- Introductory Physics II
- Fall, Spring Semester
- 3 credits ( 4 hr lecture, 0 hr lab)
- Prerequisites:
- PHY 181B or PHY 183 or PHY 183B or PHY 193H or
PHY 231 or PHY 231B or LBS 164
- Restrictions: Not open to students with
credit in PHY 184, PHY 184B, PHY 232B.
Physics 232 is the second semester of the two
semester non-calculus-based general physics course
at Michigan State University.
Topics included are electricity and magnetism, electrical
circuits, electromagnetic waves, geometrical and
physical optics, special relativity,
quantum physics, atomic and nuclear physics and
very brief coverage of elementary particle physics
and astrophysics.
Mathematics required:
elementary geometry, trigonometry, algebra;
concepts from calculus, but no actual derivatives or integrals
Course outline:
- Electric forces and fields:
Coulomb's law, electric charge, field lines,
conductors and insulators, electric flux, Gauss' law
- Electrical potentials:
Potential difference, electrical potential,
equipotential surfaces, capacitors, dielectrics
- DC Circuits:
Electric current, Ohm's law, series and parallel
circuits, electric power and energy, RC circuits
- Magnetic forces and fields:
North and South poles, force on a moving charge,
force on a current, Ampere's law, field of straight wire,
field of solenoid, magnetic materials
- Electromagnetic induction:
Motional emf, magnetic flux, induced emf (Faraday's law),
induced current, Lenz's law, transformers, self inductance,
LR circuits
- AC Circuits:
Capacitive reactance, inductive reactance, impedence,
power in AC circuits, resonance
- Semiconductors:
n-type and p-type semiconductor, semiconductor diode,
half-wave and full-wave rectifiers, transistors
- Electromagnetic waves:
Speed of light, electromagnetic spectrum, energy carried
by electromagnetic wave, polarization
- Geometrical Optics:
Plane mirrors, curved mirrors, Snell's law, lenses,
dispersion, human eye, optical devices
- Physical optics:
Superposition, interference, double slit, thin film,
diffraction grating, resolving power, interferometer
- Special relativity:
Reference frames, postulates of relativity, time dilation,
length contraction, e=mc^2, addition of velocities.
- Quantum physics:
Waves and particles, photons, blackbody radiation,
photoelectric effect, uncertainty principle
- Atomic physics:
Why Bohr atom is wrong, line spectra, angular momentum,
Pauli exclusion principle, periodic table, lasers
- Nuclear physics:
Nuclear size, nuclear stability, binding energy,
radioactivity, fission, fusion, carbon dating
- Additional topics (included in some years):
Elementary particles, cosmology, bio-electricity
{ Updated: 1999.03.13 (Saturday) 13:57:43 EST }