COURSE SYLLABUS
COLLEGE PHYSICS II
28-PHYS2002
SPRING 2020
COURSE ANNOUNCEMENTS (if any):
Note: Homework is due on Mondays (unless otherwise specified)! Unexcused absences on Mondays automatically cost 10 points.
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| TEXT: | PHYSICS FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS | |
| by Serway and Jewett (10th Edition) | ||
| INSTRUCTOR: | Dr. Vaz | |
| All Sections (LE) | MWF: 11:15 - 12:10 PM | 340 Muntz |
| All Sections (RE) | T: 02:00 - 3:00 PM | 340 Muntz |
| Office: 237 Muntz | Phone: 936-7167 |
Office Hours: T: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM H: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM |
| e-mail: Dr. Vaz | and by appointment | |
Useful Software (for Windows)
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Acrobat Reader |
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GhostScript & GSView |
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MikTeX (A TeX typesetting system) |
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CTAN The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network. |
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About the Background:
The background is a picture of James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879), One of Maxwell's most important achievements was his extension and mathematical formulation of Michael Faraday's theories of electricity and magnetic lines of force. His paper On Faraday's lines of force was read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in two parts, 1855 and 1856. Maxwell showed that a few relatively simple mathematical equations could express the behaviour of electric and magnetic fields and their interrelation. Of this work he wrote to C.H. Hay in 1865:
"I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I hold to be great guns."
He was right, of course. Maxwell also worked on the kinetic theory of gases. By treating gases statistically in 1866 he formulated, independently of Ludwig Boltzmann, the Maxwell-Boltzmann kinetic theory of gases. This theory showed that temperatures and heat involved only molecular movement. It implied a change from a concept of certainty, heat viewed as flowing from hot to cold, to one of statistics, molecules at high temperature have only a high probability of moving toward those at low temperature. Maxwell's approach did not reject the earlier studies of thermodynamics but used a better theory of the basis to explain the observations and experiments.
Contrast the quote above with another quote indicating Maxwell's interesting take on mathematics:
Mathematicians my flatter themselves that they possess new ideas which mere human language is as yet unable to express. Let them make the effort to express these ideas in appropriate words without the aid of symbols, and if they succeed they will not only lay us laymen under a lasting obligation, but, we venture to say, they will find themselves very much enlightened during the process, and will even be doubtful whether the ideas as expressed in symbols had ever quite found their way out of the equations into their minds.
-- taken from the Index of Biographies