Honors General Physics II & Lab
Honors General Physics II (and accompanying lab) were accelerated and advanced versions of the typical General Physics II course and lab offered by the University of Cincinnati, covering a variety of topics with emphasis on electricity and magnetism. Lectures focused on learning the theory behind the physics topics and never ventured into "book-ish" problems; the professor, Dr. Esposito, reasoned that with the correct understanding of theory any problem could be successfully solved (problems with actually numbers were left to exams and occasional homework assignments). There was also great emphasis on related mathematical topics such as differential equations, a math course that most students in the class had not yet taken. As a result, students learned right from the beginning how to apply sometimes obscure mathematical concepts to real-world physics problems. The accompanying lab offered a great deal of freedom compared to the typical lab; students were expected to read the lab outlines and complete the experiments and analysis more or less on their own. The lab experiments featured advanced applications of physics theory not present in the typical lab. Several labs prominently featured harmonic oscillation, not itself a topic in General Physics II but a key physical metaphor for the oscillations and differential equations present in electromagnetism.
Below to the left is an example of a professional lab report regarding the study of harmonic motion. Download a PDF of the full lab report here (lots of pretty graphs to view!). To the right is an example of the analysis behind a lab report. Analysis was done through the program Mathematica, so another interesting part of this course was learning some Mathematica coding skills. Check out a PDF of the entire analysis document here (I'd advise skipping to page 19).
Below to the left is an example of a professional lab report regarding the study of harmonic motion. Download a PDF of the full lab report here (lots of pretty graphs to view!). To the right is an example of the analysis behind a lab report. Analysis was done through the program Mathematica, so another interesting part of this course was learning some Mathematica coding skills. Check out a PDF of the entire analysis document here (I'd advise skipping to page 19).