At a glance
- 3 lecture hours per week
- 1 tutorial hour per week
- 4 credits
Prerequisites
Topics Covered
- Periodic Motion: Periodicity; wavelength; frequency; mathematical description.
- Sine Waves: Waves – transverse waves and longitudinal waves
- Wave Mechanics: Superposition; interference; standing waves; Fourier theorem
- Simple Harmonic Motion: equation of motion (EOM) – solutions and analysis
- Plane Pendulum: EOM; nonlinearity; phase portrait; geometric approach to solutions
- Forced Oscillations: EOM; resonances; phase portraits
- Coupled Oscillations: EOM; phase portrait; reduced EOM
- Normal Modes and Harmonics: Normal modes; harmonics; Fourier analysis
- Travelling Waves: Equation of waves; dispersion relation; phase velocity and group velocity
- Ray Optics: Laws of optics; diffraction
- Wave Optics I: Wave theory; wave front; Huygen’s Principle; reflection; refraction.
- Wave Optics II: Diffraction; interference; wave dispersion.
Learning Resources
- Feynman, R., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. (2008). The Feynman lectures on Physics, Vols. I, II, and III. Narosa.
- French, A. P. (2001). Vibrations and waves.
- Halliday, D., Resnick, R., & Walker, J. (2013). Fundamentals of Physics. Wiley.
- Verma, H. C. (2011). Concepts in Physics, Vol. I. Bharati Bhawan Publishers.