General Physics

There will be lectures and application examples on specific topics.The wealth of knowledge provided to the student puts her/him in a position to deal with more specific courses of the curriculum; particular importance is given to the physical contribution in applications in other research fields presented in the program. After completing the course, the student will have learned the basics of the experimental method, the basic physical laws and will have got to know different applications of the same in fields related to the course of study. The formal correctness of the topics covered in the exposition is taken into particular consideration, in the context of mathematical knowledge acquired by students in previous courses. We pursue the following objectives: 

• knowledge and understanding about the foundations of physics; 
• application knowledge about methodological and instrumental procedures also useful for engineering research;
• strong stimulation of the logical-deductive abilities.

Lectures in presence and numerical examples on specific topics. The course is divided into 9 training credits

CFU of which 7 relating to lectures in presence and two to classroom exercises.

GENERAL PHYSICS

INTRODUCTION: Physical quantities. Unit of measure. Significant digits. Measurement uncertainties. Scalar and vector quantities. Operations with vectors. Components of a vector and unit vectors.

KINEMATICS OF THE MATERIAL POINT: Material point. Average and instantaneous position, displacement, velocity and acceleration vectors. Motion law.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOTION: Motion with constant velocity. Motion with constant acceleration. Parabolic motion. Uniform and non-uniform circular motion. General motion in two and three dimensions. Harmonic motion. Kinematics of relative motions. Composition laws of velocities and accelerations.

ELEMENTS OF DYNAMICS: First law of dynamics. Inertial reference systems and inertial mass. Force acting on a body. Second law of dynamics. Statics of the material point. Main types of forces. Third law of dynamics. Momentum and momentum conservation theorem. Isolated and non-isolated systems. Dynamics in non-inertial references and apparent forces. Earth's rotation.

UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION: Forces of attraction of the planets and Kepler's laws. Law of universal gravitation. Earth's gravitational force and weight of bodies. Artificial terrestrial satellites.

FRICTION FORCES: Static friction forces. Motion on a rough surface and dynamic friction. Friction forces in fluids. Limit velocity. Viscosity.

DYNAMICS OF THE MATERIAL POINT: Fundamental problem of the dynamics of the material point. Motion of a material point on an inclined plane. Motion of a material point subjected to elastic forces. Motion of a material point in a viscous fluid. Rotation dynamics. Moment of a force. Angular momentum.

IMPULSE, WORK AND ENERGY: Impulse of a force. Momentum theorem. Work done by a force. Kinetic energy and kinetic energy theorem. Conservative forces. Potential energy. Examples of conservative and non-conservative forces. Conservation of mechanical energy. Relationship between force and potential energy. Power and efficiency of a machine.

DYNAMICS OF MATERIAL POINT SYSTEMS: Internal forces and external forces. Cardinal equations of system dynamics. Center of mass theorem. Two-body system.

STATICS OF MATERIAL POINT SYSTEMS: Static conditions. Rigid body statics. Levers. Examples of statics of the human body (head, foot, arm, shoulder, trunk).

IMPACT DYNAMICS: Impacts. Impulsive forces and conservation of momentum. Elastic and inelastic collisions. Elastic oblique impacts.

RIGID BODY DYNAMICS: The rigid body system. Roto-translational motion. Moment of inertia about an axis. Huygens-Steiner theorem. Rotational dynamics of the rigid body. Conservation of momentum about an axis. Rolling and sliding on a rough surface. Gyroscope.

RIGID BODY STATICS: Equilibrium conditions for a rigid body. Compositions of forces applied to a rigid body. Equilibrium of a constrained rigid body. Equilibrium of forces in machines. Levers. Pulley.

ELASTICITY: Elastic properties of bodies. Intermolecular forces. Deformations and intermolecular forces. Hooke's law. Traction and compression. Volume deformation. Sliding deformation. Torsion elasticity. Hysteresis. Sliding and compressibility properties. Classification of solid, liquid and gaseous bodies.

FLUID STATICS: Fluid statics. Pressure in fluids. Stevino's law. Pascal's law. Law of communicating vessels. Archimedes' law. Torricelli barometer. Atmospheric pressure.

SURFACE PHENOMENA: Cohesion and adhesion forces. Surface phenomena. Surface tension. Bubbles in suspension. Meniscus, Capillarity phenomena. Borelli-Jurin law. Pressure of a bubble or membrane. Laplace's law. Balance of the pulmonary alveoli. Air embolism.

FLUID DYNAMICS: Lagrangian and Eulerian views of fluid motion. Viscosity of fluids. Real and ideal fluids. Stationary motion. Flow lines and flow tubes. Continuity theorem. Flow rate. Leonardo's law. Bernoulli's theorem. Venturi tube. Torricelli's theorem. Laminar motion of a viscous fluid. Stokes' law. Poiseuille's law. Turbulent motion. Motion of a body immersed in a fluid. Dynamics of blood circulation. Blood flow. Blood vessels. Stenosis and aneurysm. Pressure in the blood vessels. Blood pressure measurement. Work and cardiac power. Blood viscosity anomalies.

OSCILLATORY MOTIONS: Simple harmonic motion. Non-harmonic oscillations. Damped harmonic motion. Sinusoidal forced oscillations. Resonance. Forced oscillations in general.

WAVE PHENOMENA: Classifications of waves. Vibrating rope. Wave equation. D'Alembert's solution. Progressive and regressive waves. Sinusoidal waves. Energy transported by the wave. Superposition principle. Interference. Standing waves. Elastic waves. Doppler effect. Sound waves. Distinctive characteristics of sounds. Sensitivity of the human ear. Agreements. Sound intensity. Stamp. Functioning of the human ear. External, middle and internal ear.

TEMPERATURE AND HEAT: Many-body systems. Thermal expansion of solids, liquids and gases. Thermal equilibrium. Zero principle of thermodynamics. Thermometers and temperature scales. Specific heat, quantity of heat and heat capacity. Adiabatic processes. Heat measurement. Latent heat and phase changes. Heat of reaction and calorific value. Heat transmission by conduction, convection and radiation.

THERMODYNAMIC SYSTEMS: Equilibrium of a thermodynamic system. Reversible and irreversible transformations. Heating and cooling of a body. Compression and expansion of a gas. Graphical representation of the thermodynamical transformations. Isobaric, isochore, isothermal and adiabatic transformations. Work of pressure forces.

GASEOUS SYSTEMS: State of a gas. Perfect gases. Equation of state of ideal gases. Kinetic theory of gases. Pressure and temperature of a gas. Molecular heat capacities of ideal gases. Real gases. Real gas isotherms. Van der Waals equation. Evaporation and condensation. Solidification, fusion and sublimation.

FIRST PRINCIPLE OF THERMODYNAMICS: Cyclic transformations. Equivalence principle. Joule experiment. Mechanical equivalent of the calorie. First principle of thermodynamics. Internal energy. Application of the first law of thermodynamics to ideal gases. Mayer relation. Adiabatic transformations of an ideal gas. Reversible transformations in ideal gases. Carnot cycle with perfect gas. Efficiency of the Carnot engine.

SECOND PRINCIPLE OF THERMODYNAMICS: Clausius and Kelvin statements of the second principle of thermodynamics. Equivalence of the statements. Carnot's theorem. Refrigerating machines. Reversibility and irreversibility. Absolute thermodynamic temperature. Entropy in reversible transformations. Clausius integral in irreversible transformations. Application of entropy in reversible transformations. Entropy and work. Applications of entropy to irreversible transformations. Energy degradation. Thermodynamic equilibrium and thermodynamic potentials.

ELECTRIC CHARGE, ELECTROSTATIC FIELD AND POTENTIAL: Electric charge, conductors and insulators, Coulomb's Law, the electrostatic field, lines of force, electrostatic potential and potential energy, electrostatic capacity.

ELECTRIC CURRENT: electric current, resistance and Ohm's law, model for electrical conduction, energy and electrical power

MAGNETIC FIELDS: Motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field, magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor, magnetic field produced by a current, the Biot-Savart law, Faraday's law and induction, energy density in a magnetic field.

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES: electromagnetic waves, the energy transported by electromagnetic waves, the spectrum of electromagnetic waves.

1. Slides and other tools from the Professor
2. S. Rosati; Fisica generale volume 1, Feltrinelli, 1994
3. Serway&Jewett: Fondamenti di Fisica, VI edizione, EdiSES, 2022
4. E. Ragozzino: Principi di Fisica, EdiSES, 2006
5. D. Sette, A. Alippi, A. Bettucci: Lezioni di Fisica 1 (Meccanica - Temodinamica), II edizione, 2021
6. J.S. Walker: Fondamenti di Fisica, Pearson, 2020
7. D. Hallyday, R. Resnick, J.S. Walker, Fondamenti di fisica. Meccanica, Onde, Termodinamica, Elettromagnetismo, Ottica, 2015
   

The final exam consists of an oral interview to verify knowledge, understanding and presentation of the topics covered during the lessons. It will be evaluated in particular:

* the ability to demonstrate concepts that can be expressed mathematically (proofs of theorems and formalization of relationships existing between physical quantities);

* the critical ability to express the meaning of the laws of physics and their application in the description of physical phenomena;

* knowledge of the orders of magnitude of the main physical quantities presented during the course;

* knowledge of the most relevant correlations between physical quantities through graphic representation as discussed during the lessons.

The exam consists of at least three questions, distributed across the entire programme, of which at least one consists in the complete demonstration of theorems aimed at highlighting relationships between physical quantities, at least one requires a comment on the meaning of a law of physics, at least one requires knowledge of the approximate value of some physical quantities.

The duration of the exam is approximately one hour.

The exam questions cover ALL the topics covered during the course. Contextually, whatever is beyond the contents explicitly developed during classes is not asked during the examination, even if it appears in the program. Examples of the questions are:

The laws of dynamics, friction forces, conservative forces, work and energy, acoustic waves, Bernoulli's theorem, laws of thermodynamics, Laplace's law, statics of the human body, temperature, electric field, magnetic field etc.