Modern Physics (PHY 3101)
It is impossible to understand the technical, military, political, or intellectual history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries without an acquaintance with quantum mechanics. Just as Newton defined the intellectual environment for Pope and Kant, so the wave nature of matter has defined our own time. Since the interaction of light and matter plays so important a role in the development of the quantum theory, we begin with seven lectures on special relativity, which we follow with a survey of the experimental foundations of quantum mechanics. By February, we should be able to apply quantum mechanics to simple problems. We shall then show how quantum mechanics lays the foundation for a modern understanding of atoms, molecules, and solids, including applications to electrical engineering Toward the end of the course, we shall touch on a few areas of current research.
Course materials