PHYS202 – Course Information

Some Questions with Answers

Can we change the scheduled time and day? No. I have other responsibilities so there are very few possible slots. In any case, it takes a very big effort to make a change, and in fact it might be impossible to find a time that works for me and vast majority is happy with.

Will this be an online course? No. I don’t know if I will provide any online material. I may, but do not count on it.

Do I need to attend the course? Will you take attendance? Is it a problem (i.e., “sıkıntı olur mu?”) if I miss the classes? I do not plan to take attendance, at least initially, since it wastes time and is a source of stress. However (to state the obvious) I think you would benefit from attending the class. You miss the classes at your own peril. If a reasonable amount of people keeps showing up, I will not take attendance. However, if a lot of people stops attending, than I will start taking attendance and missing a few (~4) classes where attendance was taken will result in an NA grade. I will not announce when and if I will take attendance.

Is my mathematical background sufficient for this course? This is very subjective, but I strongly recommend you take this course after PHYS209 or equivalent. If you are uncomfortable with freshman level calculus material, you will be uncomfortable with the maths in this course for sure.

Basic Course Information

Code, name, semester: This document contains information on PHYS202 (2300202), “Modern Physics”, for the fall semester of 2026-27 academic year.

Time and place: The class will be held on Tuesdays 10:40-12:30, at P2; and Thursdays 10:40-12:30 at P5.

Webpage: The course has a page on ODTUClass, where I will be posting all essential information.

Content: This is a course that will give an introduction to modern physics. This is a bit of a misnomer, nothing we cover in this course is actually from this century. Check out the textbook for the actual topics.

Textbook and Additional Resources

We will be using Krane’s Modern Physics, 3rd edition (4th is also fine). Our bookstore does not carry it, our library has a copy. You do not need to own a copy, but it will make your life easier. The PDF of this book can be found at your favorite book downloading site.

Other Textbooks you might find useful include

  • Concepts of Modern Physics, by Arthur Beiser. This is a classic, I used it in the past. At about the same level as Krane.

  • Modern Physics by Thornton and Rex. More or less equivalent to Krane or Beiser. A good source of additional problems.

  • Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles by Eisberg and Resnick. A tad bit more advanced. If you are bored with above, you can try this.

  • Nonclassical Physics: Beyond Newton’s View, by Harris. Again a bit more advanced. It contains very nice solved examples.

  • Introduction to Elementary Particles, by David J. Griffiths. The part of this book on relativity is really useful. It goes into a lot detail in scattering theory, and this is in fact what special relativity is most used for.

Some Popular Books: I will probably update this list. I encourage you to check these out:

  • Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker. Although not related to physics, reading this book and applying the advice within will be extremely useful. Number one advice I give to my academic advisees is “sleep”.

  • Mr Tompkins in Paperback, by George Gamow. A must-read classic. Combines two books: “Mr Tompkins in Wonderland” and “Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom”. Our library has a copy, as well as a Turkish translation. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Tompkins

Course Coverage and Objectives

We will cover chapters 1-7, parts of 8, 10, 11 and 15 from Krane 3e. The topics are typically not covered in high school curricula. This may mean that you need to work harder than for freshman level physics courses. In particular, I would not recommend waiting until the midterms are close.

The main objective is to show you some interesting stuff, so you will understand why you learn all that math. To appreciate this, you actually need to know the math, otherwise you will try to pass the course by solving problems from the textbook, which is not the aim of this course (or any course for that matter).

Instructor

Mehmet Atakan Gürkan (I use Atakan), email: agurkan@metu.edu.tr, Office: PZ36 (Physics Building ground floor), Office phone: ???? (I actually don’t know).

The best way (and in general the only acceptable way) to reach me is to show up for the class. If you have questions regarding the material you can ask during the class, if you have questions about logistics, you can ask at the end (not during the break, I need the break).

If for some reason you cannot come to the class and you have an urgent need to contact me, please use email. Please do not contact me with WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram etc. (all of these happened). When contacting me by email, please pay attention to these points. These may seem crude or harsh, but they all stemmed from my past experience.

  1. Your email can be in English or Turkish.

  2. Your message should begin with a greeting and end with your name. As greeting, you can use “Merhaba”, “Hi”, “Hocam”, “Atakan hocam”, “Dear Atakan hocam”, etc. You do not need to be very formal, but remember that you are not sending a WhatsApp message to a buddy.

  3. Please observe proper grammar, punctuation and capitalization in your message.

  4. Adding your student ID at the very end is useful if I need to check my records to answer your question.

  5. Unless you are really replying to something I wrote in an email, do not use reply-to feature of your email client to send me a message. Use a fresh subject line appropriate to your message content. If I cannot track your message, I cannot answer it. It is likely that I will postpone replying to your message and unless it stands out with its own subject line it has a high chance of never getting my attention again.

  6. All other things being equal, the shorter the answer you require, the faster I will respond.

  7. Please do not send me Microsoft Word, Excel etc. documents. I cannot open them, at least not easily, since I do not have MS Windows or MacOS. If you send me photos, make sure they are not too small, blurred etc.

  8. The best time to email me is weekday mornings. If you email me on weekends or outside 9am-5pm, your message has a higher chance of being read but not replied to; since once it gets marked as read, it will not necessarily draw my attention in the morning.

  9. If your message does not really require a response, I probably will not reply at all. However, if it does require a response, and I did not provide one in a few days, feel free to re-email me.

Note that, if you ask a question for which I already provided an answer in the lecture, I will not answer your email.

Lecture structure

This will be a face-to-face course, supported by a number of online tools. We will use ODTUClass (for many purposes). I may also use perusall (for reading assignments), GradeScope (for grading exams).

We will have lectures with discussion and solutions of weekly suggested problems from the textbook. If time permits, I will also prepare and post videos for problem solutions and reviews.

Even though I will not take attendance, I expect you to attend the lectures and participate in the discussions. You need to come to the lecture with some familiarity with the material. The best way to do this is to skim the upcoming sections in the textbook. You heard (and ignored) this before, but it is actually true.

Office Hours

I will not be holding office hours for this class this semester. I will be available for your questions after the lecture. That time should be sufficient for any logistics questions, and the questions about the course material should be asked during the lecture. Do not be shy of asking questions, if your questions become disruptive, I will let you know; you do not have to worry about that yourselves. If there is a big demand, I will consider setting up office hours.

Other Guidelines

Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Students who fail to adhere to such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Faculty have the professional responsibility to treat all students with understanding, dignity and respect, to guide classroom discussion and to set reasonable limits on the manner in which they and their students express opinions. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, language, age, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student’s legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. My preferred gender pronouns are he/him/his.

If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible (preferably by the second week of the semester, but it is better late than never). You can also contact our Disability Support Office to see if you can benefit from their services http://engelsiz.metu.edu.tr/en/services.

Written exams

There will be three in-class written exams. The first midterm exam will be after we finish chapter 5, the second midterm after chapter 10 or 11 and the final exam will be at the end of the term (covering everything, but with more emphasis on later chapters).

Each exam will contain some (1) conceptual True/False (T/F) questions, (2) conceptual multiple choice (MC) questions, (3) computational MC questions (4) computational long form questions. If there are too many people registered for the course, I may forego the 4th type and stick only to T/F and MC questions (unfortunately this is very likely). For T/F and MC questions there will be a penalty for incorrect answers such that pure guessing will yield no points on average. For example, a 3pt T/F question will give +3pt for correct and -3pt for incorrect answer. Another example: a 4pt MC question with 4 choices will give +4pt for correct answer, and -4/3=-1.33pt for each incorrect answer. In general, you can mark more than one answer on conceptual MC questions and indeed there could be more than one correct answer. There will be no partial credit for T/F and MC questions.

Grading

You will be graded on the written exams as follows:

Midterm exams (each)

30%

Final exam

40%

The letter grades will be assigned according to:

90 or above

AA

85-89

BA

80-84

BB

75-79

CB

70-74

CC

65-69

DC

60-64

DD

50-59

FD

49 or below

FF

I reserve the right to lower these limits, but I will not raise them. In particular, it will be possible for everyone to get an AA.

I typically bump people up if, (1) they made badly on MT1, (2) they did much better on MT2 and final, and (3) they are close to grade borders I determined. This is not guaranteed and asking for it will make it less likely. I am generally more lenient towards people who attend lectures.

General Disclaimer

The above schedule, policies, procedures, and assignments in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances, by mutual agreement, and/or to ensure better student learning.