Syllabus: Optics I, Phy431, Fall 2005

 

3 credits (2 hr lecture, 3 hr lab)

Prerequisites:

PHY 183A or PHY 184 or PHY 184B or PHY 234B or PHY 294H

PHY 192

PHY 215 or PHY 215B

Completion of Tier I writing requirement. Alias: PHY 331

Lenses, aberrations, apertures, and stops. Diffraction, interferometry, spectroscopy, fiber optics.

 

INSTRUCTORS:

Lectures: Simon Billinge, room 4268 Biomedical & Physical Sciences, Telephone: 355 9200x2202 Email: billinge@pa.msu.edu.   Office hours: TBA. Call or email to schedule a personal appointment.

Labs: Lisa Lapidus, room 4223 Biomedical & Physical Sciences, Telephone: 355 9200x2211 Email: lapidus@pa.msu.edu. See labs syllabus for more details.

Text:

(Required) Optics, by E. Hecht, 4th Edition (Addison-Wesley)

Course Structure:

2 lectures per week in room 1420 Biomedical & Physical Sciences. Tuesday and Thursday; 3:00pm - 3:50pm. One lab. of about 3 hours every week starting September 20. The schedule of the lectures is here.

Homepage:

http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/current/PHY431/

Grading:

Homework:

We will give out homework problems during the semester - 10 in total. There will be credit for the homework - normally problems should be handed on a Tuesday - problem sets will be available at least a week before they are due. There will be 10 homeworks altogether of which the best 8 will count at 10 points each towards your final grade. The first homework assignment is due on Tuesday 14 September in class.

Midterm Exams:

There will be two midterm exams, on Thursday 7 October and on Thursday 18 November. The exams are closed book. You should bring a calculator. An equation sheet will be provided with the exam.

Final Exam:

The 2 hour final exam will cover everything we have done, but with a slight emphasis on the last third of the course. Otherwise it will be the same format as the midterms.

Optics Lab:

The lab. will be run by Lisa Lapidus, with help from TA's, in room 1250 Biomedical & Physical Sciences. The final grade on this course will be 40% on the lab. and 60% on the class. The first lab. will be on September 19. There will be a total of 11 labs. See labs syllabus for details.
 
Please familiarize yourself with University policies concerning academic integrity www.vps.msu.edu/SpLife/rule32.htm as they will be applied.

Final Grades:

Grades are based on the following formula:

 

%

First Midterm

15

Second Midterm

15

Homework

10

Final Exam

20

Laboratory Total

40

TOTAL

100

The guaranteed scale may be lowered in your favor but not raised is:

 

Total point percentage

 

Final grade

 

>93%

4.0

88%-93%

3.5

83%-88%

3.0

78%-83%

2.5

73%-78%

2.0

68%-73%

1.5

60%-68%

1.0

<50%

0.0