PHY121 Physik II für Haupt- und Nebenfach Physik, PHY120 Vertiefung II

• Prof. Björn Penning
• Webpage
• Office: Y36 J74
• Phone: +41 44 635 57 55
• Email: E-Mail

Physik II is a continuation of Physik I and covers topics in thermodynamics, statistical
physics electricity and magnetism: charge, Coulomb’s law, electric fields, Gauss’ law, electric
potential, capacitors and dielectrics, current and resistance, EMF and circuits, magnetic fields,
Biot-Savart law, Amperes law, Faraday’s Law of Induction, and simple AC circuits, geometric
optics, reflection, refraction, interference.

Phys121_Syllabus_Spring_2026 (PDF, 68 KB) This syllabus summarises the important information for this page

 

Exercises will be posted on OLAT here.  Please register and log in immediately to see if you can access the course,  If not, check that your UZH email is registered properly. If it is, and you still lack access, contact Dr. Knut Morå
 

Exercises will be assigned every Wednesday, and will be due the following Wednesday at 18:00. Your teacher assistant (TA) will let you know where to submit your exercises. 

The first exercise sheet will be assigned on Wednesday the 26th of February, and should be submitted to the TA before or in the exercise session Thursday the 6th.   The solutions will be published on OLAT the day after the exercise session.

Your grade is based on a weighted average on:

• 70%  final examination
• 30%  on the weekly exercises

Attendance is expected and recorded for exercise sessions. The homework is graded somewhat differently than previous courses: you mark exercises you have made a good-faith effort in and are willing to present on the blackboard, and receive points for those that are summed for this portion of the grade. The goal of this change is that your evaluation is not dependent on a single input, the final exam. We may adjust the weighting to more accurately reflect student’s performance, including awarding points for performance.

We will be allowing up to three absences for any reason such as illness, conflicting exams,
unavoidable personal conflicts, etc. No need to email us. Whenever absent you will need to
submit your exercise sheet before by Thu noon via OLAT.

The final examination will be composed of questions similar to those presented in the lectures and the weekly exercises. 

The exam is scheduled for
Wednesday, June 24^th, 2026
14:00-16:00
Room: TBA

Exam guidelines  :

Exams will be similar in style to the weekly exercises (conceptual questions). A formula sheet with all needed equations will be provided to you in the exams.  The formula sheet will be sent to you at least a week before the exam to help you study.  We will provide you with paper and a calculator if needed.  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. 

TBA

The following texts can be used as reference.  

• Paul A. Tipler, Gene Mosca: Physics for scientists and engineers.  
• Wolfgang Demtröder: Experimentalphysik 1 und 2 (goes into more depth)

Further recommended literature

• Halliday & Resnick : Fundamentals of Physics. 
• "Engfer Skriptum" in german Teil 1 (Mechanik, Hydromechanik) (PDF, 1 MB), Teil2 (Thermodynamik) (PDF, 845 KB), Teil 3 (Elektrodynamik) (PDF, 1 MB) These were used in earlier years.

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.

Ahmed El Akhrass    
Alex Kavner    (EN)
James O'Leary    
Laura Schusser    
Leslie Juigne    (EN)
Rebecca Hampp    
Zobeyer Ghafoor