PHY127 FS2026, Physics for Life Sciences 2
Seiteninhalt
Schedule
| Lecturer : | Prof. Ben Kilminster |
| Lectures ( PHY127.1 ): |
Friday, 08:00 - 09:45, Y15G20 |
| Exercise sessions ( PHY127.2 ): | Tuesday or Wednesday, 13:00 - 15:45 (First : 24th Feb 2026) |
| Office Hours | Fridays 12:00-13:00, office 36J50 or by email appointment |
Lecturer
- Prof. Ben Kilminster
- Webpage
- Office: Y36 J50
- Email: ben.kilminster@physik.uzh.ch
Course information sheet
References & texts
Formula sheet
The preliminary formula sheet for exercises and the exam is here (date Feb. 20th, 2026) (PDF, 1 MB). We may modify it slightly during the semester.
References for each lecture will be added below.
Here is a reference sheet (PDF, 95 KB) (key terms from PHY117, and german/english translation)
The following can serve as a reference for the basic physics (from PHY 117)
- Ben Kilminster, Introductory Physics 1. Physics-1-Kilminster-2025.v2 (PDF, 5 MB)
- Ben Kilminster, Introductory Physics 2. Physics-2-Kilminster-2025.v1 (PDF, 4 MB)
Texts:
- Paul A. Tipler, Gene Mosca: Physics for scientists and engineers.
- Halliday & Resnick : Fundamentals of Physics.
Additional resources to help with mathematics.
- MHP: Mathematische Hilfsmittel (PDF, 587 KB) (in german) derivatives, integrals, series expansions, statistics, vector algebra, coordinate transformations, tensors, ... )
- C.B. Lang und N. Pucker: Mathematische Methoden der Physik, Spektrum Verlag, Heidelberg und Berlin.
Formelsammlung Mittelschulphysik (PDF, 396 KB) is also useful for usage of basic formulas.
Exercises
Exercises are posted on OLAT every 2 weeks on Friday after lecture. These questions will be similar to exam questions. Being able to solve these exercises yourself is crucial for you to do well on the exam. Using the formula sheet to solve the exercises is good practice for the exam.
Exercise sessions will help you understand how to solve the exercises. Exercise sessions in the first week will solve part of the exercises as well as help you will common mistakes or misconceptions that we have seen in past exams. Exercise sessions in the second week will solve the remainder of the problems. Attempting to solve the exercises before the exercise session is highly correlated to better exam peformance.
There will be no podcasts of exercise classes.
Weekly quizzes
After each week's lecture, there will be a short quiz of multiple choice or true/false questions on OLAT. These weekly quizzes test your understanding of the material from lecture, and will be similar to questions on the exam. Most questions require no math. It is recommended that you do the quiz right after the Friday lectures.
Note: there is no penalty for getting the quiz questions wrong - these questions are to help you figure out what you did and did not understand. You can take the quiz as many times as you want. I use the quizzes to see what you misunderstood so that I can give you more explanation in subsequent lectures.
If you think that a quiz question has the wrong answer or multiple possible answers, please post a message on the OLAT forum for exercises.
Exam schedule
Exam guidelines :
Exams will be similar in style to the exercise sheets and weekly quizzes. A formula sheet with all needed equations will be provided to you in the exams. We will provide you with paper and a calculator. The final exam will be printed in english and in german. The following are forbidden in exams :
- Any means of communication (mobile phones, smart watches, etc.)
- Any kind of calculator, laptop, or electronic storage device
- Any additional formula sheets or written notes.
Exam schedule for the MNF: https://www.mnf.uzh.ch/en/studium/pruefungen.html
Exam date: Friday, 26.06.2026, 10:00 - 12:00, Hörsäle 20, 30, 40, 60.
Exam review: Not yet available.
Repeat exam date: Friday, 11.09.2025, 11:00 - 15:00, Hörsaal Y15-G-19 und Y16-G-
15 (registration over student portal app)
Grades
Your grade is based on the following assessments :
- 100% final examination
Attendance is expected and recorded for exercise sessions. The final examination will be composed of questions similar to those presented in the lectures, exercises, and quizzes.
Outline of course
The course will cover modern physics topics such as relativity, quantum physics, atomic, nuclear, and particle physics, radiation, particle-wave duality, particles interacting in matter, particle detection. These ideas will be used to explain the basics of modern radiation techniques for diagnostics and treatment, and such instruments as X-rays, CT scanners, PET scanners, NMR, MRI, etc.
Lecture information
| Lecture schedule (13 lectures) | Topics | PDF of chalkboard | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Week 1 (Feb. 20, 2026) |
Intro, units, reminder of forces, and force balancing. |
See additional resources linked above. | |
|
Week 2 (Feb. 27, 2026) |
Electromagnetic radiation. |
|
See PHY121 script, chapters 13,18,&19 for more on waves, the power of heat of EM radiation. |
| Week 3 (Mar. 6, 2026) | But are photons particles or waves ? |
|
See Thornton & Rex, "Modern Physics", chapter 3, available online. |
|
Week 4 (Mar. 13, 2026) |
Waves, standing waves, probabilities | See Script 1 chapter 12 on harmonic oscillators, and script 2 chapter 12 on waves. | |
|
Week 5 (Mar. 20, 2026) |
Wave-particle duality, wave packets, uncertainty principle, Schroedinger wave equation |
|
See script sectipon 12.1.2 & 12.1.3 for small-angle approximation, more on waves in chapter 13. Wave-diffraction (GIF, 592 KB), Wave-diffraction-big-aperture (GIF, 276 KB), wave-packet (GIF, 3 MB) , group-and-phase-velocity (GIF, 1 MB) |
|
Week 6 (Mar. 27, 2026) |
The quantum nature of electrons in an atom, and emitted light. Standing waves. Particle in a 3D box. |
|
Videos shown on standing waves on a 2D drum: StandingWave-drum-1 (GIF, 191 KB) StandingWave-drum-2 (GIF, 190 KB) StandingWave-drum-3 (GIF, 115 KB) StandingWave-drum-4 (GIF, 214 KB) StandingWave-drum-5 (GIF, 138 KB) StandingWave-drum-6 (GIF, 245 KB)
|
| Easter break, April 3rd | No lecture | ||
| Easter break, April 10th | No lecture | ||
|
Week 7 (Apr. 17, 2026) |
Hydrogen atom in 3D, with 3 quantum numbers. Angular momentum. Standing waves. |
|
For more information, see script 1 on angular momentum, and script 2 on magnetic moment. |
|
Week 8 (April 24, 2026)
|
Many-electron atoms, charge screening, X-rays, Bremsstrahlung, Characteristic X-rays, Thomson scattering, Compton effect, Bragg's law |
|
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Week 9 (May 1, 2026) No in-person lecture (May Day) |
X-ray penetration, attenuation, radiation dose, exposure dose, biological effects of radiation, CT scans with X-rays, pair production, pair annihilation, PET scans |
|
This lecture will be a video podcast only. |
|
Week 10 (May 8, 2026) |
microCT, nanoCT, phase-contrast imaging, Fresnel plate focusing, synchrotron accelerators, X-ray synchrotron imaging, X-ray free electron laser imaging | See videos in videopodcast. (No videos available in PDF) | |
| Week 11 (May 15, 2025) | Angular momentum, precession of spinning object in gravity, precession of magnet in magnetic field, nuclear magnetic moment, nuclear magnetic resonance | ||
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Week 12 (May 22, 2025)
|
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), strong nuclear force, nuclear structure |
|
More on solenoids (sec. 8.2), and induced currents due to changing magnetic moments (sec. 8.3) in script. |
| Week 13 (May 29, 2026) | Nuclear stability, nuclear decay, alpha, beta, gamma radiation. Decay series chains. Half lives. Bethe-Bloch energy loss. Dose delivered. Nuclear fission. Nuclear fusion. |
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