UGC MODEL CURRICULAM FOR DEGREE COURSES

 IN PHYSICS

 

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

 

1.     Common recommendations

·          Every university should preferably run both BSc (General or Pass) and BSc (Physics or Honours) as three-year degree courses after standard XII.

·          BSc (General) student will study three science subjects at equal footing plus some other components such as Science Communication, Science and Society, etc.

·          BSc (Physics) curriculum is meant for motivated students who wish to pursue Physics further.

 

2.     BSc (general)

·          The combination of three subjects, which the students can opt for, will be decided by each university.

·          The student would take three courses in each of his three science subjects plus one course from other components, every year, making a total of 10 courses per year.

·          Each course will have 3 hours of teaching per week, making a total of 30 contact hours per week.

·          Among the three courses in Physics every year, two shall be for theory and one for lab.

·          Thus in three years, the student will study 9 courses in physics, of which there will be 6 theory courses and 3 lab courses.

 

3.     BSc (Physics)

·          The student registering for this course will study Physics as a major component (about 54%), two supporting subjects [Mathematics – 25% and Chemistry –8.5%], and other components such as Communication skills, Science & Society, History of Physics, etc. (12.5%).

·          The Physics Community in consultation with experts of relevant subjects shall decide the contents of the supporting subjects and other components.

·          Students study 8 courses every year, with 4 contact hours per week for each course.

·          Tutorials should be introduced in both theory and laboratory. Theory tutorials should supplement classroom teaching and should contain problem solving, assignments, etc. Laboratory tutorials should supplement laboratory experiments and should contain variations or extensions of experiments, history of experiments, error analysis, computer simulations, etc.

·          In every course, theory and corresponding practical should go together. The experiments should be related to the theory content.

·          The four components in each course, which are theory, theory tutorials, laboratory and laboratory tutorials, should be merged together in each course, and there should be a common thread running through these components defined by the course title.

 

4.     Course Structure

 

4.1  BSc (General)

Students study three subjects with equal weight in all the three years, along with supporting subjects such as a course on Science, Technology and Society.

 

Table 1 Course structure

Year	Subject 1		Subject 2		Subject 3		Other components
	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours
I	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	1	1
II	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	1	1
III	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	3	3h x 3	1	1

Note: Out of the three courses in Physics every year, two for theory and one for laboratory.

 

Table 2 Physics courses

Year	Paper	Paper title
I	1 2 3	Mechanics, Oscillations and Properties of Matter Electricity, Magnetism and Electromagnetic Theory Laboratory I
II	4 5 6	Kinetic Theory, Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics Waves, Acoustics and Optics Laboratory II
III	7 8 9	Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Atomic, Molecular & Nuclear Physics Solid State Physics, Solid State Devices & Electronics Laboratory III

 

4.2  BSc (Physics)

 

Table 3 Course structure for BSc (Physics)

Year	Physics		Mathematics		Chemistry		Other components
	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours	Papers	Contact hours
I	3	4h x 3	3	4h x 3	1	4h x 1	1	4
II	4	4h x 4	2	4h x 2	1	4h x 1	1	4
III	6	4h x 6	1	4h x 1	1	4h x 1	-	-

 

Table 4 Physics courses

Year	Paper	Paper title
I	P1 P2 P3	Mechanics of Particles, Rigid Bodies & Continuous Media Kinetic Theory, Thermodynamics & Statistical Physics Oscillations, Waves & Acoustics
II	P4 P5 P6 P7	Electricity & Magnetism Electronics Optics Quantum Mechanics
III	P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13	Atomic and Molecular Physics Solid State Physics & Solid State Devices Electrodynamics, Electromagnetic Waves & Relativity Nuclear and particle Physics Elective Project

 

Table 5 Mathematics courses

Year	Paper	Paper title
I	M1 M2 M3	Vectors, Matrices, Complex Numbers & Probability Coordinate Systems, Analytical Geometry & Calculus Computer Programming, Multivariable Calculus & Differential Equations
II	M4 M5	Probability, Modern Algebra & Vector Calculus Computer Programming, Special Functions, Functions of Complex Variables
III	M6	Statistics, Integral Transforms & Elements of Analysis

 

 

Table 6 Chemistry courses

Year	Paper	Paper title
I	C1	Chemistry I
II	C2	Chemistry II

 

 

Table 7 Other components

Year	Paper	Paper title
I	O1	Language
II	O2	Science, Technology and Society
III	O3	Communication and Technical Skills

 

 

 

Prepared by:

Prof. V K Vaidyan

Department of Physics, University of Kerala, Kariavattom 695 581

Email: vaidyan@vsnl.in

http://www.oocities.org/vaidyan_kurian/

 

 

BSc (General) LAB COURSES IN PHYSICS

 

Paper 3 //LAB –1

 

1.1 Mechanics 

·          Moment of inertia – laws of parallel and perpendicular axes

 

• Conservation of momentum in two-dimensional oscillations

 

1.2 Oscillations

• Compound pendulum
• Damping of a bar pendulum
• Oscillations under bifilar suspension
• Oscillations of a mass under different combinations of springs

 1.3 Properties of matter

• Bending of a cantilever
• Torsion of a wire
• Flow of liquids through capillaries
• Surface tension of a liquid
• Viscosity of a fluid

 2.1 Electrostatics

• Characteristics of a ballistic galvanometer

 

• Setting up and using an electroscope or electrometer

 

2.2 Magnetostatics

• Vibration magnetometer
• Magnetic field due to current
• Carey-Foster bridge
• Inductance measurement
• Capacitance measurement
• LC & RC circuits
• LCR Circuits

 2.3 EM Theory 

• Characteristics of a choke
• Measurement of inductance
• Lorentz force
• LC transmission lines

 3.1 Computer Programming I

• Flow charts and interpretation
• To print all natural/ odd numbers between given limits
• To find maximum, minimum and range of given set of numbers
• To compile a frequency distribution and to evaluate mean, standard deviation, etc.
• To evaluate sum of finite series and the area under a curve
• To find the product of two matrices
• To find a set of prime numbers and and Fibonacci series
• Motion of a projectile by simulation
• Solution of equation of motion
• Particle in a central force field
• Roots of a quadratic equation

 

 

 

Paper 6 //LAB –2

 

1.1  Kinetic theory

• Brownian motion
• Adiabatic expansion of gas
• Conversion of mechanical energy into heat
• Heating efficiency of electric kettle with different voltages

 1.2  Thermodynamics

• Temperature dependence of total radiation
• Temperature dependence of spectral density of radiation
• Resistance thermometry
• Thermo-emf thermometry
• Conduction of heat through poor conductors of different geometries

1.3  Statistical physics

• Probability distribution using a dice

 

• Statistical distribution on nuclear disintegration data

2.1 Waves & Acoustics 

• Speed of waves on a stretched string
• Studies on torsional waves
• Interference with two coherent sound sources
• Measurement of sound intensities
• Characteristics of a microphone-loudspeaker system

 2.2 Geometrical Optics

• Designing an optical viewing system

 

• Monochromatic defects of images

 

• Determination of the principal points of a combination of lenses

2.3 Physical Optics 

• Interference of light
• FP etalon
• Diffraction at a straight edge/ single slit
• Diffraction grating
• Resolving limit of a telescope system
• Polarization of light by reflection
• Optical rotation

2.4 Lasers

• Laser as a monochromatic coherent source

 

• Study of divergence of a laser beam

3. Computer Programming II

• Days between two dates of a year
• To find the type of the triangle, if it exists
• Sum of the sine and cosine series
• Solution of simultaneous equations by elimination method
• Fitting a straight line/ simple curve
• Converting decimal to binary/octal & vice-versa
• Inverse of a matrix
• Spiral array

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Paper 9 //LAB –3

 

1.1  Quantum Mechanics

• Determination of Planck constant

 

• Determination of e/m – Thomson method

 

• Determination of e – Millickan method

1.2  Atomic Physics

• Spectrum of hydrogen and deuterium
• Absorption spectrum of iodine vapour
• Study of alkali spectra
• Zeeman effect and Lande g-factor

 1.3  Molecular Physics

• Analysis of a given band spectrum

 

• Study of Raman spectrum using laser as an excitation source

 

 1.4  Nuclear Physics

• Study of absorption of alpha and beta rays

 

• Study of statistics in radioactive measurements

2.1 Solid State Physics 

• Hysteresis curve of transformer core

 

• Determination of dielectric constant
• Hall probe method of measurement of magnetic field

2.2 Solid State Devices

• Specific resistance and energy gap of a semiconductor

 

• Characteristics of a transistor
•  
• Characteristics of a tunnel diode

2.3 Electronics

• Study of voltage regulation
• Regulated power supply
• Lissajous figures using CRO
• VTVM
• RC & TC coupled amplifiers
• AF & RF oscillators

3. Computer Programming III

• Newton-Raphson method
• Roots of f(x) = 0 by using secant method
• Integration by Simpson rule
• Runga-Kutta method
• Eight queens problem
• Magic squares
• String manipulations
• Towers of Honoi
• Finding first four perfect numbers