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Courses and Requirements in the Physics Minor

To graduate with a minor in physics, students must successfully complete the following six courses:

Calculus, one of the most useful areas of mathematics, is the study of continuous change. It provides the language and concepts used by modern science to quantify the laws of nature and the numerical techniques through which this knowledge is applied to enrich daily life. Students gain a clear understanding of the fundamental principles of calculus and how they are applied in real-world situations. Topics include: limits, continuity, derivatives, applications of derivatives, integrals, and the fundamental theorem of calculus. Prerequisite: MATH 162
Calculus, one of the most useful areas of mathematics, is the study of continuous change. It provides the language and concepts used by modern science to quantify the laws of nature and the numerical techniques through which this knowledge is applied to enrich daily life. Students gain a clear understanding of the fundamental principles of calculus and how they are applied in real-world situations. Topics include: techniques of integration, further applications of derivatives, and applications of integration. Prerequisite: MATH 281
Classical mechanics provides an accurate description of the objects and phenomena of everyday experience, and constitutes the basis of most of engineering, science, and technology. This course introduces the classical laws governing motion of particles and extended bodies in space and time, beginning with their active formulation in terms of force and acceleration and then deriving the equivalent formulation in terms of conservation of energy, momentum, and angular momentum. Topics include: motion, Newton’s laws, gravitation, and conservation laws. Prerequisite: MATH 281
This course introduces the general principles of fluid mechanics, vibrations and waves. It develops the fundamental principles and mathematical representations of oscillations and standing and traveling waves, as well as conservation of energy and entropy. Topics include: pressure, fluid flow, simple harmonic motion, resonance, mathematical representations of traveling waves, wave properties (such as refraction, diffraction, interference, and polarization), temperature and heat, and the kinetic theory of gases. Prerequisites: MATH 282 and PHYS 210
Electrical forces largely determine the observable properties of matter in the whole range of science from atomic theory to cell biology. The integration of electricity and magnetism constitutes the first unified field theory, anticipating contemporary approaches by more than a century. This course introduces electric and magnetic forces, electric current, and electromagnetic interactions, along with the concepts of electric and magnetic fields and electric potential used to understand and describe them. Topics include: Coulomb’s and Gauss’s laws, the Biot-Savart law and Ampere’s law, Faraday’s law, and Maxwell’s equations. Prerequisites: MATH 282 and PHYS 210

Quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity are the major themes of this course. Topics include special relativity, the birth of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger’s equation, wave mechanics of one-dimensional problems, and the hydrogen atom. Prerequisites: MATH 282 and PHYS 210

Plus one additional 4-credit physics course, at the level of PHYS 270 or higher.