The textbook we will use and other requirements
How your grade will be determined
Rules for the hourly and final exams
At the end of each lecture, I encourage you to tell me something that you found especially interesting or useful about the discussion, and also anything that you did not understand or that was not presented clearly enough. You can send this information to me by e-mail. I will also have special sheets of paper that you can use for this purpose. You need not sign your name.
I
also encourage you to ask questions in class, during my office hours, and by
e-mail. I will answer in class any e-mail question that is submitted by several
people; all other questions will be answered by e-mail or during my office
hours.
Schedule of Lecture Topics
The
following outline lists the topics I will be discussing in the lectures and
some of the main points I will be discussing in each topic. The list is
tentative and will probably be modified based on your questions and interests.
Textbook,
chapter 1:
Will
be discussed on
Topic
1. Introductory Material 27 August
Topic
2. The speed of light 29,31 August
Topic
3. Is light a wave or a particle? 31 August, 5 September
Topic
4. The electromagnetic origins of light 5,7 September
Topic
5. General properties of waves 5,7 September
Topic
6. Sources of Electromagnetic Radiation 7,10 September
Topic
7. Receiving Electromagnetic Signals 12 September
Textbook,
chapter 2:
Topic
8. Geometrical optics and shadows 12 September
Topic
9. The pinhole camera 14 September
Topic
10. Reflection, part 1. Waves on a rope 17 September
Topic
11. Reflection, part 2. Radar and Sonar 17 September
Topic
12. Reflection, part 3. Metals and Dielectrics 17,19 September
Topic
13. Mirrors, Part 1. 19 September
Topic
14. Wavefronts and Huygens’ Principle 21 September
Topic
15. Mirrors, Part 2. The law of reflection. 21,24 September
Topic
16. Refraction and Snell's Law 21,24 September
Topic
17. Dispersion, prisms and rainbows 21,24 September
Textbook, chapter 3:
Topic
18. Real and Virtual images; Plane mirrors 1,3 October
Topic
19. Field of View 1 October
Topic
20. Spherical Mirrors, Part 1. 3,8 October
Topic
21. Spherical Mirrors, Part 2: image formation 3,8
October
Topic
22. Thin Lenses, part 1. Types of lenses 10 October
Topic
23. Thin Lenses, part 2. Ray tracing rules 10 October
Topic
24. Thin Lenses, part 3. Images using positive lenses 10 October
Topic
25. Thin lenses, part 4. Images using negative lenses 10,12 October
Topic
26. Fresnel Lenses 15 October
Topic
27. Compound Lenses 15 October
Topic
28. Aberrations 15,17 October
Textbook,
chapter 4:
Topic
29. Camera Lenses, Part 1. Focusing on the Object 19 October
Topic
30. Camera Lenses, Part 2. Depth of Field 19 October
Topic
31. Camera Lenses, Part 3. The Effect of Focal Length 22,
24, 26 October
Topic
32. Focusing the lens, Part 1. Rangefinders 19,24 October
Topic
33. Focusing the Lens, Part 2. Bi-prisms 22,24 October
Topic
34. Shutters 26 October
Topic
35. Film speeds and exposure calculations 26, 29 October
Textbook, chapter 5:
Topic
36. The optics of the eye 31 October
Textbook, chapter 6:
Topic
37. Correcting common vision defects 2 November
Topic
38. The Simple Magnifying Glass 5,12
November
Topic
39. The Compound Microscope 12 November
Topic
40. The astronomical telescope 14 November
Topic
41. The Galilean Telescope 16 November
Topic
42. Reflecting telescopes 16 November
Topic
43. The Field Lens 16 November
We will skip chapters 7 and 8 in the textbook
Textbook, chapter 9:
Topic
44. Color and the principle of superposition 19 November
Topic
45. Hue, Saturation and Intensity 19 November
Topic
46. Addition of Colors 19, 21, 26
November
Topic
47. Subtraction of colors 26,28 November
Topic
48. Inks, dyes and printing 28, 30 November
Topic
49. Painting 30 November
Textbook, chapter 10:
Topic
50. The response of the eye to color 3, 5 December
Textbook, chapter 11:
Topic
51. Films for black and white photography 7 December
Topic
52. Films for color photography 10, 12 December
Solutions
to Homework Problems:
Exam Questions and Answers:
Final
Exam Questions and Answers
Go to the Physics Department's home page.
Go to the University of Colorado at Boulder