Home Page for Physics 1120

Physics 1120, General Physics 2: Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics

Instructors: Steven Pollock and Victor Gurarie

This is a really, really big resistor, built by Cressall for testing Rolls-Royce gas turbine power plants. It can handle 84 MW. Another impressive large scale project is Sandia's Z-facility which can produce currents of 20 million amps (for a very short amount of time!)

On the other end of the spectrum, people are now building nanoscale electronic components (wires, resistors, and transistors). Nanotubes are single-walled tubes of carbon, ONE atom thick, which can conduct electricity. They have a conductivity around 1E-4 Ohm, not quite as low as copper, but small enough to funtion well as a tiny wire.

Week 7 Highlights:

Lectures this week on Resistance and Electric Circuits.

Reading:

Chapter 31

Special notes:

Exam 2 is coming up - Tues Oct 16. Same room assignments as before. Please see the "exams and grades" links for more information (and sample questions)
We'll hold an extra (evening) office hour, Mon 6-7 PM in room G125 of Duane Physics building for people with last minute exam questions, like last time.
We have an 1120 CULearn. Your grades are there (as of the first midterm, it's not "live"- I'll update it after each midterm). If you have a zero for "clickers", maybe you haven't registered your clicker yet? Don't forget to do that, and it must be for the correct lecture (10 AM or noon!)
Our WebCT page also has a "threaded messages" list - please ask each other questions about the course, even (especially!) homework there, and respond to one another. It's great for you to ask questions, give and get help about the problems, give hints. Use it as a resource to collaborate - if you feel comfortable knowing that I'll be reading it, then what you're posting is probably fine!
"Virtual office hours" link is where I post email questions, if I think they're of general interest.

Home page from weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I welcome your comments on the class and this website. Send them to victor dot gurarie at colorado dot edu.

(Many thanks to John Price for the original construction of this page!)