The previous version of this document is included below, this initial section simply includes updated information. Please ensure that you get the most out of the notes by reading the previous version of this document below.
The notes here are what I have made myself from modules which I have taken during the third and fourth year of my physics degree. I have my lecture notes in electronic form because I started to take my them with a Psion palmtop computer. I used a Psion Series 3c in my 3rd year, which meant many mathematical notation had be taken in a shorthand form and that I could not include any graphics. Please read below for information on the mathematical notation and symbols used in the third year notes. In my fourth year I used a Psion Series 5mx which enabled me to include better notation and graphics. Some of the 3rd year maths notation I used was also used in the fourth year notes (notably Statistical Mechanics).
The author would wish to thank all of the lecturers, for without their own lecturing material none of this would have been possible. The author also, respects any copy right lecturers wish to exert on their work included in the files. Below is the list of lecturers and the lecture course which they gave.
If are any comments you would like to make about any of the notes here, please feel free to email me at david@davidgilson.co.uk.
Department of Physics, selected semester one third year lecture notes.
Monday 30th November 1998
Abstract
This is a document to explain a group of files which have been created to provided availability of lectures from the first semester third year (of 1998/1999 academic year).
Introduction
The files grouped together here are the text of lectures from selected modules from the Hull University Department of Physics. The files are in Rich Text Format (.rtf) and should be readable by any contemporary word processor package (if you can read this file, you can read the rest!).
The text contained in each file are at least the word for word information given from the particular lecturer. In many sections however, the topic in discussion has been elaborated upon by the author. Care has been taken to minimise grammatical and spelling errors. Any errors present in the current files will be reduced with each update of the files. Files will be updated weekly, every Saturday or Sunday.
Files are placed in the same location every time. For those who obtain this file from a secondary source, the files are held in a directory which has read access to all users on the HUMUS2 and HUMUS1 systems at the Hull University computer centre. The directory is a sub directory from the author's home directory, /home/ap/ap0drg/notes/.
The files were made on a Psion Series 3c (which uses the IBM 850 code page character set), in situ, as it were. These files were originally intended for personal use, so were typed in the lectures instead of using traditional paper and pen. It is hoped that placing the files for public access will assist the learning physics students, by providing additional information and reference source that is tailor made for the provided lecture courses (subject to curriculum changes). It is further hoped that these notes will be made available on the world wide web (WWW), for complete public access, over the internet. All this said, it is not advised that these notes are relied upon for revision, reading around the subjects in text books is a very important activity that should be done by the student.
Due to the limited capabilities of the software used to take the lecture notes there are no graphics, and pseudo mathematical notation has been used which would suit the textual range of software. References are made to graphics, which are on paper elsewhere. If and when the notes makes it to the WWW, the graphics will be present. The pseudo mathematical notation will take more detailed presentation, apart from the pseudo notation, the Psion computer used also has a character set which is not completely compatible with most other computer character sets. So substitutions have had to be made for symbols which were unavailable, they are also listed below.
Mathematical Notation
Symbols
The following is a list of symbols which have had to be substituted to unavailability to characters.
a :Greek "alpha" (used for attenuation constant in Electromagnetism).
y :Greek "gamma" (used in Electromagnetism and Relativity).
T :Greek "Capital tau" (used as dT , to denote volume elements).
v :Greek "nu" (used to denote frequency).
w :Greek "lower case omega", (used to denote angular frequency)
Psi :Represents the Greek letter Psi, which is used for quantum wave functions.
delta: Is simply used to represent the Greek letter delta
The following are standard symbols which may be incorrectly interpreted due to differing character sets.
:This should appear as "a half" symbol.
ñ :This should appear as "plus or minus".
:This should appear as a Greek "phi".
:This should appear as a cross, for multiplication and vector cross products.
á :This should appear as a Greek "beta"
:This should appear as an accented f (used for frequency).
| :This should appear as a vertical bar (used in pairs for modulus operations and as an abbreviation for "parallel").
Á :Should appear as the symbol used to abbreviate the word "perpendicular".
ü :Should be a superscript "3" to denote a "cubed" operation.
ý :As above but for "square" operations.
î :Should appear as a superscript minus sign, for negative powers.
û :As above, should appear as a superscript "1", it is usually used with the "û" symbol.
þ :Should appear as a bullet point.
Ð :Should appear as the "curly d" used in partial differentials
Operators
The following is a list of notations that are used for particular mathematical operations.
Differentiation.
1) Normal, exact differentials are denoted as, dy/dx.
2) Partial differentials are denoted as, Ðy/Ðx.
3) Inexact differentials which are written as "d-bar" are not explicitly shown, but it is mentioned in the text where differentials should be considered as such.
Integration.
Integrals are denoted in the same way every time, definite integrals are shown as,
Integ (upper limit, lower limit) {Argument}
Indefinite integrals are shown as,
Integ () {Argument}
Sum
The sum product, which is denoted by a large capital sigma is shown in these files as,
Sum (i=lower limit,upper limit) (Argument)
Iterative Product
The "Iterative Product" operation which is the total of successive products, in an similar way to the previous sum operation, is usually denote by a large capital pi. This is used in the Communications course and is shown as,
SumProd (i=lower limit,upper limit) {Argument}
Using these files
The modules covered in these files are;
Electromagnetism,
Thermodynamics,
Quantum Mechanics,
Relativity,
Communications.
At this point, each module is contained in one file each, apart from Electromagnetism. The file names for each module are listed below,
Electromagnetism,
Elecmag1.rtf , Elec-mag.rtf
Thermodynamics,
Thermo.rtf
Quantum Mechanics,
Quanmech.rtf
Relativity,
Relativi.rtf
Communications.
Comms.rtf
The use of these files is intended for those who have gaps in their own notes and wish to amend the situation and for those who wish to add extra clarity to their own notes. These notes are not error free however, so anyone using these must use some common sense and a critical eye when reading, however this is not a practice that should be uncommon to any other set of notes either! All the files are properly section, so when viewing these in a word processor one can use the "outline" view, to give them a list of contents. This is technique advised when looking for a particular section or date in any particular set of notes.
Acknowledgments
The author would wish to thank all of the lecturers, for without their own lecturing material none of this would have been possible. The author also, respects any copy right lecturers wish to exert on their work included in the files. Below is the list of lecturers and the lecture course which they gave.
Dr. R Greenough - Electromagnetism
Dr. Nichols - Thermodynamics, Nuclear Physics, Spectroscopy
Prof. W E Hagston - Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Quan. Phys.
Dr. T Stirner - Relativity
Dr. A G Jenner - Communications
Dr. P H Key - Astrophysics
Dr. T Scott - Display Systems
Prof. P E Dyer - Optical Communications
Feedback
If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, please send the recommended amendments to D.R.Gilson@physics.hull.ac.uk . Any academic points may be sent, but it is recommended that they are queried with academic staff.
David.R.Gilson
30/11/1998