THE PHYSICS OF THE FASCINATING:
A qualitative look at the Physics you want to learn
Instructor: Alistair Hayden
Course Description: How does a Frisbee work? Why does my violin/tuba/bagpipe sound the way it does? What color would oceans on other planets be? What is the big deal with the Large Hadron Collider? Physics can help us to answer these questions that enrich our lives by explaining experiences we have and offering a window to those we don’t. Its explaining power is furthermore applied to fields as diverse as medicine, climate change, astronomy, art history, and paleontology and it therefore enhances and complements many other studies.
This course seeks to enrich students’ understanding of their world and to help them transition to college. We will qualitatively learn fundamentals of physics and apply them to explore a variety of topics both inside and outside of science. This will include the physics of sports, music, and astrophysics as well as other topics in which there is student interest, such as environmental science, optics, and particle/quantum physics. Because students’ interests and physics background (or lack thereof) will influence the content, anyone curious to learn more about physics and thereby the world is encouraged to enroll. Format will be lecture/discussions with some labs and out-of-class readings and some problems designed to provoke thought and deepen understanding.
Meeting Dates/Times and tentative topics
Every Monday 9/13-11/15 (except Fall Break 10/18) at 3-4 PM, for a total of 9 meetings.
9/13 - Introduction
9/20 – Physics of Sports
9/27 – Physics of Music
10/4 – Scales of Science Lab (different meeting place)
10/11 – Particle Physics
10/25 –Applied Particle Physics – Medical/Forensic Physics
11/1 –Physics of Environmental Science
11/8 – Lab visit OR Light/Optics
11/15 – Presentation
Office Hours: I don’t have scheduled office hours, but I am available by email (see above) and immediately after class.
Grading: This, and the other Honors 135 classes, are intended to engage interest and smooth the transition to college. As such, letter grades are abandoned in favor of the pass/fail system. A pass will be earned in this section by attendance (no more than one unexcused absence), participation in class, and participation in the final presentation.
Attendance: Just as with all other courses, you will be expected to show up for every meeting. Attendance in this course is even more important because there are only nine sessions. More than one unexcused absence will jeopardize your passing the class.
Reading: Recommended readings will be excerpted from some of Richard Feynman’s books including Surely You Must Be Joking Mr. Feynman. These books will be (and are currently) available at libraries (AADL and UM), and some excerpts will be made available on Ctools.
Final Presentation: Communication is an important aspect of science, and scientific meetings consist almost entirely of presentations. In a class, presentations are also a great way for you to explore an area that you find interesting.
This class will cover many aspects of physics to give you an idea about some of what physics can teach us, but it will obviously not be comprehensive. As such, a final presentation on anything related to physics will be a key part of the course. The topic is completely open-ended and up to you, so it could be the physics of something you like, the history of something physics-y, or anything else awesome you can think of related to physics. The presentations will be done in groups of two, take about five minutes, and will include some time for questions. More information on the presentations will be distributed in class.