Syllabus
SELECTED TOPICS OF PHYSICS Basic course of physics for student of environmental sciences
1. INTRODUCTION Basic principles of scientific methodology in physics (natural sciences), SI units
2. MECHANICS Newton's laws of motion and their applications (conservation of energy and momentum); Dynamics of mass point in force field (conservative and non-conservative forces, potential energy) Motion of solid body (translation, rotation, conservation of angular momentum) Many body dynamics (kinetic theory of matter, thermal motion and temperature)
3. PHYSICAL FIELD Newton's law of universal gravitation (gravitational force and its potential energy) Electrostatic field (Coulomb's law, Gauss's law, electrostatic potential energy, electric charge, electric dipole, electrostatic field in conductors and dielectrics) Magnetic field (sources and description, Lorentz’s force, Biot-Savart’s law, Amper’s law, magnetic field in diamagnetic and paramagnetic materials) Electromagnetic induction
4. WAVES Oscillations (quasielastic forces, linear harmonic oscillator, its energy, interference) Waves (progressive waves, standing waves, polarization, interference, wave equation, phase and group velocity, Huygens-Fresnel’s principle, sound waves, electromagnetic waves, light)
5. INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM MECHANICS Spectrum of black-body radiation, Planck’s law Corpuscular properties of waves (photoelectric effect, x-rays, Compton effect) Wave properties of particles (De Broglie waves and their interference) Wave-corpuscular dualism (Heisenberg’s uncertainty relations, wave function, Schrodinger’s equation, laser principle)
6. INTRODUCTION TO NUCLEAR PHYSICS Composition of nucleus and its properties, nuclear masses (Bethe-Weizsacker semi-empirical mass formula), mass defect and binding energy Fundamental interactions in nuclei (strong, weak, electromagnetic) Radioactive decay (decay constant, lifetime, half-life, activity) Nuclear reactions (artificial transmutation of elements, fission and fusion) Interaction of particles (waves) with matter (radiation dose, dose equivalent and radiation exposure) The basic knowledge of differential and integral calculus is necessary.
Annotation
Basic course of physics for the first year students of environmental sciences. It provides the fundamentals of physics that are necessary for understanding of following courses in other disciplines.
English version for Erasmus students is in the form of consultations.