Learning Outcomes
On completion, the students should be able to;
1. describe and quantitatively analyse the behaviour of vibrating systems and wave energy;
2. explain the propagation and properties of waves in sound and light;
3. identify and apply the wave equations; and
4. explain geometrical optics and principles of optical instruments.
Course Contents
Simple harmonic motion (SHM): energy in a vibrating system, Damped SHM, Q values and power
response curves, Forced SHM, resonance and transients, Coupled SHM. Normal modes. Waves:
types and properties of waves as applied to sound; Transverse and Longitudinal waves;
Superposition, interference, diffraction, dispersion, polarization; Waves at interfaces; Energy and
power of waves, the 1-D wave equation, 2-D and 3-D wave equations, wave energy and power,
phase and group velocities, echo, beats, the Doppler effect, Propagation of sound in gases, solids
and liquids and their properties.
Optics: nature and propagation of light; reflection, refraction, and internal reflection, dispersion,
scattering of light, reflection and refraction at plane and spherical surfaces, thin lenses and optical
instruments; wave nature of light; Huygens’s principle, interference and diffraction.
