LECTURES:
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00 P.M.
Fridays at 11:00 A.M

TUTORIALS:
W3, F12 - to be arranged

GENERAL OUTLINE:
In the first quarter of the course (7 weeks)  Dr. R. Serbanescu will lecture on Oscillations and waves, Sound, Human ear and hearing, Echolocation, Light, Human eye and vision, Molecular and quantum nature of vision.

In the second quarter of the course (6 weeks) Dr. T. Antimirova will lecture on Fluids behaviour. The topics include the ideal gas laws, the mechanics of viscous and nonviscous fluids and  cohesive forces in liquids. Phenomena such as diffusion, osmosis, surface tension, viscosity, drag forces in fluids, turbulence and their role in life sciences will be discussed.

The third quarter (7 weeks) will be on Electricity and Magnetism (Dr. Antimirova) with the emphasis on topics not covered in PHY138Y. The topics include Magnetic Fields due to Currents, Electromagnetic Induction, Electromagnetic Oscillations and Alternating Current. Electrolytic solutions, Physics of membranes and Nerve pulse propagation will be discussed.

In the fourth quarter (6 weeks) Dr. R. Serbanescu will lecture on Molecular Biophysics (chemical binding, energies and forces, rates of reaction), Absorption and emission of light by molecules, Radiation Biophysics.

Problems will be set every one or two weeks. There will be a final exam in the April/May examination period and four one-hour term tests, the first of which will be on Tuesday October 21, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. Term tests will be held in the normal lecture room. The best 3 of the 4 term tests will be used for the course mark. Thus there is one "free test", and there are NO make-up tests. The distribution of marks is: 10% for tutorials and associated problems; 45% for the three best tests; 45% for the final exam.

REFERENCES:
No one book covers adequately all parts of the course. The Physics textbook will be Halliday et al. Fundamentals of Physics (6th edition, 2003).
For the first, second  and fourth quarter, the “frame” textbook is Hallett et al.,  Physics for the Biological Sciences: A Topical Approach to Biophysics (4th edition 2003).
For the second  quarter, please purchase "PHY 238Y Readings" at the Bookstore which consists of readings from Sternheim and Kane.