Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics

Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics

The Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics are a set of three courses including video lectures on physics by MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin. He explains in a fun and intellectual way the basics of classical mechanics, electricity, magnetism, vibrations, waves and introductory topics on astrophysics. It was prepared in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and it has been used by more than four million students, teachers and self-learners around the world Fact|date=March 2008.

Overview

Lewin's lectures at MIT are legendaryFact|date=March 2008. Many have been shown for over six years on UWTV in Seattle, reaching an audience of about four million people. He personally responded to all e-mail requests he received (hundreds per year) from UWTV viewers, who varied in age from 7 to 90Fact|date=March 2008. For fifteen years he was on MIT Cable TV helping freshmen with their weekly homework assignments. His programs, which were aired 24 hours per day, were also frequently watched by upper-class students. Lewin is the soul of PIVoT, a video course on Newtonian mechanics with a total of 53 hours of video clips. Additionally, his 36 lectures on Electricity and Magnetism and 23 lectures on Vibrations and Waves can also be viewed from the course's web site. Finally, his special lectures given at MIT for science teachers and for middle school students can be viewed on MIT World. The three sets of video lectures are separated into: classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism and vibrations and waves. The video lectures are available for free from MIT OpenCourseWare.

Classical mechanics

8.01 is a first-semester freshman physics class in Newtonian mechanics, fluid mechanics, and kinetic gas theory at MIT. In addition to the basic concepts of Newtonian mechanics, fluid mechanics, and kinetic gas theory, a variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: binary stars, neutron stars, black holes, resonance phenomena, musical instruments, stellar collapse, supernovae, Astronomical observations from very high flying balloons (lecture 35), and a peek into the intriguing quantum world.

Electricity and magnetism

8.02 is a second-semester freshman physics class in electromagnetism at MIT. The 36 video lectures on Electricity and Magnetism, by Professor Lewin, were recorded on the MIT campus during the Spring of 2002. Prof. Lewin is well-known at MIT and beyond for his dynamic and engaging lecture style.

This class includes many topics, specially the classical theory of electromagnetism. In addition to the basic concepts of electromagnetism, a vast variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: lightning, pacemakers, electric shock treatment, electrocardiograms, metal detectors, musical instruments, magnetic levitation, bullet trains, electric motors, radios, TV, car coils, superconductivity, aurora borealis, rainbows, radio telescopes, interferometers, particle accelerators (a.k.a. atom smashers or colliders), mass spectrometers, red sunsets, blue skies, haloes around Sun and Moon, color perception, Doppler effect, Big-Bang cosmology.

Vibrations and waves

8.03 deals with lots of topics in physics dealing with Vibrations and Waves. Topics include: Mechanical vibrations and waves; simple harmonic motion, superposition, forced vibrations and resonance, coupled oscillations and normal modes; vibrations of continuous systems; reflection and refraction; phase and group velocity. Optics; wave solutions to Maxwell's equations; polarization; Snell's Law, interference, Huygens' principle, Fraunhofer diffraction and gratings.

In addition to the traditional topics of mechanical vibrations and waves, coupled oscillators, and electro-magnetic radiation, students also learn about musical instruments, red sunsets, glories, coronae, rainbows, haloes, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, black holes and big-bang cosmology.

External links

* [http://web.mit.edu/physics/facultyandstaff/faculty/walter_lewin.html Professor Walter Lewin's Webpage at MIT]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/ Lewin's MIT Physics 8.01 video: Classical Mechanics]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/VideoLectures/ Lewin's MIT Physics 8.02 video: Electricity and Magnetism]
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-03Fall-2004/VideoLectures/ Lewin's MIT Physics 8.03 video: Vibrations and Waves]
* [http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/e-learning/2008/01/10/a-new-physics-superstar.html A New Physics Superstar] -- usnews.com


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