Physics 140A
Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics

Course information

Instructor: Rena Zieve
Office: 243 Physics/Geology, 752-2510
Lab: 232 Physics/Geology, 752-8049
Office Hours:    11-12 Monday, 12-1 Tuesday, 2:30-3:30 Wednesday
E-mail:zieve@physics.ucdavis.edu
 
Reader: Jim Ma
E-mail: jma@student.physics.ucdavis.edu
Office hour: 1-3 Monday
Office: 100 Physics/Geology
 

Assignments

Problem Set 1--due Tuesday January 13
Problem Set 2--due Tuesday January 20
Problem Set 3--due Tuesday January 27
Problem Set 4--due Tuesday February 3
Problem Set 5--due Tuesday February 10 (NO LATE HW ACCEPTED) -- Get the graph for question 3 in class or outside my office.
Problem Set 6--due Thursday February 19
Problem Set 7--due Thursday February 26
Problem Set 8--due Thursday March 5
Problem Set 9--due Thursday March 12

Other Handouts

Course Info

Answer Set 1
Answer Set 2
Answer Set 3
Answer Set 4
Answer Set 5
Answer Set 6
Answer Set 7
Answer Set 8
Answer Set 9

Practice Midterm
Answers to Practice Midterm
Midterm
Answers to Midterm

Practice Final
Answers to Practice Final
Final Exam
Answers to Final

Comments

I have the exam and solutions posted now. (See above.) You can see your test and course grades here. If you think you couldn't possibly have done as well as the score I listed, you're probably correct. My grading went way beyond generous on this one, including scoring the last three questions out of 24-25 points each instead of 20. Many of you understand this material much better than the exam showed, so if anyone can explain to me what made the test so impossible, I'd be very happy to hear it.

Final exam: one page (8.5" by 11") of notes, both sides, is allowed. Also please bring a calculator.

HW9: you do NOT need to turn in Myers 7.4, although you will be responsible for that material on the final exam.

HW8: for Myers 6.23, calculate the percentage of the total heat capacity at 300 K that is due to electrons

HW5: for problem 3, you will need the value for diamond of one easily obtainable quantity not given in the problem. (For an order of magnitude estimate you ought to be able to guess this number, but you'll get a better estimate by looking it up.)

HW3: For Meyer 3.7, you can ignore the first sentence about describing the Ewald construction.

HW1: On problem 1c, use a NaCl lattice with separation a between a Na atom and its nearest-neighbor Cl atoms.