(Bachelor of Arts Degree)
Physics is the science concerned with the nature of matter, energy, and the interrelationships between them. Common cross-disciplines include engineering physics, chemical physics, geophysics, biophysics, and mathematical physics.
Engineering is the application of physics to real-world problems. Engineers are the people who design the automobiles, the bridges, the computer chips, the electronic devices, the artificial limbs, and all of the other technological wonders of our civilization.
Between these two fields, there is a mixed area that might be called applied physics or research engineering. It calls for people with a practical physics background who do engineering-development and research in industry.
Students considering public school teaching as a career should refer to the programs in education, listed alphabetically in this section of the catalog.
The B.A. in physics is intended for students who plan to teach or who wish to have a good scientific background for use in technology-related careers in business, law, management, optometry, or medicine. It provides a broader base of general science and allows for more course electives in other disciplines than the B.S. program.
Total credit hours required for degree: 128
Learning Objectives
BA students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a conceptual, theoretical and practical understanding (including hands-on work) in the Classical Mechanics topics such as Newton’s laws of motion, static and dynamic equilibrium, kinematics, work, energy, impulse and momentum and relativistic mechanics (special relativity).
- Demonstrate a conceptual, theoretical and practical understanding (including hands-on work) in the Electricity and Magnetism topics such as Electric forces and fields Gauss’s Law, the electric potential, electric potential energy and work, Kirchhoff’s Laws, DC and AC circuits, including R, RC and LRC circuits, magnetic forces and fields, and Ampere’s Law.
- Demonstrate a conceptual, theoretical and practical understanding (including hands-on work) in the Quantum and Modern Physics topics such as quantization of energy, particle-like properties of radiation, wavelike properties of matter, the Bohr atom, wavefunctions, Schrodinger’s Equation in 1- and 3- dimensions, the harmonic oscillator, and the hydrogen atom.
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