F8570 Elementary treatments in physics

Faculty of Science
Autumn 2009
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. RNDr. Aleš Lacina, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. David Trunec, CSc.
Department of Plasma Physics and Technology – Physics Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: doc. RNDr. Aleš Lacina, CSc.
Prerequisites
Fundamental knowledge both general and theoretical physics.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
Using several selected phenomena the subject demonstrates the gradual construction of the physical picture of the world from a crude phenomenological description, via the qualitative analysis to the exact quantitative explanation. In the end these conclusions are confronted with elementary treatments which can be arrived at by the help of their simplifications. In this way, the link between the exact (but from the point of view of a beginner too demanding) description of the phenomenon presented as a rule in university courses of physics and its elementary versions, which are used in school tuition, is shown.
At the end of this course, students should be able:
to understand relations between the precise and the elementary description of physical phenomena and to evaluate them;
to formulate elementary treatments of various physical phenomena and to explain their adequacy.
Syllabus
  • 1. Correctness, precision and completness of physical description (reasons, rules and methods of its elementarization; qualitative, semiquantitative and quantitative descriptions).
  • 2. Description of motion in various reference systems (laws of motion and conservation laws; conditions of static equilibrium of an ideal liquid in an external force field).
  • 3. Motion of a charged particle in external force fields (description of electromagnetic phenomena in various reference systems).
  • 4. Behaviour of microobjects (the Rutherford scattering analysis; quantization of energy; the estimation of ground-state features of bound quantum mechanical systems).
  • 5. Macro- and micro- (microscopic model as a starting point for macroscopic description; the model of ideal gas and the question of its adequacy, methods of derivation of its equation of state, limits of its applicability).
  • 6. Physical paradoxes (misunderstandings in relativity and quantum mechanics: the twins paradox, a particle in a box).
Literature
  • Vysokoškolské a středoškolské učebnice fyziky, popularizační a časopisecká literatura dle doporučení učitele. - University and high school textbooks of physics, popularization and journal literature in accordance with the recommendation of the teacher.
  • HALLIDAY, David, Robert RESNICK and Jearl WALKER. Fyzika : vysokoškolská učebnice obecné fyziky. Edited by Petr Dub, Translated by Jana Musilová - Jan Obdržálek. Vyd. 1. V Brně: Vysoké učení technické, 2000, xvi, 328. ISBN 8071962147. info
Teaching methods
Lectures.
Assessment methods
Final written project.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2008 - for the purpose of the accreditation, Spring 2000, Autumn 2010 - only for the accreditation, Spring 2001, Spring 2002, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2011 - acreditation, spring 2012 - acreditation, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, autumn 2017, Autumn 2018.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2009, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/autumn2009/F8570