Introduction
1) Character of a physical law; physical quantities and their measurement; scalar and vector physical quantities; fundamental and derived physical quantities; measurement units, errors, significant figures.
Mechanics
1) Kinematics: coordinate system, position, displacement, velocity, acceleration, trajectory; examples of motion: uniform rectilinear motion, uniformly accelerated rectilinear motion, parabolic motion, uniform circular motion, uniformly accelerated circular motion, harmonic motion.
2) Dynamics: mass, force, point particle, Newton’s principles of dynamics, vector sum of forces, different kinds of forces (gravitational force, elastic force, molecular forces, constraint forces, frictional forces), gravitational and inertial mass, torque, equilibrium conditions, applications of Newton’s laws.
3) Work, work-energy theorem, conservative forces, potential energy, conservation of total mechanical energy, total mechanical energy balance in a non-conservative system.
4) Momentum, impulse, momentum of a many-particle system, conservation of momentum, centre of mass, simple elastic and non-elastic collisions, rocket motion.
5) Angular momentum, angular momentum dynamics equation, conservation of angular momentum.
6) Harmonic oscillator. Oscillations of a mass on a spring, simple pendulum, energy of the harmonic oscillator, damped and forced oscillations, resonance.
7) Rigid body, rotation about a fixed axis: angular velocity and angular acceleration, moment of inertia, dynamics equation for a rigid body rotating about a fixed axis, rotational kinetic energy, physical pendulum, equilibrium of a rigid body.
Fluid Mechanics
1) Statics of fluids: density, pressure, fundamental law of statics of fluids, Stevin’s law, Pascal’s law, Archimedes’ law.
2) Dynamics of fluids: flux, continuity equation, Bernoulli’s theorem, laminar flux, viscosity, turbulent flux, Rayleigh’s number.
Mechanical waves
1) Waves on a string, propagation of a impulse, traveling waves, mathematical representation of a traveling wave, propagation velocity, wave equation, sinusoidal wave.
2) Superposition principle, sum of two sinusoidal waves, standing waves.
3) Sound waves, intensity, Doppler effect, beats, sound velocity, ultrasound velocities.
Thermodynamics and kinetic theory
1) Thermodynamic system, thermodynamic equilibrium, state variables, examples: temperature, pressure, volume, etc., state equation, ideal gas state equation, kinetic theory of an ideal gas, kinetic interpretation of temperature.
2) Transformations of a thermodynamic system, reversibile and irreversibile transformations, state function, heat and temperature, thermal capacity and specific heat, work and p-V diagramme, first law of thermodynamics and the internal energy state function, enthalpy state function, transformations of an ideal gas, thermal capacity of an ideal gas, equipartition of energy.
3) Second law of thermodynamics, Kelvin’s and Clausius’ statements, heat engines, efficiency, reversible engine and maximum efficiency, entropy, statistical interpretation of entropy.
4) Thermodynamic potentials: Helmholtz free energy and Gibbs free energy.
5) Diffusion and transport processes.
Electromagnetism
1) Electric charge, Coulomb’s law and principle of superposition, electric field and lines of force, Gauss’ law, electric potential, electric dipole.
2) Conductors and insulators, capacity, capacitors, dielectrics.
3) Electric current, current density, e.m.f. generator, battery, Ohm’s law, resitance and resistivity, conductance and conductivity, energy in electric circuits.
4) Magnetic field, Biot and Savart law, magnetic field of a circular current loop, Ampère’s law, magnetic field of an infinite straight wire, magnetic field of an infinite solenoid.
5) Lorentz force, motion of a charged particle in a uniform magnetic field, cyclotron, mass spectrometer, Laplace force, force and torque on a current loop in a magnetic field.
6) Magnetic flux, Faraday-Neumann-Lenz law, motional e.m.f., inductance.
7) Displacement current, Maxwell equations, electromagnetic waves, propagation velocity, frequency and wavelength, electromagnetic spectrum.
Optics
1) Geometrical optics, law of reflection, law of refraction, index of refraction, total internal refraction.
2) Huygens principle of wave propagation, wave nature of light, Young double slit experiment, interference of light waves, spectrum of light waves, white light and monochromatic light, dispersion.
3) Diffraction of light waves, diffraction by a single slit, diffraction grating.
5) Optical instruments, photographic camera, human eye, magnifying lens, telescope, microscope, aberrations, resolving power.
6) Corpuscular nature of light, blackbody radiation and Planck hypothesis, photoelectric effect, Compton effect, double slit experiment revisited.
Principles of quantum mechanics and atomic physics
1) Wave nature of particles, particle-wave dualism, complementarity principle, de Broglie’s wavelength.
2) Quantum mechanics: wave function, double slit experiment, Heisenberg’s principle of indetermination, Pauli’s principle of exclusion, angular momentum in quantum mechanics, spin.
3) atomic and molecular structure
4) wave-atom interaction, X rays, fluorescence, LASER
5) basics of solid state theory
Nuclear Physics
1) Structure and properties of the nucleus, binding energy and nuclear forces.
2) Radioactivity: alpha, beta, and gamma decay, conservation laws, radioactive decay rates, decay constant and half-life, decay chains, radioactive dating.
3) Nuclear reactions, fission, nuclear reactors, fusion.
4) Radiation-matter interaction: measurement of radiation dose, tissue damage.