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Undergraduate Degree Programs


Physics (PHYS)

PHYS 251 (GN) Introductory Physics II (4) Selected topics in light, electricity, and magnetism.

PHYS 251 Introductory Physics II (4)


Algebra-based introduction to classical electricity and magnetism, optics, and areas of modern physics, including such topics electric charge and fields, electrical potential and energy, electric currents and resistance, direct current (DC) circuits, magnetism, electromagnetic induction and applications to devices, electromagnetic waves, light and geometrical optics, wave nature of light, basic optical instruments (microscopes, telescopes, etc.), basics of quantum mechanics, applications of quantum theory to atoms, molecules, and solids, nuclear physics and radioactivity, applications of nuclear energy and radiation.

This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of the elementary physics principles mentioned above, as well as their applications to everyday phenomena and to the life sciences, to enhance their conceptual understanding of physical laws, and to increase their problem solving abilities, especially as applied to physical systems. The mathematical prerequisites for this course (and the prerequisite PHYS 250) are mathematics at the level of algebra and trigonometry, demonstrated by suitable coursework or demonstration of satisfactory performance on the mathematical proficiency exam. Students attend two lectures, one recitation session, and a two-hour lab/activity per week. Students perform laboratory experiments, discuss their results, and write up their conclusions in weekly lab reports. Course evaluation is based on a combination of homework, quizzes, lab reports, midterm and final exams, and other evaluative tools. The course is a continuation of the first-semester course, the newly renumbered PHYS 250.

General Education: GN
Diversity: None
Bachelor of Arts: Natural Sciences
Effective: Fall 2002
Prerequisite: PHYS 250



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