Basic information
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Syllabus
Detailed course outline, learning goals, grading scheme, policies.

Course content
All the course material organized in a table. Deadlines, reminders and links.

Physics 200: Relativity and Quanta

Fall 2015

Course Content, day-by-day

UBC Physics 200 lecture-by-lecture schedule
Updated (almost) daily. Check here for pre-lecture reading assignments and pencasts, tutorials, problem sets, deadlines, handouts, simulations and all other stuff.

Hint: if you are having trouble viewing PDF files, try to right click and open in a new tab. If this does not work, try saving and opening the file directly in Adobe Acrobat (version 10 (also known as X) is needed for the pencasts to work).

Dates for the Midterms and homework deadlines are now set for the term. All other future information information is tentative: topics will move around depending on how fast I am going, readings might be added or removed, etc...

All pre-lecture reading quizzes, Homework and Homework solutions are available from Connect.

	Date	Due before/in class	In-class topics and materials	Things to look at after class
Lecture 1	Wed 09/09		Course organization and syllabus Why study Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics? Lecture Slides	Check out the course Connect page and register your clicker (under Home Page). Read the course Syllabus. Start working on Homework 1
Tutorial 1	Thu 09/10		Tutorial 1: Frames of Reference	Solutions to Tutorial 1 A pencast on the last question of Tutorial One, useful if you did not get the point and the solutions are not helping.
Lecture 2	Fri 09/11	Pencasts: Welcome - our first pencast (To get the best results, right-click on the link and save the PDF file, then open it in Adobe PDF viewer. You will need version 10 to get it to work. I have been unable to open the pencasts using the newest version, Adobe Reader DC, or version 11 (also known as Adobe reader XI)). I am trying to find a way to make the pencasts work with DX, but in the meantime, here is what I had to do to get things to work (if the version you have is not working for you): Uninstall your current version of Adobe Reader (DC or XI). Install version 10 which is available here. Just make sure to select the correct version from the pull-down menu! Don't install Reader DC or XI again. Installing newer versions seems to remove version 10. If you find a work-around for this, I would love to know! Save the pencast files by right-clicking on them, then open them with version 10 of Reader.	Frames of reference, inertial frames of reference Principle of Relativity Galilean transformations Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell, pages 1-6
Lecture 3	Mon 09/14	No pre-lecture reading quiz due today - quizzes start next week!	Galilean relativity of Newton's laws Light is an electromagnetic wave The search for aether and the Michelson-Morley experiment Einstein's principle of relativity Comparing distances transverse to the motion Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides Flash applet of the Michelson-Morley experiment	Helliwell, section 1.2, chapter 2 (without section 2.1), section 3.1 [In addition, you might find sections 1.3 and 1.4 helpful for HW #1] A pencast on the differences (and similarities) between Galilean Relativity and Einstein's Relativity
Lecture 4	Wed 09/16	HW 1 is due in class	Setting up a coordinate system for time and distance measurement Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell sections 5.1 and 6.2 A pencast with the procedure Anne and her friends use to build a reference frame (The initial comments refer to the textbook previously used in the course and don't apply to our current book.) An Applet showing synchronization of clocks.(Choose Synchronization Proceduce B and press play. Requires Java.) Start working on Homework 2 HW 1 solutions are available
Tutorial 2	Thu 09/17		Tutorial 2: Time dilation and length contraction	Helliwell sections 4.1 and 5.2 Solutions to Tutorial 2
Lecture 5	Fri 09/18		Einstein's light clock and time dilation (Tutorial 2 recap) Relativity of simultaneity Problem solving with time dilation Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides An applet showing Einstein's light clock in action. A flash applet showing issues of simultaneity and clock synchronization.	Helliwell sections 4.2 and 4.3 A pencast on the connection between synchronization and simultaneity A youtube video on Simultaneity A detailed picture of the Bart and Anne train problem in Bart's frame of reference is attached to lecture notes for lecture 6.
Lecture 6	Mon 09/21	Pre-lecture reading quiz (2) due at 9am today (Helliwell section 6.1)	Length contraction (Tutorial 2 recap) More problem solving with time dilation (finish clicker question series from last lecture) Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Reminder: Tue, Sept 22 is the last day to withdraw from most courses without a "W" standing. Helliwell section 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, also section 5.2
Lecture 7	Wed 09/23	HW 2 is due in class	A statement of Lorentz Trasformations The twin paradox Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides Correct solution to the Supernova problem (see Lecture 7 notes)	Start working on Homework 3 A pencast with a derivation of Lorentz Transformations, using only the Principle of Relativity
Tutorial 3	Thu 09/24		Tutorial 3: Lorentz transformations and addition of velocities	Solutions to Tutorial 3 Helliwell 8.1, 8.3
Lecture 8	Fri 09/25		Lorentz transformations Addition of velocities and relative velocities Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell 8.1, 8.3 Tips on when and how to use time dilation, length contraction and Lorentz transformations, courtesy of Prof. van Raamsdonk Definitions: Relative velocity vs velocity w.r.t. a moving frame of reference A pencast on relative velocities (useful if you had trouble with the clicker questions in this lecture)
Lecture 9	Mon 09/28	Pre-lecture reading quiz (3) due at 9am today (Helliwell, intro to chapter 9 and some of section 9.2)	The invariant spacetime interval Proper time and length Spacelike, timelike and null separations Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell 8.3, 9.2, together with these notes that clarify some of section 9.2 Definitions of proper time, length and distance A pencast all about proper length, distance and time A pencast proving that the spacetime interval is a Lorentz invariant A pencast discussing the concepts and implications of spacelike, timelike and null An important note about these pencasts: they were all recorded using the opposite convention about the sign of delta-s2 than what is used in the book. See the WARNING on page 122 of Helliwell. I will use the book's conventions in the lecture, but I will not re-record the pencasts at this point.
Lecture 10	Wed 09/30	HW 3 is due in class	Spacetime diagrams Geometric interpretation of Lorentz Transformations Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Start working on Homework 4 Helliwell 9.1 Notes on spacetime diagrams, courtesy of Prof. van Raamsdonk
Tutorial 4	Thu 10/01		Tutorial 4: Spacetime Diagrams Grids for drawing spacetime diagrams (at relative velocity of 0.6c)	Solutions to Tutorial 4 The physics of question 3 is discussed in Helliwell 7.1 The physics of question 4 is discussed in Helliwell 7.2 (and the next two sections)
Lecture 11	Fri 10/02		Causality Spacelike, timelike and null on spacetime diagrams Proper time for arbitrary observers Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	This little video is a cute review of the twin paradox, touching on a number of aspects of the course - all in 5 minutes. Helliwell Appendix D (optional) Helliwell Appendix E (optional)
Lecture 12	Mon 10/05	To give you more time to study for the Midterm, the pre-class reading assignment this week is postponed until Friday.	Collisions Relativistic momentum Relativistic energy Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Optional reading: A derivation of relativistic formulas for momentum and energy (source: Special Relativity by A.P.French, a really good book if you want to learn SR in a lot more detail).
Lecture 13	Wed 10/07	HW 4 is due in class	Pre-midterm review Grids for drawing spacetime diagrams (at relative velocity of 0.6c)
Midterm 1	Thu 10/08	Materials to help you study for the midterm are collected here	Midterm #1	Midterm 1 Solutions to Midterm 1
Lecture 14	Fri 10/09	Pre-lecture reading quiz (4) due at 9am today	The energy-momentum four vector Lorentz transformations of momentum and energy Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell 10.3.2 Happy Thanksgiving!
Lecture 15	Wed 10/14	Pre-lecture reading quiz (5) due at 9am today (delayed due to Thanksgiving holiday) No HW due today	Mass as an invariant The massless limit What is mass, exactly? Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Helliwell chapters 10 and 11 (except for 11.5), section 13.1 Concept summary: the Lorentz Transformations of energy and momentum Detailed computation: mass as a Lorentz invariant
Tutorial 5	Thu 10/15		Tutorial 5: Light: energy, momentum and Doppler shift	Solutions to Tutorial 5 Helliwell 13.2
Lecture 16	Fri 10/16		Decay of unstable systems Formation of bound systems Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Summary: bound systems, binding energy, unstable systems Helliwell section 11.5, 12.1, 12.2, Appendix H Start working on Homework 5 Pencast on the massless limit Pencast on the concepts of mass and binding energy For a great demonstration that light has momentum, see the some information about the lightsail here and here (this second one is an actual experiment). Reminder: Last day for withdrawal from most courses with a "W" standing.
Lecture 17	Mon 10/19	There is a reading assignment (6) for this week, but no quiz	QUANTUM MECHANICS Classical description of the properties and production of electromagnetic radiation Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 1.1 Chapter 41 of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Krane, 2nd edition. This chapter covers quite a bit more than what is needed for the course, but if you find anything about classical electromagnetic radiation unclear, it's a great place to look.
Lecture 18	Wed 10/21	HW 5 is due in class	The photoelectric effect: the experiment Introduction to the photon proposal Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides Photoelectric effect simulation	Townsend 1.3 (only the part about photoelectric effect) Start working on Homework 6
Tutorial 6	Thu 10/22		Tutorial 6: Photons: Photoelectric effect and Compton effect Question One of the Tutorial uses an Interactive Simulation. Click here to get it.	Townsend 1.3 Solutions to Tutorial 6
Lecture 19	Fri 10/23		Basic properties of photons More on the photoelectric effect Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides A simulation of the photoelectric effect	To think about the puzzle at the end of the class: why does the photocurrent start to decrease once the energy of the photons is very large, you might want to look at the following wikipedia articles: Electronic band structure Photoemission spectroscopy The first paragraph of the first article contains an important piece of information necesary to figure this out. [This is not required reading.]
Lecture 20	Mon 10/26	Pre-lecture reading quiz (7) due at 9am today	The Compton effect (see also Tutorial 6) Further evidence for the photon proposal: black body radiation Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides A simulation of black body radiation	Derivation of the Compton Effect (pencast) Helliwell 12.6, Townsend 1.3 (the section on Compton scattering)
Lecture 21	Wed 10/28	HW 6 is due in class	Review of evidence for the quantum nature of light Photomultipliers Double slit experiment with photons Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 1.2 Start working on Homework 7
Tutorial 7	Thu 10/29		Tutorial 7: Complex numbers and waves	Solutions to Tutorial 7 This is a very important tutorial, so make sure you work through it (except for the last page, Question 3) and look at the solutions if necessary. Townsend 1.6, Additional Material reading on Complex Numbers
Lecture 22	Fri 10/30		Double slit experiment for electrons and other particles Wavefunctions and probabilities Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 2.1, 2.4
Lecture 23	Mon 11/02	No quiz due today, but (strongly!) suggested reading (8) is posted on Connect	Recap: Measurement and wavefunction collapse Quantum states, eigenstates and quantum superpositions The wavefunction as a quantum superpostion Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides
Lecture 24	Wed 11/04	HW 7 is due in class	Polarizers Photons, polarization and QM Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Start working on Homework 8
Tutorial 8	Thu 11/05		Tutorial 8: Photons, polarizers and quantum amplitudes	Solutions to Tutorial 8
Lecture 25	Fri 11/06		More on the quantum picture of photon polarization Photon polarizations with complex coefficients Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	A worked example of a quantum measurement computation: helpful for HW 8
Lecture 26	Mon 11/09	To give you more time to study for the Midterm, the pre-class reading assignment this week is postponed until Friday. Both parts of HW 8 are due by 4:30pm on Tuesday. See an Annoucement on Connect for details.	More on quantum measurements: concept review and examples No clicker questions today Lecture notes, handouts, slides The worksheet we looked at is at the end of lecture 25 notes.
Lecture 27	Wed 11/11		Remembrance Day Lecture cancelled Due to the holiday and tomorrow's midterm,homework is due early this week. Both parts of HW 8 are due by 4:30pm on Tuesday. See an Annoucement on Connect for details.
Midterm 2	Thu 11/12	Materials to help you study for the midterm are collected here	Midterm #2	Midterm 2 Solutions to Midterm 2
Lecture 28	Fri 11/13	Pre-lecture reading quiz (9) due at 9am today	Momentum eigenstates, connection to de Broglie waves Complex representation of a wave Momentum space wavefunction and its probabilistic intepretation Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	In case you are interested, here is a link to an article on birefringence. Birefringence allows you to separate photons into orthogonaly polarized components without destroying the wavefunction.
Lecture 29	Mon 11/16	Pre-lecture reading quiz (10) due today at 9am	Wavepackets Relationship between momentum space and position space wavefunctions Real world waves - wavepackets We will use a a fourier mode simulator (java). Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 2.6 If you want some extra practice with the fourier mode generator, you can work through this old tutorial (solutions).
Lecture 30	Wen 11/18	Because of the Midterm, no homework is due today	The impossibility of knowing position and momentum of a particle at the same time The Heisenberg Uncertainity Principle (approximate statement) Time dependence of wavepackets Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Start working on Homework 9 Townsend 2.6 "Coles Notes" for quantum mechanics
Tutorial 9	Thu 11/19	You will need laptops in the Tutorial again!	Tutorial 9: Time evolution of wavepackets This tutorial uses a Java simulation. Get it here	Solutions to Tutorial 9 Townsend 2.7
Lecture 31	Fri 11/20		Expectation values Heisenberg uncertainity principle - exact statement Group velocity vs phase velocity (Tutorial 9 review) (De Broglie's) relationship between energy and frequency Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 2.7, 2.8 A brief summary of the QM treatement of a free particle (from an old Tutorial)
Lecture 32	Mon 11/23	Pre-lecture reading quiz (11) due at 9am today	Schrodinger equation plausibility argument: time evolution of wavepackets from Schrodinger equation Linearity of the Schrodinger equation, the superposition principle Schrodinger equation in the presence of a potential Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 2.3
Lecture 33	Wed 11/25	HW 9 is due in class	More about potentials Behaviour of wavefunctions with time Energy eigenstates: stationary states Time-independent Schrodinger equation Lecture notes, handouts, slides Clicker questions with answers Simulation of time evolution of wavefunctions in various potentials	Start working on Homework 10 Townsend 3.1
Tutorial 10	Thu 11/26		Tutorial 10: Bound States in Quantum Mechanics	Solutions to Tutorial 10 This is an important tutorial - any of the questions on it (except for the very last question, 5, which was quite hard and there as a bit of a challenge) could appear on the final exam. I suggest you use this Tutorial as a way of reviewing Quantum Mechanics. Townsend 3.2
Lecture 34	Fri 11/27		General recipe for solving quantum mechanics wavefunction problems Tutorial 10 recap: Quantum bound states; discreteness of bound state energies Simulation of bound states in various potentials. Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 3.2, 4.1
Lecture 35	Mon 11/30	Pre-lecture reading quiz (12) due at 9am today	zero point energy 1D example: the finite square well nonzero probability for finding the electron in a classically forbidden region Quantum explanation for discretness of atomic spectra and stability of atoms Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides An applet that shows you the shapes of the different hydrogen orbitals (energy eigenstates)
Lecture 36	Wed 12/02	HW 10 is due in class	Overflow Quantum eraser experiments (material not covered by the final exam) There are a couple of good wikipedia articles describing the physics of quantum eraser experiments: this one and this one. A paper detailing the particular quantum eraser experiment I discuss can be found here (click on PDF to obtain the full text of the paper. You might need to be logged into a UBC VPN or the library first).	Homework 11 (not for credit) is available on Connect (with solutions). Working through it will help you master the material from the last week of classes in preparation for the final exam.
Tutorial 11	Thu 12/03		Tutorial 11: Tunneling This tutorial uses a Java simulation. Get it here	Solutions to Tutorial 11
Lecture 37	Fri 12/04		qualitative discussion of the double well Tunneling Examples of tunneling: tunneling current, fusion in the Sun. Applications of tunneling: the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), nuclear decay Clicker questions with answers Lecture notes, handouts, slides	Townsend 4.5, 4.7

Final Exam	Tue Dec 22 8:30am	The exam is closed book. Bring a (non-graphing, non-programmable) calculator. A formula sheet will be provided. More information and materials to help you study for the final exam are collected here. Information on office hours and TA help sessions is available on Connect (check the Annoucements).