Physics on Your Feet (2nd Edition) is a significantly expanded collection of physics problems covering the broad range of topics in classical and modern physics that were, or could have been, asked at oral PhD exams at University of California at Berkeley. The questions are easy to formulate,
but some of them can only be answered using an outside-of-the box approach. Detailed solutions are provided, from which the reader is guaranteed to learn a lot about the physicists' way of thinking. The book is also packed full of cartoons and dry humor to help take the edge off the stress and
anxiety surrounding exams. This is a helpful guide for students preparing for their exams, as well as a resource for university lecturers looking for good instructive problems. No exams are necessary to enjoy the book!
Author(s): Dmitry Budker, Alexander O. Sushkov, Vasiliki Demas
Edition: 2
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 280
Tags: classical physics; modern physics; exams problems;
Cover
Physics on Your Feet: Berkeley Graduate Exam Questions
Copyright
Dedication
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
How this book came about
Other books
How to use this book
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Mechanics, Heat, and General Physics
1.1 Bouncing brick
Solution
1.2 Slippery cone
Solution
1.3 Roach race
Solution
1.4 Spinning Earth
Solution
1.5 Mechanical oscillator as a force sensor
Solution
1.6 Hot-dog physics
Solution
1.7 Ostrich egg
Solution
1.8 Joker's pendulum
Solution
1.9 Slinky magic
Solution
1.10 Lightbulb and coal
Solution
1.11 Comfortable walking speed
Solution
1.12 Rotating dumbbell
Solution
2 Fluids
2.1 Bubble physics
Solution
2.2 Bubble and pressure
Solution
2.3 Holey bucket
Solution
2.4 Surprises in melting and solidification
Solution
2.5 Shallow-water and deep-water gravity waves
Solution
2.6 Tides
Solution
2.7 Boat speed limit (hull speed)
Solution
2.8 Floating in circles
Solution
2.9 Boat displacement
Solution
2.10 Temperature lapse in the atmosphere
Solution
2.11 Angler's dilemma
Solution
3 Gravitation, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
3.1 Olber's paradox: why is the sky dark?
Solution
3.2 Gravitational shift of clock rates
Solution
3.3 Photon fallout
Solution
3.4 Planck mass and length scale
Solution
3.5 Rotation of stars around the center of a galaxy
Solution
3.6 Ultralight dark matter
Solution
3.7 Detecting gravitational waves
Solution
3.8 Dark matter trapped in the Earth
Solution
4 Electromagnetism
4.1 Currents and magnetic fields
Solution
4.2 Electromagnet design
Solution
4.3 Field in a shield (with a coil)
Solution
4.4 Multipole expansion
Solution
4.5 Energy in a wire
Solution
4.6 Earth's magnetic field angle
Solution
4.7 Refrigerator-magnet science
Solution
4.8 Spherical-cell magnetometer
Solution
4.9 Magnetic force on a superconducting magnet
Solution
4.10 Circuit view of atoms and space
Solution
4.11 Magnetic monopole
Solution
5 Optics
5.1 Rotating liquid mirror
Solution
5.2 Stacking lenses
Solution
5.3 Nanoparticle optics
Solution
5.4 Di raction angle
Solution
5.5 Di raction on an edge
Solution
5.6 Black-body radiation
Solution
5.7 Laser vs. thermal light source
Solution
5.8 Correlation functions for light and Bose condensates
Solution
5.9 Pulsed laser repetition rate
Solution
5.10 Beamsplitter
Solution
5.11 Rotating linear polarization
Solution
6 Quantum, Atomic, and Molecular Physics
6.1 Magnetic decoupling of spins
Solution
6.2 Level anticrossing
Solution
6.3 Bound states in a potential well
Solution
6.4 Hypothetical anomalous hydrogen
Solution
6.5 Time-reversal in quantum mechanics
Solution
6.6 Superconductivity vs. atomic diamagnetism
Solution
6.7 Atomic desorption
Solution
6.8 Lamb shift
Solution
6.9 Van der Waals interaction
Solution
6.10 Vacuum birefringence
Solution
6.11 Nonmagnetic molecule
Solution
6.12 Quantum mechanics of angular momentum
Solution
6.13 Light shifts
Solution
6.14 Optical pumping
Solution
7 Nuclear and Elementary-Particle Physics
7.1 The number of elements in the periodic table
Solution
7.2 Neutron anatomy
Solution
7.3 Nonexistence of the dineutron
Solution
7.4 Deuterium fusion
Solution
7.5 Lifetime of the ground-state para-positronium
Solution
7.6 Schwinger fields
Solution
7.7 Cherenkov radiation
Solution
7.8 Neutron optics
Solution
8 Solid-State Physics
8.1 Transistors
Solution
8.2 Magnetic domains
Solution
8.3 Damaging diamond
Solution
8.4 Nearest-neighbor defect in a crystal
Solution
8.5 Fermi velocity in a metal
Solution
8.6 Superuid transition of helium
Solution
8.7 Frustrated spins
Solution
Appendix A Maxwell's Equations and Electromagnetic Field Boundary Conditions
Appendix B Symbols and Useful Constants
B.1 Symbols
B.2 Useful constants
References
Index
