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Semester Review
Physics 106
Serway & Faughn
The listing below is organized with the fundamental areas and ideas listed as the main headings with supporting ideas
and important details as subheadings.
Note: This outline is intended as a guide to help you in reviewing the basic concepts of physics which were covered in
this course. It is not intended (and will not be allowed) to be used as a reference sheet in taking the final exam. Therefore
do not plan on taking it in with you.
1
Electricity and Magnetism
1.1
Forces
1. Electrical force
(a) What does it depend on?
(b) What direction does it point?
2. Magnetic Force
(a) What does it depend on?
i. For particles
ii. For currents
(b) Remember its vector nature; what direction does it point?
(c) How does this force manifest itself on a loop of current?
3. Electromagnetic Force
(a) Electromagnetic waves carry momentum. How do you calculate the force due to a photon being absorbed or
reflected?
1.2
Fields
1. Electric Fields
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
What direction does the electric field point?
How do you find the magnitude of the electric field?
Understand the basic ideas behind the drawing of electric field lines.
Understand the principle of superposition for electric fields.
2. Magnetic Fields
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
1.3
Which direction does the magnetic field point relative to the force?
Know how magnetic field lines are drawn relative to currents.
Understand how magnetic fields are always produced by currents, even in permanent magnets.
Know how to describe the motion of charged particles when they are moving in a uniform magnetic field.
Energy and Potential
1. Know how potential and potential energy are related
2. If a particle is allowed to fall through a potential difference ∆V , how much kinetic energy is gained?
3. How does the potential vary across the surface and inside a conductor?
(a) In electrostatics?
(b) If a current is flowing?
4. How much power is dissipated in a resistor?
(a) How is the resistance of something related to its dimensions and the properties of the material it is made of?
5. Understand why Lenz’s law and Kirchoff’s voltage rule are both statements of the law of conservation of energy.
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1.4
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Induction
1. What is magnetic flux?
(a) Understand how it is related to the magnetic field and the geometry of the loop.
(b) Understand what flux is physically.
2. Understand Faraday’s law Emf = −N ∆Φ
∆t
3. Understand Lenz’s law and how to apply it to find the polarity of the induced voltage.
1.5
Circuits
1. What does it mean for two circuit elements to be in series?
2. What does it mean for two circuit elements to be in parallel?
3. Capacitance
(a) How is capacitance defined?
(b) What does a capacitor physically do?
(c) How do you combine capacitors to get equivalent capacitance?
i. For parallel capacitors?
ii. For series capacitors?
4. Resistance
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
How is resistance defined?
How does resistance vary with temperature and why?
What does a resistor physically do?
How do you combine resistors to get equivalent resistance?
i. For parallel resistors?
ii. For series resistors?
5. Inductance
(a) How is inductance defined?
(b) What does an inductor physically do?
6. Kirchoff’s Rules
(a) Understand the current rule, both how to calculate it and why it is an expression of the law of conservation
of charge.
(b) Understand the voltage rule, how to calculate it and as a manifestation of the law of conservation of energy.
(c) Know how to use both rules to calculate the currents and voltages in a circuit. Know how many equations
you need to write.
7. Transformers
(a) Know how they work.
(b) Know what they are used for.
2
Electromagnetic Waves and Optics
2.1
Electromagnetic Waves
1. Know the properties of these waves
(a) velocity.
(b) relationship of B and E fields.
(c) what polarization means.
2. Have a general knowledge of the spectrum of electromagnetic waves.
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2.2
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Wave Optics
1. Interference effects
(a) Understand the conditions that produce both constructive and destructive interference.
(b) Be able to use the conditions above to understand the pattern of maxima and minima that shows up in a
double-slit interference experiment.
(c) Understand the phase changes that occur upon reflection, and when they do and do not occur.
(d) Be able to analyze thin film interference problems using the information above and come to the correct
conclusions about what the appropriate relationships for maxima and minima are.
(e) Know what a Diffraction Grating is and how it can be used.
2. Diffraction
(a) Know what diffraction is.
(b) Understand how it limits resolution of optical instruments.
2.3
Optics
1. Know the law of reflection.
2. Know Snell’s law.
3. Know how the index of refraction is related to the velocity of the wave in that medium.
4. Know what dispersion is and its effects in simple lenses and optical systems.
5. Mirrors and Lenses
(a) Know the physical mechanism for forming images with lenses and mirrors.
(b) Know the thin-lens (and mirror) formula and understand how to determine the sign of the terms in that
formula in the various cases you have studied.
(c) Understand the types of images that can be formed by the various types of optical elements under different
circumstances and be able to identify types of optical elements by the relationships between object and image
positions.
(d) Know how to handle optical systems consisting of more than one lens or mirror.
6. Optical Instruments
(a) Cameras
i. Know the basic principles upon which it operates
ii. Know what an f-number is and how it relates to the area of of the lens and the exposure.
(b) The Eye
i. Know the basic principles of its operation and its basic parts.
ii. Know what the basic eye defects are and how to correct them.
(c) Microscopes and Telescopes
i. Be aware of the basic principles of how they are supposed to work.
3
Modern Physics
3.1
Relativity
1. Know what the principle of relativity means.
2. Know what Einstein’s two postulates were.
3. Know what the effects of those two postulates are on
(a) time
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(b) length
(c) mass
(d) momentum
(e) energy (and what we mean by rest energy)
(f) simultaneity
4. Know how to add two velocities relativistically.
5. Know why the speed of light is considered to be the maximum speed an object can have.
3.2
Quantum Physics
1. Understand the Photoelectric effect and why the photon theory of light is needed to explain it.
2. Understand de Broglie’s hypothesis about matter waves.
(a) What is the wavelength of these waves?
(b) Why don’t we see them normally?
(c) What experimental evidence is there for such waves?
3. What is the physical meaning of these waves? How do we interpret the wave function Ψ?
4. Understand the Bohr model of the atom.
(a) Know its basic postulates and results.
(b) Know what its sucesses and failures were.
5. Know what the quantum numbers of the atoms are
(a) Know what physical quantities the quantum numbers stand for.
(b) Know what values they are limited to.
(c) Know how the numbers relate to the number and letter notation for the atomic states (i.e. 1s, 3p, etc.)
6. Understand the exclusion principle and how it explains the periodic table of elements.
3.3
Nuclear Physics
1. Properties of nuclei
(a) Know what the numbers Z, N, and A stand for.
(b) Know what isotopes are.
(c) Know what the rules for changes in those numbers are when a nuclear reaction occurs.
(d) Know what the binding energy of a nucleus is and how to calculate it.
2. Understand the changes that occur in the three different decay processes and what the decay products are.
(a) α decay
(b) β decay
(c) γ decay
3. Know how to calculate the energy released in a given radioactive decay (what the Q value is)
4. Understand the time dependence of radioactive decay and how it relates to the half-life and the decay constant of
the isotope.
5. Know what activity is and what its units are.
6. Fission
(a) Understand what happens in a fission reaction.
(b) Understand the requirements for a chain reaction to occur in a fission reactor.
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7. Fusion
(a) Understand what happens in a fusion reaction.
(b) Know why it is more difficult to get a fusion reaction than it is to get a fission reaction.
8. Know what the difference between a Rad and a Rem is and have some feel for the order of magnitude of typical
measurements in everyday life.