Syllabus
Info
| Title | Modern Physics |
| Term | Spring 2016 |
| Credits | 4 |
| Time | Mon, Wed, Fri 9.30-10.30 |
| Place | Brown Science/Sci 117A |
| Level | Intermidiate |
| Faculty | Sara Salimbeni |
| Tutor | to be announced |
Textbook
Modern Physics 3rd by Krane
Other Useful Books
Physics for Scientist and Engineers by Randall D. Knight - volume 5 (Reserve)
Quantum Physics: A Fundamental Approach to Modern Physics by John Townsend (Reserve)
Course Policies & Grading
Attendance and Participation
Attending the lessons and actively participating in class are essential to successfully pass this course. During the semester you are allowed up to 2 absences for illness, family emergencies, religious observance, etc. Your grade will drop by 3.5 points for each absence beyond the first two. You will not receive any credit for this course if you missed more than a total of 7 classes. Please, come on time to class, three late arrivals will be considered an absence.
Readings, Participation and Pre-class assignments
You are required to participate and collaborate with other students during class discussions, group work and experiments. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the material and ask questions. Reading the material is critical for having a productive class time, failing to prepare will affect the learning of you and your classmates. To help you with the reading I will assign pre-class questions that will be discussed during class time. Readings, quality of participation and pre-class assignments are part of your grade (15% of your final grade).
Homework
Homework will be 35% of your final grade. Homework is an essential tool to learn and to receive feedback. For this reason it is important that you hand in your assignments on time. Students are encouraged to work together on the homework assignments. However, your final write-up of the assignment must represent your own understanding; copying another person's work is plagiarism and will result in no credit for that assignment.
Midterm and Final
In addition to the assignments, there will be a Midterm (20% of your grade) and a final (30% of your final grade). You are not allowed to collaborate while you are working on the Tests or on the final (unless I assign group work).
Late Police for Assignments, Tests and Final
This is how late work will affect your grades:
days of delay percentage of the actual grade
--------------- -----------------------------------------
1 to 3 90%
3 to 7 80%
8 to 15 60%
15 to 30 40%
over 30 it will not be accepted
Special arrangements for late work can be obtained under very special circumstances agreed through prior discussion with me.
No late work will be accepted for the Take-Home tests and Final assignments.
Plagiarism
Academic Honesty is expected of all scientists, and also of all students. Cheating on homework or the final exam will result in no credit.
If you are not sure on how to use a source, please check this
link on the library webpage.
Grading
|
|
| 35% | Weekly homework |
| 15% | Class attendance & participation |
| 30% | Take home tests |
| 20% | Final exams |
Grade Letters
| Highest | Lowest | Letter |
| 100.00 | 93.00 | A |
| 92.99 | 90.00 | A- |
| 89.99 | 87.00 | B+ |
| 86.99 | 83.00 | B |
| 82.99 | 80.00 | B- |
| 79.99 | 77.00 | C+ |
| 76.99 | 73.00 | C |
| 72.99 | 70.00 | C- |
| 69.99 | 67.00 | D+ |
| 66.99 | 60.00 | D |
| 59.99 | 0.00 | F |
Tentative Schedule
The schedule will be finalized with the students during the intro class.
Day Topics
------ -----
Week 1 The Failures of Classical Physics
Week 2 The Special Theory of Relativity
Week 3 The Particlelike Properties of Electromagnetic Radiation
Week 4 The Wavelike Properties of Particle
Week 5 The Schrodinger Equation
Week 6 The Rutherford-Bohr Model
Week 7 The Hydrogen Atom in Wave Mechanics
Week 8 Many Electron Atoms
Week 9 Molecular Structure
Week 10 Statistical Physics
Week 11 Solid-State Physics
Week 12 TBD
Week 13 TBD
