COURSE SYLLABUS
Required course Packet (The Silicon Web: Physics for the Information Age, Parts I and II)
Catalog Description: “The Internet is a network of millions of computers capable of exchanging data files containing information. The technology that makes this possible is the result of the efforts of tens of thousands of physicists, engineers, and computer scientists over more than a hundred years. The development of the Internet is an amazing story of the transformation of fundamental physics discoveries into practical systems. This course is a non-science major's introduction to the physical concepts that explain how information is stored, transmitted, processed, and retrieved. Fundamental issues in physics will be discussed using only elementary math and simple algebra.”
Because of time constraints, the Winter Term 2008 will focus on the physics of communication and the Internet, including electrical, radio, and optical-fiber, skipping thermodynamics and most of atomic physics and transistor operation.
WEEK 1 (Jan 7-11) Math Review and Concepts of Information text chapters 1 and 2 (excluding section 2.6)
WEEK 2 (Jan 14-18) Force and Energy ch. 3
WEEK 3 (Jan 21-25) Electromagnetism ch. 5 (skip ch. 4)
WEEK 4 (Jan 28-Feb 1) Electric Circuits and Logic ch. 6
WEEK 5 (Feb 4-8) Waves and Light; EXAM 1 –Tu Feb.5 ch. 7
WEEK 6 (Feb 11-15) Light and Radio ch. 7, ch. 8
WEEK 7 (Feb 18-22) Optical Fibers ch. 13,
WEEK 8 (Feb 25-29) Atoms, Light, and Lasers parts of chs. 9 and 12; all of ch. 14
WEEK 9 (Mar 3-7) Fiber-Optic Communication; EXAM 2 –Tu Mar.4 ch. 15
WEEK 10 (Mar 10-14) Communication Networks and the Internet ch. 16 (not in printed packet; to be provided)
WEEK 11 (Mar 17-21) – Final Exam 8:00 AM Friday Mar 21