03281 - Medical Physics

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Physiotherapy (cod. 8476)

Course contents

  1. Introduction of the mathematical and physics elements necessary for the class. Units of measurement systems. Scalar and vector quantities. Operations between vectors.
  2. Static: forces and equilibrium. Newton's laws. Examples of forces. Components of a force. Moment of a force. Conditions of equilibrium. Center of gravity. Applications in physiotherapy.
  3. Kinematics and dynamics. Reference systems. One-dimensional and two-dimensional motion. Laws of dynamics. Quantity of motion and impulse.
  4. Energy. Work and energy. Kinetic and potential energy. Conservation of energy. Efficiency, power and metabolism.
  5. Fluids. Pressure. Properties of fluids. Pascal's law. Archimedes’ principle. Dynamics of fluids. Bernoulli’s principle. Real fluids. Heart power and circulatory system.
  6. Gases and liquids. Temperature and ideal gas law. Surface tension. Solutions. Applications to the respiratory system.
  7. Solids. Stretching, compression and Hooke's law. Young's form.
  8. Heat and thermodynamics. Specific heat and thermal capacity. First law of thermodynamics. Heat propagation. Thermoregulation of the human body. Thermodynamic transformations.
  9. Electrical phenomena. Electric charge and Coulomb force. Electric field, electrical potential. Electric dipole. Electrical phenomena and cells.

Office hours

See the website of Nico Lanconelli