This morning, I braved the wind and rain to embark on my now traditional visit, to the Open University campus at Walton Hall.
As part of my preparation for the February modules, I like to visit the O.U library, which contains reference copies of all the O.U module materials, that I will be studying soon.
This has two distinct benefits:
1. By leafing through the materials, I get a feel for the level of difficulty that awaits me. Thus, my stress levels are minimized, as we approach February.
2. I know exactly how much prep I need to do and in which areas of study. This has already paid off, as I can see that I had planned to study my maths prep, in far too much detail. I now plan to refine that plan this week, so that I can spend much more time on practising and becoming a differentiation and integration Jedi!
So, for my two Feb courses, in Quantum mechanics and Electromagnetism; here are the areas of study for next year (Chris, I know you will salivate at the sight of some of these topics;-)
SMT359 (Electromagnetism)
Book 1
Electric forces and fields
Gauss law
Magnetic forces and fields
Vectors
Field coordinates
Partial derivatives
Volume and surface integrals
Divergence of a vector field
Line integrals
Curl of a vector field
Laplacian operators
Book 2
Foundations of electromagnetism
Electrical fields in materials
Magnetic fields in materials
Electrostatics
Magneto statics
Forces on particles
Resistance and induction
Super conductivity
Special relativity
Book 3
Electromagnetic waves in empty space
Generation of electromagnetic waves
Dielectrics
Conductors
Plasmas
SM358 (The Quantum World)
Book 1
Basics of quantum mechanics wave / particle discussions etc.
Schrödinger's equation and wave functions
Particles in boxes (more Schrödinger)
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle
Simple harmonic oscillators
Wave packets and motion
Scattering and tunnelling
Maths tool-kit including,
Complex numbers
Ordinary diffrential equations
Partial differential equations
Probability
Book 2
Dirac notation
Ehrenfest equations
Geometry of quantum mechanics
Angular momentum
Spin angular momentum
May particle systems
The Pauli exclusion principle
Bose Einstein condensate
Quantum entanglement
Quantum information
Quantum teleportation
Vectors
Abstract vector spaces
Matrices
Book 3
Angular momentum in atomic physics
The hydrogen atom
Time independent approximation methods
Hydrogen like systems
Putting quantum mechanics and relativity together
Many electron atoms
Hund's rules
Diatomic molecules
Solid state physics
Light and matter
Both courses seem to separate out the mathematics 'training' from the qualitative material and the application of the concepts. This makes it easy to dip into the maths chapters first, so that there is less stop-start business going on.
I am so excited at the prospect of studying this material, that I am not sure I will sleep tonight.
Now, where's that anorak?
Yeah sounds great I'm slightly envious still good luck with the reading and maths preparation. It might be worth downloading a sample exam paper from OUSA now so you get an idea of the questions you have to ask in the absence of TMA's. Also it is probably worth investing in the first book of M383 the relativistic universe as it contains a reasonably accessible account of General Relativity that would be the third string to your bow
ReplyDeleteBest wishes Chris
Funny you should mention that, as I downloaded all the available exam papers from O.U.S.A today. Good call, as they will certainly help the prep stages as well as the exam phase. They look very 'wordy ' in parts and certainly not as rigorous as M208. I feel I may need to get a pair of novelty foam hands to wave about, by the end of both courses. Applied maths, here I come.
ReplyDeleteOne of the key skills of a physicist is to be able to conceptualise 'words' into maths and work out how the maths used corresponds to reality (if it does) hence a degree of wordiness. I'm not sure I agree with you that it's 'hand wavy' as you put it. The key advances have been when physicists have trusted their intuition despite a degree of conceptual leaps which then leads the way for mathematicians to tidy up if they can afterwards.
ReplyDeleteFor example much of classical physics developed even though calculus wasn't put on a rigorous footing till the middle of the 19th century if we had to wait till the mathematicians gave their approval then classical physics would not have progressed. There are plenty of others. Do you really want to spend all your time rigourously justifying the setting up of a differential equation every time you solve a physics problem. Yes it's important to be aware of the possible limitations of the use of maths in physics on the other hand at this stage of your career I would concentrate on developing that intuition for modelling physics phenomenon and the ability to convert this into a suitable differential equation. Also developing your skills in solving partial differential equations for all sorts of problems and boundary conitions confident for the most part that mathematicians have justified the use of calculus in physics for most problems
Best wishes Chris