Course Details:
The purpose of this course is to attract students into a physics course within a specific context - the fascination of how the internet works, explained from the very basic principles. This course will be really useful to students, because it provides real working examples of the physics they are learning in a relevant, unified context. Students will realize that much of what physicists know about the world goes into the physics of making/understanding of internet.
Module 1: Introduction: The Physics behind the Internet
• Physics, Silicon, and The “Magic” Behind the Internet Age.
• Timeline of Great Discoveries and Inventions in Communication Technologies.
• The Relation of Science and Information Technology.
• The Social Impacts of Science and Information Technology.
Module 2: Waves: Sound, Radio and Light
• Sound, Radio, Light, and the Internet.
• Simple Harmonic Motion.
• Damped and Complex Harmonic Motion.
• Driven Harmonic Motion and Resonance .
• Resonance Frequencies, Crystal Oscillators and Microprocessor Clocks.
• Waves, Simple Harmonic Waves,Standing Waves.
• Interference of waves, Sound Waves, Beats.
• Wireless Radio Waves, AM Radio, Light Waves.
• The Spectrum of Electromagnetic Waves, Light Polarization.
• LCD Screens, Interference of Light.
Module 3: Analog and Digital Communication
• Communication Systems: Analog and Digital, Basics of Analog Radio.
• Basics of Digital Radio, The Maximum Rate of Transmitting Data.
• Signal Synthesis, Analysis, and Bandwidth, Maximum Data Rate.
• Frequency Multiplexing and Bandwidth, Signal Reconstruction.
Module 4: Photons: Light Detectors and Light Emitting Diodes
• Light, Physics, and Technology, The Quantum Nature of Light – Photons.
• Power and Energy in Light, Absorption of Light by Atoms and Crystals.
• Absorption of Light by Crystals.
• Inability of Constant Voltage to Accelerate Electrons in an Insulator.
• Absorption of Light by Metals: The Photoelectric Effect.
• Semiconductor Light Detectors.
• Emission of Light by Atoms and Crystals.
• Emission of Light by Crystals.
• The Rate of Spontaneous Emission – Exponential Decay
• Light-Emitting Diodes.
• Social Impacts: Lighting the Darkness.
Module 5: Light and Optical Fibers for the Internet
• Light as a Communication Medium, Propagation, Reflection and Transmission.
• Light in Transparent Media, Refraction and Reflection at Boundary.
• Total Internal Reflection, Prisms and Speeds of Different Colored Light
• Lenses and Curved Mirrors.
• Optical Loss in Materials – the Clarity of Optical Fiber.
• Light Guiding, Optical Fibers, Light Pulses in Optical Fibers.
• Social Impacts: Total Immersion in a Sea of Information.
Module 6: Light Amplification and Lasers
• Atoms and Lasers, The Uniqueness of Laser Light.
• Absorption and Emission of Light by Atoms.
• Laser Resonators, Laser Resonator Frequencies.
• How a Laser Works,The Helium-Neon Laser.
• Variable-Color Semiconductor Lasers,Overcoming Losses in Fiber-Optical Systems.
• Quantum Physics Description of Lasers, Laser Gain.
• Exponential Growth of the Number of Photons, Gain-Medium Pumping.
• Laser Operation – Quantum Description, The Semiconductor Diode Laser.
Module 7: Fiber-Optics Communication
• Bandwidth and the Physics of Waves.
• Overview of Fiber-Optical Communication Systems.
• Modulating a Laser Beam with Data.
• Wavelength Multiplexing in Optical Communication.
• The Virtues of Lasers for Optical Communication.
• Hardware for Wavelength Multiplexing, Laser Beam Routing.
Module 8: Communication Networks and Internet
• The Physics Behind the Internet.
• The Goals of Computer Communication Networks.
• Noise in Analog and Digital Systems, Challenges in Networking.
• Broadcasting Networks and Switching Networks, Circuit-switching networks.
• Packet-switching networks (e.g., the Internet).
• Failure-Resistant Communications.
• Wireless Mobile Cell Phone Networks.
• Propagation of Wireless Waves in Terrain.
Text Book: - Silicon Web – Physics for Internet Age, by Michael G. Raymer.
References: - Conceptual Physics, by Paul Hewitt.
- How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life, by Louis Bloomfield.
- Physics: Concepts and Connections, by Art Hobson.