2020 - 2021 Catalog 
    
    Apr 20, 2024  
2020 - 2021 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)

PHYS 231 - College Physics II

4 Credit: (4 lecture, 2 lab, 0 clinical) 6 Contact Hours: [PHYS 230  or Instructor Approval]


Second semester of algebra/trigonometry-based physics with laboratory, presents the fundamental principles of physics, with applications. Topics include electrostatics, circuits, magnetism, vibrations, mechanical waves, sound, optics, and atomic physics.  
OFFERED: spring semesters

Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
The successful student will be able to… 

Goal 1:  Document and perform scientific experiments. 

  1. Detail a proposed experimental procedure with hypothesis. 
  2. Determine and report reasonable values for uncertainties in measurements. 
  3. Propagate uncertainties in calculations. 
  4. Calculate statistical uncertainty in a repeated measurement. 
  5. Record all data and show sample calculations. 
  6. Use software to create well-formatted data tables and graphs of data.  
  7. Be able to fit a line to data and interpret the resulting equation correctly. 
  8. State results of analysis, agreement of key values, and support of hypotheses. 
  9. Debug any experiment with erroneous results summarizing possible mistakes or possible here-to-fore unknown affecting variables. 
  10. Record along the way questions/clarifications and any alterations to procedure. 
  11. Make revisions to model and propose a retest. 
  12. Format experiment and results into a formal scientific report. 

Goal 2:  Determine how the distribution of charges and related fields affect the force and motion of other charges. 

  1. Discriminate between conductors and insulators phenomenologically. 
  2. Use a microscopic charge model to explain charging by friction, conduction and induction as well as the process of polarization in a dielectric. 
  3. Know standard units of electric charge and subatomic source of charge. 
  4. Explain what is meant by quantization of charge and charge conservation. 
  5. Use Coulomb’s Law to calculate vector force on a charge in 2D space from multiple other charges. 
  6. Explain the nature of the Electric Field. 
  7. Calculate vector Electric Field at a point in 2D space from multiple charges. 
  8. Use electric field lines to roughly predict the trajectory of a charged particle. 
  9. Explain and calculate the Electric Potential at a point in 3D space from multiple charges. 
  10. Determine the Electric Field lines from equipotential surfaces and vice versa. 
  11. Draw Electric Field near conductors correctly. 
  12. Define and Calculate capacitance from knowledge of electric field or electric potential and geometry of conductors. 
  13. Calculate capacitance from capacitors in series or parallel. 
  14. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems.  

Goal 3:  Determine the distribution of charge flow and work done in complex DC electrical circuits. 

  1. Define, calculate and microscopically represent electric current. 
  2. Define electromotive force (EMF) and identify sources in a circuit. 
  3. Explain the flow of energy in a loaded electrical circuit. 
  4. Define electrical resistance and give conceptual microscopic model to explain cause. 
  5. Calculate electrical resistance for a material based upon the length and area. 
  6. Use Ohm’s law to calculate resistances. 
  7. Use Joule’s Law to calculate rate of conversion of electrical energy. 
  8. Physically construct and diagram series and parallel circuits. 
  9. Measure electrical current, potential and resistance in circuits. 
  10. Calculate resistance for loads in series and parallel. 
  11. Use Kirchhoff’s rules to determine current in complex circuits with neither parallel nor serial geometry and/or multiple EMF sources. 
  12. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems. 

Goal 4:  Understand the causes of magnetism and the conversion of magnetic energy into electrical energy. 

  1. Explain the source of all magnetism and the domain model for permanent magnets. 
  2. Identify interactions between different magnetic poles and the directionality of a compass needle. 
  3. Explain the causes of Earth’s magnetic field and location of its poles. 
  4. Calculate the magnetic field around a straight wire or at the center of a coli or solenoid.  
  5. Determine the correct direction of the magnetic field, charge flow and magnetic force from the other two. 
  6. Calculate the torque on a current carrying coil based on the magnetic field and coil’s orientation. 
  7. Define the magnetic flux. 
  8. Use Faraday’s Law to calculate the induced Electromotive Force (EMF). 
  9. Use Lenz’s law to identify correct direction of induced current. 
  10. Calculate Emf in a transformer. 
  11. Define RMS current and voltage in an AC circuit and relate it to the power. 
  12. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems.  

Goal 5:  Understand the causes of vibrations in various systems and relate the kinematics of motion to these causes.  

  1. Relate the velocity and/or acceleration vectors to the motion of an object moving in a circle. 
  2. For an object in uniform circular motion, relate its centripetal/radial acceleration to its speed and radius. 
  3. Describe the necessary condition for a simple harmonic oscillator to resonate. 
  4. Use Hooke’s law to relate the force exerted by a stretched spring to the displacement from equilibrium and the spring constant. 
  5. Use Kinetic and Potential Energy concepts to relate speed and position of oscillating body. 
  6. Relate the frequency, period, and/or amplitude of an object undergoing simple harmonic oscillations to the properties of the system. 
  7. Relate the maximum velocity or acceleration of a harmonic oscillator with the angular frequency and amplitude of oscillation. 
  8. Relate the frequency, phase, and/or amplitude to a graph of the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator. 
  9. Relate the properties of a simple harmonic oscillator with a sinusoidal function describing the position, velocity, or acceleration of the oscillator. 
  10. Recognize that the period of a pendulum is independent of the bob’s mass, and that the period of a mass/spring system is independent of the amplitude of oscillation. 
  11. Recognize that unlike a pendulum, the period of a mass/spring system does depend on the mass of the object oscillating. 
  12. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems. 

Goal 6:  Understand the cause of mechanical waves and determine their behavior in various systems. 

  1. Compare the properties of transverse and longitudinal waves. 
  2. Compare the behavior of a traveling wave reflected at a fixed end and at an open end. 
  3. Relate the properties of a standing wave to two counter-propagating waves. 
  4. Relate the velocity, wavelength, frequency, phase difference, and/or wave number of a wave. 
  5. Relate the position, velocity, and/or acceleration of a particle in the medium to the properties of a wave. 
  6. Relate the number of nodes, total length of the string, the frequency, and/or the wave speed to one another for a standing wave on a string. 
  7. Relate the amplitude, wavelength, and frequency of a wave to an equation of the form y (x, t) = A cos (Bx  Ct).
  8. Relate a graph of a wave to the amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and/or phase constant of the wave.
  9. Relate the velocity of a wave on a string to the tension and mass per unit length of the string. 
  10. Relate the intensity of a wave to the distance from the source of a wave and/or the power of the wave. 
  11. Relate the sound intensity level in decibels to the intensity of the wave. 
  12. Relate the fundamental frequency to the harmonics of a standing wave. 
  13. Relate the speed of sound in a solid to the physical properties of the substance. 
  14. Relate the speed of sound in a gas to the properties of the gas. 
  15. Relate the frequency to the speed of sound and the length of a pipe in different pipe configurations, such as open-open, open-closed, and closed-closed. 
  16. Identify the conditions for resonance. 
  17. Use the conditions for constructive or destructive interference to relate the frequencies and locations of the wave sources to the location of nodes and antinodes. 
  18. Relate the beat frequency of two interacting waves to the frequencies of the individual waves. 
  19. Predict sound frequencies or velocities of moving objects using the Doppler equations. 
  20. Calculate the properties of a standing wave on a string. 
  21. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems.  

Goal 7:  Understand and predict the behaviors of light that are explained with the particle model. 

  1. Be able to explain and use the Law of Reflection. 
  2. Understand the nature of images produced in mirrors. 
  3. Explain refraction in terms of the changed speed of EM waves in different media. 
  4. Explain dispersion. 
  5. Explain the physical cause of the following visual effects: rainbows, total internal reflection, chromatic aberration, spherical aberration. 
  6. Identify the different types of lenses by their geometry or their optical effects. 
  7. Use the lens law to predict the placement and magnification of an image. 
  8. Distinguish real from virtual images and predict which type a lens/mirror will produce. 
  9. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems.  

Goal 8:  Understand and predict the behaviors of light that are explained with the wave model. 

  1. Understand that light is a subset of all transverse electromagnetic waves. 
  2. Understand that materials can absorb, transmit, or reflect EM waves. 
  3. Understand that materials interact with different EM waves differently. 
  4. Understand that in vacuum all EM waves travel in straight lines at a speed of 300,000 km/s. 
  5. Explain interference in terms of the superposition principle. 
  6. Explain polarization of light and the common uses of polarized filters. 
  7. Calculate if the intensity will be constructively or destructively interfering based of path length and wavelength. 
  8. Calculate angles for maxima and minima for diffraction by single-slit, double-slit and diffraction grating. 
  9. Synthesize the above objectives to solve application problems.  

Goal 9:  Understand the wave particle duality and how it explains the nature of all particles. 

  1. Use Plank’s Law to determine energy of EM waves. 
  2. Compare and contrast Emission, Absorption and Continuous spectra and give example sources of each. 
  3. Use Wien’s Law to predict the peak frequency change of EM spectra with temperature. 
  4. Compare and contrast Incandescence, Fluorescence and Phosphorescence. 
  5. Explain the conundrum of the photoelectric effect. 
  6. Explain what is meant by wave-particle duality. 
  7. Use De Broglie’s Law to predict the wavelength of a moving particle. 
  8. Use the uncertainty principle to predict the uncertainty of position, momentum, Energy or time. 

Goal 10:  Understand the application of quantum physics to explaining the nature of atoms. 

  1. Recognize that the Franck-Hertz experiment demonstrates that energy levels in an atom are discrete. 
  2. Correlate an atomic absorption or emission spectrum and the corresponding energies. 
  3. Describe how Rutherford’s experiment disproved Thomson’s model of the atom and demonstrated the existence of a positively charged nucleus. 
  4. Describe the key components of the Bohr model, including discrete stable electron orbits and the relationship of the principal quantum number, to properties of the energy levels. 
  5. Define what wave-particle duality means. 
  6. Relate the blackbody radiation phenomenologically to the temperature of the object. 
  7. Demonstrate how de Broglie waves result in quantization of atomic energy levels. 
  8. Apply the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to an object. 
  9. Recognize Schrodinger’s equation and the relation of the wave function to the probability of locating a particle at a certain location. 
  10. Relate the probability of a particle being in a certain spatial interval to the wave function or probability function. 
  11. Relate the angular momentum of an atom to the quantum numbers. 



Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)