PHY 1980T - Topics in Physics: Waves, Relativity, Thermo Transition

• Apply the standing and traveling wave equations and be able to extract information such as wavelength, frequency, amplitude, and direction from a given wave
• State Einstein’s two postulates of special relativity, relate them to time dilation, length contraction, mass-energy conversions, and relativistic momentum and energy, and be able to perform calculations involving them
• Relate temperature and the first law of thermodynamics to heat energy to thermodynamic processes
• Use kinetics to relate microscopic quantities like RMS speed and RMS molecular kinetic energy to macroscopic quantities like pressure and temperature
• Use the ideal gas law to perform calculations relating pressure, temperature, volume, number density, and molecular kinetic energy
• Calculate both analytically and graphically (PV diagrams) the heat, internal energy and work done when a gas undergoes constant temperature, constant pressure, constant volume, adiabatic, and cyclic processes