Week 1

Read: Iron, Loadstones, and Terrestrial Magnetism (Chap. 1) and The Life and Death of a Magnet (Chap. 2)

PHY 202 Lecture: Scalars, vectors, vector algebra, application: lorentz force law...see course materials for this unit.

Week 2

Quiz: None; labor day.

Homework:
  1. Charged spheres (ASGv3 Ex. 3.1),
  2. Mueschenbroek bottle (ASGv3 Ex. 4.1),
  3. Potential of N charged spheres (ASGv3 Ex. 4.3)
  4. PHY 202: Vector multiplication (ASGv3 Ex. A.3, Ex. A.4)

Laboratory: Capacitance, charge, and electric potential (Ex. 4.2). Be sure to read the introductory paragraphs in your textbook about the capacitance of a sphere and of parallel plates. Here are a few highlights of the four experiments you'll be performing:

  1. Measuring charge: in this experiment you will attach the electrometer leads to the faraday ice pail and then insert various charged objects (rubbed silk, plastic, and etc.) into the inner pail so as to measure the relative magnitude and sign (positive or negative) of the charged object. To prevent unwanted drift in voltage measurements on your electrometer, be sure to have the electrometer grounded; this can be done by connecting the jack on the side of the electrometer to the third (ground) prong inlet of a wall outlet using a patch cord with banana plugs on the ends.
  2. Charge distribution on a sphere: here, you will keep the leads of the electrometer attached to the faraday ice pail. On the other side of your desk, you will attach a 3000 volt electrostatic power supply to a metal sphere (using a spade connector) so as to maintain the sphere at a constant electric potential (voltage). Next, move a second (uncharged) sphere into the vicinity of the electrified sphere—perhaps a centimeter or two from the charged sphere. Don't touch the spheres together! You can now use a small metal ``proof plane" (it looks like a metal coin on the end of a wand) to explore the charge distribution on the second sphere. To do this, just touch the proof plane to various location on the second sphere and then dip it in the faraday ice pail. To get the best results, be sure that you have both the electrometer and the COM port of the electrostatic power supply attached to earth ground (the ground prong inlet of a wall outlet). Make a drawing in your notebook that ``maps out," so to speak, the charge distribution (if any) on the second sphere. Is there a uniform charge distribution? Does the second sphere have a net charge? After measuring the charge distribution on the second sphere, just for fun, you might want to momentarily touch the second sphere with your finger while it is near the first sphere. Now remap your charge distribution. Is it the same as before? Why or why not?
  3. Parallel plates with constant spacing: For this experiment, keep the metal sphere electrified using the power supply (like in the last experiment. Place the capacitor plates very near one another (perhaps a millimeter or two). Now attach your electrometer to the parallel plate capacitor. This can be done using the low capacitance test leads; attach the ground clip to the stationary plate and the other (red) clip to the movable plate. Next, use the proof plane to gradually ``scoop" electrical charge from the charged sphere over to the -movable- (ungrounded) plate of the capacitor. With each scoop, observe the reading of the electrometer that is hooked up to the capacitor plates. Make a data table (and eventually, a plot!) to show how the voltage reading on the electrometer increases with each ``scoop." Repeat this experiment for several capacitor plate separations. Carefully explain your results. Does the capacitance of the capacitor vary with plate separation? If so, how? And how do you know?
  4. Parallel plates with constant voltage: For this final experiment, remove the power supply from the sphere and instead attach it to the parallel plate capacitor. This will maintain the plates at a constant voltage difference. The stationary plate should be attached to the ground terminal of the power supply. Also, attach the electrometer to the faraday ice pail. Now use the proof plane to measure the charge at various locations on the inner face of the moveable capacitor plate. How does the charge that you measure on the plate depend on the separation of the capacitor plates? Explain your results.

Supplementary website: This website explains some interesting modern applications of electrostatics like laser and ink-jet printing, electrostatic painting, and air cleaning.

Chapter 3 (4 videos):









Chapter 4 (6 videos):












Week 3

Read: Thunder and Lightning (Chap. 5) and Coulomb's Law (Chap. 6)

PHY 202 Lecture: Vector fields, work, line integrals, potential energy, energy stored in charge distributions...see course materials for this unit.

Week 4

Read: The Dawn of Electro-magnetism (Chap. 7) and Electric Currents, Magnetic Forces (Chap. 8)

PHY 202 Lecture: Magnetic torque and dipoles, work and energy...see course materials for this unit.

Week 5

Read: This week I will be lecturing on electronic circuits. In particular, we will explore Ohm's law, electrical resistance, Kirchoff's rules of circuit analysis, and resistors and capacitors in parallel and series. In lab, we will learn how to build and analyze elementary electronic circuits using a digital multimeter.

PHY 202 Lecture: Drawing time-dependent electronic circuit diagrams, charging and discharging a capacitor, RC time-constant....see course materials for this unit.

Week 6

Read: Induction of Electric Currents (Chap. 25), Arago's mysterious wheel (Chap. 26),

PHY 202 Lecture: Charging and discharging capacitors...see course materials for this unit.

Week 7

Read: Faraday’s law (Chap. 27). The magnetic field (Chap. 28)

PHY 202 Lecture: Magnetic fields, magnetic flux, surface integrals...see course materials for this unit.

Week 8

Read: Work and Weight (Chap. 9); Kinetic and Potential Energy (Chap. 10)

PHY 202 Lecture: Electric forces, electric fields and electric potential, ...see course materials for this unit.

Week 9

Read: Conservation of Energy (Chap. 11) and Geometric Optics (Chap. 12)

PHY 202 Lecture: Geometric optics...see course materials for this unit.

Week 10

Homework:
  1. PHY 202: Focal length of a spherical mirror (Ex. 12.6)
  2. The superposition principle and wave interference (Ex. 14.1)
  3. Huygens principle and wave diffraction (Ex. 14.2).

Lab: Geometric optics lab. Keplerian telescope lab next week.

Chapter 13 (3 videos):








Chapter 14 (no videos yet):

Week 11

Read: Reflection of Light Waves (Chap. 15); Opacity, transparency, and Snell's law (Chap. 16);, Atmospheric refraction (Chap. 17),

PHY 202 Lecture: Wave optics...see course materials for this unit.

Week 12

Read: Measuring light's wavelength (Chap. 20), Films, bubbles and rainbows (Chap. 21).

PHY 202 Lecture: Wave optics...see course materials for this unit.

Week 13

HW:
  1. Brewster's angle and refractive index (Ex. 22.1),
  2. Interference practice problem: Red light (713 nm in vacuum) is used in a Young's 2 slit experiment with slits separated by 120 microns. The screen is 2.75 meters from the slit plate. Find the distance, y, on the screen between the central bright fringe and the third order (n = 3) bright fringe. (answer: 4.9 cm)


Chapter 22 (4 videos):













Week 14

Thanksgiving break; no class Thursday or Friday.

Read: Crystal symmetry and light rotation (Chap. 23), Light scattering (Chap. 24)

PHY 202 Lecture: Maxwell's equations...see course materials for this unit.

Week 15

Read: Action-at-a-distance (Chap. 30), the Michelson-Morley experiment (Chap. 34)

PHY 202 Lecture: Maxwell's equations...see course materials for this unit.

Week 16 Final Exams

Physics 2