DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

The Department of Physics is in charge of the course in Physics given to Freshmen and Sophomores, and of the course in Strength of Materials given to Juniors.

It is the objective of the course in Physics to provide a knowledge of the fundamentals of the subject and to teach these fundamentals as prerequisite to later work in professional subjects rather than as basic principles in a discreet scientific subject. To this end the engineering aspects of the subject are stressed more than would be the case in General College Physics.

The schedule of instruction includes a rather small amount of formal lecturing with a large amount of informal recitation and problem work together with one afternoon each week spent in Laboratory. Effort is made to unify the instruction in the class room and in the laboratory. The work in the latter, which is largely quantitative, is designed to present fresh problems for the students’ solution as far as possible rather than to require routine rechecking of known constants.

The course in Strength of Materials is designed to present the fundamental causes of the strain in material under stress. Effort is made to present a course which may be of common benefit to each of the four professional departments in the College. Instruction is carried out by means of lectures and recitations and one-half day per week spent in the Laboratory. The laboratory is designed to demonstrate the theory presented in the class room and thus furnish visual evidence of the accuracy of theoretical assumptions.