Preparation for the
P114 final exam
The final will be cumulative. It
will be held in Hubbell Auditorium on May 5 at 7:15 pm. Expect it to last three hours.
Bring a calculator and an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper with
anything you want written on it ... yes, both sides allowed.
Expect the final to be made up of ~20%=problems to see if
there is any brain activity present, ~60%=relatively straightforward problems (if you've
studied and understand the homeworks), and ~20%=challenging problems that might require
integrating various concepts.
There will be ~10 problems on the exam. (All numbers given
here are approximate. I've not made out the exam yet.)
The best preparation is to review my class notes, the
assigned problem sets/solns, and the workshop module problems/solns. The text should be
helpful for the earlier 2/3 of the course and perhaps less helpful for the last 1/3. Since
the last exam I would use the text for added depth to particular topics I covered in
class. I would not spend much time on topics in the text that
I did not cover in lecture.
Expect a 2-loop Kirchoff's law problem.
There will be a slight
emphasis on material since the last exam.
There will be no particle physics or
cosmology on the exam.
Review
Vector addition, dot product, cross product
Coulomb's law
Electric field (calculate from potential, discrete charge distribution,
continuous charge distribution)
Flux (electric and magnetic, check your understanding about dot products and how
they are used here)
Gauss's law (When is it useful?)
Conductors (Where does charge reside? What is E inside conductor?)
Electric potential (Relate to E, work, charge. Calculate for discrete and
continuous charge distribution. Use to calculate E)
Equipotential lines, surface. Lines of force
Electron volt unit of energy
Capacitance (relate to Q, V. Find total C for capacitors in series, parallel.)
Parallel plate capacitor, relate E, charge density, V, distance between plates
Energy in the electric field
Ohm's law
Resistors (relate to power, I, V. Find total R for resistors in series,
parallel.)
Power, current, voltage, resistance, capacitance in circuits.
Kirchoff's rules and solving circuit problems
RC circuits
Force of B on a moving charge (direction and magnitude), Lorentz force law
B (direction and magnitude) created by a current
Different versions of the right-hand rule
Force of B on a current segment
Ampere's law
Solenoid (relate B to I and loop density)
Magnetic induction
Lenz's law
Constant of mutual inductance, constant of self inductance
Energy in a magnetic field
Implications of Maxwell's equations (EM radiation with transverse E and B,
velocity of wave, energy flow of wave, intensity, momentum of wave, pressure of wave,
electromagnetic spectrum)
Polarizationof electromagnetic waves (linear, circular, intensity through
polarizers)
Law of reflection
Law of refraction (Snell's law)
Dispersion
Thin lens calculations (one and multiple lens combinations)
Optical instruments
Interference (thin film and two slit … understand how to derive relevant
equations!!)
Photoelectric effect
Bohr model (understand and know how to derive equations for orbital energy and
radius, etc.)
Determine electronic structure of multi-electron atoms, relate to chemical and
physical characteristics
Determine spectra and basic physical characteristics of atoms using Bohr model.
X-rays
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Nuclear physics (binding energy and binding energy/nucleon calculations, fusion,
fission)
Nuclear decay (understand how to derive nuclear decay equation. What is half
life, decay constant, activity?)
Natural radioactivity - beta, gamma, alpha (be able to "fill in the
hole" in nuclear decay reactions, How do these different kinds of radiation interact
with matter?, biological effects)
Special relativity (time dilation, length contraction, lorentz transformation)