PHYS-302, Physics of Waves

with Dr. Russell, Summer 2007

Kettering University, Flint, MI

During the summer of 2007 I am developing and teaching a new course, The Physics of Waves. I decided to keep a daily blog summarizing what we did in each two-hour class session.

Official Course Syllabus (from course catalog)

Textbook: Introduction to Wave Phenomena by Akira Hirose and Karl E. Lonngren (John Wiley & Sons, 1985, reprinted by Krieger Publishing Co, 1991, 2003)

Daily Blogs of Class Activity

M1 - Intro to Oscillations and Mass-Spring Systems (Ch. 1)
W1 - Examples of Oscillating Systems (Ch. 1)
M2 - Damped Oscillation and Forced Response (Resonance) (Ch. 1)
M2 - Phase Diagrams and Impedance Curves (suppl.)
M3 - Introduction to Waves and Wave Motion (Ch. 2)
W3 - Solutions to the Wave Equation, Beats, and Dispersive Waves (Ch. 2)
M4 - Homework Review and tips for plotting functions
W4 - Mechanical Waves in a Medium, Energy and Momentum (Ch. 4)
M5 - Sound Waves in a Mechanical Medium (Ch. 5)
W5 - Reflections of Waves from Hard and Soft Boundaries (Ch. 6)
M6 - Sound waves in a rectangular waveguide (dispersion, and cutoff frequencies) (suppl.)
W6 - Waves in 3-D (spherical, cylindrical) and Doppler Effect (Ch. 7 and Ch. 8)
M7 - Electromagnetic Waves (derivation of wave equation from Maxwell's Equations) (Ch. 9 and suppl.)
W7 - Energy & Momentum for EM waves, and Polarization
M8 - No class (Labor Day Holiday)
W8 - EM waves in non-conducting materials (Ch. 9 and supp.)
M9 - EM waves in conductors & experiments with Microwaves (Ch. 9 and suppl.)
W9 - Intereference (Ch. 11)
M10 - Fourier Analysis
W10 -