Readings Physics 132


 BERG > Physics Course Overview > HHMI Development page

 

Physics 132: Fundamentals of Physics for Biologists II

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:

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 Spring 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 (Spring 2012)

 

Reading Assignments for 131

It is assumed that students taking 131 will have read the readings assigned for 131.

 

Energy: The Quantity of Motion (review)

The 1st law of thermodynamics (review)

Thermodynamic equilibrium and equipartition

 

 

Probability (math review -- background)

Why we need a second law of thermodynamics (review from 131 -- set up)

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: A Probabilistic Law (review from 131 -- this one is essential)

 

 

Charge and the structure of matter
Coulomb's law 
Reading the content in Coulomb's law Electric potential energy

 

 

Motivating simple electric models

Electric fields in matter

Electric currents

 

Oscillations and Waves

 

Harmonic Oscillation

 Waves in 1D

 

Three models of light

 

Visual implications

Basic principles of the ray model

Electromagnetic radiation and Maxwell's rainbow

Huygens' principle and the wave model 

Basic principles of the photon model

 

The wave model of matter

 

 

Some topics intended for this class did not have webpages prepared and were read out of sections of an existing text. We expect to create webpages for these topics for the comping year.