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Meeting Times:
9:30-10:20 MWF |
Meeting room: ENGR 203 |
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Instructor: David Peak |
Office: SER 240 |
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Email: peakd@cc.usu.edu |
Telephone: 797-2884 |
Physics 2710 (Introductory Modern Physics) and
Physics 3710 (Intermediate Modern Physics) deal with our current understanding
of the smallest and largest forms of matter. These courses develop the story of the two great
intellectual achievements of 20th century physics—quantum
mechanics (in 2710) and relativity (in 3710)—emphasizing their
experimental and theoretical underpinnings as well as their enormously
important practical applications.
Physics
3710 is about the principles and applications of special and general relativity
and of the nuclear and sub-nuclear structures of matter. Though some of the topics of 3710 are
more than 50 years old, others continue to rapidly evolve—and their
interplay provides a fascinating, living example of science at work. Moreover, the course is predicated on,
and aspires to convey, two thoroughly modern, coherent, and interconnected
themes: (1) the largest (e.g., stars, galaxies, and galactic clusters) and
smallest (e.g., quarks, leptons, and force-carrying bosons) observed forms of
matter are intimately related to one another, and (2) dynamics, conservation
laws, and symmetry are all essentially equivalent.