PHYS& 100 - Physics - Basic Concepts

5 CR

Motion is one of the most familiar aspects of the natural world, but it can be surprisingly difficult to analyze. Through observation, activities, and classroom presentations, students study particles (e.g. baseballs, automobiles) and waves (e.g. sound and water waves) to learn the concepts and skills needed to study motion. Applies wave particle duality to explain the motion of electrons.

Recommended: MATH 099
Course Outcomes

At intervals, in the contexts of assigned scenarios, students will demonstrate acquisition of the methods of science by performing one or more of the following: framing hypotheses, making predictions, designing observations or experiments, constructing explanations;
As appropriate to the context and sequencing of the curriculum, students will
- use kinematic concepts to describe straight-line motion of material objects;
- correctly apply Newton’s laws of motion to predict of explain everyday mechanical phenomena, including both linear and circular motion;
- construct and validate energy representations of motion;
- use appropriate wave descriptors to correctly characterize waves of different types in different media, e.g. sound waves, string waves, water waves etc.;
- correctly identify which features of a wave are most affected by the source, medium or wave environment;
- accurately predict the result of combining two waves in a particular setting;
- correctly describe wave propagation and predict the interaction of a wave with a boundary between two different media;
- employ a wave and particle models to predict specific atomic scale phenomena

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