Mon 15:40-17:30 P1 & Wed 15:40-17:30 U2
(*) All lectures and exams will be face-to-face.
Tue 16:30-17:30 P311
(**) In-person visits at other hours will not be admitted.
Concepts of Modern Physics, Arthur Beiser, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2003
Make sure to read syllabus carefully. See also METU Rules and Regulations Governing Undergraduate Studies
Grading: in-class assignments (ICA) 30%, Midterm (MT) 30%, Final Exam (F) 40% (Total 100).
Letter grades: AA (90), BA (85), BB (80), CB (75), CC(70), DC (65), DD(60), FD(50), FF (0)
Class attendance and participation is mandatory for a passing grade independent of exam results.
By registration, you are assumed to accept the code of ethics & core values of METU and commit to maintain academic honesty and integrity for this course.
Any form of academic misconduct, including cheating in assignments and exams, is prohibited.
Relativity (Ch1)
Sep 30 Time dilation, length contraction, Lorentz transformation, simultaneity and invariant space-time, velocity addition Lecture notes
Oct 07 Relativistic momentum and energy(video) Lecture notes,
Particle properties of light and wave properties of matter (Ch 2, 3) Lecture notes
Oct 14 Electromagnetic waves and blackbody radiation (video), Photoelectric effect (video)
Oct 16 X-rays, Compton scattering (video) In-class assignment #1
Oct 21 Gamma rays, pair production (video), de Broglie relation, matter waves (video)
Oct 23 Particle diffraction in Davisson-Germer experiment (video), Heisenberg uncertainty principle (video)
Atomic Structure (Ch 4) Lecture notes
Oct 28 National holiday
Oct 30 Atom, nucleus and electron orbits, Atomic spectra (video), Bohr model (video)
Nov 04 Correspondence principle, Frank-Hertz Experiment, Laser (video) In-class assignment #2
Quantum Mechanics (Ch 5) Lecture notes
Nov 06 Wave function, Schrodinger equation (video), Linearity, superposition particle in a box (video)
Midterm (Nov. 11 15:30-17:30 P1)
Nov 13 Orthogonality, completeness, symmetry (video) finite square well (video)
Nov 18 Quantum tunneling (video) quantum harmonic oscillator (video)
Mathematica codes
Quantum Theory of the Hydrogen Atom (Ch 6) Lecture notes
Nov 20 Schrodinger equation in 3D, separation of variables (video) In-class assignment #3
Nov 25 Separation of variables in a central potential (video) Quantum numbers n, l m, angular momentum, Zeeman effect (video)
Nov 27 Hydrogenic wavefunctions (video) Radiative transitions, selection rules (video)
Mathematica codes
Many-Electron Atoms (Ch 7) Lecture notes
Dec 02 Spin angular momentum (video), exchange symmetry, Fermions and Bosons, Pauli exclusion principle (video)
Dec 04 Spin orbit coupling, addition of angular momentum (video)
Dec 09 Periodic table, atomic structure (video) Transition elements. x-rays (video)
Dec 11 In-class assignment #4
Molecules (Ch 8) Lecture notes
Dec 16 Bonding, electron sharing, Hydrogen ion (video) Complex molecules, hybridization (video)
Dec 18 Molecular spectra rotations and vibrations (video)
Statistical Mechanics (Ch. 9) Lecture notes
Dec 23 Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, equipartition theorem (video) Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions (video)
Dec 25 Photon gas, derivation of Plank's radiation formula (video)
Dec 30 Einstein A and B coefficients, laser (video) Specific heat, phonon gas and electron gas (video)
Final Exam (Jan 12, 2025 9:30-11:30 U3)
Makeup Exam (TBD)
(***)The content outlined is subject to change depending on our pace in this semester.
Barton Zwiebach's Quantum Physics I lectures from MIT
Some lectures are a little more advanced than this course but most of them are easy to follow.
David Kaiser's Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics In The 20th Century lectures from MIT
Less technical and more entertaining with historical aspects but still contains important physics