Tentative PHYS 1120 Standards

1.  Bulk matter. Define density and pressure. Describe and distinguish solids, gases, and liquids.

2.  Pascal. Describe how pressure transfers through a fluid.  Relate input and output work, pressure, volume, force, and area in hydraulic systems.  Pascal’s principle.

3.  Depth. Explain the relationship between pressure and depth in any fluid, and evaluate quantitatively in an incompressible fluid.

4.  Buoyancy. Relate buoyancy, displaced weight, volume, and density.  Principle of Archimedes.  Specifically, apply the relation F = ρgV.  Know when displaced weight is the same as the object’s weight and when it is not.

5.  Flow. Relate mass and volume flow rates, speed, cross-sectional area, and density.  Relate relate flow rate, cross-sectional area, speed, pressure, and elevation at different points in a fluid stream.  Apply the continuity equations, including rearranging to find an unknown.  Use the Bernoulli equation to relate fluid pressure, height, and speed at different points.  Rearrange the Bernoulli equation to find an unknown, and eliminating zero terms to find special cases such as Torricelli’s law.

6.  Surface tension. Relate surface tension to force exerted transverse to a path on a liquid surface or to the energy of a surface. Apply to the height of a liquid column in a capillary.  Includes relating contact angle to capillary action.

7.  Viscosity. Identify the effect of viscosity on the flow rate of a liquid. Identify the influences of viscosity, density, speed, and channel dimension on turbulence.  Definition of viscosity, units, place in Reynold’s number.

8.  Coulomb. Calculate the force between two or more electric point charges. Relate the force on a charge to the local electric field.  Both magnitude and direction.  Includes the nature of electric charge and its SI unit.

9.  Potential. Define electric potential, and relate potential and field.  Includes calculations as well as relating electric field lines and equipotential surfaces. Defining electric potential entails relating electric potential ans electric potential energy.

10.  E Maps. Create and interpret vector, potential, and field line depictions of electric fields.  Relate vector and field line depictions of fields. Relate a field line depiction to the field's magnitude and direction. Relate field line diagrams and isopotential maps.

11.  Polarization. Explain the force between charged and uncharged objects.

12.  Static conductors. Describe and explain the electric field within an electrical conductor.  Includes describing the electric potential.

13.  Gauss. Describe electric flux and use electric flux to detemine electric field for high-symmetry situations.  This is GaussÕs law. High-symmetry situations include but are not limited to point charges, infinite charged lines, and infinite charged planes. Includes calculating and quantifying flux.

14.  Capacitance. Relate charge, voltage, and capacitance of a capacitor. Relate these quantities to the work to charge a capacitor. Find the equivalent capacitance of sets of capacitors.  This includes the formulas C = Q/V and W = ½QV.

15.  Dielectric. Explain how a dielectric material responds to and affects an external electric field.  Includes electronic polarization and the electric field inside the bulk dielectric.  Also includes dielectric breakdown and the breakdown voltage of a capacitor.

16.  Plates. Relate the construction of a capacitor to its capacitance.  This includes the formula C = κε0A/d and the effect of filling a capacitor with a dielectric.

17.  Kirchoff. State, explain, and apply Kirchoff’s circuit laws.  Includes setting up the specific equation for any node or loop in a circuit.

18.  Current. Define current and resistance.  Relate current through, voltage across, resistance of, and power dissipated by an ohmic resistor.  Includes the formulas I = V/R, P = VI, and their combinations.  The prepositions are important.

19.  Resistivity. Relate the resistance of an ohmic component to its composition and dimensions.  Determine the speed of charge carriers.  Resistivity and drift speed are treated as two half-standards, so this standard can have a fractional score.

20.  DC Circuits. Analyze current, voltage, and power in DC circuits containing single, series, and parallel resistors.  It is the student’s choice to use the specific series and parallel formulas or Kirchoff’s rules.

21.  Applied Circuits. Give examples of and reasons for series and parallel arrangements of components in real circuits  Fuses, voltmeters, ammeters, light bulbs, ….

22.  RC. Explain and calculate the development over time of charge, voltage, and current associated with a capacitor resistor, and possible voltage source in series.  Includes calculating and understanding the time constant τ.

23.  Magnets. Describe the interaction between dipole magnets and the effect of a magnetic field on a magnetic pole or dipole.  Unlike poles attract and like poles repel; field direction is force direction on a north pole.  Dipoles receive a torque to align them with the field.

24.  Lorentz. Describe and calculate the force a magnetic field exerts on an electric charge and its effect on the charge’s motion.  Lorentz force F = qv×B; F⊥v so acceleration is centripetal.

25.  Laplace. Describe the interaction between an electric current and a magnetic field.  Includes both the Laplace formula F = ILB sinθ for a linear current in a uniform field and the torque on a loop τ = μB sinθ.

26.  Ampère. Relate electric current to the magnetic field it creates.  Includes using formulas for specific situations.  Use Ampère’s law quantitatively to derive formulas for high-symmetry situations.

27.  Magnetic fields. Describe and calculate the magnetic fields created by permanent magnets, linear currents, current loops, and solenoids.  This involves applying Ampere's law. Includes finding the magnetic moment of a current loop.

28.  Faraday. Explain the emf created by the interaction of a conductor withb a magnetic field. a changing magnetic flux.  Includes using Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws and motiopnal emf.  Also includes defining and calculating magnetic flux.

29.  Dynamo. Explain how electric motors and generators work.  Includes back-emf of a working motor.

30.  Inductance. Relate rate of current change, voltage, and inductance of an inductor.  Determine and explain the work needed to change the current through an inductor.  This includes relating the work to the energy in the magnetic field.

31.  LR. Explain and calculate the relationship between current and voltage in an indictor, resistor, and possibly voltage source in series.  Includes finding the time constant.

32.  RMS. Relate peak to rms current and voltage in a resistive AC circuit.

33.  Phasors. Determine and describe currents, voltages, and power in an AC circuit in terms of phasors.  Includes identifying the phase angle relationships between phasors describing different components in the circuit.

34.  Impedance. Generalize Ohm’s law to impedances in AC circuits.  Calculate voltages, currents, and power.  Includes calculating the phase angle and power factor, and distinguishing resistance, reactance, and impedance.

35.  Transformers. Explain and apply the relationship between primary and secondary windings, magnetic flux, current, and voltage in ideal AC transformers.  V1/V2 = N1/N2 and V1I1 = V2I2.

36.  Nature of light. Describe the medium of electromagnetic radiation.  Includes the electromagnetic spectrum, the angular relationship between electric and magnetic field, and the transverse nature of the electromagnetic waves.

37.  Reflection. Describe and explain specular and diffuse reflection from planar surfaces.

38.  Refraction. Describe and calculate refraction of light between transmitting media.  This includes Snell’s law, total internal reflection, and dispersion.

39.  Rays. Locate and characterize images from single thin lenses and spherical mirrors by ray-tracing.  Qualitatively.

40.  Optics Math. Mathematically locate and characterize images and foci of single thin lenses and spherical mirrors.  This includes the laws of mirrors and lenses.  Characterization may include position, orientation, magnification, and angular magnification.

41.  Grating. Explain and characterize interference patterns of light.  Includes dingle slit, two-slit, air wedge, and thin film interference, and diffraction gratings.

42.  Polarized Light. Describe the polarization of light and the interaction of polarized and unpolarized light with matter.  Includes polarizing filters, anisotropy, crossed polarizers, Malus’s law, optical activity, scattering, and Brewster’s angle.

43.  Compound Optics. Locate and characterize images from compound optical devices such as microscopes and telescopes.  Includes both ray-tracing and mathematically.

44.  Radioactivity. Identify and characterize atomic nuclei and their decays.  Includes counting statistics, half-life, radioactive dating, and shielding.

45.  Nukes. Identify and describe reactions and products in the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear weapons, and stars.  Includes fission and fusion, neutron activation, and the properties of nuclear waste.


[PHYS 1120] [barransclass]

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Revised: 2 February 2025.  Maintained by Richard Barrans.
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