Exeter College, Oxford University

This course provides an introduction to our knowledge of the universe, from the solar system out to the most distant galaxies, and from the present day back to the earliest times. Students explore physical questions and make quantitative investigations, but with a simple level of mathematics so that the spotlight is always on the basic physics concepts. The only prerequisite is introductory general physics, including calculus to the level of differentiation of simple functions.

This course explores some important areas of calculus used in many physical sciences and engineering courses. It builds upon the calculus of functions of single variables, to cover multi-variable calculus and functions of a complex variable. The former has applications in classical mechanics, thermodynamics, and electrostatics, for example, while the latter is used extensively in advanced quantum theory and signal processing. It is essential that students taking this course have already studied basic single variable calculus and basic linear algebra. The following topics will be assumed knowledge from the outset: differentiation (product, quotient, chain rules); integration (basic integration techniques, integration by parts and by substitution); and vectors in Cartesian coordinates, scalar (dot) and vector (cross) products.