Reading assignments Physics 9HC spring 2012 ============================================================== ============================================================== First read the document "How to read physics." Note that these readings are listed with the latest on top. So the first time you look at this, you should start at the bottom. WARNING: 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. ============================================================== ============================================================== Reading for lecture 20 (Thursday, June 7) No new reading. At least part of the class will be devoted to some overview of what we have learned. Please come with your questions about quantum mechanics. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 19 (Tuesday, June 5) Moore: Q9 Feynman Chapter 19 is the thing to read for a lot more detail on atoms and how quantum mechanics accounts for the periodic table. The reading in Moore is not enough and that in Feynman is too much. Something in between would be nice. I do not expect you to follow all the details in Feynman. The take-home message is that the Schroedinger equation for the hydrogen atom can be completely solved by precise, if rather intricate methods. The result is the energies and wave functions for the stationary states of the hydrogen atom. Focus on how the states are labeled and what the labels mean. The effects revealed in this calculation lead to an understanding of the periodic table. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 18 (Thursday, May 31) Moore: Q8 ============================================================== Reading for lecture 17 (Tuesday, May 29) Review Moore: Q10 and Q11 Identical Particles doc on our website Please bring the Harmonic oscillator document to class. It summarizes what I will be doing there. It probably will not make a lot of sense before our discussion in class. Identical Particles is about the Bose or Fermi "statistics" of particles, which is a generalization of the Pauli Exclusion Principle. The relevant sections in Feynman are Section 3-4 and Chapter 4. There is also a little in Moore, Q8.6. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 16 (Thursday, May 24) Moore: Q10 and Q11 Feynman: Section 16-6 There is a lot here. We will probably spend both Thursday and Tuesday on it. I recommend getting the program SchroSolver from the Six Ideas website and using it to get a better feel for the Schroedinger equation. http://www.physics.pomona.edu/sixideas/sicpr.html Q10 and Q11 are very nice. I know of no other treatment at any level that does as good as these in helping the reader develop an intuition for solutions to the Schroedinger equation. Feynman Ch. 16 brings a lot of what we have already done and topics similar to Q10 and Q11 into one fairly dense chapter. Sec. 16-6 is a condensed version of Q10 and Q11. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 15 (Tuesday, May 22) Moore: Q7 Feynman: Chapter 7 In Q7, the main thing is to grasp how it is the energy gets quantized in bound systems. Sec. 7.3, Quanton in a Box, is key. It's closely related to our previous work on standing waves. Ch. 7 of Feynman has a collection of topics that help in understanding and interpreting time dependent wave functions. The last section is a version of the muon in a magnetic field problem. It looks a little different from ours because of a different choice of axes. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 14 (Thursday, May 17) "Quantum mechanics IV" in Physics docs. Feynman Sections 13-1,2,3,4 and 16-1,2,3,4,5 Again, the Feynman readings are not strictly required, but you will probably find them to be very helpful, since the web document is terse. Also review the reading for Lecture 13, especially "Quantum mechanics III" in Physics docs. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 13 (Tuesday, May 15) "Quantum mechanics II" in Physics docs "Quantum mechanics III" in Physics docs Those are the short version. It is not required, but if you want a longer and more descriptive discussion, read Feynman vol. III, Chapter 8. Also, for even more discussion and lots of interesting examples, see chapters 9-12 of Feynman. Sections 10-6 and 10-7 contain material that I plan discuss in lecture as an example. ============================================================== MIDTERM: Thursday, May 10. (Meeting 12)) ============================================================== Reading for lecture 11 (Tuesday, May 8) Feynman Ch. 5 This is Feynman's version of the Stern-Gerlach discussion. It is used to set up the machinery and notation of QM. Much of this we have already touched upon, but this is a more organized treatment. The key results are in Eq. 5.27. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 10 (Thursday, May 3) Review the reading for lecture 9. This is the end of the material that will be covered on the midterm. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 9 (Tuesday, May 1) Moore: Q6 (See note below.) Feynman vol. III, Chapter 3, Secs. 1, 2, 3 "Quantum mechanics I" (Physics docs) The reading Q6 is a bit problematic. It includes a lot of stuff that we will not be emphasizing at this point. However, we do want to get a good grasp of the points in section Q6.3 and Q6.4. Thus give a light read to the whole chapter and then go back and concentrate on Q6.3 and Q6.4, especially the wave function in Q6.3. Actually, I hope that Q6.4 will seem familiar to you by now. The Feynman reading has more on the rules of QM and combining amplitudes. I hope you are starting to get used to how the rules work, even if they produce unfamiliar results. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 8 (Thursday, April 26) Moore: Q5 Feynman vol. III, Chapter 2 Quantum systems with only a finite number of states possible (like spin systems) are the easiest to analyze. The main thing to get in Moore is how to apply the rules of QM in these systems using the device of the Stern Gerlach apparatus. The Feynman reading is more closely related to the reading for lecture 7. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 7 (Tuesday, April 24) Moore: Q3 Q4 You might also want to look at "Uncertainty relation" in Physics docs. Evidence for a photon picture of light and E = hf. Evidence for wave aspects of electrons and p = h/lambda. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 6 (Thursday, April 19) Feynman vol. III, Chapter 1 Most of the basic ideas of quantum mechanics (QM) are contained in Secs. 1-4 through 1-7. Or if you are satisfied with rules and no explanation, then Eqs. 1.6 and 1.7. The rest of the quarter will be an elaboration. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 5 (Tuesday, April 17) In Physics docs: Two source intensity Multiple source interference and diffraction Sum formula Doppler shift The key results are in the documents Two source intensity and Multiple source interference and diffraction. Since I have already boiled them down about as much as possible, I cannot further summarize them further here. Read the Doppler shift one at your convenience. We will not spend much, if any, time on it in lecture. You have already covered the light version of it last quarter. But since other waves have a real physical medium, motion relative to the medium is meaningful, and the results are different than they were for light! ============================================================== Reading for lecture 4 (Thursday, 12 Apr.) Moore: Q2 Beats (in Physics docs) Both beats and interference are examples of superposition. In the case of interference, the relations among constructive and destructive interference and geometry get interesting. The key thing is to understand the two slit problem and the relation among slit separation, wavelength, and angles to maxima. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 3 (Tuesday, 10 April) Moore: Q1 Fourier series (Physics docs on website) The fourier series document is more advanced and goes into the details of exactly how functions can be represented in terms of their fourier series. In reading that, you can see that in addition to being a qualitative idea, fourier analysis is also a very precise quantitative tool. For now, the details are mainly for those who are interested in how it really works. But you will definitely encounter this in other courses, so you might like to get an initial look at it now. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 2 (Thursday, 5 Apr.) Wave equation (On main course website) If you did not do the lecture 1 reading already, do that too. ============================================================== Reading for lecture 1 (Tuesday, 3 Apr.) Review the harmonic oscillator in Chapter N11 of Moore. Read the following documents, which can be found under Introductory Documents on the course website: Welcome Course goals Syllabus SmartSite Learning physics How to read physics Problem set information Read the following documents, which can be found under Physics Documents on the course website: Introduction to waves Energy and power ==============================================================