Time Schedule:
David Thouless
PHYS 427
Seattle Campus
Current applications of physics to problems in the sciences and technology.
Class description
This course will be concerned with those discoveries in physics of the past seventy five years that have led to important developments in technology or in other scientific fields. This time period is chosen so as to exclude quantum mechanics and relativity, whose impact on chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy is too huge to be considered in ten weeks. This course is now scheduled to meet at 10:30-11:20 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 3:30-4:20 on Thursdays, in PAB B417, which is on the south side of the Physics-Astronomy building opposite the main classroom building.
Student learning goals
I hope some students will learn that research motivated by scientific curiousity can lead to important applications.
I hope that some students will learn that applied research presents challenging and interesting scientific problems,
By study of the development of such major technologies as integrated silicon chips, magnetic memory devices, and lasers, students should learn something about how scientific and technological advances are related.
By considering terrestrial and satellite studies of radiation and cosmic rays, students should learn about how studies of the universe have grown with the help of developments in physics.
General method of instruction
There will be some loectures by the Instructor, but there will also be studies made by the students and presented throughout the Quarter by the students.
Recommended preparation
Familiarity with the basic ideas of modern physics, particularly quantum theory and statistical mechanics, will be helpful, but no particular courses are required as prerequisites.
Class assignments and grading
Background reading from various sources which students may have, partly, to find for themselves, and detailed readings for oral presentations and written assignments.
Attendance at class sessions will be expected, and grades will be assigned in roughly equal parts for class participation, oral presentations, and at least one written presentation, with proper drafts submitted in good time.
