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Integrated Science – Physics (ISCI 1301)

York University

Fall 2016 – (unofficial) Course Website (physics stuff)


Basic Information

  • Course Description:  See Moodle 
  • Location & Time: MWF 9-12 (Bergeron 313) 
  • Instructor (Physics):  Christopher Bergevin
    Office: Petrie 240 
    Email: cberge [AT] yorku.ca 
    Office Hours: By appointment  
    Phone: 416-736-2100 ext.33730 
  • Co-Instructor: Lauren Grant (legrant@yorku.ca) 
    Wolfson, R. (2016). : Pearson
  • Text  Essential University Physics: Volumes 1 and 2, Third Edition, by Wolfson, R (Pearson, 2016) 

Updates and useful bits 

  • [2016.12.21] Solutions for the first integrated assignment are now available (finally!) here
  • [2016.12.15] The final exam has now been graded. Some basic stats can be found here. Am hoping to find some class time in the new year to go over the exams, so to help identify strengths/weaknesses in how to approach these types of problems. Note that while I’m happy to go over the exam w/ you in person, I won’t send individual scores over email (for the sake of privacy). 
  • Resources/guidance for the upcoming final exam (12/12/16) will be posted here soon. In the meantime, the best way to prepare is to read the relevant book chapters (noted below), review the course notes (again, all provided below; note especially the problems contained therein), and practice problems from the books (incl. the conceptual “For THought and Discussion” problems; try working in groups for those!). It would also be useful to review the 1010 notes (linked below) as a supplement to all this. Lastly, though there won’t be anything explicitly computational/Matlab on the final exam, the codes provided here can help enormously to gain insight/intuition for the relevant concepts (e.g., the harmonic oscillator code can give you an idea of how things, well, oscillate). And don’t forget that “ladder problem”….
  • The first (rocket-themed) integrated assignment can be accessed here
  • Links to some resources that might be useful will be added here as we go: 
    • Website for PHYS 1010 (2010; taught by Prof. Marko Horbatsch) with useful notes/problems for reference
    • Cody
    • Coursera class on scientific computing
    • Lecture notes from YorkU CSE 1541 (W14, courtesy of Prof. Burton Ma)
  • Guide to get Matlab running remotely (via York’s internal server). Guide to help get you started with plotting in Matlab.  

Class Notes 

  • 2016.12.09 – Review 
    • Overview for how to prep for the exam
    • Some sample problems to try to solve (solutions will be hashed out at the review session)
    • Cribbed version of Polya’s method for approaching/tackling tough problems…
  • 2016.12.05 – Summary 
  • 2016.12.02 – Oscillations 
  • 2016.11.30 – Systems, Momentum (cont), Oscillations 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch. 13.1-13.2
    • Slides (cont)
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: here and here
  • 2016.11.28 – Mitosis and Transport, Center of Mass, Volumes (via integrals) 
  • 2016.11.23 – Systems, Momentum 
  • 2016.11.21 – Review: Conservation of Energy, Gravity 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch. 7.1-7.6, 8.1-8.5
    • Slides
    • Simple self-contained Matlab code that allows you to simulate planetary motion (fixed sun, but movable planet; via a 2nd order Runge-Kutta routine), commonly referred to as the “two-body problem”: EXtwobodyB.m
    • Another simple code to allow you to fiddle w/ plotting multi-variable functions EXcreate3D2.m
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: Energy – herehere and here; Gravity – here
  • 2016.11.18 – Integrals 
    • No physics lecture today per se, but recall some Matlab codes posted earlier that can help w/ concepts tied to integration as being covered by Prof. Madras: INTexample1.m
  • 2016.11.16 – Waves (cont) & X-ray Crystallography 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch. 32.3
    • Slides (x-ray stuff)
    • Slides (wave stuff; same as 11/4)
    • Link to William Bialek’s website, where you can access a draft of his (graduate-level) biophysics text (see sec.5 of the Appendix for the crystallography theory)
  • 2016.11.04 – Waves 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch. 14.2-14.7
    • Slides
    • Example code to allow you to deal multivariable functions and fiddle w/ plotting such in Matlab: EXcreate3D.m (see also EXcreate3D2.m)
  • 2016.11.02 – Light III – Interactions w/ matter (cont.), Vision, Waves 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch. 14.1, 31.4, 32.1-32.2, 36.4-36.5
    • Slides
    • Example codes (re Newton’s method for polynomial root finding): EXnewtonRun.m (will also need this function)
  • 2016.10.26 – Light II – Quantal nature of light, Interactions w/ matter 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.29.6, 32.2, 32.6, 33.7, 34.1-34.5 
    • Slides
  • 2016.10.24 – Light I – What is light? 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.14.1, 29.1, 29.4-29.8, 34.1-34.3 
    • Slides
  • 2016.10.17 – Tangents II 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.8.2, 24.1, 25.3 
    • Slides
    • Slate article “NASA Sets Sight on Mars. I Just Hope Its Aim Is True”
    • The Economist article “The World Is Not Enough”
    • Recent-ish paper (“The light side of the force”) dealing with molecular biophysics that might be of interest… 
  • 2016.10.12 – Tangents… 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.8.1-8.4, 9.2-9.3 
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: here and here
  • 2016.10.07 – Energy (cont) 
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.7.4-7.6, 8.2-8.4, 9.2-9.3 
    • No in-class physics lecture (but the show must go on!)
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: here and here
    • The first (rocket-themed) integrated assignment can be accessed here
  • 2016.10.05 – Work, Integrals, Energy, & all that…
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.6.2-7.3
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: herehere, and here
  • 2016.10.03 – Friction & Drag, Intro. to Work/Energy
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.5.3-6.2
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: herehere, an here
  • 2016.09.30 – Using Newton’s Laws
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.4.6-5.2
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: here
  • 2016.09.28 – Newton’s Laws
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.4.1-4.5
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: herehere, and here
  • 2016.09.23 – Mechanics: 2-D, 3-D, Vectors, etc…
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.3.6-4.1
    • Slides
    • Relevant F10 PHYS 1010 notes: here and here
  • 2016.09.21 – Mechanics: 2-D, 3-D, Vectors, etc…
  • 2016.09.19 – Introduction to modeling
  • 2016.09.14 – Mechanics: 1-D
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.2
    • Slides
  • 2016.09.12 – Introduction to computing 
  • 2016.09.11 – Guided practice problems 
  • 2016.09.09 – Introduction
    • Book reading: Wolfson ch.1
    • Slides

HW Assignments 

To be determined…..