P310/510 Environmental Physics Course Description Fall 2009 Ben Brabson

OFFICE HRS IN SW038: Especially, before and after class: TR 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. and TR 5:00 - 5:40 p.m. Always feel free to drop by my lab, Swain West 038. To get to Swain West 038, enter the west door of Swain West and go down 5 steps.  Swain West 038 is just to your left.

PHYSICS FORUM IN SW 246: Swain West 246 is a comfortable study room available 24 hours a day. A physics faculty member or graduate student is often present to help all students with any and all physics problems.

COURSE SECRETARY: Hannah Carpenter, Swain West 132, Tel: 855-3599. Hannah can usually find me and can always get a message to me. Of course, e-mail (brabson@indiana.edu) also works well.

TEXT: Energy, Physics and the Environment, Ernest McFarland, James Hunt, and John Campbell, U. of Guelph Physics Department, 2001, ISBN 0-7593-0528-5. This book gives a good overview of energy related problems and, with its references, provides a solid discussion of energy related topics and their environmental consequences. To give you a sense of this fast moving field, I will supplement the text with current articles in the scientific literture. Several of the books listed below under "Reference Materials" give considerably more detailed information.You will find them most helpful in preparing your class presentations later in the course.

3 GOALS FOR THE COURSE:
    1.) The course should raise your comfort level with physics and calculus to the point where you can attack a broad spectrum of real-world environmental problems. Essentially all human activity involves the physics of energy. Understanding human activity from the standpoint of energy gives you leverage in solving hard problems.  For example, during 2007 the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published it's fourth comprehensive study on climate change, bringing to our attention the extensive evidence of our impact on climate.   In addition to understanding the science underlying CO₂ production and its global impact, this course identifies a number of ideas that may help to address the impact of these changes.  In preparation for the December 2009 conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, the US Congress is trying to come to grips with appropriate climate legislation that will limit US carbon dioxide production. This course will provide the quantitative background necessary to understand this and related climate problems. With increases in both population and in per capita energy use, we are obliged to understand the consequences of our use of energy.
    2.) Serious problems both at the global level, such as global warming and acid rain, and similar problems at the local level, such as urban air and water pollution essentially always require an crossdisciplinary effort. The discipline of physics is a major player in this effort. While this course focuses on the subject of energy, it will also address much of the basic physics used in such interdisciplinary disciplines as meteorology, geophysics, and environmental science.
    3.) As with most problems of science, both an intuitive and a quantitative understanding are essential to the resolution of problems of the environment. P310/P510 is designed to give you that intuitive and quantitative understanding.

YOUR MAJOR: The course is regularly taken both by physics majors and by many majors outside of physics such as Science Education,  Meteorology,  Climatology, Oceanography, Geology, Chemistry,  Biology, Biochemistry, Mathematics, ComputerScience, and a number of majors in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. For students outside of physics, the course is designed to broaden their base of attack strategies on quantitative problems. For Physics majors this course should provide a wealth of applications of the laws of physics to these highly applied and demanding problems of the environment.

P510 AT THE GRADUATE LEVEL: This course may also be taken by graduate students in fields of study outside of Physics. In this case the course number is P510.  For P510 students the second presentation is accompanied by a more substantial research paper on their presentation topic. P510 students, please stop by at your convenience to discuss this additional assignment.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: Several books are on reserve in the Swain West library found on the second floor in this building just down the hall from our class room. Ask the librarian for reserved texts for P310/P510. On reserve are:

1. Energy, An Introduction to Physics, Romer.** - Romer poses many interesting physics problems that relate to the environment. It is particularly valuable as a source of excellent estimations and calculations of orders of magnitude.
2. Energy & Problems of a Technical Society, Kraushaar and Ristinen.** - This book is quite comprehensive. It has sections or chapters devoted to most of the issues in P310. Its descriptions are clear and often more complete than MH&C, our text. It would be an appropriate text for the course if its approach were more quantitative.
3. Energy, Its Physical Impact on the Environment, Devins.** - Devins taught at IU in the 1970’s. His book, though old (1988), presents a deeper view of the physics of each subject than any of the other books in this list. I recommend it when you want to understand significantly more about a subject than is found in our text. For example, when preparing your presentations, it can be most useful.
4. Energy, Physics, and the Environment, McFarland, Hunt & Campbell. - Our Textbook, of course.
5. Energy, Gordon J. Aubrecht**, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall 2006. - I really like this book. It is a highly descriptive book, not particularly quantitative. However, it is the best referenced book I know in this area. One is lead to the key articles on essentially any topic in environmental science. Therefore, I recommend it highly for preparing presentations.
6. Environmental Physics, Egbert Boeker & Rienk van Grondelle**, Wiley, 1999, Second Ed. - This is the most sophisticated of the books in this list.  It does a particularly nice job on spectroscopy and its applications to Environmental Physics.
7. Consider a Spherical Cow, A Course in Environmental Problem Solving, John Harte**, University Science Books, 1988. - As the title implies, this book is a joy to read.  It provides marvelous insight into estimation and problem solving where you may well not have the complete data. It is particularly good at what are called steady-state box models. Read and enjoy.  I will take homework problems from Harte from time to time and will tell you when I do.

** My favorites.

LIBRARIES: The Swain West Library (Tel: 855-2758) on the second floor of Swain West contains a good collection of science journals and additional books which will be particularly useful for this course. These include Scientific American, Science, and Nature. The Business/SPEA Library (Tel: 855-4584) in the Kelley School of Business/SPEA building on 10th Street has a wealth of useful literature on all the subjects in this course, and is a highly recommended resource. The Geography Library (Tel: 855-1108) is an excellent source of information on course topics such as climate change. It is located in the Student Building basement.
 

P310 GRADES: Your grade for Environmental Physics is based on two class presentations, 9 homework problem sets, three one-hour tests, the third of which is given during Finals Week. The weighting is given here: 20% Class presentations with your 2-page summaries. 5% Participating in class discussion, especially  when your colleagues are presenting. 30% Homework, 9 sets. 15% Test 1. 15% Test 2. 15% Test 3 (during finals week). P510 GRADES: While homework, tests, and participation are weighted as for P310, the first class presentation is weighted 5% and the second one15% of the total grade.  This takes into account the more extensive research paper on the second topic.

YOUR CLASS PRESENTATIONS: Twice in the semester you will be asked to make a presentation and lead a discussion on a topic of your choice. You can tell from the heavy weighting of each presentation (10%), that I consider them to be an important part of the course. You will become the class expert on the subject of your presentation. Because these presentations are short (10 minutes) you have to be well organized. The presentations are not long enough to ask you to give a full review of the subject, so you have to be selective in creating an interesting and informative presentation.

Your presentation will be followed by 5 minutes of questions by the class. At the beginning of the course I'll provide a list of ideas/topics for your first presentation. Pick your 3 or 4 favorites, and add one of your own, if you like.  If you select your own subject, you are very likely to get your first choice. By the end of the second week of class, I'll make a specific topic assignment for your first presentation so that you may begin collecting information for it. After your presentation, I'll ask you to summarize your presentation and the following discussions in two pages of prose. I will also make copies of everyone's summary pages into a book as a guide for your exam studying.  

When your classmates are presenting it is essential that you be present and that you have read the McFarland, Hunt and Campbell brief descriptions of the subjects being presented that day. Since the presentations by your colleagues are an important part of the body of the course, it is particularly important that you be there, even when you are not presenting.  Please come prepared to ask a question about the topic or to express a point of view on the subject, expressing disagreement (or agreement) with arguments presented in the text or elsewhere.  The second and third hour exams will include material from each of the presentations.

THREE TESTS: The three tests will include material from your and my presentations in class, and from assigned readings in McFarland, Hunt and Campbell. There will also be a number of problems on each test similar to but typically shorter than the kinds of problems you do in homework assignments. To pass the course you must take all the tests. In the event of serious personal illness or a death in the immediate family, requiring your absence from a test, please contact me before the test.

HOMEWORK: On Tuesday's I will collect homework problems assigned the previous Tuesday, hand back homework handed in the previous Tuesday, and give you a new set of homework problems. Please feel free to stop by my office to talk with me about the problems. Also, feel free to talk with other students in the class about the problems. I have arranged to be free for the hour just before and just after class each day.  I am also available at most other times during the week by appointment.

It my experience that your problem solving efforts pay great dividends. An excellent strategy I have found is to start the process by reading the text and making a substantial effort to solve each problem. After giving the problem set your best effort, get together with colleagues in the class or with me or both to talk about the problems. An enormous amount of learning happens in these collaborative sessions. You will often get a chance to explain your work to someone else. This process of explaining your work is, of course, one of the most effective learning strategies. I have arranged my office hours to encourage you to use me in the collaborative learning process. I emphasize my sense of the importance of your problem solving efforts by making homework a substantial part of the course grade.

CLASS PARTICIPATION AND DISCUSSION: It is also my view that class participation is essential to this course. I expect you to attend all classes. At the beginning of each class, we will spend some 5 minutes in discussion of a topic of current interest in environmental science. This discussion usually focuses on a recent article in the news. I will lead a number of these discussions at the beginning of the course and then invite you to participate in the process of leading these discussions. Occasionally, you might bring in an article and lead a discussion of its content for a few minutes. It should be good fun.

ENJOYING THE COURSE: I will make every effort to make this course a valuable experience for you. If you are not feeling good about your progress in the course, please, come see me during my office hours, or stop me after class to set up a time when we can talk. The course should be informative, interesting and useful. If it isn't for you, I'd like to know that. There are lots of ways to increase your understanding of the problems of environmental physics. I am here to facilitate that understanding.