Homework 2 is out, due by the end of the day on Tuesday. We'll go over most of them in class by the end of Tuesday.
Monday's lab will be a series of Java applets that will help you get a 'feel' for electrostatics. You can find the applets here, and the procedure here.
Some neat little animations to explain various physics concepts, here.
Scroll down about half way to "point charges" and you will start to see some animations describing what we talked about this week (and what is coming up).
Also: check out the iTunes University. Free video lectures from many institutes, including many on our favorite subject ... the lectures by Walter Lewin of MIT (course 8.02) are usually very entertaining.
Today in the second half of class we will go through some applets meant to familiarize you with the concepts of special relativity in a more intuitive way. You can find them here, I suggest opening them in a new window so you can still view this post.
There are 5 applets you can click through and play with a bit. You may want to play each animation a few times to carefully see what is going on. The applets cover:
1. Light clock and time dilation
2. Length contraction
3. Simultaneity of events
4. Space-time diagrams
5. Momentum in different reference frames
Once you have gone through all the applets, as a group, type up a short summary of what you observed in each of the first four applets, and write down the equation(s) most relevant to each one. You should play the fifth applet, but need not write about it. Try to answer at least the following questions for the first four applets, based on physical reasoning.
1. Why must the time interval be different for a moving and stationary observer?
2. Why must measured lengths appear shorter to moving observers?
3. What must be true for observers to always measure two events as simultaneous?
4. How does the space-time interval relate to the graphs, and why is it invariant?
Turn in one write-up per group, with all group member's names. Your report may be typed or handwritten.
