Syllabus: |
Rotational equilibrium. Static electricity, fields. Charges, Coulomb's law, conductors and insulators. Electric potential and electric energy. Storage of energy - capacitance, dielectrics, batteries, thunderstorms and deep-space power supplies. Electric current. Conventions, resistance, Ohm's law, injured athletes, safety. Electric circuits. DC and AC current, EMF, power, Kirchoff's laws, advantages of both kinds of current, transformers, welders and the nervous system. Magnetism. Fields produced by electric currents, force on a single moving charge, speakers and electron microscopes. Electromagnetic induction. Faraday's law, magnetic flux, Lenz's law, generators, motors, transformers, sunspots and aurora. Waves - sound and light, interference, standing waves, beats, reflection, refraction, diffraction. Optics - plane, concave and convex mirrors, periscopes, telescopes and lasers. Concave and convex thin spherical lenses. Microscopes, spitting fish and weather images. Simple harmonic oscillations. Springs and pendula, energy of vibration, harmonic frequency, rocking chairs, bridges, molecules, gases, liquids, solids. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Materials science. The Apollo I, Apollo XIII and Challenger mission failures. Atomic physics. |