Unofficial Course Title: Quantum Mechanics & Nuclear Physics
Spring 2024, Deep Springs College, Prof. Brian Hill
A PDF of the Syllabus containing essentially the same information as is on these web pages.
Detailed daily schedules will be kept retrospectively:
In the fall semester, we laid the foundation for quantum mechanics and nuclear physics by taking a modern approach to classical mechanics. We covered the same material as is commonly covered in the first semester of college physics, but we did it with an emphasis on three principles that transcend Newtonian mechanics:
For the spring semester, we will study quantum mechanics, including solutions of Shrödinger’s equation, and then nuclear physics, following Volume Q of Six Ideas that Shaped Physics. Normally one does not get to study modern physics until the sophomore year as a physics major. To get to quantum mechanics so quickly, we are short-circuiting past electromagnetism. The cost of this is that we have not encountered electromagnetic waves! So to understand quantum-mechanical waves we will first immerse ourselves in other, simple examples of waves. By the end of our quantum mechanics studies, you will be able to do probabilistic calculations using the strange mixture of deterministic time evolution punctuated by non-deterministic measurement events. You will understand how particles behave like waves, including doing all the unexpected things that waves do, such as taking many routes to a destination and exhibiting interference patterns. We will then study nuclear physics, and thanks to our study of quantum mechanics, heuristic rules for nuclear stability will be made qualitatively compelling using fermion gas and Coulomb repulsion arguments.
As a bonus topic during the last week of the semester, we will finally tear ourselves away from quantum mechanics and nuclear physics, and get a brief introduction to Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity. The three paradoxes in this theory will be forced upon us: (1) time dilation, (2) length contraction, and (3) the relativity of simultaneity.
In sum, in this course you will encounter behaviors and theories so strange and wonderful that no human could have thought them up. Instead, nature rubbed the behaviors in our faces, and eventually, almost miraculously, in the early 20th century, physicists were able to understand and articulate what nature was showing them. The goal of the modern introductory physics course is to share as much of these behaviors and theories as can be covered in a year-long, calculus-based physics sequence.
The prerequisite for the second semester in this sequence is one semester of college-level, calculus-based physics. If you had AP physics in high school and at the end they said you were ready for the second semester of college physics, then you are quite likely prepared. The best way of determining whether you are ready for the class is to self-assess by setting aside two hours to take fall semester’s final exam. Copies of the final exam are on the fall semester course website.
There will be around 20 problem sets and problem set solutions and 4 exams and exam solutions, and many handouts, and reviewing them will be valuable. To be organized, locate a three-ring binder and a three-ring hole punch, and file everything chronologically. Reverse-chronological is actually the most convenient, because you always open your binder to what you are currently working on. Problem sets should be on standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Multi-page problem sets should be stapled. Corrections should be erased (if done in pencil) or recopied (if done in pen). To make nice diagrams and graphs, you will very often need a ruler. The nicest technical work is facilitated by engineering pads, such as these Roaring Spring Engineering Pads at Amazon, and done with a mechanical pencil and with a ruler at hand. You are meant to only use one side of engineering paper. It might seem wasteful of trees and money, but it pays off in clarity and organization.
The College’s general policies on absences (and late work) are applicable. There was an email from Ryan on this on September 8, 2022 in response to a flagging Spring 2022 semester. Since that email predates half of you, the essential absence/late policies are reproduced from that email here:
Whereas missed coursework affects both your classmates and professors by lowering the thinking and understanding you bring to a given class, and interrupts the course schedule that has been set up and is adjusted on an ongoing basis with substantial care. The same is true for absences — whereas a handful of absences might be “normal” at colleges with large lectures or less serious academics, at Deep Springs we expect students to miss no classes save for legitimate health issues or emergencies requiring also missing labor and governance obligations. For a student wishing to submit a course assignment past its required deadline, the student may request an extension on the assignment directly from the professor 48 hours in advance. Within 48 hours of the due date, the student must request an extension directly from the Dean. Exceptions will be granted by the Dean only if the student faces unforeseen and unforeseeable circumstances. A student who misses the deadline will be penalized an amount that is roughly equivalent to a letter grade for each day the assignment is late. Assignments cannot be turned in after solutions and graded assignments have been handed back, which generally happens one to two classes after they were turned in.