Thursday, 10 July 08

I wasn't quite satisfied with what we've done with relativity so far, and so I will spend half an hour on it again tomorrow. We hit all the high points, but have not done enough example problems to bring it all together, IMHO.

After the first 30mins or so, we'll start electrostatics. By and large, students find this much less conceptually difficult than relativity. If it feels like you're being thrown in the deep end so far, you are! But relax: it will pay off in the end. Relativity will be useful to us very soon, I promise. Treat the first two days as painful but necessary background for later goodies.

Anyway: the plan is 30mins relativity (incl. homework problems), the balance goes to electrostatics.

Lab: some of you already emailed me a paper. Good work: for doing two sessions' work in one, you can skip the lab today. Sadly, this was a one-time event - we have no other two-session labs. If you did not finish the paper yet, 6pm tomorrow is zero-hour.

Printed notes: any luck at the SUPe store? Anyone want hard copies?

Random homework hints:

5) This is just velocity addition/subtraction in disguise. The rest is there to distract you. Just like on the MCAT, e.g.
10) Wikipedia is your friend. But ... don't be going on about light cones and such unless you can back it up. Keep it simple :-) I'm in a generous mood: let's say that 3/4 of a page is close enough.