Lecture by Tim Byrnes for the course How Things Works at NYU Shanghai.

Course Description:
Do you know how electricity is generated and transported? How instruments create music? Why the sky is blue and why there are rainbows? Where the term “cell phone” comes from? What makes refrigerator magnets stick? How clocks keep time? Why ice skating is possible? How your computer monitor and plasma screen TV produce their colors and pictures? All of the devices that define contemporary living are applications of basic scientific discoveries. The principles underlying these devices are fascinating as well as useful, and explain as well many of the natural features and phenomena of the world around us. This course familiarizes you with some basic principles of physics through their applications to selected devices such as CD and DVD players, radio and cell phones, the basic electronic components of computers, lasers and LEDs, and even nuclear weapons. In learning the
basic physics behind these modern inventions, you will develop a deeper understanding of how the physical world works and gain a new appreciation of everyday phenomena that are ordinarily taken for granted. The course is designed for non-science students with an interest in the natural world. The basic physical ideas needed to understand how things operate are presented using some mathematics, but none beyond elementary high school level algebra.



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