PHYSICS 1020 - Spring 1997
THINGS TO KNOW FOR 4th EXAM
(31 March 1997)

• material covered in chapters 10, 11, 13 and 14 of the textbook (except sections 14.4, 14.5)
• material covered in lectures 13 to 19 (i.e. 19 Feb. to 19 March)
• material covered in homework sets 10, 11, 13, 14

Specific items to know:

Relativity:

• light
• electromagnetic radiation
• what is the medium in which electromagnetic waves propagate?
• is there evidence for or against the existence of the ``ether"?
• Doppler effect
• Galilean/Newtonian relativity
• Galilean vs Einstein's relativity
• what is a reference frame?
• what is an inertial frame?
• principles of special relativity
• constancy of the speed of light
• Michelson-Morley experiment
• time dilation
• twin paradox - why is there an asymmetry between the two?
• length contraction
• relativistic mass and energy
• equivalence of mass and energy
• simultaneity in different reference frames
  (simultaneity of events at different locations is relative, at same location is absolute)
• in which sense is speed of light the limiting speed, and why?
• principles of general relativity
• equivalence principle
• some of the consequences of the principles of general relativity:
  • ``Space is warped'' (``non-Euclidean'')
    ``geodesic lines'' (= shortest connections between two points) are not necessarily straight lines;
  • light passing near a massive object is bent; (i.e. light has gravitational mass!)
  • gravitational mass = inertial mass
  • perihelion precession of Mercury
  • black holes (see chapter 5)
  • expansion (or contraction) of the Universe
• what is a ``geodesic line" (called ``straightest line" in the book)?
• what is the ``Big Bang''?
• what is the evidence for the expansion of the universe?

Quantum theory

• photoelectric effect: what does not agree with expectations from classical electrodynamics?
• thermal (``black body") radiation - what is the problem?
• Planck's resolution of the thermal radiation problem
• Einstein's resolution of the photoelectric effect puzzle
• photons = light quanta = light packets = wave packets
• dual nature of light: what is explained by wave picture, what is explained by photon picture?
• particle aspect of light, energy vs frequency
• atom = nucleus plus electrons
• Rutherford's atom, why it needs modification
• matter waves, de Broglie wavelength
• Heisenberg uncertainty relation - consequences for our daily lives vs consequences for an atom or electron
• Schrödinger equation: solution gives probability of finding a particle at given position
• spin of electron = 1/2
• Pauli exclusion principle
• Bohr model of atom, and refinements due to quantum theory
• Quantum numbers defining state of electron in atom
• why don't all electrons sit in lowest energy state
• periodic table of elements follows from Schrödinger equation and Pauli exclusion principle
• chemical properties depend on outer electron configuration
• binding energy and stability of configuration
• noble gas configuration - what is it, why is it so desirable
• why do atoms undergo chemical bonding
• strategies to get noble gas configuration
• ionic, covalent, metallic bond (differences, which elements would you expect to prefer which)
• what is a polar bond, a polar molecule
• electronegativity (= ``love for electrons'') vs position in periodic system
• inter-molecular forces: hydrogen bond, Van der Waals forces
• what holds liquid water together (why is it liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure?)
• phases of matter, phase transitions, latent heat of phase transition
• solid -- liquid -- gas -- plasma: differences, how to make one from the other