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NEW Scores for the final exam have now been posted. Average was 66%. Final grades will be posted later this week.
(Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016)
- From now on, office hours will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. Please note the room changes.
- Bonus points will be given for those that attempted the problem and made progress towards the solution.
- Date for Midterm set: in-class on Tuesday, October 11th. (Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016)
- Material covered will include everything from Drude onwards. Specifics will be given in lecture the week before the exam.
- Office hours on Friday of this week (Sept 23) will be held in 390B Loomis Laboratory, and manned by Billy Passias. (Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016)
- Note also there will be a new homework assignment posted this Friday. Regular scheduling for office hours will resume next week.
- Due to Loomis building scheduling conflicts, the office hours for tomorrow morning only will be moved to Loomis464. (Monday, Sept. 6, 2016)
- In future weeks, office hours will again be held in Loomis 222.
- Several more important errors have been uncovered in Homework 1. Due date has been extended 3 days. (Monday, Sept. 5, 2016)
- Today I have uncovered no fewer than four more errors in the homework assignment (a missing c^2 in the defintion of dielectric constant in 1b, the sign of the definition of pressure in problem 2b, the power of the mass in the gravitational energy equation in 2c, and a factor of m in the exponent in chemcial potential in 3b). Due to the number of errors, I have decided to extended the deadline for homework to NEXT MONDAY. My apologies again for the mistakes. I think these are the last of them.
- Now a more consequential error has been found and corrected in Homework1! (Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016)
- The formula you were asked to derive for the ac conductivity in the original copy was missing a critical i in the denominator. The real formula is σ(ω) = σ0/(1-iωτ). It has now been corrected. My apologies if this led to any confusion.
- Note a small (inconsequential) error has been corrected in Homework1. (Friday, Sept. 2, 2016)
- The original copy claimed that white dwarf stars are made of helium, which many of you might know is not true. They are actually a combination of oxygen and carbon. This has been corrected. Note though that the important piece of information is that there is one proton and one neutron per electron (true for helium, carbon and oxygen), so any work you have already done should still be valid. Sorry for the error!
- Lecture 3 and Homework 1 have now both been posted. (Friday, Sept. 2, 2016)
- Homework will be due next Friday (the 9th) at 4:30pm. The course syllabus will be posted tomorrow.
- Website is up (Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016)
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Please take two minutes to read through the general course information on this page (and take one more minute to click on the other links at the top so you know how the site is organized.)
Some specific points of immediate concern:- Please look at the office hours posted below. Contrary to my announcement in first lecture, the TAs will each hold one office hour during the week (Mondays and Wednesdays, respectively), during which time you can consult them regarding homework, or to simply get a different persepctive on course material. I will also be making myself available on Friday afternoons for two hours. Those will be held in my office to start, but can be moved if it becomes necessary.
- The first homework assignment will be posted this Friday (September 2nd), and every one or two weeks going forward. On weeks when assignments are given, they can be downloaded from the Homework page, accessible through the menu system above. Homeworks will be posted on on Friday mornings at 10am, and will be due the following Friday at 4:30pm.
- Certain portions of this webpage are still dead. A full course syllabus and notes from the last two letures will be posted soon. The next lecture will be on chemical bonding. You can read Chapter 6 of Simon, if you wish to prepare.
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Exam review session scheduled for this Thursday from 2-4pm in Loomis 464. Attendance is not required. Come if you want, and ask questions.
(Monday, Dec. 5, 2016)
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One more correction, this time to identity given in Question 1 of Homework 6. An erroneous minus sign has been replaced by a plus.
(Friday, Nov. 25, 2016)
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An additional piece of information has also been added to problem 5e, to help with angle calculations.
(Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016)
Errors have been identified in the version of Homework 6 posted on Friday. These have now been corrected. (Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016)
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Homework 5 is now available for download, but note that the version posted between 11am and 2:45pm today contained a an erroneous reference to a non-existent problem in Question 5. This mistake has now been fixed.
(Friday, Nov. 4, 2016)
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Final exam time and location are set for December 12th, at 8am in Loomis 144. You are allowed to bring a single piece of paper containing formulas you feel are most relevant.
(Friday, Nov. 4, 2016)
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Midterm grades now posted. Average was 59%.
(Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016)
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A few students asked me about the Poisson Summation formula, used in class several times when working out diffraction laws, etc. I have now posted a derivation on the Notes page, for those who are interested.
(Friday, Oct. 7, 2016)
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Change in office hours for the course.
(Friday, Sept. 30, 2016)
2d triangle lattice question (Problem 2) is now eliminated from HW3. (Friday, Sept. 30, 2016)