Physics Major Requirements
The minimum requirements for a Physics major are 16 credits in the Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry Departments as follows:
Twelve Courses in Physics:
- PHYS 160 Light and Relativity
- PHYS 201 General Physics I
- PHYS 202 General Physics II
- PHYS 265 Electronics
- PHYS 271 Mathematics for the Physical Sciences
- PHYS 305 Atomic and Nuclear Physics
- PHYS 314 Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics or PHYS 318 Optics
- PHYS 344 Astrophysics
- PHYS 361 Classical Mechanics I
- PHYS 410 Quantum Mechanics
- PHYS 401 Electricity and Magnetism I
- PHYS 489 Pre-Thesis Research
- PHYS 490 Senior Project
Four Courses in Mathematics:
- MATH 121, 122, 221 Calculus I, II, III
- MATH 311 Differential Equations
Two Courses in Chemistry:
- CHEM 107, 108 General Chemistry I, II or CHEM 109 Accelerated General Chemistry
Senior Thesis in Physics
All Physics majors are required to complete a Senior Thesis. Ideally a student in the spring of the their junior year will identify a thesis advisor and identify a topic of interest, so that by the start of their senior year they can begin research. Students are required to write a thesis paper and present their findings at an open forum. Recent projects have included: measure the temperature dependence of the efficiency of solar panels, computational studies of chaos in electrical circuits, Monte Carlo calculations of gamma rays travelling through a medium, programming a FPGA to be oscilloscope, programming a computer cluster out of Raspbery Pi computers, measuring the quantized conductance of gold nanowires, building nickel foam batteries, and building induction heaters.
Physics Minor Requirements
- PHYS 201 General Physics I
- PHYS 202 General Physics II
- PHYS 305 Atomic and Nuclear Physics
Two more Physics courses at a level of 160 and above.
Astronomy & Planetary Sciences Minor Requirements
A minimum of 18 credits, distributed as follows:
At least one, but no more than two, of the following courses:
- CHEM 107 General Chemistry I
- CHEM 108 General Chemistry II
- CHEM 109 Accelerated General Chemistry
- GEOL 107 Physical Geology
- GEOL 109 The Global Environment
- GEOL 208 Historical Geology
- PHYS 201 General Physics I
- PHYS 201 General Physics I
- PHYS 140 Principles of Physics I
- PHYS 141 Principles of Physics II
One of the following two courses:
- PHYS 165 The Search for Life in the Universe: Exoplanets
- Any 3 credit course with an astronomy/planetary emphasis approved by the Program faculty
One of the following two courses:
- PHYS 163 General Astronomy – Stars and Galaxies
- PHYS 121 Astronomy with Lab
At least one of the following courses:
- PHYS 344 Astrophysics
- CHEM 344 Spectroscopy
- PHYS 250 Modern Astronomy and Recent Advances
- GEOL490 Senior thesis (astronomy/planetology theme)
- CHEM 490 Senior thesis (astronomy/planetology theme)
- PHYS 490 Senior thesis (astronomy/planetology theme)
At least one semester of the following seminar:
- GEOL/PHYS 112 Astronomy and Planetary Sciences Seminar
