Reading assignments      Physics 9HB      winter 2003
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First read the document "How to read physics" on our website.

Note that these assignments are listed with the latest on top.
So the first time you look at this, you should start at the 
bottom.

Please pay attention to the dates. All those beyond the next 
lecture at any given time should be considered tentative 
and subject to change. Thus you should continue to check this
space for updates. 

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Reading for lecture 20  (Thuesday, 13 Mar.)

On our website: More cosmology
This is more like notes than a real document. It organizes main
points from Tuesday and some that will be covered Thursday.

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Reading for lecture 19  (Tuesday, 11 Mar.)

On our website:
Photon statistical mechanics and blackbody radiation (#24)
Blackbody emission (#25)
Check out the link "Cosmology" in the list of 
        "Links to interesting sites"
Reread the document "Cosmology" (#18)

We are switching modes now. You should strive for a very solid 
understanding of the stat mech and thermo we have done up to this 
point. From now on, the goal is diferent. This is more advanced material.
Try to keep track of the main direction of the arguments and the 
big picture. Try not to be overly distracted or bogged down 
because there are some difficult details that you do not follow.
I am not expecting you to follow them all. Cosmology is a great 
unfolding story. You now know enough physics to follow at least 
the outline and the main events.

The PDF is created from postscript. It may not look very 
good on your screen at 100%. A higher magnification will improve it,
and it will look good when printed. 

The main thing is the blackbody discussion. The blackbody 
distribution is to photons as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is to nonrelativistic particles. You may find parts of it to be difficult. 
That's to be expected; don't worry. The details are not very important.
They are there mostly to show that it is a real derivation 
from basic principles that you already know and that I am not just 
making it up. The key result is the expression on the third page
for the blackbody spectrum. Concentrate on trying to understand 
what it says and on what were the main inputs to the derivation.
We will go over this in class.

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Reading for lecture 18  (Thursday, 6 Mar.)

Chapter T9
 
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Reading for lecture 17  (Tuesday, 4 Mar.)

Chapter T8
 
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Reading for lecture 16  (Thursday, 27 Feb.)

Chapter T6 and Chapter T7

This reading is a bit longer and more difficult than usual, 
so start early.
 
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Reading for lecture 15  (Tuesday, 25 Feb.)

Chapter T5
 
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Reading for lecture 14  (Thursday, 20 Feb.)

Chapter T4
 
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Reading for lecture 13  (Tuesday, 18 Feb.)

Chapters T2 and T3
 
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Lecture 12  (Thursday, 13 Feb.)

Midterm
 
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Reading for lecture 11  (Tuesday, 11 Feb.)

Moore: Chapter T1
You might also want to review Chapter C10 from last quarter.

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Reading for lecture 10  (Thursday, 6 Feb.)

Gravity and Geometry
Cosmology
These are documents on our website.
 
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Reading for lecture 9  (Tuesday, 4 Feb.)

General relativity and cosmology, by Dr. R. Harris.
   This is on our website.
 
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Reading for lecture 8  (Thursday, 30 Jan.)

Chapter R10 and Appendix B
Website documents:
    Four-vector notation and the metric
    The Lorentz transformation in four-vector notation
    Weird units
    Momentum four-vector notation

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Reading for lecture 7  (Tuesday, 28 Jan.)

Chapter R9

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Reading for lecture 6  (Thursday, 23 Jan.)

Chapters R7 and R8

The document "Lorentz transformation and geometry" is the 
Powerpoint part of Lecture 5. It's available in ppt and pdf 
formats.

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Reading for lecture 5  (Tuesday, 21 Jan.)

Chapters R6 and Sections R7.1, R7.2

The documents "Unstable particles" and "Pion decay" cover
one of the examples we did in Lecture 4. You may want to 
take a look at those.

Take a look at the document "Variational principles and 
physics". It starts from our observation that the constant
velocity path is the one with the longest proper time and 
explains how that is generalized to be the main 
formulation of physical theories.

The formulas for the Lorentz Transformation are the central
set of equations for Special Relativity.

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Reading for lecture 4  (Thursday, 16 Jan.)

Chapters R4 and R5

"...for geometry, you know, is the gate of science, and the
gate is so low and small that one can only enter it as a
little child." --William Clifford (1845-1879)

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Reading for lecture 3  (Tuesday, 14 Jan.)

Chapter R3

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Reading for lecture 2  (Thursday, 9 Jan.)

Chapters R1 and R2.

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Reading for lecture 1  (Tuesday, 7 Jan.)

Read the following documents on our website:
	Course goals
	Introduction
	How to read physics

Chapter R1 in Six Ideas that Shaped Physics, unit R.

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