How do we gather information to refine our models of the physical world? This course is all about data: acquiring data, separating signals from noise, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating results. Much – indeed nearly all – data spend some time as an electrical signal, so we will study analog electronics. In addition, students will become familiar with contemporary experimental techniques and instrumentation. Throughout, students will develop skills in scientific communication, especially in the written form. Six hours of laboratory work per week.

Makers are doers, inventors, builders, or creators who learn as they go. Here we will take that approach with optics in this project-based course. The semester will begin with discussions of the principles of optics and with exercises to improve students’ skills in computer-assisted design, laser alignment, data acquisition, and technical communication. At the same time, students will be creating their own optical system and testing their skills.

In the mid-nineteenth century, completing nearly a century of work by others, Maxwell developed an elegant set of equations describing the dynamical behavior of electromagnetic fields. A remarkable consequence of Maxwell’s equations is that the wave theory of light is subsumed under electrodynamics. Moreover, we know from subsequent developments that the electromagnetic interaction largely determines the structure and properties of ordinary matter. The course will begin with Coulomb’s Law but will quickly introduce the concept of the electric field.