PHYS 160 Einstein's Physics

Is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? Could time travel become a reality? Would it be possible to create a teleporter? Do wormholes exist? Is antimatter real? To answer these questions we will explore the key ideas of relativity and quantum mechanics, and the famous experiments that led to the discovery of these ideas. We will study the relative nature of time, wave/particle duality, and the uncertainty principle in detail. This course satisfies the Core requirement for a laboratory course in the natural sciences. Two one-hour lectures and one two-hour laboratory per week.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

Mathematics at the level of high-school pre-calculus (i.e., algebra, trigonometry, and elementary functions) will be used throughout this course, but calculus is not a prerequisite; high-school physics is recommended but not required.

Distribution

NS

Offered

Annual Spring Semester