Learning module for next week -- early birds

I have set the Week 15 learning module to activate this Friday, tomorrow, a little early, so that you can get an early bird start on it over the long weekend, if you desire. It covers chapter 23.

AND there is a new visual podcast in our iTunes U area, featuring the Rutherford model of the atom, a main target of chapter 23.

Electromagnetism and electromagnetic waves

This dipole magnetic field, a diagram from your textbook, with field lines indicated by teeny iron filings, is a central object in learning about the concepts of electromagnetic radiation.

1. A bar magnet has an S pole and an N pole, and the field lines sprout from the N. This field line configuration is known as "the dipole field."
2. A pair of opposite charges, like a proton and an electron, would form identical electric field lines if the proton was above and electron below.
3. Electromagnetic radiation is, in itself, a union of electric and magnetic fields, coupled together and propagating across spacetime at the speed of light, c = 3×10⁸ m/sec.
4. This is not accidental. Michael Faraday found in the 1830s that electric and magnetic fields were unified, one physical phenomenon. And that is why we call it the electromagnetic field.

Your next learning module, for the week of Nov. 22, is now up. It is about electromagnetism.

Exam 4 is now running!

Your last midterm of the semester is now running in Webcourses. GO! GO! GO!

Learning modules for this week and next week!

I decided to give everyone a head start on the learning module for next week, ahead of Exam 4 next Thursday. So this week's learning module and next week's are both up in Webcourses now.

Go for it!

New mini-podcasts

There are several new thermodynamic visual podcasts in iTunes U. View and listen to strengthen your grasp of Chapter 13 concepts and calculations.

Week 11 learning module is activated now.

You can start working on the Week 11 learning module now. It focuses on chapter 13, on heat and thermodynamics.

Image: "Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA."