PHY 101 - The Flying Circus of Physics: Motion and Heat
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: one unit of high-school algebra. Practical and everyday aspects of physics concepts such as kitchen physics, walking on fire, mechanics of sports, and electricity.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
PHY 102 - The Flying Circus of Physics: Sound and Light
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: one unit of high-school algebra. Topics include waves, optics, and modern physics, how the eye and camera work, the laser, the theory of relativity, and some basic cosmology (just what is a “black hole” anyhow?).
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: One unit of high school algebra. Introduction to the physical principles behind one of the most important issues for our society, i.e. the use, storage and transport of energy and its impact on the environment. Topics covered include both a study of non-renewable energy sources (fossil and nuclear fuels), as well as an analysis of the potential of renewable ones (solar, hydro, wind).
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[1 credit(s)] This course provides hands-on experience with simple observational astronomy activities. It compliments the educational experience of the Astronomy lecture courses PHY 201 and PHY 202. Either PHY 201 or PHY 202 must be taken concurrently.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: One unit of high-school algebra. Introduction to astronomy, including stars, stellar evolution, origin of elements, galaxies, and cosmology.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
PHY 202 - Astronomy: Planets, Asteroids and Comets
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: one unit of high-school algebra. Introduction to solar system, including the moon, sun, planets, asteroids, comets, and meteors.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science. Algebra-based physics, including mechanics, thermodynamics, fluids, and acoustics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science, PHY 221. Algebra-based physics, including electricity, magnetism, optics, atoms, nuclei, and elementary particles.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
PHY 231 - College Physics I - BioMedical Applications
[4 credit(s)] Prerequisites: three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science. Algebra-based physics, including kinematics, dynamics, mechanical equilibrium, harmonic motion: spring and pendulum, fluids, thermodynamics: temperature, heat, ideal gases, heat engines. Physical principles are applied to problems from biology and medicine.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
PHY 232 - College Physics II - Biomedical Applications
[4 credit(s)] Prerequisites: three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science, PHY 231. Algebra-based physics, including sound waves, electricity, magnetism, electromagnetic waves and spectrum of light, lenses and microscopes, wave-like properties of particles and structure of atoms, nuclei, and radioactivity. Physical principles are applied to problems from biology and medicine.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: MTH 181, three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science, Corequisite: MTH 182. Calculus-based physics, including mechanics, thermodynamics, and acoustics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 241/243/243H, MTH 181, MTH 182, three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science. Corequisite: MTH 281or MTH 283, Calculus-based physics, including electricity, magnetism, optics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: MTH 181, three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science, Corequisite: MTH 182. Calculus-based physics, including mechanics, thermodynamics, acoustics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
Prerequisite: Honors students. MTH 181, 3 units of high school math, 3 units of high school science. Co-requisite: MTH 182. Calculus based honors physics with lab: Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Acoustics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[5 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 241/243/243H, MTH 181, MTH 182, three units of high-school math, three units of high-school science, Corequisite: MTH 281 or MTH 283 Calculus-based physics, including electricity, magnetism, and optics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
Prerequisite: Honors students: PHY 241/243/243H, MTH 182, 3 units of high school math, 3 units of high school science: Co-requisite MTH 281 or MTH 283. Calculus based honors physics with lab: electricity, magnatism, optics.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
PHY 301 - Research Methods in the Sciences - Writing
[3 credit(s)]
Prerequisites: EUT 215 and EUT 217, three units of high school math and three units of high school science. This course is designed to meet the needs of future science teachers. It provides students with the tools that scientists use to solve scientific problems, gives them the opportunity to use these tools to design and perform experiments in a laboratory setting, and enables them to become acquainted with the way scientific information is communicated.
This course may fulfill a General Education Requirement.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: PHY 221 or PHY 241. Elements of modeling of physical and engineering phenomena using a programming package such as MATHCAD. Topics covered include solving systems of equations, graphing functions, differential equations, and random processes.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 241/243/243H, PHY 242/244/244H, MTH 181, MTH 182, MTH 281. Theory of special relativity, wave properties of particles and particle properties of light, atomic and nuclear structure, radioactivity, semiconductors.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 241/243/243H, PHY 242/244/244H; MTH 181, MTH 182, MTH 281. AC and DC circuit analysis; steady states and transients; equivalent circuits; diodes, transistors and microprocessors; digital integrated circuits; sequential logic circuits.
[3 credit(s)] Enrollment is restricted to students seeking middle school licensure. No credit towards physics major or minor. Physics concepts relevant to students seeking middle school licensure will be discussed with related timely issues. Lectures will coordinate with laboratory exercises and inquiry-based activities. Co-requisite PHY 381.
[1 credit(s)] Enrollment is restricted to students seeking middle school licensure. No credit towards physics major or minor. Selected exercises designed to reinforce concepts covered in PHY 380. Co-requisite PHY 380.
[4 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 221, PHY 222 or PHY 241/243/243H, PHY 242/244/244H. As the body of knowledge in physics expands and diffuses into the life sciences, the need for instruction in biological physics increases. Students learn how to use the concepts of physics to analyze and understand important aspects of biological systems. The course is appropriate for students majoring in physics, chemistry, biology, or engineering.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 221, PHY 222 or PHY 231, PHY 232, or PHY 241/243/243H, PHY 242/244/244H and MTH 181, MTH 182. Macromolecular crystallography is at the heart of the genomics age allowing the determination of the three-dimensional structures of proteins that genomes code for. This information is used to determine and understand their function and develop new drugs. Students learn the fundamentals of diffraction theory, crystal properties and the basic concepts of solving the structures of macromolecular crystals. The course is appropriate for advanced undergraduates majoring in physics, chemistry and biology.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 330, PHY 340. The uncertainty principle, the Schroedinger equation, probability and measurement, potential barrier and well problems, rigid rotator and harmonic oscillator, and the hydrogen atom.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisites: PHY 440 and PHY 350; closed to freshmen and non degree students. Angular momentum and magnetic moment, Pauli spin matrices, time independent and time dependent perturbation theory, variational approximation, atomic fine structure and hyperfyne structure, partial wave analysis and the Born approximation for quantum mechanical scattering.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: PHY 450 or permission of instructor. Advanced optics laboratory that gives students “hands-on” experience with optical instruments and techniques; experiments on dispersion in glass, interferometry, spectral analysis, diffraction, Gaussian wave optics; student-designed experiment.
[3 credit(s)] Prerequisite: PHY 221 or PHY 241/243/243H. Study of physical phenomena underlying a set of current environmental issues. Topics include energy and entropy laws; electromagnetic radiation; forms of energy, including fuels, nuclear, solar; percolation model; chaos theory, including population dynamics, and climate; computer simulations.