Welcome to 01:750:273 Honors Physics III! This is the home page for the course Website. In case you are looking at a paper copy of this page, its URL is http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ugrad/273/index.html
Please do bookmark this page, because you'll need to refer to it frequently during the term. The best way to start would be to read the first link in the next section below on "Frequently-Needed Course Links." It provides an overview of the course structure and procedures.
The first meeting of our class will be the lecture on Wednesday, Sep. 2. Please note that RECITATIONS WILL NOT MEET ON SEP. 3 AND 4.
Please bring your clicker to every lecture as of Sep. 8.
If you used WebAssign last semester, your WebAssign password remains the same as it was back then. We did not overwrite it. If you have forgotten that password, click the Reset Password link on the WebAssign login page.
By popular demand I have changed the due time of WebAssign homework assignments from 12:01am to 1:00am.
In Assignment 2 Question 4, the given energy of the particle is the KINETIC energy. You're asked to find, among other quantities, the particle's total energy. WebAssign scores for the first assignment have been uploaded into the Online Gradebook.
In Question 7 part (b) the units should be V for volts, not eV.
Please note that there will be a quiz in recitations on Sep. 17-18 based on the topics in the first homework assignment.
Some of you have not as yet registered your Clickers. Please do so as soon as possible.
A Practice Exam for the first hour exam has been uploaded to the Exam Copies page. (Scroll down for the link). Please PRINT the Practice Exam and BRING IT TO LECTURE ON MONDAY, SEP. 28. I will go over the Practice Exam then. Please plan to take notes at that lecture, because solutions to the Practice Exam will not be uploaded to the course Website.
Also bring your Clicker unit to class on Monday.
In Assignment 3, Question 1 ambiguously asks for the electron's "energy", and Question 3 gives a numerical value for an electron's energy. In both cases they are referring to KINETIC energy, not total energy.
In Question 7 WebAssign wants a positive number for the binding energy, but in Question 8 it wants a negative number for the energy. I have given all students an extra submission (six in total) in case you need to fix your answers to these questions.
In class I mentioned that Arthur Compton designed two kinds of speed bumps while he was Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. Here is a reference from the Washington University libraries Website.
The first hour exam will be on Wednesday, Sep. 30 from 1:45pm to 2:50pm in the Physics Lecture Hall. Note that the starting time of 1:45pm is 10 minutes earlier than our usual lecture start time. That's to give you a little extra time to do the exam.
Please remain in the lobby until 1:45pm so that I can lay out the exams on the seats. Exams will have stickers with student names on them, and the exams will be laid out alphabetically. Last names starting with "A" will be in the back of the Lecture Hall, while "Z" will be in the front.
The exam will cover material through Chapter 4 in the textbook. The exam will consist of 16 multiple-choice questions, and will be closed book, but you may bring ONE 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with formulas and notes to consult during the exam. You may write on both sides of this cheat sheet. The numerical values of constants will be provided on the exam.
RECITATIONS WILL NOT MEET ON OCT. 1 AND 2.
Solutions to Exam I are now available. Scroll down to the section on "Frequently-needed course links" and click on "Exam Copies." Also, if you click on the link for the Online Grade Book and log into it, you'll be displayed an exam report which lists the answer you gave to each question, and what the correct answer was. This exam REPORT will be displayed for one week, and then become hidden, but you will have an option to redisplay it if you want. Of course your exam SCORE will remain visible in the Grade Book.
Here is an approximate grading scale for the exam. Please note that at the end of the term, the numerical score on the exam (not these letter grades) will be used in the calculation of an overall score and a final course grade.
| Grade | Score |
|---|---|
| A | 84-100% |
| B | 73-84% |
| C | 50-73% |
| D | 45-50% |
| F | 0-45% |
In Assignment 4 Question 5(b) the spectral line width refers to Delta-lambda. In part (a) you've calculated Delta-E, so for part (b) you should think about how Delta-lambda can be derived from Delta-E.
In Assignment 4, Question 6 you should use the principle that a microscope can resolve objects no smaller than the WAVELENGTH of the probe that is used, whether the probe is light or electrons. You should also note that the question ambiguously asks for the electron's "energy". As we've discussed before, they mean KINETIC energy.
In Assignment 4, Question 8 the third part asks you to "compare" your previous answer to the mass of the neutral pion. I think you can safely ignore this third part, because I have set it up to be worth zero points.
I showed you an excerpt from "The Elegant Universe" which aired on public television a few years ago. The entire show can be viewed on the Web by starting from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html where the show has been conveniently divided into chapters of 5 to 10 minutes each.
I mentioned in class today that the singer and actress Olivia Newton-John is a granddaughter of Max Born, who provided the probabilistic interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and was the inventor of the rubric "Quantum Mechanics." For more information, see http://www.onlyolivia.com/aboutonj/irene/ which is about the singer's mother Irene, but of course includes information on both Max Born and Olivia Newton-John.
In Assignment 5, Question 2 you need to use Eqn. 6.35 in the textbook. Note that this energy E is classical KINETIC energy, not total. The electron is non-relativistic, so use (1/2)mv^2.
In Assignment 5, Question 3 please note that if, for example, your version says the particle is in the seventh excited state, that does NOT mean n=7. Remember that the ground state has n=1.
In Assignment 5, Question 5 the last part asks for a paper submission. I don't want it, so I have set up the last part to be worth zero points.
In Assignment 5, Question 8 asks for the total degeneracy for a state of given n and l. Note that for such a state there are (2l+1) values of m_l, and for each of those there are 2 values of m_s.
In Assignment 6 Questions 1 and 5, for L please enter the LETTER for L in UPPERCASE, i.e. S, P, D, F, etc. But in Question 3 enter the NUMBER for the value of L. Also, Question 5 has a box to "explain" something. Don't bother entering anything, because I have set it up to be worth zero points.
A Practice Exam for the second hour exam has been uploaded to the Exam Copies page. (Scroll down for the link). Please PRINT the Practice Exam and BRING IT TO LECTURE ON MONDAY, OCT. 26. I will go over the Practice Exam then.
The actual exam will be given in class on Wednesday, Oct. 28. It will consist of 16 multiple-choice questions, and will be closed book, but you may bring ONE 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with formulas and notes to consult during the exam. You may write on both sides of this cheat sheet. The numerical values of constants will be provided on the exam.
The exam is intended to cover the material in Assignments 4 through 6, i.e. Chapters 5 through 8 in the textbook. However, it is very important to note that a knowledge of the material in earlier chapters will be ESSENTIAL for success on the exam. For example, you may need to make use of relativistic momentum and energy, and you may need to make use of the assumptions and results of the Bohr Theory.
The second hour exam will be on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 1:45pm to 2:50pm in the Physics Lecture Hall. Note that the starting time of 1:45pm is 10 minutes earlier than our usual lecture start time. That's to give you a little extra time to do the exam.
Please remain in the lobby until 1:45pm so that I can lay out the exams on the seats. Exams will have stickers with student names on them, and the exams will be laid out alphabetically. Last names starting with "A" will be in the front of the Lecture Hall, while "Z" will be in the back.
The exam will cover material in Chapters 5 through 8 in the textbook. The exam will consist of 16 multiple-choice questions, and will be closed book, but you may bring ONE 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with formulas and notes to consult during the exam. You may write on both sides of this cheat sheet. The numerical values of constants will be provided on the exam.
RECITATIONS WILL NOT MEET ON OCT. 29 AND 30.
Solutions to Exam II are now available. Scroll down to the section on "Frequently-needed course links" and click on "Exam Copies." Also, if you click on the link for the Online Grade Book and log into it, you'll be displayed an exam report which lists the answer you gave to each question, and what the correct answer was. This exam REPORT will be displayed for one week, and then become hidden, but you will have an option to redisplay it if you wish. Of course your exam SCORE will remain visible in the Grade Book.
Here is an approximate grading scale for the exam. It is the same as the one that was announced for the first exam. Please note that at the end of the term, the numerical score on the exam (not these letter grades) will be used in the calculation of an overall score and a final course grade.
| Grade | Score |
|---|---|
| A | 84-100% |
| B | 73-84% |
| C | 50-73% |
| D | 45-50% |
| F | 0-45% |
Here are some hints for Assignment 7 in WebAssign:
Here are some hints for Assignment 8 in WebAssign:
Here are some hints for Assignment 9 in WebAssign:
Throughout the assignment the symbol e may appear with or without a superscript for its electric charge. If there is no superscript on the symbol e, then it stands for an electron, which of course is negatively charged.
In Question 1, assume for reactions that the projectile has enough energy to allow the reaction to occur. Momentum violation is the correct answer only in those cases where the reaction or decay can't occur no matter how energetic the incident particle(s) are.
In Question 6 WebAssign is considering strangeness to be an applicable conservation law in the hypothetical decay of the proton. So go ahead and mark strangeness if it is violated in any of the hypothesized proton decays. In reality, strangeness conservation is not applicable in proton decay.
In Question 7(b) the wording is misleading. They are really asking for the kinetic energy of the FIRST projectile particle only, not the sum of the kinetic energies of both projectiles.
In Question 8 assume for reactions that the projectile has enough energy to allow the reaction to occur.
There will be no classes at Rutgers this Wednesday, Nov. 25.
There will be no WebAssign homework this week. :) Happy Thanksgiving!
The course Website has been visited times since August 03, 2009.
This page is maintained by
Prof. Mohan Kalelkar.