Physics 115A Web Page, Spring 2006
Professor Steven Carlip
E-Mail
carlip@physics.ucdavis.edu
Office hours: TW 11-12 (or email for an appointment),
Room 437 Phys/Geo
Prof. Carlip's Physics
Department Web site
TA: Jerry Vigil
E-Mail
vigil@physics.ucdavis.edu
Office hours: M 3-4, T 3-4, W 3-4, R 3-5,
Room 101 Phys/Geo
Grader: Solomon Obolu
E-Mail
obolu@physics.ucdavis.edu
Office hours (for questions about grading): WF 4-5,
Room 436 Phys/Geo
Announcements
- Problem 2 of homework 2 didn't quite make sense. A new version is now
on line; due date changed to Wednesday, April 26.
What's here
Warning!
This page will be under construction throughout the quarter, with additions
made as I find them, and find time to add them. It will still be incomplete when
the course has ended...
Class syllabus
Here is a pdf file of the syllabus.
Reading assignments
- April 3: Griffiths sections 1.1-1.4
- April 5: Griffiths problem 1.14
- April 7: Griffiths sections 1.5-1.6, problem 1.7
- April 17: Griffiths section 2.1
- April 19: Griffiths section 2.2
- April 24: Griffiths section 2.3
- May 1: Griffiths section 2.4
- May 3: Griffiths section 2.5
- May 10: Griffiths section 2.6, problem 2.52
- May 15: Griffiths sections 3.1-3.2
- May 19: Griffiths section 3.3
- May 22: Griffiths sections 3.4-3.5
- May 26: Griffiths section 3.6
- May 29: Griffiths example 3.8
- June 2: Griffiths 12.1, 12.2, 12.4
Homework and homework solutions (pdf)
Homework problems will be posted here as they become available.
Homework solutions will be available on the
MyUCDAVIS website for
this course. They will only be accessible to registered students.
Midterm information
The midterm will be held Friday, May 5, and will
cover chapter 1 and sections 2.1 to 2.4 of Griffiths, along with any
additional material I may have gone over in class. The exam will consist of two
parts: a set of "short answer" questions, and a set of problems to solve. In each
section, you will have some choice -- you will be able to skip at least
one question.
The exam is not "open book," but you may bring one sheet of notes (both sides of
a standard 8 1/2x11 inch sheet of paper), including anything you want.
Here
is a set of notes I think you may find useful; you can add to this, subtract from it,
or rewrite it as you wish. If you need to do any integrations, the
exam will have a small integration table that will include any complicated
integrals you will need (and some you will not...).
Midterm solutions (pdf)
Solutions are posted on the course
MyUCDAVIS website
Mean: 60, standard deviation: 18
Information about the final exam
The final is scheduled for Wednesday, June 14, from 10:30-12:30, in the
regular classroom. It will be a comprehensive exam, covering the entire
course; there will be questions or problems from every chapter we've
covered.
The final will be similar in structure to the midterm. It will have two parts:
- Short answers -- few or no calculation, but you may have to think carefully
about how to apply concepts.
- Problems -- similar in structure to midterm problems. At least one
problem in this section will be almost identical to a problem that appeared
on the midterm, and at least one will be almost identical
to a homework problem.
For each section, you will have some choice of problems to do or to skip.
You may bring two sheets of notes (both sides of each sheet).
Here
are some notes that I find useful---you can use these, add to them, or ignore them
as you wish.
The exam will include a table with any integration formulas I think you will need.
Warning: These notes won't
help much if you haven't studied enough; there is too much in the course for you to
find the right equation on the fly. I would encourage you to use your notes as a
study guide -- be sure you understand the equations.
Occasional notes about matters discussed in class
Some links to sites with class-related material
- Hitachi R&D has a
movie showing the formation of a double slit interference pattern by electrons,
one electron at a time.
- Here is a page
on undergraduate quantum mechanics experiments, including a version of the
Grangier experiment that I discussed in class. The
page
on the Grangier experiment includes a link to a pdf file of a nice
reprint of a paper describing details of the experiment.
- Physics 2000, from the
University of Colorado, is a bit elementary for this course, but has some good introductory
material and some nice Applets. I especially recommend the electron interference Applet in
the ``Atomic Lab'' section.
- Here
is an applet that lets you add two plane waves with different frequencies, and directly
view the difference between phase velocity and group velocity.
- From Syracuse University,
here is an Applet showing the scattering of a quantum wave from a potential barrier.
- Here is a group in Austria
doing interesting experiments in basic quantum mechanics, including interference of
Buckyballs (see ``An interferometer for large molecules'' under ``research'').
- A fairly understandable explanation of Planck's black body spectrum
is
here.
- Position and momentum wave functions are related by Fourier transforms.
Here is a nice illustration of some Fourier transforms, with some explantions,
by Davis's own Randy Harris.
- Here is an applet that lets you
visualize solutions to the one-dimensional Schr{\"o}dinger equation for various
potentials. You can find energy eigenstates, or superpose them (with phases you
can choose) to create time-dependent states.
- Here
is a large collection of applets illustrating interference, wave packet propagation,
potential steps and barriers, wave functions and energy levels in various potentials,
superpositions of stationary states, etc.
- Here
is an applet that will solve numerically for wave functions in potentials
of your choosing.
- If you have some time to kill,
Compadre is a large collection of resources about quantum mechanics. It's
designed for teachers, but they don't ask for ID...
- Here is a PostScript file of a nice talk on
entanglement and quantum computing, with a good description of the difference
between classical and quantum correlations.
- Here is a nice (though slightly old) physics book list,
covering quantum mechanics and many other subjects at many levels.