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PHYS214

PHYS214 (University Physics: Quantum Physics) is a 2-credit hour, 8-week long, course that is required for ECE majors as a part of the Foundational Mathematics and Science requirement. It is also required for physics majors. It is offered in the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

Content Covered

  • Waves and Interference
  • Wave Function
  • Momentum and Position
  • Eigenstates
  • Oscillators
  • HBand structure

PHYS214 is the introduction to quantum physics for ECE majors. Being only 8 weeks long, the course does not go too in depth about most topics, but its introduction to waves and bandstructure is sufficient for future classes.

Prerequisites

The official prerequisite for PHYS214 is PHYS212, although there is not a large overlap in content.

When to Take It

ECE majors typically take PHYS213 and PHYS214 during the same semester after taking PHYS212. The two courses are designed to be taken in the same semester and in opposite halves, so it ends up filling roughly the same amount of time as a normal 4 credit hour, with the content changing halfway through.

Course Structure

PHYS214 holds 3 lectures per week, with prelectures and checkpoints to complete before each lecture. The prelectures and checkpoints are where students will do most of the learning, with the lectures being mainly for reexplaination and clarification.

Homework is assigned after each lecture in smartPhysics (free for PHYS214). The homework for each week's lectures are typically due at the same time early during the following week.

There are 2 midterm exams and 1 final exam, all taken through Prarielearn at the CBTF.

There are 3 bi-weekly labs.

There are 7 weekly discussions. These are extremely helpful in getting detailed explanations and clarification from the TAs.

Instructors

In the past, this course has been taught by Professors Wagner and Covey.

Course Tips

The key to this course is the equation sheet. Learn how to use all the equations and the homework/exams should be fairly simple. There are also provided practice exams released prior to the real thing. They are usually very similar to the actual exam, so they are the best tool to study. Out of the discussion worksheets, smartPhysics homeworks, and exams, discussion worksheets are the most difficult and exams are the least difficult. So if you understand the discussions and homeworks, you will do fine on exams.

Life After

The introduction to waves and the weird world of quantum physics leads into EE courses such as ECE329 - Fields and Waves I and ECE340 - Semiconductor Electronics. Students wishing to go more in-depth into quantum physics should look into the dedicated physics courses, PHYS486 - Quantum Physics I and PHYS487 - Quantum Physics II. There is also a relatively new course: PHYS 370 - Intro to Quantum Information and Computing, which serves as an introduction to quantum computing.

Infamous Topics

  • Wave Particle Duality: If you have never been introduced to this it is very wacky. Just hold on tight!

Resources