Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: PHYSICS FOR SOCIETY

Department: School of Continuing Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will introduce the essential physics that students need in order to understand today's core science and technology issues. Topics will range from the physics of energy, to climate change, to spy technology, to quantum computers. We will address questions such as how practical are alternative energy sources? Can satellites really read license plates from space? What is the quantum physics behind iPods and supermarket scanners and how much should we fear terrorist nuke? The course will explore critical physics topics: energy and power, atoms and heat, gravity and space, nuclei and radioactivity, chain reactions and atomic bombs, electricity and magnetism, waves, light, invisible light, climate change, quantum physics, and relativity. The course will generally be non-mathematical or any mathematics used will be explained in context. Department Permission Required.