PHYSICS 4
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: MARIA LETIZIA SERGIExpected Learning Outcomes
The course aims to provide basic concepts and methodological tools that are important for interpreting and study the main physical phenomena. Particular importance will be given to the contribution of physics to applications in the biomedical field contained in the program. At the end of the course, the student will have acquired reasoning skills inductive and deductive, will be able to schematize a phenomenon in terms of physical quantities and set up a problem and solve it with analytical methods. The formal correctness in the presentation of the topics covered are taken into particular consideration, in the context of mathematical knowledge acquired by the student in previous courses. The training objectives of the course will therefore be knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals physics and applicative skills related to methodological and instrumental procedures also useful in research in the biological field.
Course Structure
The course includes 7 CFU of lectures (49 hours) and 1 CFU (12 hours) of classroom exercises.
The lectures will focus on the methodological contents of the discipline, applicative contents and the problem solving.
If the teaching is given in mixed or remote mode, they can be introduced necessary changes with respect to what was previously stated, in order to comply with the program provided and reported in the syllabus.
Information for students with disabilities and/or DSA
As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline. It is also possible to ask the departmental contacts of CInAP (Centro per l’Inclusione Attiva e Partecipata - Servizi per le Disabilità e/o i DSA), in the persons of professor Anna De Angelis.
Required Prerequisites
Attendance of Lessons
Normally mandatory.
The attendance to the lessons, and the consequent study, will be of great use for the understanding of the various ones subjects. In the classroom, the resolution of exercises similar to those contained in the written test will also be addressed.
Detailed Course Content
1. Introduction
State of a physical system and physically significant quantities; fundamental and derived units of measurement- Dimensional equations; Introduction to statistics and error theory.
2. Vector calculus
Reference systems and coordinate systems; Vectors as geometric entities; Vectors in physics and their use in physical space two-dimensional and three-dimensional; Vector and scalar quantities; The vectors in the plane and their decomposition by components; Versors; Sum between vectors; Scalar product and vector product between vectors; Multiplication of a scalar by a vector; Applications
3. Mechanics
Description of the motion of a body - Reference systems - Principle of inertia - Second law of dynamics - Third law of dynamics - Conservation of momentum - Force fields - Work of a force - Kinetic energy theorem - Conservative fields - Potential - Conservation of mechanical energy - Moment of forces - Conservation of angular momentum.
4. Mechanics of fluids
Properties of fluids - Statics of fluids: Pascal, Stevin, and Archimedes' laws - Ideal fluids and Bernoulli's theorem - Laminar motion of a viscous fluid: Poiseuille's law - Turbulent flow - Sedimentation - Surface phenomena: Laplace's law and capillarity phenomena .
5 - Termodinamica
Thermometry and calorimetry - Specific heat of substances - Elements of kinetic theory of gases - State of a thermodynamic system - Joule experience - Equivalence between heat and work - Internal energy and first law of thermodynamics - Generality of thermodynamic transformations - Reversible and irreversible processes - Thermal engines - Second law of thermodynamics - Entropy.
6. Electromagnetic phenomena
Electric charges and Coulomb's law; Electric fields and sources of the electric field; Gauss's law; Electric potential and energy potential; Capacitance and capacitors; Current and Ohm's laws; Magnetic fields and sources; Time-varying magnetic fields; Introduction to Maxwell's Laws; Electromagnetic waves and properties; Applications
7. Wave phenomena
Free mechanical oscillations - Energy of a harmonic oscillator - Progressive harmonic waves - Longitudinal and transverse waves - Plane and spherical waves - Monochromatic waves - Fourier analysis - Doppler effect - Huygens principle - Sound and its characteristics - Physics of the ear - Ultrasound.
8. Elements of optics
Reflection and refraction - Snell's law - Approximation of geometric optics - Spherical diopter - Thin lenses - Geometric construction of images - Microscope - Physical optics - Coherent sources - Interference - Diffraction - Diffraction grating - Resolving power of an optical instrument - Polarization.
Textbook Information
2. Halliday, Resnick; Fondamenti di fisica - Meccanica, onde e termodinamica, ottava edizione, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana
3. Halliday, Resnick; Fondamenti di fisica - Elettromagnetismo e ottica, ottava edizione, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana
4. J.W. Jewett, R.A. Serway: Principi di Fisica, Vol I, ultima edizione, EdiSES, Napoli
6. D. HALLIDAY, R. RESNICK, J. WALKER "Fundamental of Physics" Casa Ed. Ambrosiana.
Students are free to use any other text that may be more convenient for them.
The lecture notes (slides of the lectures) are available on the studium website at the following link:
https://studium.unict.it
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
The exam consists of two tests, one written and one oral. The writing test will be evaluated for admission purposes to the oral exam. The evaluation of the oral exam constitutes the final grade. The student can decide to do the oral part in the same session in which you did the written exam, or in the subsequent session. When passing the written test, consisting in solving some exercises (usually 4), the oral exam will give the opportunity to verify the knowledge, understanding and presentation of the topics covered during the lessons.
Ongoing tests
Attending students will be able to carry out ongoing tests. Two checks will be carried out in itinere: the first in the middle of the course on the part of the program up to fluid dynamics, the second at the end of course on the topics of the remaining part of the program. Those who pass the ongoing checks are exempt from taking the written test required for the final exam, if this is taken within the First Exam Session.
The ongoing tests consist in the administration of multiple choice and closed answer questions and / or exercises.
Verification of learning can also be carried out electronically, if the conditions are so should require.
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
The laws of dynamics, forces of friction, conservative forces, work and energy, acoustic waves, theorem of Bernoulli, sedimentation velocity, electric field and electric potential, Faraday's law, electromagnetic waves , optical fibers, motion of a charge in a magnetic field.