Rutgers University Department of Physics and Astronomy
Physics 323/324 "Advanced General Physics" Fall 2008
Contact Information
Instructors:
- Aram Mekjian, Physics and
Astronomy 213W, Busch Campus,
732-445-2515, mekjian@physics.rutgers.edu
- Sanjay Arora, Allison Road Classroom
Building 236, Busch Campus,
srarora@physics.rutgers.edu
- Venkateshan Kannan, Allison Road Classroom
Building 234, Busch Campus,
kven@physics.rutgers.edu
Class Time and Location: T4Th4 (1:40 - 3:00PM) and T7Th7
(6:40-8:00 PM) in ARC333
, Busch Campus. Your schedule may list only two of these four
periods but you may in fact attend any or all at your
convenience. The first day of class will be Tuesday, Sep. 2 and
the last day of class will be Tuesday, Dec. 9. To get an A in the
course you must complete 10 quizzes by a week before the last day of
class, i.e. on or before Tuesday, Dec. 2, and pass
an oral exam on or before Tuesday, Dec. 9.
The website for this course, with links to the syllabus, units, and
additional information, can be found at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ugrad/323/ . You should check this website
frequently for new messages and announcements of changes. This website can also
be accessed via the departmental website at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ by
clicking on "Undergraduate Courses" and then "323/324" in the list of couse
websites. The departmental website contains links to other information,
including colloquium and seminar announcements.
Introduction and Philosophy
Advanced General Physics is a two semester course covering topics in
elementary mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special
relativity, and quantum mechanics. It assumes a knowledge of integral
and differential calculus and a familiarity with vectors and vector
calculus, but the relevant concepts can be learned fairly quickly if one
has not studied them before. The philosophy of this course is a little
different than that of the usual physics course. There are no formal
lectures and no scheduled exams or homework. It is the student's
responsibility to chart a course through the material and take
appropriate quizzes when he or she is ready to do so. The course is not
completely unstructured, however: each subject is broken up into a number
of units. Suggested reading and homework problems for each unit will
prepare the student for a short (about an hour) quiz on the unit
consisting of three problems. Successful completion of the quiz (details
in the course outline below) allow the student to move on to another
unit.
Last updated August 26, 2008.