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Welcome
Dear New Physicist,
Welcome to Oxford! Congratulations on surviving A-levels and gaining a place. Hopefully you will enjoy your time here – there is such a wide variety of activities that it is difficult not to.
This guide is designed to give you an idea of what the course involves. You can find all the details in the Undergraduate Course Handbook. The aim is not to repeat the material but to offer useful advice and insight.
This is an extended version of the printed guide containing the following:
The views and opinions expressed in this guide are the PJCC’s, not do not represent the views of any college, the Physics Department or the University.
Terms in Oxford (Michaelmas – autumn, Hilary – spring, Trinity – summer) are very short compared to other universities. The workload is very intensive and due to the pace it is easy to get left behind – all it takes is a few rehearsals, rowing outings, hockey training sessions or parties to mess up your schedule completely. The holidays are therefore a time to look over the work done during the previous term and read about the topics to be covered next term. Colleges normally provide a focus in the form of internal exams, known as collections, at the beginning of each term. These have no bearing on your final degree – they are simply to help you and your tutors find out how you’re progressing. The seriousness of these exams depends entirely on your college. Some may make you do them again if you do badly, in the form of penal collections (which can ultimately lead to expulsion).
Tutorials
The focus of your work in Oxford will be the tutorial. During the first year you will usually have two a week (one in physics and one in maths). A tutorial basically consists of an hour-long (or more) meeting between two or three students and a tutor, who is a practising physicist, either from your college or the physics department. Mostly you will go over work handed in beforehand, but sometimes you will look at work to be covered in forthcoming lectures. Problem classes are also held on an irregular basis.
Tutors organise their tutorials in different ways. Many stick closely to the question sheets handed out in lectures whereas some set their own questions. They may opt to introduce new material themselves or go over a technique a lecturer has covered from a new perspective. Having access to the core textbooks is very important as well, as tutors will often refer you to a chapter which is particularly relevant.
The beauty of the tutorial system lies in its flexibility. Your tutor will get to know you quickly and will be able to see where you are having problems and direct you as necessary. With only one or two other students present it is much easier to ask questions without feeling as if you are holding someone else up – try to make use of this as much as possible. Often a tutor can give you a reply to a question immediately for which you might otherwise have to spend hours of searching in books to find the answer.
In addition to being an excellent way of learning the material, tutorials are an opportunity to talk with experienced physicists and learn about things that may be completely off the course. Nonetheless, these extra-curricular discussions are usually fascinating and provide you with a wider view of physics in general. If you ask them, they will probably also show you around their lab and might help you to find a vacation placement to get a better insight into what actual research is like.
Lectures
For most students the lecture is the primary source of information. During the first year they cover all Prelims material more concisely than in any textbook. These lectures are in the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre in the Clarendon Laboratory. The best thing to do is to go to the first few lectures to get a feel for what they are like and act accordingly based on your own preferred style of learning. Some lecturers produce reading lists with references to specific books and chapters with each problem set and an accompanying set of notes. These and more useful stuff can be found on lecturers’ web pages via www.physics.ox.ac.uk/lectures. It is up to you if you prefer to annotate the existing notes during lectures, or if you make your own entirely. Most of the more mathematical subjects require copying what is written on the blackboard and if you do not attend you have no information whatsoever.
Question sheets are usually handed out at lectures. These are exercises based on the material covered which your tutors will probably set you. You have plenty of time to go over the lecture and questions with textbooks that may well devote a whole chapter to something the lecturer has taken only five minutes to explain. Your tutor will also help you with things you do not understand regardless of its relation to the week’s set work.
At the end of each term you have to fill out and online lecture feedback questionnaire. Your comments are taken into account by the individual lecturers (and they will usually make changes according to them) and are discussed with the faculty in the PJCC meetings. So you should use this chance to improve the course!
Learning from Textbooks
A very important skill that you need to acquire at university is to learn independently. It becomes more essential as the course progresses so try to learn it early on and do not rely on lectures only. Some students decide to work entirely from textbooks, not attending any lectures at all. This is definitely risky and requires much confidence and self-discipline. Sometimes new topics must be learned from textbooks, for example for a practical or if you have missed several lectures through illness. Often tutors will set work before the relevant lectures have been given. This is a good opportunity to get ahead, and means that you learn a lot more when the actual lecture detailing the work comes up.
Finally it is always a good idea to meet up with other physicists from your year to go over the material covered in the course – especially for exams revision. You will notice that some problems can be solved much more quickly that way and that explaining a topic to others helps you to get a more clear idea of it yourself.
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The first year of the course is quite mathematical, which may come as a shock, particularly compared to A-level physics. What you are effectively doing is learning a language, which is used in the rest of the course to describe the world we see around us. This allows you to solve problems properly – however you should always try to then see the physics behind the equations and results you get.
You also learn the foundations of some of the most important branches of physics.
There are exams (Prelims) that you are required to pass at the end of your first year. Prelims have no bearing on your final degree classification although if you do very well (exact requirements vary from year to year) you may be awarded a Distinction. Some colleges may also award a scholarship to the tune of two hundred pounds (depending on your college) on performance in this examination. The papers are as follows:
Compulsory:
- CP1: Physics 1 (formerly Mechanics and Special Relativity)
- CP2: Physics 2 (formerly Introductory Electromagnetism and Circuits)
- CP3: Mathematical Methods 1 (formerly Mathematical Methods)
- CP4: Mathematical Methods 2 (formerly Differential Equations, Waves and Optics)
Short Options:
- S1: Functions of a Complex Variable
- S2: Astrophysics: from planets to the cosmos
- S3: Quantum Ideas
Students take the four compulsory papers and then choose one of the short option papers. The astrophysics option may be included as part of your second year and functions of a complex variable may be done as part of any year, but obviously you cannot do the same course twice. A full description of the course can be found in the undergraduate handbook, which you will receive after you arrive. Some more information about the different options and useful books can also be found in the next section.
The pass mark is around forty per cent. A minority of physicists will fail one or two papers but you get a chance to retake them in September, although spending the summer revising for exams that you have to pass to stay in Oxford cannot be pleasant. Students will be sent down (made to leave) for failing Prelims papers after the September re-sits.
Descriptions of the courses and the exam papers are given in the undergraduate physics handbook, although attending the lectures soon gives you a taste of what each one is like. The handbook gives a list of topics on each course that are examinable (the Syllabus). It is worth checking these against some of the topics given to you by the lecturers. Previous exam papers can be found on www.physics.ox.ac.uk/expapers - however examiners and the syllabus change from year to year so you should not rely too much on them.
Subsequent Years
During the second and third years the course concentrates on the standard areas of physics, focussing more on the physics itself rather than the maths. Obviously mathematics is used extensively but as a tool rather than being studied for its own sake. Exams remain in Trinity Term of the second and third years, covering the Part A and Part B syllabuses respectively.
For Part A there are 3 papers:
- A1: Thermal Physics – kinetic theory, heat transport, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
- A2: Electromagnetism and Optics – more advanced than in the 1st year
- A3: Quantum Physics – foundations and applications to certain systems (e.g. Hydrogen)
There is also an exam based on a short option. The subjects from Prelims may be chosen (except Quantum Ideas) and others such as Chaos, Energy Studies, History of Electromagnetism or a language option.
For Part B there are 4 papers:
- B1: Atomic Structure, Special Relativity and sub-Atomic Physics – all about atoms, special relativity, nuclear and particle physics.
- B2: Condensed Matter Physics and Photonics – all about solids, how light interacts with matter, and how semi-conductors work
- B3: Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics – astrophysics, cosmology, fluid dynamics and climate physics
- B4: Mathematical Physics* – relativistic electromagnetism and general relativity
The four-year MPhys differs from the three-year BA in that you take three papers for Part B, whereas for the BA you take 2 Part B papers and do a project. B4 is intended for those students who desire a more theoretical approach to Physics.
In the Part C course, taken in the 4th year of the MPhys, you do two courses in a specialised area of physics and an extended project.
You will not have to choose between the BA and MPhys until after the results of the Part A exams are published. You will be expected to achieve a II.i (2.1) after Part A in order to proceed to the MPhys.
* Conditions apply to do this paper, see Physics Undergraduate Course Handbook.
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S1: Functions of a complex variable (1st, 2nd or 3rd year)
This option will appeal to those who enjoy maths and like a challenge! Although it can be hard work, it is more rewarding than the ‘ordinary’ maths you will study. The material in the course will be completely new, and covers mapping shapes (for example, equipotentials around a conductor) from one complex plane to simpler shapes in another; and contour integration, a way of integrating in the complex plane to evaluate difficult integrals. The maths you will learn will not really be used again in the rest of the course unless you do theory later on, so is for fun only! The best books are again Boas and Mathematical Methods for Physicists by Arfken, which is more advanced. If you are strong at maths, you will find this option enjoyable, so it is well worth taking, if harder than much of the other material in the course.
S2: Astrophysics: from planets to the cosmos (1st or 2nd year only)
This course is indeed a wide-ranging introduction to astrophysics, ranging from Kepler’s Laws and the basics of stellar structure to a qualitative view of star formation and the evidence for dark matter. It is important to emphasise that knowledge of Prelims mechanics and special relativity courses is assumed, so if these turn out to be your strong points then this could be a good choice of option. If you choose this option there are astronomy practicals. The astrophysics sub-department has the Wetton Telescope in the Observatory by the side of the University Parks, which may be used by undergraduates. Few people last year did the astronomy option as this required substituting it for material that would be needed in the second year, thus creating extra work for oneself. As a result I am not able to recommend one astrophysics textbook over another.
S3: Quantum ideas (1st year only)
The quantum mechanics presented in the first year is really a taster of things to come in the second year. Although it covers some of the techniques used in solving quantum mechanics problems, the examples seem unphysical (a single particle travelling in one dimension in a box with infinite sides) and parts of the course are only qualitative discussions. This course, however, is still very interesting as parts of it seem to defy and, indeed, even laugh at common sense. It starts with a discussion of examples from the beginning of the last century where classical physics failed to accurately describe known phenomena, then proceeds to document the way in which quantum physics developed. As with relativity, there are only a few basic ideas so the questions will be very similar to those set in previous years. An indispensable textbook with plenty of discussion into the experimental methods and implications of all things quantum is An Introduction to Quantum Physics, French (this guy must be a deity as he seems to have a textbook on everything) and Taylor, 1979, although this book is referred to less in subsequent years. It may be difficult to find in college libraries but the Hooke has a substantial number of copies. Second year texts such as McMurry, and Rae, cover the same material but at a much faster clip.
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There’s no getting away from it - Physics is a practical subject and doing experiments is an important part of the Physics Course in Oxford. This guide is intended to give you an outline of the Practical Course. You will be given a more comprehensive guidebook by the Physics Department during the first week of term, and there will also be a safety lecture regarding practicals.
During the first year you will spend one day in the labs each week. The requirement for the first year is fifteen days of practicals, which means that you don’t have to do any in Trinity term. Try not to get behind with practicals; although if you miss one you can catch up at the end of Hilary Term.
Practicals are done in pairs, usually with someone from your college, although if your college admits an odd number of students you may be with someone from another college. Working in pairs really helps; it gives you someone to talk about the experiment with and makes setting up the equipment a lot easier.
First year experiments are done on either Thursday or Friday; you have from 10am till 5pm to get it done. It is not a pressurised environment and if you have been working well during the day then you won’t be made to stay after 5pm.
For each practical, you are provided with a detailed script including instructions telling you what to do, technical details about how to set up the apparatus, and all the relevant theory. It is a good idea to take a copy of the next week’s script when you finish an experiment, just to give you an outline of what you will be doing. This can help save time at the beginning of the day, and you may finish early.
The labs are staffed with ‘demonstrators’ and a few senior members of staff. Demonstrators are usually post-graduate Physics students and some will have gone through the Practical Course as undergraduates. They are there to answer questions, explain things you don’t understand and help setting up your experiments. Frequently the experiment will involve Physics that you have not yet studied. Thankfully the demonstrators are understanding, and will accept that it may take longer for you to get your head around it.
The Prelims practicals are grouped into 5 different areas: Optics, Electronics, Electrostatics and Magnetism, Computing, and “General” (mostly Mechanics).
At the end of the term you can give feedback about the different practical labs and you can also comment on individual experiments (using the “management scheme” which you will get to know very soon...) – these will be useful for others when choosing which experiment to do and constructive comments and ideas will also help to improve the practical course.
After the First Year
In the second and third years you spend 2 days every other week in the labs, so you can do longer experiments. You alternate between practical weeks, which are really hectic, and non-practical weeks, which are fairly quiet. The choice of practicals is wider than during the first year, so you can chose the practicals you find most interesting. You will also complete an extended project during your final year of your degree.
There are a number of possibilities to replace some practical by other courses, for example, an extra ‘Short Option’ paper. ‘Teaching and Learning Physics in Schools’ is another option. This involves working in a local secondary school helping to teach Physics.
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Optics - 3 days
To be brutally honest, Optics practicals are not fun. You spend hours setting up the equipment, and not very long actually taking results. They are, however, quite useful in that they help you understand the basic principles, and they correlate very closely with the lecture course. Optics practicals are the only first-year practicals that need to be written up. Write-ups are annoying, and can take the best part of a day to complete. A typical length would be three to four sides plus tables and graphs (although this obviously depends on the experiment and your style of writing).
Electronics - 3 days
Electronics practicals generally polarize opinion (excuse the pun). The practicals take all day, but you don't need to write them up. You just explain what you've done to a demonstrator and he ticks off each section as you go along. Remember you have a separate electronics handbook, which is essential to refer to for some experiments.
General - 3 days
These experiments try to show you some practical applications of the mechanics course and teach you experimental techniques and analysis of errors. The practicals themselves are fine, but error analysis will quickly become the bane of your life. There is a section in the Practical Course Handbook about errors, which will tell you everything you need to know.
Electrostatics / Magnetism - 2 days
These practicals are quite straightforward; some of them are quite interesting and definitely easier than the theory.
Computing - 4 days
These are generally thought to be the easiest practicals. If you have never done any computer programming before, there is no need to worry because the introduction is quite straightforward and instructions are provided which guide you through every step. There are slightly more advanced tasks for those with previous programming experience. Demonstrators are always on hand if you get totally stuck. You also have a computing handbook, which like the electronics one is essential for these labs. If you are happy not having demonstrators present all the time you can generally complete these when you wish, although other students scheduled to have practicals will take priority.
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There is no single textbook that covers all the material on the course so it is necessary to use a variety of books for each aspect of the course. Many books go well beyond the level required, and there are two options available when it comes to acquiring them: buying them or using the university or college libraries. If you find it necessary to buy a book (if you like it and it is a core book for the course) try to get it in the second hand section of a bookstore or from someone in a higher year. Your college may (not all colleges do) repay you some of the cost of buying books, so keep the receipts.
College Library
Your college library should have most of the books you need for the course and will stock multiple copies of the most frequently used. Your tutor will usually order more copies if there are not enough.
Radcliff Science Library (RSL)
Part of the Bodleian Library, which by law gets copies of almost every book printed in the United Kingdom, so it’s bound to have what you’re looking for. It is not, however, a lending library so you’ll have to do your work there. More details about the Radcliffe Science Library and lending services can be found at http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/rsl and http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/rsl/services/lending_services.
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You may have been given a reading list as part of the recommended preparatory work; it is useful to buy at least some of the books on this list and begin reading them. It is helpful to read over your A-level notes, especially those on maths, and re-familiarize yourself with topics like integration, differentiation and so on as advancement of these will be one of the main features of the first year course. If you didn't take Further Maths A-Level you should be aware that you will have some catching up to do when you come to Oxford, and as a result you will find your first year fairly hard. If you find yourself struggling, you can (and should!) ask your tutor for help or advice. Try to finish your vacation work before you arrive in Oxford – there are a lot of things to do in “Freshers’ Week”.
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Physics is traditionally a male-dominated subject, which is still true in the sense that the majority of physics undergraduates are male. Slightly over a fifth of physics students are female, but almost all tutors and lecturers are male. Having said that, women are taken just as seriously as men by tutors, demonstrators and by fellow students. I find that I get on very well with tutors and male colleagues, and cease to notice when I am in the minority. It really doesn’t make any difference.
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The committee consists of representatives of the Faculty of Physics and representatives of the Physics undergraduates. A Special Needs representative also sits on this committee.
It meets twice a term (in second and seventh week) to discuss changes in the course, complaints from students, exam matters etc.
To contact the student members, you can use the form on the webpage or just talk to your “year rep” or someone else on the committee directly. All your comments will be taken seriously and can be handled anonymously if you want to. If you are interested in participating in the PJCC please contact the PJCC Chairman.
It is important that many people contact us so we can get a balanced set of views. We will also hold open meetings, so please come if you can. If you have a problem or a good idea, let us know – that way things can be improved.
The minutes of previous meetings are displayed on the webpage and occasionally the PJCC notice boards, (in the refreshment area on the first floor between the Martin Wood and the Lindemann Lecture Theatres, and in the common area in the Denys Wilkinson Building).
Each term every physics student fills in a web-based questionnaire about the lectures they have attended. The results, including marks for various categories and a summary of the comments for each lecturer, are collated and passed on to the department. The filling of these questionnaires is compulsory, as the results are taken seriously.
The PJCC webpage also contains useful links (with additional lecture notes, good physics websites or handy programs) and help for finding vacation placements. If you have other ideas for what could be on that webpage, let us know!
If you have any concerns the Chair or Secretary can be emailed directly by clicking their name on the Committee Page of the PJCC website.
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We hold these postulates to be intuitively obvious, that all physicists are born equal, to a first approximation, and are endowed by their creator with certain discrete privileges, among them a mean rest life, n degrees of freedom, and the following rights which are invariant under all linear transformations:
- To approximate all problems to ideal cases.
- To use order of magnitude calculations whenever deemed necessary (i.e. whenever one can get away with it).
- To use the rigorous method of "squinting" for solving problems more complex than the addition of positive real integers.
- To dismiss all functions which diverge as "nasty" and "unphysical."
- To invoke the uncertainty principle when confronted by confused mathematicians, chemists, engineers, psychologists, and dramatists
- When pressed by non-physicists for an explanation of (4) to mumble in a sneering tone of voice something about physically naive mathematicians.
- To equate two sides of an equation which are dimensionally inconsistent, with a suitable comment to the effect of, "Well, we are interested in the order of magnitude anyway."
- To the extensive use of "bastard notations" where conventional mathematics will not work.
- To invent fictitious forces to delude the general public.
- To justify shaky reasoning on the basis that it gives the right answer.
- To cleverly choose convenient initial conditions, using the principle of general triviality.
- To use plausible arguments in place of proofs, and thenceforth refer to these arguments as proofs.
- To take on faith any principle which seems right but cannot be proved.
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