Physics

After completing this course students are able to:
 

• judge different energy scenarios and their potential to contribute to a sustainable future.
• work with numbers, units, and diagrams to come to arguments for and against different energy systems.
• gain a basic understanding of the role of the natural sciences in society while focussing on the numerous applications in energy technology, climatology and sustainability.
• think critically about the positive and negative influences of chemistry and physics on society.

Content

After completing this course students are able to:
 

• judge different energy scenarios and their potential to contribute to a sustainable future.
• work with numbers, units, and diagrams to come to arguments for and against different energy systems.
• gain a basic understanding of the role of the natural sciences in society while focussing on the numerous applications in energy technology, climatology and sustainability.
• think critically about the positive and negative influences of chemistry and physics on society.

Content

The course deepens previous knowledge in quantum mechanics and teaches students to handle typical problems in different fields such as atomic, nuclear, solid-state, and elementary particle physics. Topics include formulation of quantum mechanics in terms of general state vectors and operators, algebraic treatment of harmonic oscillator, angular momentum and spin, perturbation theory, identical particles, and outlook on many-body quantum physics.

Basic understanding of fundamental concepts and tools of general physics. Topics include Units, Physical Quantities, and Vectors, Motion Along a Straight Line, Motion in Two or Three Dimensions, Newton’s Law of Motion, Application of Newton’s Laws, Work and Kinetic Energy, Potential Energy and Energy, Conservation, Momentum, Impulse, and Collisions, Rotation of Rigid Bodies, Dynamics of Rotational Motion, Equilibrium and Elasticity, Fluid Mechanics, Gravitation, Periodic Motion, Mechanical Waves, and Sound and Hearing.

This calculus-based course provides a firm foundation in physical concepts and principles, covering electricity and magnetism, light, geometric optics, interference, wave-particle duality, and atomic and nuclear physics. Applications of physical concepts are stressed, particularly those related to biological and medical phenomena as well as those forming the basis of much of modern technology. Students gain further insight into the physics taught by carrying out a series of laboratory experiments and learning how to analyze and interpret the data. This is an intensive module requiring good mathematical skills, including algebra and trigonometry and a knowledge of vectors and of differential and integral calculus.