Waves

Recommended Text Book

• Georgi, The Physics of Waves (free pdf download here)
• King, Vibrations and Waves (Online at Caltech Library)
• Crawford, Waves (Out of print; free pdf download here)
• French, Vibrations and Waves (Online at Caltech Library)
• The Feynman Lectures, chaps 21-36, 47-51 (can be viewed here)

Syllabus

We will learn about the classical theory of harmonic oscillation and waves, including resonance, normal modes, reflection, interference, diffraction, modulation, polarization, etc.

• Introduction, logistics, outline
• Simple harmonic oscillation: one degree of freedom
• Forced oscillation and resonance
• Normal modes: simple harmonic oscillation of more than one degrees of freedom
• Waves: free and forced oscillation in an infinite system
• Traveling waves, standing waves
• Reflection and transmission
• Modulations, pulses, and wave packets
• Waves in two and three dimensions
• Polarization
• Interference and Diffraction