Linearity and Chaos	Smith 4.8	HW 6 Due
Week 8
3/11	Spring Break (No Class)
3/13	Spring Break (No Class)
3/15	Spring Break (No Class)
Week 9
3/18	Numerical Methods in Python	TBA
3/20	Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.1-5.2; Thomas 9.1-9.2
3/22	Mid-Term Exam II (8:30 - 9:50 AM Eastern)
Week 10
3/25	Normal Modes	Smith 5.3-5.6
3/27	Initial-Value Problems with Coupled Oscillators	Smith 5.7
3/29	Damped, Driven Coupled Oscillations	Smith 5.8	HW 7 Due
Week 11
4/1	Vector Spaces and Hilbert Space	Smith 6.1-6.3; Thomas 9.4-9.5
4/3	Matrices and Linear Algebra	Smith 6.6; Thomas 9.6-9.8
4/5	Basis Transformations	Smith 6.5	HW 8 Due
Week 12
4/8	Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors, and Normal Modes	Smith 6.4; Thomas 9.9
4/10	More Things, More Springs!	Smith 6.7
4/12	Brooks in Washington D.C. (No Class)
Week 13
4/15	Curve Fitting	Taylor 8.1 - 8.6
4/17	Many, Many Coupled Oscillators	Smith 7.1-7.3; Thomas 9.10
4/19	From Oscillations to Waves	Smith 7.4-7.6; Thomas 9.11	HW 9 Due
Week 14
4/22	k-space	Smith 7.7-7.8	Mid-Term Exam III Distributed at 8:00 AM
4/24	Fourier Series	Smith 8.1-8.4; Thomas 7.1-7.6	Mid-Term Exam III Due at 11:59 PM
4/26	The Fourier Transform	Smith 8.5; Thomas 7.7-7.8
Week 15
4/29	Applications of Fourier Analysis	Smith 8.7
5/1	Traveling Waves	Smith 9.1-9.4
5/3	Electromagnetic Waves	Smith 9.5	HW 10 Due
Final Exam
5/6	Final Exam: 12:00 noon - 3:00 PM in Hugel 117