PHY 289
Physics at the Cutting Edge
Instructor: Professor Sajeev John
Office: MP 1002
tel (416) 978 3459
john@physics.utoronto.ca
Office Hours: By appointment
Secretary: Helen Iyer (MP 1109, tel (416) 978-7135)
Topics
This course is intended to provide a qualitative view of front line research in physics
as represented by the weekly Physics Colloquium.
The aim is to provide a connection between the rigorous and quantitative tools that
students learn in traditional courses and present-day science.
Weekly readings will be provided to give students background to both better
understand colloquium and to interact intelligently with the colloquium speaker.
When possible, students will be given an opportunity to meet with the colloquium speaker,
learn about their scientific experience, hear about the big open questions in the field,
and ask questions. Class time will also involve a seminar on a topic related to the
general area of the Physics Colloquium for that particular week. This will involve a
related area of front line research, provide some background physics to the colloquium,
and give some orientation to the subject.
While other undergraduate courses in physics provide quantitative tools that rigorously
treat idealized model systems, they often oversimplify real-life problems.
Also in the lengthy process of acquiring tools to solve physics problems,
one often loses sight of the forest among a thicket of trees. This course is intended to
provide a balance to the standard training in the discipline of physics by
exposing students to real-life problems and motivating their concurrent
quantitative study of physics. At the same time course will aim to expose students to
famous laws and fundamental equations of physics (e.g. Maxwell's equations, Schrodinger's
equation, E=mc2 etc.) so that when these are encountered later in undergraduate studies, students will already have some intuition for them.
In addition to attending the scheduled class times (Thursdays from 2:10-3:45pm in MP606)
students are expected to attend the weekly physics colloquium that takes place right
after class (from 4-5pm in MP102). A weekly report describing what students learned
from the colloquium and their in-class interactions with speakers will be an integral
component of the course grade.
Reading Material
There is no text book for this course. Instead discussions in class will be
supplemented with articles posted online (see below) and include references to
material available on the web and/or in the scientific press
(Scientific American, Physics Today, or physics journals).
These should be available online from computers that are on-campus as the
UofT libraries have electronic subscriptions for most of them.
Grading Scheme
| |
Date |
Fraction of Grade |
| Class Participation |
|
10% |
| Weekly Reports |
|
40% |
| Final Group Presentation |
|
20% |
| Individual Written Contribution to Group Project |
|
30% |
Class Materials
Given the coupling to the weekly colloquia there will be no attempt to build a progressive curriculum. Instead material will appear in episodes, with the goal of making each week's pre-class reading, class and eventually attendance at the colloquium a coherent module. General articles pertaining to the topic of the colloquium are posted below and will be updated closer to the day of the colloquium. Additional materials may be posted ahead of the class (maybe with less than a week's notice) as suggested by the colloquium speaker or their local host.
Other materials may be posted after each class meeting.
Class Schedule