For everything to do with physics

Now, from the comfort of your home, get set to brush up on your Astronomy, Relativity, Nuclear Physics, unravelling of the atom, and various other subjects at http://ocw.tufts.edu/ Course/30/Coursehome. The goal of this course, Physics for Humanists, a Tufts University open course ware, is to make some of the profound ideas of physics accessible to non-scientists with a minimum of mathematics.

The course targets, specifically, students who do not study physics as their main subject but are quite interested in the concepts that govern modern physics. Unlike many other open course wares, this 39-hour-23-lecture-course offers a very organised format to help the learner stay on track. And, more importantly, includes reflexions over the ethical application of technology in the modern world.

The first lecture introduces the Physics for Humanists course and its syllabus. The second lecture covers requirements, projects, and early relativity.

The other lectures are on relative motion, velocity, Newton’s laws, Galilean relativity, EM waves, ether, light waves, Einstein’s postulates, space-time, velocity, relativistic momentum and energy, nuclear reactions and mass change, cosmology and quantum introduction, expansion of universe, Hubble’s constant, Big Bang, temperature and background radiation, introduction to quantum physics, blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect, atomic spectra, early quantum physics, Bohr model, review of probability, deBroglie’s electron waves, electron waves and wave functions, Copenhagen interpretation, Schroedinger’s Cat, A-bombs and Frisch-Peierls, nuclear radiation, how fission reactor works , Chernobyl and much more.

Designed for self study

The free online classes available from Tufts University are created from the same material used by traditional Tufts students. The Open Course Ware (OCW) is designed for self-study or supplemental learning. It includes lecture slides, examinations and quizzes, and selected lecture notes. Please note some Tufts open course ware courses do not provide answers to exercises or exams. To complete these selections you may need to consult with a mentor.

Tufts’ open course ware is part of a new educational movement where course content is accessible for free to everyone online. It is a publication of Tufts’ course materials. Tufts OCW is a publication of high-quality educational material from a number of Tufts University courses. This is not a distance education programme and therefore does not provide university credit or degrees and does not enroll or register students. And, in most cases, does not provide access to Tufts faculty, as well.

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