Module Identifier PH17010  
Module Title CONCEPTS IN PHYSICS  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Dr Tudor E Jenkins  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Other staff Professor Andrew Evans  
Pre-Requisite Normal entry requirements for part 1 Physics  
Co-Requisite None  
Mutually Exclusive None  
Course delivery Other   Workshop. 2 workshops  
  Lecture   18 lectures  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 Tests  100%

Learning outcomes

After taking this module students should be able to:

Brief description

In this synoptic module, the electromagnetic spectrum will be taken as a concept, and a wide range of problems will be tackled with examples taken from this concept.

Content

The Electromagnetic Spectrum is taken as an overall concept. The syllabus will be divided up into four sections:

The Electromagnetic Spectrum.
Propagation of electromagnetic energy - the wave and photon picture.

a) optical spectrum
Sources of visible light.
The LASER and the special properties of laser light
Types of laser with some practical demonstrations of argon ion and semiconductor systems.
The coherence of light.
Use of coherence properties of lasers - speckle phenomena and holography.
Optical waveguiding - optical fibres, integrated optics and the route to optical computers.
Introduction to geometrical optics.

b) high energy electromagnetic spectrum (x-rays and gamma-rays)
properties of x-rays and gamma-rays (energy, wavelength, ionisation, attenuation)
production of x-rays (x-ray tubes, synchrotron radiation)
production of gamma-rays (radioactive decay, annihilation)
detection of x-rays and gamma-rays (gas ionisation and solid state detectors)
application of x-rays and gamma-rays (diffraction, spectroscopy, imaging,
radio-therapy)

c) Infra-red spectrum
Sources of infra-red radiation
Detectors of infra-red radiation
Thermal imaging

d) radio spectrum
radio transmission, modulation and demodulation
radio astronomy   
radio sources in the universe

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
P.A. Tipler Physics for Scientists and Engineers Freeman Worth 1572596732

Articles
** General Text
Students are encouraged to read generally around the subject particularly articles in magazines such as Scientific American, Science and New Scientist

Web Page/Sites
The web conatins many useful sites with lots of information

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4