BERG > Physics Course Overview > HHMI Development page

Physics 131: Fundamentals of Physics for Biologists I

This course is intended for biology majors and pre-health care professionals. The physics topics chosen are selected for these students and the contexts emphasize authentic biological examples. Prerequisites for the course include:

• One year of college biology (BSCI 105 and 106 or the equivalent)
• One semester of college chemistry (CHEM 131 or the equivalent)
• One year of college mathematics (MATH 130 and 131 or the equivalent -- calculus and an introduction to probability).

The materials created for this class are "in-process" drafts. We expect to revise and expand them significantly in the 2012-2014 period. Comments and suggestions should be sent to Prof. E. F. Redish.

Readings

These readings are intended as a base for a wikibook that can serve as a base from which students can start.  Each link connects to a webpage of content materials. Those listed in bold were explicitly assigned in the Fall of 2011. The unbolded pages were optional reading. Note these are linked materials.  They are not intended to be read as a linear textbook.  For example, some of the math elements are linked to elements that occur much later.  They were read at the appropriate time. They are not intended as a replacement for all the components present in a traditional textbook.

Readers will notice the absence of sample solved problems, for example, and problems for student homework and in-class discussions. In our delivery of this class they are used in conjunction with an extensive set of clicker questions, problems for group problem solving, and homework problems (to be distributed later).

Class homepage and description (Fall 2011)

• Mechanics of how the class works
• Detailed schedule
• Grading
• Reading Assignments
• Homework Assignments

Overview

Introduction to the class

• The disciplines: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Math 
• Science as making models
  
• Phenomenology and mechanism
• What Physics can do for Biologists 

Thinking about Thinking and Knowing

• The nature of scientific knowledge
• Models of memory
• An evolutionary model of memory
• Selective attention
• Tools for knowing (epistemological icons)
• Choosing a channel on cat television (limiting the scope of exploration)
• Shopping for ideas
• Choosing foothold ideas
• Playing the implications game
• Seeking coherence (building a safety net)
• Sense making
• Refining intuitions 
• Representation translation 
• Dangerous bend

Math Background

Modeling with mathematics

Using mathematics in science

• How math in science is different from math in math
• Measurement
• Dimensions and units
• Complex dimensions and dimensional analysis
• Changing units
• Natural scales  
• Considering change
• The parameters of matter 
• Estimation  
• Useful numbers

Mathematics Recap

• Significant (and insignificant) figures
• Scientific notation 
• Functions and functional dependence
• Scaling
• Powers and exponents
• Log-log plots 
• Values, change, and rates of change
• Derivatives
• What is a derivative, anyway?
  
• Integrals
• What do I actually have to know about integrals?
  
• Trigonometry
• Probability 

Kinematics

The Main Question: How do things move?

Where and When? 

• Coordinates
• Vectors
• Multiplying vectors
• The dot product 
• The gradient -- a vector derivative
• Time 
• Graphs

Kinematic Variables

• Velocity
• Average velocity
• Instantaneous velocity
• Calculating with average velocity
• Acceleration
• Average acceleration
• Instantaneous acceleration
• Calculating with constant acceleration

Laws of Motion

Newton's Laws

• Physical content of Newton's Laws
• Object egotism
• Inertia
• Interactions
• Superposition
• Mass
• Reciprocity

• Formulation of Newton's Laws as foothold principles
• Quantifying impulse and force
• On the definition of force
• Kinds of forces 
• Newton 0
• Free-body diagrams 
• Newton's 1^st law
  
• Newton's 2^nd law 
• Reading the content in Newton's 2^nd law 
• Newton 2 as a stepping rule
• Newton 2 on a spreadsheet
• Newton's 3rd law 

Kinds of Forces

• Springs 
• Realistic springs
• Normal forces 
• Tension forces
• Resistive forces
• Friction
• Viscosity
• Drag 
• Gravitational forces
• Flat-earth gravity
• Free-fall in flat-earth gravity
• Electric forces
• Charge and the structure of matter
• Polarization
• Coulomb's law 
• Coulomb's law -- vector character
• Reading the content in Coulomb's law
  
• The Electric field 

Linear momentum

• Restating Newton's 2nd law: momentum
• Momentum conservation

Macroscopic description of matter

Macro models

Solids

• Density-solids
• A simple model of solid matter
• Young's modulus
• Breaking strain
• Bulk modulus -- solids
• Shear modulus

Fluids

• Pressure
• Archimedes' Principle
• Buoyancy
• Liquids
• Bulk modulus --liquids
• Internal cohesion
• Surface tension

• Fluid flow

• Quantifying fluid flow
• The continuity equation
• Internal flow -- the HP equation
• Internal flow -- the HP Equation (advanced) 
• External flow -- lift and drag

Heat and temperature

• Thermal properties of matter
• Thermal energy and specific heat  
• Heat capacity
• Heat transfer 
• Biology of heat transfer

Energy

Energy: The Quantity of Motion

• Kinetic energy and the work-energy theorem
• Reading the content in the Work-Energy theorem
• Energy of place -- potential energy
• Gravitational potential energy
• Spring potential energy
• Electric potential energy
• The conservation of mechanical energy
• Interpreting mechanical energy graphs
• Energy at the sub-molecular level 
• Atomic and Molecular forces
• Interatomic forces
• Chemical bonding  
• Chemical energy

Microscopic description of matter

The Micro to Macro Connection

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

• Kinetic theory: the ideal gas law
• The role of randomness: Biological implications
• Diffusion and random walks  
• Fick's law
• The 1^st law of thermodynamics
• The 2^nd law of thermodynamics
• Why we need a Second Law of Thermodynamics  
• The 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics: A Probabilistic Law  
• Implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics