Physics

 Theoretical Skills \ Knowledge :

Mechanics

 Kinematics
 Velocity and acceleration of a point particle as the derivatives of its displacement
vector.
 Linear speed; centripetal and tangential acceleration.
 Motion of a point particle with a constant acceleration.
 Addition of velocities and angular velocities;
 addition of accelerations without the Coriolis term;
 recognition of the cases when the Coriolis acceleration is zero.
 Motion of a rigid body as a rotation around an instantaneous centre of rotation;
 velocities and accelerations of the material points of rigid rotating bodies

 Statics
 Finding the centre of mass of a system via summation or via integration.
 Equilibrium conditions: force balance (vectorially or in terms of projections), and
torque balance (only for one- and two-dimensional geometry).
 Normal force, tension force, static and kinetic friction force; Hooke’s law, stress,
strain, and Young modulus.
 Stable and unstable equilibria.

 Dynamics
 Newton’s second law (in vector form and via projections (components));
 kinetic energy for translational and rotational motions.
 Potential energy for simple force fields (also as a line integral of the force field).
 Momentum, angular momentum, energy and their conservation laws.
 Mechanical work and power; dissipation due to friction.
 Inertial and non-inertial frames of reference: inertial force, centrifugal force,
potential energy in a rotating frame.
 Moment of inertia for simple bodies (ring, disk, sphere, hollow sphere, rod),
parallel axis theorem; finding a moment of inertia via integration.
  Celestial Mechanics
 Law of gravity, gravitational potential, Kepler’s laws (no derivation needed for
first and third law).
 Energy of a point mass on an elliptical orbit.

 Hydrodynamics
 Pressure, buoyancy, continuity law, the Bernoulli equation.
 Surface tension and the associated energy, capillary pressure.

Thermodynamics

 Classical Thermodynamics
 Concepts of thermal equilibrium and reversible processes;
 internal energy, work and heat;
 Kelvin’s temperature scale; entropy; open, closed, isolated systems;
 first and second laws of thermodynamics.
 Kinetic theory of ideal gases: Avogadro number, Boltzmann factor and gas
constant;
 translational motion of molecules and pressure;
 ideal gas law; translational, rotational and oscillatory degrees of freedom;
 equipartition theorem; internal energy of ideal gases; root-mean-square speed of
molecules.
 Isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, and adiabatic processes;
 specific heat for isobaric and isochoric processes; forward and reverse Carnot
cycle on ideal gas and its efficiency;
 efficiency of non-ideal heat engines.

 Heat transfer & phase transitions

 Phase transitions (boiling, evaporation, melting, sublimation) and latent heat;
 saturated vapour pressure, relative humidity; boiling;
 Dalton’s law; concept of heat conductivity; continuity of heat flux.

 Statistical Physics
 Planck’s law (explained qualitatively, does not need to be remembered),
 Wien’s displacement law;
 the StefanBoltzmann law.
Electricity & Electromagnetism

 Basic Concepts
 Concepts of charge and current;
 charge conservation and Kirchhoff’s current law.
 Coulomb force; electrostatic field as a potential field; Kirchhoff’s voltage law.
 Magnetic B-field; Lorentz force; Ampère’s force;
 Biot-Savart law and B-field on the axis of a circular current loop and for simple
symmetric systems like straight wire, circular loop and long solenoid.

 Integral forms of Maxwell’s equations

 Gauss’ law (for E- and B-fields); Ampère’s law; Faraday’s law; using these laws
for the calculation of fields when the integrand is almost piece-wise constant.
 Boundary conditions for the electric field (or electrostatic potential) at the surface
of conductors and at infinity; concept of grounded conductors.
 Superposition principle for electric and magnetic fields; uniqueness of solution to
wellposed problems; method of image charges

 Interaction of matter with electric and magnetic fields

 Resistivity and conductivity; differential form of Ohm’s law.
 Dielectric and magnetic permeability; relative permittivity and permeability of
electric and magnetic materials;
 energy density of electric and magnetic fields; ferromagnetic materials; hysteresis
and dissipation; eddy currents; Lenz’s law.
 Charges in magnetic field: helicoidal motion, cyclotron frequency, drift in
crossed Eand B-fields.
 Energy of a magnetic dipole in a magnetic field; dipole moment of a current loop

 Circuits
 Linear resistors and Ohm’s law; Joule’s law; work done by an electromotive
force;
 ideal and non-ideal batteries, constant current sources, ammeters, voltmeters and
ohmmeters.
 Nonlinear elements of given V -I characteristic.
 Capacitors and capacitance (also for a single electrode with respect to infinity);
 self-induction and inductance; energy of capacitors and inductors; mutual
inductance; time constants for RL and RC circuits.
 AC circuits: complex amplitude; impedance of resistors, inductors, capacitors,
and combination circuits; phasor diagrams; current and voltage resonance; active
power.
Oscillations & Waves

 Single Oscillator
 Harmonic oscillations : equation of motion, frequency, angular frequency and
period.
 Physical pendulum and its reduced length.
 Behaviour near unstable equilibria.
 Exponential decay of damped oscillations; resonance of sinusoidally forced
oscillators: amplitude and phase shift of steady state oscillations.
 Free oscillations of LCcircuits; mechano-electrical analogy; positive feedback as
a source of instability; generation of sine waves by feedback in a LC-resonator

 Waves
 Propagation of harmonic waves: phase as a linear function of space and time;
 wave length, wave vector, phase and group velocities; exponential decay for
waves propagating in dissipative media; transverse and longitudinal waves; the
classical Doppler effect.
 Waves in inhomogeneous media: Fermat’s principle, Snell’s law.
 Sound waves: speed as a function of pressure (Young’s or bulk modulus) and
density, Mach cone.
 Energy carried by waves: proportionality to the square of the amplitude,
continuity of the energy flux.

 Interference & Diffraction

 Superposition of waves: coherence, beats, standing waves, Huygens’ principle
interference due to thin films (conditions for intensity minima and maxima only)
 Diffraction from one and two slits, diffraction grating, Bragg reflection

 Interaction of Electromagnetic waves with matter

 Dependence of electric permittivity on frequency (qualitatively); refractive index;
dispersion and dissipation of electromagnetic waves in transparent and opaque
materials.
 Linear polarisation; Brewster angle; polarisers; Malus’ law.
 Light & Optics

 Reflection

 Refraction

 Geometrical optics & Photometry

 Approximation of geometrical optics: rays and optical images; a partial shadow
and full shadow
 . Thin lens approximation; construction of images created by ideal thin lenses;
thin lens equation .
 Luminous flux and its continuity; illuminance; luminous intensity.

 Optical Devices
 Telescopes and microscopes: magnification and resolving power; diffraction
grating and its resolving power; interferometer

Relativity
 Principle of relativity and Lorentz transformations for the time and spatial
coordinate, and for the energy and momentum;
 mass-energy equivalence;
 in-variance of the space time interval and of the rest mass
 . Addition of parallel velocities
 ; time dilation; length contraction;
 relativity of simultaneity;
 energy and momentum of photons and relativistic Doppler effect; relativistic
equation of motion
 ; conservation of energy and momentum for elastic and non-elastic interaction of
particles.

Quantum Physics

 Probability Waves
 Particles as waves: relationship between the frequency and energy, and between
the wave vector and momentum.
 energy levels of hydrogen-like atoms (circular orbits only) and of parabolic
potentials; quantization of angular momentum.
 Uncertainty principle for the conjugate pairs of time and energy, and of
coordinate and momentum (as a theorem, and as a tool for estimates);

 Structure of matter
 Emission and absorption spectra for hydrogen-like atoms (for other atoms —
qualitatively), and for molecules due to molecular oscillations; spectral width and
lifetime of excited states.
 Pauli exclusion principle for Fermi particles.
 Particles (knowledge of charge and spin): electrons, electron neutrinos, protons,
neutrons, photons; Compton scattering. Protons and neutrons as compound
particles.
 Atomic nuclei, energy levels of nuclei (qualitatively); alpha-, beta- and gamma-
decays; fission, fusion and neutron capture; mass defect; half life and exponential
decay.
 photoelectric effect

 Practical \ Experimental Skills :

 Safety
 Knowing standard safety rules in laboratory work. Nevertheless, if the
experimental set-up contains any safety hazards, the appropriate warnings should
be included in the text of the problem. Experiments with major safety hazards
should be avoided

 Measurement techniques and apparatus

 Being familiar with the most common experimental techniques for measuring
physical quantities mentioned in the theoretical part. Knowing commonly used
simple laboratory instruments and digital and analog versions of simple devices,
such as calipers, the Vernier scale, stopwatches, thermometers, multimeters
(including ohmmeters and AC/DC voltmeters and ammeters), potentiometers,
diodes, , lenses, prisms, optical stands, calorimeters, and so on. Sophisticated
practical equipment likely to be unfamiliar to the students should not dominate a
problem. In the case of moderately sophisticated equipment (such as
oscilloscopes, counters, ratemeters, signal and function generators, photogates,
etc), instructions must be given to the students.

 Accuracy
 Being aware that instruments may affect the outcome of experiments. Being
familiar with basic techniques for increasing experimental accuracy (e.g.
measuring many periods instead of a single one, minimizing the influence of
noise, etc). Knowing that if a functional dependence of a physical quantity is to
be determined, the density of taken data points should correspond to the local
characteristic scale of that functional dependence. Expressing the final results and
experimental uncertainties with a reasonable number of significant digits, and
rounding off correct

 Experimental uncertainty analysis

 Identification of dominant error sources, and reasonable estimation of the
magnitudes of the experimental uncertainties of direct measurements (using rules
from documentation, if provided). Distinguishing between random and systematic
errors; being able to estimate and reduce the former via repeated measurements.
Finding absolute and relative uncertainties of a quantity determined as a function
of measured quantities using any reasonable method (such as linear
approximation, addition by modulus or Pythagorean addition).

 Data analysis
 Transformation of a dependence to a linear form by appropriate choice of
variables and fitting a straight line to experimental points. Finding the linear
regression parameters (gradient, intercept and uncertainty estimate) either
graphically, or using the statistical functions of a calculator (either method
acceptable). Selecting optimal scales for graphs and plotting data points with
error bars.