Physics of Contemporary Challenges | 2026-Fall

Course Name
Physics of Contemporary Challenges
Course Number
PH 315
Year/Term
2026
Display other available years here.
Course Credits
3
Class meeting times
3 hours of lecture per week
Prerequisites
Recommended: PH 211
Course description
An introduction to thermal and quantum physics in the context of contemporary challenges faced by our society, such as power generation, energy efficiency, and global warming.

Topic/Day

Activities

Resources

Homework Due

Course Overview
Course Info
Course Lecture Notes
Term Project Info
Introduction to Term Project
Latex Resources
A quick guide to LaTeX
Textbooks
Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air (SEWHA)
Six Ideas, Unit T (OSU login required)
Six Ideas, Unit Q (OSU login required)
Homework Submission
Writing answers to HW questions
9 Rules for Typography in Physics
Gradescope
Week 0 Wednesday (9/24)
Introduction
SEWHA Ch 1 - Motivations
SEWHA Ch 2 - Balance Sheet
Optional: Lecture by David MacKay, the author of SEWHA.
Fermi Estimates
Hydroelectric power from a coarse-grained model.
Columbia river gorge
SEWHA Ch 8 - Hydroelectricity
New Row
Week 0 Friday (9/26)
Coarse-Grained Models
Rain Power Estimate
Classroom Norms
Classroom norms
Week 1 Monday (9/29)
Energy for transportation - a coarse-grained model.
A coarse-grained model for transportation
Car efficiency
SEWHA Ch 3 - Cars
SEWHA Appendix A: Cars II
TEDx Talk by Sanjoy Mahajan (aerodynamics)
Week 1 Wednesday (10/1)
Models for Transportation
Week 1 Friday (10/3)
Wind energy - a coarse-grained model.
Wind energy
SEWHA Ch 4: Wind
SEWHA Appendix B: Wind II
Homework 1 w/Solution
Thermal radiation
Thermal radiation
Thermal radiation at twice the temperature
6 Monday 10/7
Uncertainty analysis
Propagating uncertainty
Bran Muffin
Cross-Sectional Area of a Car
Commute Distance
7 Wednesday 10/9
Uncertainty
Uncertainty in air density
8 Friday 10/11
Energy flow. Energy conservation. The need to define entropy.
Conservation of Energy: First Law of Thermodynamics
Introducing entropy
Dropping hot metal into water

"6 Ideas Unit T" by Thomas Moore:

  1. Ch 1 pages 4-14
  2. Ch 2 (first half of chapter) pages 20-24 “Macrostates and microstates”
  3. Ch 3 pages 38-47 “Entropy and Temperature”

YouTube videos:

  1. How entropy powers the Earth by MinutePhysics
  2. What is not random? by Veritasium

Monte Carlo video (redundant with today's lecture?): Monte Carlo and multiplicity (6:28)

Homework 2 w/Solution
9 Monday 10/14
Entropy from multiplicity. Example - Einstein solid.
Irreversibility
10 Wednesday 10/16
Temperature from S(U). Maximizing the work from heat.
Temperature and Entropy
HW1 review. Review degrees of freedom. Energy in the degrees of freedom fluctuate at the microscopic level - but averages out over time.
11 Friday 10/18
Continue discussing work from heat (including sunlight, which is a form of heat). Heat capacity predicted by the equipartition theorem. Degrees of freedom.
Equipartition theorem
Applying the equipartition theorem
"6 Ideas Unit T" by Thomas Moore:
  1. Section T5.4 Equipartition Theorem
Homework 3 w/Solution
12 Monday 10/21
Heat Engines
The Carnot cycle
Basics of heat engines
13 Wednesday 10/23
Midterm exam
14 Friday 10/25
Heat capacity measurements of H2 gas suggest quantization of energy.
Quantum mechanical correction to the equipartition theorem
15 Monday 10/28
Quantum mechanics: Introduction to partial differential equations and functions of space and time.
"6 Ideas Unit Q" by Thomas Moore:
  1. Chapter 1 pages 4-12 Wave Models
  2. Chapter 2 pages 20-29 Standing Waves and Resonance
16 Wednesday 10/30
Quantum mechanics: Standing waves on guitar string.
17 Friday 11/1
Quantum mechanics: Superposition, frequency level diagrams, and spectrograms
Homework 4 w/Solution
18 Monday 11/4
Quantum mechanics: Introduction to the Schrodinger equation, wavefunctions describing matter waves.
19 Wednesday 11/6
Quantum
"6 Ideas Unit Q" by Thomas Moore:
  1. Chapter 11 “Spectra”
  2. Chapter 5 “The Wave Nature of Particles (de Broglie wavelength)”
  3. Section 10.3 “A Quanton in a Box”
Videos to watch:
  1. Electron microscopes explained by Physics Girl
20 Friday 11/8
Quantum Weirdness
Solvable quantum systems
Interference and quantum weirdness
de Broglie wavelength after freefall
"6 Ideas Unit Q" by Thomas Moore:
  1. Chapter 4 “The Particle Nature of Light”
Draft of Term Project
21 Monday 11/11
Holiday (Veteran's Day)
22 Wednesday 11/13
Quantum
Photons
Double Slit Experiment on YouTube (9 minutes).
Quantum entanglement on YouTube (5 mins)
23 Friday 11/15
More Photons
Seeing stars
Homework 5 w/Solution
24 Monday 11/18
Midterm 2
Practice problems for midterm 2 w/Solution
25 Wednesday 11/20
Project Draft Peer Review
26 Friday 11/22
Blackbody Model
Homework 6 w/Solution
27 Monday 11/25
Planck's radiation law
Planck spectral distribution
Spectral intensity at twice the temperature
Blackbody PhET
Stephan Boltzmann Law
Wavelength of peak intensity
Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law
Grey space capsule
Black space capsule
28 Wednesday 11/27
Planck's Radiation Law
Temperature of the Earth
Optical depth of atmosphere
Earth under plexiglass
Friday 11/29
Thanksgiving Break
Day 29 Monday 12/2
Size scale and energy scale of nuclei
Fission and fusion
30 Wednesday 12/4
Hydrogen fusion
31 Friday 12/6
Contemporary Challenges Review
Term Project
Homework 7 w/Solution