Physics - Winter 1998

• Young and Freedman, University Physics, 9th Edition
• Lab Manual
• Lab Notebook

This course introduces you to waves (including sound and light), fluids, and heat. We study these topics by use of the principles of particle dynamics that you learned in Physics 6A (or 5A). Both waves and fluids require you to grasp the idea that something is filling all of space, unlike last quarter where you followed the trajectories of point masses through empty space. In other words, you have to follow an infinite number of objects, one for every point in space! This concept is called a "field" in physics; fields are crucial for understanding electricity and magnetism (next quarter), and quantum mechanics (if you are interested!). The phenomenon of heat can also be understood as an elaboration on the point-mass laws you have learned; this is called the "kinetic theory of heat". I will indicate at all times how the topic at hand is connected to what you have already learned, and what you are likely to learn later in the quarter or in further science courses. I will also attempt to give you a more historical flavor of the field than the text does, including a glimmer of how these subjects are related to contemporary research, such as is going on right now in geophysics, biology, and cosmology.

Nine Assignments; worth about 20% of the evaluation. You are expected to do all the assigned problems. Experience has shown a very high correlation between conscientious homework and high scores on exams. The problems take hours of work each week; they are the heart of the course. Almost all the problems involve some example of physics in everyday, pedestrian situations; almost none involve solutions to grand problems in astrophysics or geophysics; nevertheless, exactly the same type of problems arise in those areas. Try to keep that in mind as you struggle with them! One of the sheets you will get on the first day contains the homework assignments for the entire quarter. Look carefully at the due dates of each homework assignment. The assignments have been carefully aligned with the lectures and exams. Late homework will be recorded and returned, but not graded. Better late than never, and better a partial set of solutions than none at all.

Two Midterms (20% each) and the Final (40%) will be OPEN BOOK and OPEN NOTES, with calculators. Note that this is a different philosophy than used last quarter in Physics 6A.

I will not, alas, schedule any makeup exams. If you let me know in advance that you cannot take an exam, I will base your evaluation on the other two exams.

Physics 6M is a separate course, carrying 1 unit of credit (0.2 of a course). It must be taken concurrently with 6B. There will be seven labs. In order to pass the lab, you must attend and complete at least 5 of the 7 labs. The labs will start the week of 12 January, and will NOT take place in weeks with Holidays. Work for the laboratory sessions is completed during the three-hour session. Laboratory notebooks do not leave the laboratory. Be sure to study the experiment in advance of the laboratory session.

There will be two discussion sections per week, beginning the second week: Attendance is voluntary. They are scheduled for Tuesday, 7-8:45 pm, Thimann 3, and Thursday, 7-8:45 pm, NS Annex 101.

The required text is "University Physics, 9th Edition" by Young and Freedman. It is available at the Bay Tree Bookstore. The required lab manual is available also. You are also required to provide a lab notebook which you will leave in the laboratory - a bound 8" x 10" book with numbered quadrille-ruled pages - to aid with neatness.

Several reference books and several copies of the required textbook are available on reserve for your use. The homework and examination solutions will also be on reserve in loose-leaf notebooks there.

I hope you enjoy this demanding and rewarding course.

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Date	Reading	Topic
7 (Jan)	11.5-8	Elasticity
9	19.1-4	Traveling waves
12	*	Reflection and Transmission
14	19.5-6	Elastic Waves: Wave Equation
16	19.7-8	Sound: Pressure and Energy
19	*	HOLIDAY
21	20.1-2,6	Superposition and Interference
23	20.3-5,7	Standing Waves
26	21	More Sound: Hearing
28	*	Review
30	*	Midterm I
2 (Feb)	*	Seismic waves, ocean waves
4	34.1-5	Light; speed and rays
6	34.8	Huygens and Fermat principles
9	35,36	Mirrors and Lenses
11	37.1-4	Interference: two slits, complex numbers
13	37.5-6	Interference: thin films, Michelson
16	*	HOLIDAY
17(Ex)	34.6	Polarization
18	*	Review
20	*	Midterm II
23	14.1-3	Fluids - pressure
25	*	Planetary ellipticity
27	14.4	Buoyancy
2 (Mar)	14.6-7	Continuity, Bernoulli, Viscosity
4	14.9	Viscosity
6	15.1-5	Thermal expansion; ideal gases
9	15.6-8	1st Law: heat capacity; work
11	16.4	Kinetic Theory; pressure/temperature
13	16.5	Kinetic Theory; heat capacity
16	*	Sound Waves - Unification and Review
24	All	Final Exam (8-11 AM)

*DRAFT* SYLLABUS 11/6/97

Joel R. Primack, Professor of Physics, UCSC

Nancy Ellen Abrams, Lecturer

Teaching Assistant: James Bullock, Physics

Sandra Faber, Astronomer & University Professor, UCSC

Triloki Nath Pandey, Professor of Anthropology, UCSC

Brant Secunda, Huichol shaman

Course description: Introduction to scientific cosmology. Examination of cultural roles of creation myths and cosmologies; examples include Zuni, Huichol, and ancient, medieval, and modern Judeo-Christian cosmologies. Possible cultural and religious repercussions of Big Bang, Gaia, and other modern origin stories.

Requirements satisfied: Topical in Natural Science or Social Science (T7).

Format: Lecture course, TTh 10:00-11:40 am Classroom Unit 1. Required readings in xeroxed reader, handouts, and two books. Factual midterm examination. Take-home final examination, or (with approval of the instructors, following written student proposals) term projects based on additional readings and individual creativity.

Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space (Harper and Row, 1995) $14.00

Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report (Simon & Schuster, 1997) $25.00

Cosmology and Culture Course Reader (includes all required readings not in Campbell, Ferris, or handouts). At the Copy Center, Communications Building, UCSC.

I (Jan. 8) Introduction to Cosmology and Culture. Overview of Biblical, Medieval, Newtonian, and contemporary scientific cosmologies: how to picture the universe.

II (Week of Jan. 13) Anthropological approaches to cosmology. The Big Bang, expansion of the universe, and the mythic dimensions of these ideas.

READINGS (to be completed before this date):

Jan. 13

Joseph Campbell, pp. 11-51

Edward R. Harrison, "What is Cosmology?" Cosmology (Cambridge U. Press, 1981), pp. 10-23

Bronislaw Malinowski, "The Role of Myth in Life," "Myths of Origin," Magic, Science and Religion, and Other Essays (Doubleday Anchor, 1954), pp. 96-117

[Optional: Mircea Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries (Harper, 1960), pp. 155-189]

Jan. 15

Ferris, pp. 10-39

Cosmology: A Research Briefing, National Research Council Board on Physics and Astronomy (National Academy Press, 1995), p. 1 - 11

Michael Turner, "Inner Space & Outer Space," and Virginia Trimble, "Cosmology: Where in the $&#**% Universe Are You," Beam Line, Fall 1997, pp. 2-13, 52-60

III (Week of Jan. 20) "Truth" in science and religion. Ancient cosmologies and cultures of the Near East. Old and new elements in the Hebrew creation myths.

READINGS:

Jan. 20

Campbell, pp. 55-62

Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science," "Science and Religion," Ideas and Opinions (Crown, 1982), pp. 36-49

Evan Hadingham, "Ancient Astronomy and the Roots of Science," Early Man and the Cosmos (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1985), pp. 10-29

E.M. Wilmot-Buxton, "How All Things Began," The New Junior Classics, Vol. III (P.F. Collier & Son, 1952), pp. 253-260 [Icelandic creation saga]

Steven Weinberg, "The Giant and the Cow," and "Epilogue: The Prospect Ahead," The First Three Minutes (Basic Books, 1977), pp. 3-10, 150-155

W.M.L. Hutchinson, "Prometheus the Firebringer," The New Junior Classics, Vol.III (P.F. Collier & Son, 1952), pp. 13- 25

Jan. 22

Richard Elliott Friedman, "Big Bang and Kabbalah," The Disappearance of God (Little, Brown, 1995), pp. 219-237

Genesis 1:1-3:24, 6:1-9:19, The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, ed. by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger (Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), pp. xxi-xxiv, 1-11

Richard Elliot Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 50-61, 236-8

"The Story of the Flood," The Epic of Gilgamesh, translation by N.K. Sandars, (Penguin Classics, 1960), pp. 105-110

[Optional: Michael Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan (Westminster, 1978), pp. 9-25, 75-115. Jeremy Naydler, Temple of the Cosmos (Inner Traditions, 1996), pp. vii-90]

IV (Week of Jan. 27) The modern creation story: cosmic evolution. Picturing the universe as a whole: from the edge of the universe to the smallest size possible according to relativity and quantum mechanics. TERM PAPER PROPOSALS DUE

(optional)

READINGS:

Jan. 27

Ferris, pp. 40-203

Cosmology: A Research Briefing, pp. 12 - 40

Jan. 29

Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack, "What is the Universe?" and "The Cosmic Serpent Swallows its Tail" (draft chapters of unpublished manuscript of book in progress, Prayers for an Expanding Universe)

Alan Watts, excerpt from In My Own Way (Pantheon, 1972), pp. 376-377

V (Week of Feb. 3) Some Native American cosmologies and cultures.

READINGS:

Feb. 3 Guest lecture by Triloki Pandey.

Campbell, pp. 93-105

Evan Hadingham, "The Sun Priests of the Southwest," "The Astronomy of the Old Ones," Early Man and the Cosmos (University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), pp. 125-161

Feb. 5 Guest lecture by Brant Secunda.

Brant Secunda, "Dreamers of the Sun: Huichol Shamanism," Enlightenments, Oct. 1993, pp.18-19

[Optional: Peter Furst, "Huichol Cosmogony: How the World Was Destroyed by a Flood and Dog-Woman Gave Birth to the Human Race," South and Meso-American Native Spirituality (Crossroad, 1993) pp. 303-323]

VI (Week of Feb. 10) Medieval Christian and Jewish cosmologies. Cultural impacts of the Copernican-Newtonian revolution.

READINGS:

Feb. 10

C. S. Lewis, "The Heavens," The Discarded Image (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 92-121

Richard S. Westfall, "Newton and the Scientific Revolution," Newton's Dream (McGill: Queen's Univ. Press, 1988), pp. 4-18

[Optional: Thomas S. Kuhn, "The Ancient Two-Sphere Universe" (excerpt), "The Assimilation of Copernican Astronomy," The Copernican Revolution (Vintage, 1959), pp. 1-8, 185-228]

Feb. 12 MIDTERM EXAM (45 minutes, in class, notes and books allowed)

Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah (Harper San Francisco, 1995), pp. 1-19

Daniel Matt, trans., Zohar: the Book of Enlightenment (Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 43-45, 49-53, notes pp. 204-214

VII (Feb. 19) What happened before the Big Bang? Inflation and eternal inflation. Connections with medieval Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah).

READINGS:

Feb. 19 Guest lecture by Sandra Faber

Ferris, pp. 204-289

Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, "In A Beginning... Cosmology and Kabbalah," Tikkun, Jan/Feb 1995, pp. 66-73

"The Handwriting of God," Newsweek, May 4, 1992, p. 76

VIII (Week of Feb. 24) Einstein's question about the creation of the universe: "Did God have a choice?" Anthropic cosmology. Dreams of a Final Theory.

READINGS:

Feb. 24

Ferris, pp. 290-312

Ian Barbour, "Religious Responses to the Big Bang," talk at American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting, Boston, Feb. 14, 1993

[Optional: John Gribbin and Martin Rees, Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind and Anthropic Cosmology (Bantam Books, 1989), pp. 241-254]

Feb. 26

Daniel Matt, God and the Big Bang (Jewish Lights, 1996), pp. 79-90, notes pp. 184-6

Steven Weinberg, "Facing Finality," "What About God?" Dreams of a Final Theory (Pantheon, 1992), pp. 230-261

IX (Week of Mar. 3) Modern myths of the origin of life. The discovery of geologic time. The Origin of Species. Evolution as continuous creation. The Gaia myth.

READINGS:

Mar. 3

James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia: a Biography of our Living Earth (W.W. Norton, 1988), pp. 15-41

Lynn Margulis and Michael Dolan, "Gaia: Cosmic Beginnings and Nonhuman Ends," Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends, ed. Clifford N. Matthews and Roy Abraham Varghese

(Open Court, 1995), pp. 187-204

Mar. 5

Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell (Bantam, 1974), pp. 1-4, 170-174

X (Week of Mar. 10) Understanding the modern world in light of cosmology. Implications for 21st century culture.

READINGS:

Mar. 10

Campbell, pp. 119-148

Joel E. Cohen, "Ten Myths of Population," Discover, April 1996, pp. 42-47

Lynn White, jr., "The Historical Roots of Our EcologicCrisis," Science, Vol. 155, pp. 1203-1207 (10 March 1967)

Mar. 12

Lewis Thomas, "The Iks," The Lives of a Cell (Bantam, 1974), pp. 126-129

XI (Week of Mar. 17) Final discussion of Cosmology and Culture. Presentation of selected student papers. Take-home final exam distributed Mar. 17, due at time of scheduled Final Exam, 4 pm, Mar. 19.

David S. Ariel, The Mystic Quest: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism (Schocken, 1992) $13.00 pap.

Evan Hadingham, Early Man and the Cosmos (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1985) $19.95 pap.

Edward R. Harrison, Cosmology (Cambridge U. Press, 1981) $49.95 hard.

C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image (Cambridge U. Press, 1994) $9.95 pap.

Ian G. Barbour, Religion in an Age of Science (Harper & Row, 1990) $16.95 pap.

Richard Elliott Friedman, The Disappearance of God (Little, Brown, 1995) $24.95 hard.

Richard Elliot Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (Harper & Row, 1987) $12.00 pap.

Thomas S. Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (Harvard U. Press, 1957) $12.95 pap.

James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Oxford University Press, 1979) $11.95 pap.

James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia: a Biography of our Living Earth (W.W. Norton, 1988) $12.00 pap.

Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah (Harper San Francisco, 1995) $12.00 pap.

Daniel Matt, trans., Zohar: the Book of Enlightenment (Paulist Press, 1983) $12.95 pap.

Daniel Matt, God and the Big Bang (Jewish Lights, 1996) $16.95 pap.

Jeremy Naydler, Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred (Inner Traditions, 1996) $19.95

Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell (Bantam, 1974)

Reserve Binder (contains copies of all Optional articles in Syllabus)

Michael Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan (Westminster, 1978)

Mircea Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries (Harper, 1960)

John Gribbin and Martin Rees, Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind and Anthropic Cosmology (Bantam Books, 1989)

Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (Harper San Francisco 1979, originally published 1941)

Revised 7/12/04.