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PHYSICS
Mathematics Line Natural I
1st year
4 periods theory + 2 periods laboratory work per week
Textbook: Eðlisfræði 1 (Physics I) fyrir náttúrufræðideildir framhaldsskóla by Davíð
Þorsteinsson.
Dynamics of a particle: SI-units, vectors, translation, velocity and acceleration in one
dimension, free fall. Force and acceleration, Newtons laws of motion, Hooke’s law, frictional
forces, coefficient of friction, motion on an incline. Energy and work, power, kinetic energy,
potential energy, mechanical energy, energy of a spring, inner energy, conservation of
energy, simple machines.
Pressure and heat: Pressure in liquids and gases, Archimedes’ law, Torricellis experiment,
Bernoullie’s law. Temperature, thermometers, the Kelvin scale of temperature. Ideal gas, the
gas equation. Heat and energy, specific heat, latent heat.
Electricity: Charge, Coulomb’s law, electric field, current, voltage, Millikan’s experiment,
electric power, Ohm’s law, resistance, resistivity, emf, electric circuits.
Waves in 1 dimension: Longitudinal and transverse waves, wavelength, frequency,
amplitude, reflection, interference, mathematical description of waves, standing waves, beats,
Doppler effect, intensity of sound, decibel.
Waves in a plane: Huygen’s law, refractions, reflection, diffraction, Young’s experiment,
diffraction grating, spectroscope.
Geometrical optics: Light rays, reflection, refraction, Snell’s law, total internal reflection,
dispersion, Fermat’s law, lenses, real and virtual images, lensmaker’s equation, optical
instruments.
Error handling: Estimate of uncertainty, significant figures, error in sums and differences,
error in products and quotients, mean, standard deviation, estimating errors from a linear
graph.
2nd year Mathematics Line Biology I
4 periods theory + 2 periods laboratory work per week.
Textbook: Eðlisfræði 2 (Physics I) fyrir náttúrufræðideildir framhaldsskóla by Davíð
Þorsteinsson.
Motion in 2 dimensions: Velocity and acceleration as vectors, two dimensional motion in
constant gravitational field.
Impulse and momentum: Impulse, momentum of a particle, conservation of momentum,
elastic and inelastic collisions in 1 and 2 dimensions, the motion of centre of mass.
Circular motion: Centripetal acceleration and force, inertial forces, Coriolis force.
Oscillations: Simple harmonic motion, energy of an oscillator, simple pendulum.
Gravitation: Kepler’s laws, Newton’s law of gravitation, the Cavendish experiment, circular
motion in gravitational field, gravitational potential, binding energy, escape velocity.
Capacitors: Electric potential, capacitance, dielectrics, energy of a capacitor, charging and
discharging of a capacitor through a resistor, time constant of an RC-circuit.
Electromagnetism: Magnetic field, Laplace’s law, electric motor, magnetic field around
straight conductor, magnetic field in a solenoid, definition of ampere, earth’s magnetic field,
movement of charged particles in an electromagnetic field, Loretz force, mass spectrometer.
Magnetic flux, Faradays law of induction.
Relativity: Inertial systems of reference, the experiment of Michelson and Morley, Einstein’s
principle of relativity, relativity of mass, mass as an energy form.
Quantum theory: Planck’s quantum theory of radiation, photoelectric effect, Einstein’s
quantum theory of light, X-rays, Braggs’ measurement of wavelengths of X-rays, the
experiment of Rutherford, Geiger and Marsden, Rutherford’s theory of the atom, the
hypothesis of de Broglie, the experiment of Davisson and Germer, quantization of energy in
the hydrogen atom, atomic spectra.
Nuclear physics: Nuclear forces, binding energy of nuclei, radioactivity, half life, nuclear
energy.