modern physics 2008 trimester 3

course expectations            syllabus
     

	Monday, March 17	Tuesday, March 18	Wednesday, March 19	Thursday, March 20	Friday, March 21
class					not
what we'll do in class				lab E1 you must bring a calculator on which you know how to find the standard deviation!
reading (always done before class)	twin paradox & doppler shift (there are 2 mistakes in the doppler shift section.... one, everyone should notice; the other, probably only the astro people will notice) what could be better than class and a movie?		review the doppler shift section!	read the lab!
in-class presentation	spend 20 minutes trying to find the L square matrix and the v column matrix such that 1) v'  =  L v 2) v =(something times x   something times ct) 3) the L matrix is such that LT  =  L-1	what are the two mistakes that the book makes in the doppler shift section?	questions I expect you to think about and have answers: a) what L is equivalent to L-1 ? i.e., L(?)  =  L-1(v/c) b) is L(u/c) L(v/c)  = L(v/c) L(u/c) ?? i.e., is L commutative in 1 dimension? in 3 dimensions? c) let's define L(u/c) L(v/c) = L(w/c) what is w/c in terms of u/c and v/c? d) can we apply the Doppler shift formula to the heartbeat problem that we did earlier (1-12)?
written homework (by 5 pm)	start on tomorrow's homework because there will be homework on thursday	1(28, 14) please do 28 as a length contraction problem		find v/c of the rocket with respect to earth in the twin paradox movie by doing 1) one time dilation 2) one doppler shift CORRECTION! since we didnt get to watch teh whole movie tuesday, I will let you turn in question 1 only if you want, and delay (sadly) question 2 till after miniterm/spring break (but will anybody remember how to do it then??) should you choose
lab	lab for thursday has been set up in lab 2 if you are missing class thursday, you can start any time!!
other	order your Particle Physics booklet here	doppler effect applet

 

	Monday, March 10	Tuesday, March 11	Wednesday, March 12	Thursday, March 13	Friday, March 14
class
what we'll do in class
reading (always done before class)	cherry handout on "the invariance of perpendicular lengths" or how perpendicular lengths got into the absolute column length contraction: pp. 18-20 (this was supposed to be for yesterday)		make sure that you finish up to top of page 21 (i.e., up to the twin paradox) although i see that you were actually supposed to do that for last monday!
in-class presentation				you will have found equations for x-bar  and y-bar in terms of x, y, and theta also, you will have calculated "the interval" for the two events (1. muon is created & 2. muon reaches ground) let's re-define "the interval" as Dx2 - c2Dt2 so that it isn't imaginary; if you already used the other one
written homework (by 5 pm)	1(13) & remember: no numbers until the absolute last line of the problem	the return of Tonya and Reid: now Tonya stands at the back of the train, where the light also is... consider the two events" 1) light leaves the back of the train 2) light returns to the back of the train Since you know the time between the two events according to Tonya, you can do a time dilation problem to find the time interval according to Reid; but Reid can also solve the problem by doing a d-v-a-t, even though he doesnt initially know the length of the train, according to him.  By equating the two method's answers, show that the train length according to Reid is g (gamma) times smaller than the length of train according to Tonya see the applet light_beam_clock.htm at T:\Student\kolena\Relativity_Physlets\ contents\s_relativity\sp_rel\ use the bottom light beam clock		1(12, 27) .... and remember to solve for v/c, NOT v
lab
other	order the 320-page 2006 edition				order your Particle Physics booklet here order the 320-page 2006 edition