Study Guide for the Final Exam
PHYS 203 - R. D. Piccard

Examination Format

The examination will be structured with multiple-choice, free-response (partial-credit) problems, and matching sections. You should have adequate time to think and to write.

On-Line Resources

The following may be of some help:

• The two-source interference simulation: http://www.swgc.mun.ca/physics/physlets/interference.html

  It did not work for me with Macintosh Internet Explorer, but did work in class with Windows Internet Explorer.

• The essay on color theory is available on-line at http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/phys203/color.html.

Do also consult the textbook and the on-line Notes on Modern Physics and Ionizing Radiation.

Acronyms, Names, and Terms

This list is incomplete. It also includes some terms that we did not talk about.

1. anti-node

2. Balmer

3. Becquerel

4. beta particle

5. binding energy

6. birefringent

7. Bohr

8. Bragg

9. Brewster

10. chromatic aberration

11. Compton

12. constructive interference

13. continuous spectrum

14. cyan, yellow, magenta

15. DeBroglie

16. destructive interference

17. deuterium

18. diffraction

19. diffuse reflection

20. dispersion

21. Einstein

22. erect

23. far point

24. fission

25. fusion

26. frequency

27. gamma rays

28. Heisenberg

29. Hertz

30. Huygens

31. iodine

32. ionization energy

33. index of refraction

34. infrared

35. inverted

36. iris

37. kinetic

38. light pipe

39. line spectrum

40. Lorentz

41. Lyman

42. magnification

43. Maxwell

44. microwaves

45. monochromatic

46. near point

47. neutrino

48. neutron

49. Newton's rings

50. node

51. optical fiber

52. optically active

53. pair production

54. Paschen

55. penetration depth

56. Planck

57. polarized

58. pupil

59. rad

60. radio waves

61. radon

62. real image

63. red, green, blue

64. refraction

65. Rutherford

66. Rydberg constant

67. shutter

68. Snell

69. specular reflection

70. spherical aberration

71. tritium

72. ultraviolet

73. virtual image

74. wavelength

75. Wien

76. work function

77. x-rays

78. Young

Concepts and Descriptions

These definitions and concepts by no means exhaust the material we have covered. They do include some we have not done in class.

1. A chemically inert ("noble") gas that radioactively decays to a heavy metal that is both radioactive and chemically toxic.

2. A form of energy associated with mass raised to high altitudes.

3. A form of energy associated with mass in motion.

4. A gaseous element, which is a necessary part of the human diet, which concentrates in the thyroid, and that is routinely created in a radioactive form as a result of nuclear fission.

5. A gaseous element, which is a necessary part of the human diet, which concentrates in the thyroid, and that is routinely created in a radioactive form as a result of nuclear fusion.

6. A high-energy photon created as an excited atomic electron relaxes to a lower-energy state (from an excited state created either by having an inner-shell electron knocked out or by having the nuclear charge changed by radioactive decay).

7. A high-energy photon created as an excited nucleus relaxes to a lower-energy state (typically after radioactive decay).

8. A nearly massless neutral particle always created in the process of radioactive beta decay.

9. A nuclear transformation in which a large nucleus splits into two smaller nuclei.

10. A nuclear transformation in which two small nuclei combine to form a single larger nucleus.

11. A single quantum of radiant electromagnetic energy.

12. A sub-atomic particle that has about the same mass as a proton, but has zero electrical charge, that is sometimes ejected from a nucleus during radioactive decay.

13. A unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, equivalent to 0.01 Joule/kilogram.

14. A unit of activity of a radioactive source, equivalent to one decay per second.

15. An image that is right side up compared to the object.

16. An image that is upside down compared to the object.

17. Another name for a common helium nucleus, containing two protons and two neutrons, used when it has been ejected from a nucleus during radioactive decay.

18. Another name for an electron, used when it has been created and ejected from a nucleus during radioactive decay.

19. Circular pattern of fringes produced when a curved lens surface is placed in contact with a flat glass plate and illuminated from above or below with monochromatic light, reflecting from the various air and glass interfaces.

20. Clear picture of a distant object that can be focused on a screen.

21. Closest distance to an object for which an individual's eye is able to focus a sharp image on the retina.

22. Device that works because within optically dense materials, all light remains inside when the incident angle exceeds the critical angle.

23. Distance from one peak to the next in a wave.

24. Distortion of an image produced when light rays are reflected from a perfectly spherical concave mirror.

25. Distortion of an image produced because of the dispersion of white light by a single lens.

26. Distortion of an image produced by a lens with perfectly spherical surfaces.

27. Electromagnetic radiation whose frequency is much higher than the frequency of visible light.

28. Electromagnetic radiation whose frequency is somewhat higher than the frequency of visible light.

29. Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength somewhat longer than that of visible light.

30. Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength much longer than that of visible light.

31. Energy required to remove a valance electron from the surface of a metal sample.

32. Energy required to remove any particular electron from an atom.

33. Energy required to separate the parts of a structure to such a great distance that the forces between them can be ignored.

34. Greatest distance to an object for which an individual's eye is able to focus a sharp image on the retina.

35. Light whose electric field vector varies in a consistent way with time (for example, always staying in one plane, or rotating steadily clockwise).

36. Light whose photons carry so little energy that they cannot start the chemical reactions in your retina, and therefore cannot be seen.

37. Light whose photons carry so much energy that they are absorbed in the cornea, lens, or liquid interior of the eyeball, never reaching the retina, and therefore cannot be seen.

38. Mechanism that controls the amount of light reaching the film in a camera or the retina in an eyeball, by changing the diameter of the opening.

39. Mechanism that prevents the passage of light, except for a controlled brief period of time.

40. Number of cycles per second in the variation of the electric or magnetic field of an electromagnetic wave.

41. Opening through which light passes.

42. Photons whose energies are all identical, or whose energies are each exactly equal to one of a number of specific values.

43. Photons whose energies encompass all values in a wide range.

44. Plastic sheet in which the polymer fibers are lined up in the same direction, so that light passing through it will be polarized.

45. Primary colors in the subtractive theory of light.

46. Primary colors to which the three types of cones in the human eye are receptive.

47. Process by which part of the energy of a photon is converted into the mass of a particle and its anti-particle (for example, an electron and a positron), with the left-over energy being shared as kinetic energy between the two new particles.

48. Ratio of the size of the image to the size of the object.

49. Ratio of the speed of light as it travels through vacuum divided by the speed of light through another transparent material.

50. Representation of an object produced by a lens or mirror that can be seen but cannot be focused on a screen.

51. Scientist who combined the laws of electricity and magnetism to predict electromagnetic waves moving at the speed of light.

52. Scientist who demonstrated electromagnetic waves' ability to transfer energy.

53. Scientist who demonstrated light waves' ability to interfere constructively and destructively.

54. Scientist who demonstrated that atoms consist of a massive, dense, compact, positively charged nucleus surrounded by a "cloud" of electrons, by observing the angles at which alpha particles bounced off of gold atoms.

55. Scientist who determined the relationship between a material object's momentum and its quantum mechanical wavelength.

56. Scientist who determined the relationship between the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction, establishing the concept of the index of refraction.

57. Scientist who established the relationship between the index of refraction and the angle at which light reflected from a non-metallic surface will be 100% polarized.

58. Scientist who established the relationship between the angle of deflection of a photon and its change of wavelength when it collides with a free electron.

59. Scientist who established the relationship between the speed of a moving object and the apparent contraction of its length in the direction of motion.

60. Scientist who established the relationship between the temperature of a black body and the wavelength at which its spectrum exhibits peak intensity.

61. Scientist who explained the photoelectric effect in terms of the quantized delivery of energy by the electromagnetic waves.

62. Scientist who explained the propagation of light waves in terms of the combination of wavelets radiating outward from every point of the wavefront.

63. Scientist who explained X-ray diffraction from crystals in terms of the interference of waves reflected from parallel planes of atoms.

64. Scientist who identified the series of infrared Hydrogen spectral lines resulting from electron transitions between the M-shell and higher shells.

65. Scientist who identified the series of ultra-violet Hydrogen spectral lines resulting from electron transitions between the K-shell and higher shells.

66. Scientist who identified the series of visible-light Hydrogen spectral lines resulting from electron transitions between the L-shell and higher shells.

67. Scientist who explained the shape of the black body spectrum as a function of temperature in terms of the quantized transfer of energy between the electromagnetic waves in the cavity and the materials of the walls of that cavity.

68. Separation of white light into its component colors after it has passed through a prism or diffraction grating.

69. Substance that exhibits different indices of refration for light traveling in different directions through the material.

70. Substance that rotates the plane of polarization of light that passes through it.

71. Superposition process that occurs when two light waves arrive at a location in phase, creating brightly lighted regions.

72. Superposition process when two light waves arrive at a location out of phase, creating a dark region.

73. Term used to identify a light beam composed completely of only one color (only a single wavelength) of light.

74. The bending of light rays when they encounter a rough opaque material.

75. The bending of light rays when they encounter a smooth opaque material.

76. The bending of light rays when they enter or leave a transparent material.

77. The empirical constant, first explained theoretically by Bohr, relating the wavelengths in the emission spectrum of Hydrogen to the energy level numbers of the initial and final states.

78. The isotope of hydrogen that includes one neutron and one proton.

79. The isotope of hydrogen that includes two neutrons and one proton.

80. The scientist who is responsible for explaining nuclear fission in terms of the so-called "liquid drop" model of the nuclear fluid.

81. The scientist who is responsible for explaining the inherent limitation of simultaneous measurements.

82. The spreading out of a beam of light that was originally all headed in the same direction, after it passes through a single narrow slit.

83. The thickness of a target material required to reduce the intensity of a photon beam to 50% of its initial intensity.

84. The thickness of a target material required to reduce the intensity of a photon beam to 37% of its initial intensity.

Dick Piccard revised this file (http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/phys203/study2.html) on November 13, 2003.

Please E-Mail comments or suggestions to"piccard@ohio.edu".