confused by my modern physics class

robphy

As others have said, the Modern Physics course is the survey course that naturally follows the Mechanics and E&M survey courses. In fact, I would say that it is the most important survey course for physics majors and potential physics majors. This is the course where one could learn what the state of the art is... and where tomorrow's physics major can contribute. Without this course or with a poorly taught course, a physics department can easily lose potential majors to engineering or math. Few will slog through another pass at mechanics and E&M (at the intermediate level) to await their first taste of Quantum, Relativity, and Stat Mech.

beanryu

tim lou are you in stony brook?
it sounds like my modern physics class, I dropped it and decide never go into physics again, cuz it so freaking confusing and time consuming... my head was at the point of imploding...

cscott

As far as I can tell, for "modern physics" in my second year I take:

PHYS 234 LEC,TUT 0.50 Course ID: 007407
Quantum Physics 1
Background of quantum physics. Quantization, waves and particles. The uncertainty principle. The Schroedinger equation and postulates of quantum mechanics. Bound states in square wells. The harmonic oscillator. Transmission through barriers. Introduction to three-dimensional systems: rigid rotor and the hydrogen atom. Introduction to approximation methods for more complicated systems.

PHYS 263 LEC 0.50 Course ID: 003320
Classical Mechanics and Special Relativity
Newtonian dynamics of particles and systems of particles. Oscillations. Gravity and the central force problem. Lorentz transformations and relativistic dynamics.

With books:

INTRO TO CLASSICAL MECHANICS 2ED
Copyright: 97
Binding: H
ISBN10: 9780135052235
Publisher: PEARSON

by Arya

CHAPTERS FROM QUANTUM PHYSICS OF ATOMS MOLECULES 2
Copyright: 06
Binding: P
ISBN10: 9780470113974
Publisher: WILEY

by Eisberg and Resnick

We take this along with DE's, Calc 3, EM, and geometrical and physical optics.

jtbell

Who are the authors of those two books? Physics textbook titles are so generic and similar to each other that people almost always refer to them by the name(s) of the author(s). I know that I use "Taylor, Zafiriatos and Dubson" for my modern physics course, but I can't for the life of me tell you the exact title without looking at the book!

cscott

I edited my post and put the authors in.

tim_lou

No...I'm in somewhere else.

proton

how many hours per week of studying do you guys do for your sophomore-level modern physics course? I usually spend about 6 hours/wk outside of class studying for it. Is this too much? The textbook I use is by Resnick, Halliday, and Krane, which lacks a lot of mathematics.

jtbell

If you're on a semester system like ours, where a typical course meets for three hours a week, that sounds about right. The rule of thumb I use when advising students or making up homework sets is "two hours outside class for each hour in class."

A typical student course load here averages 15-16 class hours per week. Therefore this rule gives a total of 45-48 hours per week including homework and studying. Compare that to a "normal" 40-hour work week (plus overtime and/or work taken home) in the "real world."

complexPHILOSOPHY

What about those who already work during the week in addition to classes!