28628 - General Physics T-B (L-Z)

Learning outcomes

Maturation of the basic concepts of general physics (with particular regard to 'Electromagnetism and the Principles of Thermodynamics) in the language of' calculus, integral calculus and vector. Acquisition of scientific-technical methodology needed to address in quantitative terms the problems of physics.

Course contents

Thermodynamics program

Thermodynamics systems and their transformations .- The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics. Temperature and thermometers. Thermodynamical transformations and changements of state.

The First Law of Thermodynamics .- Adiabatic work, internal energy and first law of thermodynamics. Heat content and generalized conservation of energy. Enthalpy and related properties. Heat capacity, molar, specific and latent heat. Ideal gases: internal energy, Poisson's equations.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics.- Reversibility and irreversibility. Heat engines and their efficiency. The second law of thermodynamics. Carnot's cycle and theorem. Thermodynamic absolute scale of temperature. Clausius' theorem and entropy state function. The law of entroppy increase.

Electromagnetism program

Electricity.- Coulomb's law, electric field and potential, Gauss's law for the electric field. Gauss' and Stokes' theorems. Electric field effects on electric charges. Continuity equation for the electric current.

Magnetism .- Magnetic forces and their properties. First and second Laplace's laws. Gauss' law for the magneteic field.The Ampère-Maxwell law. The Faraday-Lenz law.

Electromagnetism.- The Maxwell's equations. Elements of electromagnetic waves. Energy features of the electromagnetic field.The Poynting vector.

Readings/Bibliography

A.Bertin, M. Poli, A. Vitale, Fondamenti di Termodinamica, Esculapio Editore (Progetto Leonardo), Bologna.

A.Bertin, N. Semprini Cesari, A, Vitale, A. Zoccoli, Lezioni di Elettromagnetismo, Esculapio Editore (Progetto Leonardo), Bologna.

A. Bertin, S. De Castro, N. Semprini Cesari, A. Vitale, A. Zoccoli, Problemi d' esame di Fisica Generale, Esculapio Editore (Progetto Leonardo), Bologna.

Teaching methods

Front lectures. Part of the lectures are dedicated to discussing and solving problems of Thermodynamics and Electromagnetism.

Assessment methods

L 'exam consists of a written test and an oral examination, usually after a week from the script. The access to the oral exam is permitted only after passing the written test. The written test consists of about 30 to 40 multiple choice questions about the whole program. Some quizzes concerning topics of theory, others are numeric and provide calculations to express an answer, and others to assess the purely formal understanding of the topics. It is not strictly necessary to complete all of the quizzes to get an estimate of the sufficiency, as the results are normalized to fit the range 18-30: Admitted to the oral.
Each task is customized for each student enrolled in the exam, so every student will have the specific task to be delivered in each case. The correctly crossed quizzes will add a positive value to the overall result of the written while the quizzes not crossed out will not give any contribution, quizzes crossed incorrectly give a negative contribution.
The dates of the oral are visible on the site of Almaesami and each student can choose the date of his oral to which he has access.

Who does not get a sufficient evaluation or does not show up to the oral must repeat the written exam.

Each exam, written or oral, can not be repeated within 30 days thereafter. The student who sees more available written exams in short intervals, may register only one of them. If a student book and then do not show up, it is evaluated as: Not Admitted to the oral.

Teaching tools

On AMS Campus are filed several handouts support files, as complement material to the lectures

Links to further information

http://www.bo.infn.it/~gabriell/

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Gabrielli