1. Introduction: The Physics Behind Computers and the Internet
1.1 Physics, Silicon, and The “Magic” Behind the Internet Age
1.2 A Zoomed-In Look Inside a Computer
1.3 Timeline of Great Discoveries and Inventions in Physics and Computer and Communication Technologies
1.4 The Methods and Significance of Science (Sec 1.4.pdf)
1.5 The Relation of Science and Information Technology
The Social Impacts of Science and Information Technology
2. Mathematics: The Language of Science and Technology
2.1 The Utility of Mathematics in Science and Technology
2.2 Graphs
2.3 Precision and Significant Digits
Real-World Example 2.1 Precision of Display Pixels
2.4 Large and Small Numbers and Scientific Notation
2.5 Units for Physical Quantities
2.5.1 Metric-System Units
2.5.2 The Method of Conversion Factors (Sec 2.5.2.pdf)
In-Depth Look 2.1 Using Conversion Factors
2.6 Proportionality
2.7 Binary Numbers
2.7.1 Converting from Decimal to Binary
2.7.2 Converting from Binary to Decimal
Real-World Example 2.2 Analog and Digital Variables
2.8 The Concept of Information
2.8.1 Bits, Bytes, and Other Units
2.9 Exponential Growth
Social Impacts: The Exponential Change of Nearly Everything
3. Mechanics: Energy Enables Information Technology
3.1 From Looms to Computers
3.2 Speed, Acceleration, and Force
3.2.1 Description of Motion
In-Depth Look 3.1 Distance Traveled under Constant Acceleration
Real-World Example 3.1 Seek Time of a Hard Drive Head
3.2.2 Force Vectors
In-Depth Look 3.2 Net Force Vectors
Real-World Example 3.2 Electron Acceleration In Cathode Ray Tubes
3.3 Principles of Mechanics (Sec 3.3.pdf)
Real-World Example 3.3 Force on a Hard-Drive Head
3.3.1 Gravity’s Force
3.4 The Physics of Energy
3.5 Friction and Heat Energy
3.6 The Constancy of Energy
3.7 Units for Mechanics
3.8 Graphing Energy
3.9 Power
Real-World Example 3.4 Motion Sensors in Laptops
Social Impacts: Scientific Thought and Methods Have Arguably Changed the Course of Human History More Than Anything Else
4. Matter and Heat: Cooling Computers
4.1 From Steam Engines to Computers.
4.2 Matter and Atoms
4.3 Gases, Liquids and Solids
In-Depth Look 4.1 Size and Numbers of Atoms
Real-World Example 4.1 Growing Silicon Crystals for Computer Chips (EXAMPLE 4.1.pdf)
4.4 Pressure in a Gas
4.5 Pressure in a Liquid
4.6 Pumps, Current, and Resistance
Real-World Example 4.2 A Water-Pressure-Operated Computer
4.7 Temperature
4.8 The Ideal Gas
4.9 Heat and Thermal Energy Transfer
4.9.1 Heating by conduction, convection, or radiation
Real-World Example 4.3 Cooling Computer Chips
4.10 Principles of Thermodynamics: Extracting Work from Heat
4.10.1 The Second Law of Thermodynamics
4.11 Cooling Computers is Required by the Physics of Computation
Social Impacts: The Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution
5. Electricity and Magnetism: The Workhorses of Information Technology
5.1 Electricity and Magnetism are the Basis of Computers and the Internet
5.2 Electric Charge
In-Depth Look 5.1 The Concept of Plus and Minus Electric Charge
5.3 Electric Forces: Coulomb’s Law
In-Depth Look 5.2 The Discovery of the Electron (IN-DEPTH LOOK 5.2.pdf)
5.4 Electric Fields
In-Depth Look 5.3 Electric Field Lines
5.5 Electric Current and Conductors
5.6 Electrical Energy and Voltage (Sec 5.6.pdf)
5.6.1 Voltage Sources – Batteries
5.6.2 Energy Stored in a Battery
5.6.3 Energy Storage in a Capacitor
Real-World Example 5.1 Capacitor Computer Memory
5.7 Resistors, Conductors, and Ohm’s Law
5.8 Electrical power
5.9 Magnetism
5.10 Electromagnetism
5.10.1 Electric Current Creates Magnetic Field
Real-World Example 5.2 The Telegraph, Precursor to the Internet
5.10.2 Changing Electric Field Creates Magnetic Field
5.10.3 Changing Magnetic Field Creates Electric Field
In-Depth Look 5.4 Magnetic Materials and Data Storage
Social Impacts: Innovation and Public Support of Science
6. Digital Electronics and Computer Logic
6.1 The “Reasoning” Abilities of Computers
6.2 Concepts of Logic (Sec 6.2.pdf)
6.3 Electronic Logic Circuits
6.4 Logic Operations and Diagrams
6.4.1 Three-Input Logic Operations
6.4.2 Building Logic Operations Using the NOR Operation
6.5 Using Logic to Perform Arithmetic
6.6 Implementing Logic with Electromagnetic Switches
Supplemental Section 6.I Boolean Search of Databases
7. Waves: Sound, Radio and Light
7.1 Sound, Radio, Light, and the Internet
7.2 Simple Harmonic Motion
7.3 Damped and Complex Harmonic Motion
7.4 Driven Harmonic Motion and Resonance
In-Depth Look 7.1 Resonance Frequencies
Real-World Example 7.1 Crystal Oscillators and Microprocessor Clocks
7.5 Waves
7.6 Simple Harmonic Waves (Sec 7.6.pdf)
7.7 Interference of Waves
In-Depth Look 7.2 Standing Waves
7.8 Sound Waves
In-Depth Look 7.3 Beats
7.9 Wireless Radio Waves (Sec 7.9.pdf)
Real-World Example 7.2 AM Radio
7.10 Let there be Light Waves
7.10.1 The Spectrum of Electromagnetic Waves
In-Depth Look 7.4 Light Polarization
Real-World Example 7.3 LCD Screens
7.11 Interference of Light
Social Impacts: Music, Science and Technology
8. Analog and Digital Communication
8.1 Communication Systems: Analog and Digital
8.2 Basics of Analog Radio
8.3 Basics of Digital Radio (Sec 8.3.pdf)
8.4 The Maximum Rate of Transmitting Data
8.4 Signal Synthesis, Analysis, and Bandwidth
8.5 Maximum Data Rate
8.6 Frequency Multiplexing and Bandwidth
In-Depth Look 8.1 Signal Reconstruction
9. Quantum Physics of Atoms and Materials
9.1 Atoms, Crystals, and Computers (Sec 9.1-9.2.pdf)
9.2 The Quantum Nature of Electrons and Atoms
9.3 The Experiments Behind Quantum Theory
9.3.1 Sharp-Line Atomic Lamp Spectra
In-Depth Look 9.1 Spectrum of Hydrogen Atoms
9.3.2 Electron Scattering from Crystals
9.4 The Spinning of Electrons
9.5 The Principles of Quantum Physics
9.6 Building Up the Atoms
Real-World Example 9.1 Fluorescent Lamps
9.7 Electrical Properties of Materials
9.7.1 Conductors
9.7.2 Insulators
9.7.3 Semiconductors
In-Depth Look 9.2 Origin of the Energy Gap in Silicon Crystals
In-Depth Look 9.3 Atomic Nature of Magnetic Domains
Social Impacts: Science, Mysticism, and Pseudo-Science
10. Semiconductor Physics: Transistors and Circuits
10.1 Silicon, Transistors, and Computers
10.2 Controlling the Conductivity of Silicon
10.3 p-n Junctions and Diodes (Sec 10.3.pdf)
10.3.1 Rectifying an alternating signal
Real-World Example 10.1 A Simple Crystal AM Radio Receiver
10.4 Transistors
10.5 CMOS Computer Logic
In-Depth Look 10.1 “Water-Effect Transistors”
10.6 Miniaturization, Integrated Circuits, and Photolithography
10.6.1 Silicon Crystal Preparation
10.6.2 Lithography for Fabricating a p-n Junction
In-Depth Look 10.2 Bipolar Transistors
Social Impacts: Labeling Every Object in the World
11. Digital Memory and Computers
11.1 Physics, Memory, and Computers
11.2 Sequential Logic for Computer Memory (Sec 11.2.pdf)
11.2.1 The Set-Reset Latch
11.2.2 The Enabled Data Latch, or D-Latch
11.3 Static Random-Access Memory
In-Depth Look 11.1 SRAM with Six Transistors
11.4 Dynamic Random-Access Memory
11.5 Nonvolatile Memory
In-Depth Look 11.2 Quantum Tunneling
11.6 Magnetic Tape and Hard Disk Memory
11.7 Optical Compact Disk Memory
11.8 Error Immunity of Digital Data
11.9 The Structure of a Computer
11.10 Hierarchy of Computer Memory
11.11 Heat-Imposed Limits of Computers
11.12 Representing Information in Computers using Codes
11.12.1 ASCII Code
11.13 Coding Images
11.14 Data Compression
12. Photons: Light Detectors and Light Emitting Diodes
12.1 Light, Physics, and Technology
12.2 The Quantum Nature of Light – Photons
12.3 Power and Energy in Light
12.4 Absorption of Light by Atoms and Crystals (or “How Einstein got his Nobel Prize”)
12.4.1 Absorption of Light by Crystals
In-Depth Look 12.1 Inability of Constant Voltage to Accelerate Electrons in an Insulator
12.4.2 Absorption of Light by Metals: The Photoelectric Effect (Sec 12.4.2.pdf)
Real-World Example 12.1 Semiconductor Light Detectors
12.5 Emission of Light by Atoms and Crystals
12.5.1 Emission of Light by Crystals
12.5.2 The Rate of Spontaneous Emission – Exponential Decay
Real-World Example 12.2 Light-Emitting Diodes
Social Impacts: Lighting the Darkness (Efficiently)
13. Light and Optical Fibers for the Internet
13.1 Light as a Communication Medium
13.1 Propagation, Reflection and Transmission of Light
13.3 Light in Transparent Media
13.4 Refraction of Light at a Boundary (Sec 13.4.pdf)
13.5 Reflection of Light at a Boundary
13.6 Total Internal Reflection
13.7 Prisms and Speeds of Different Colored Light
13.8 Lenses and Curved Mirrors
13.9 Optical Loss in Materials – the Clarity of Optical Fiber
13.10 Light Guiding
13.11 Optical Fibers
13.12 Light Pulses in Optical Fibers
Social Impacts: Total Immersion in a Sea of Information
14. Light Amplification and Lasers
14.1 Atoms and Lasers
14.2 The Uniqueness of Laser Light
14.3 Absorption and Emission of Light by Atoms
14.4 Laser Resonators
In-Depth Look 14.1 Laser Resonator Frequencies
14.5 How a Laser Works (Sec 14.5.pdf)
14.6 The Helium-Neon Laser
In-Depth Look 14.2 Extreme Laser Facts (In-Depth Look 14.2.pdf)
14.7 Variable-Color Semiconductor Lasers
14.8 Overcoming Losses in Fiber-Optical Systems
14.9 Quantum Physics Description of Lasers
14.9.1 Laser Gain
14.9.2 Exponential Growth of the Number of Photons
14.9.3 Gain-Medium Pumping
14.9.4 Laser Operation – Quantum Description
14.10 The Semiconductor Diode Laser
15. Fiber-Optics Communication
15.1 Bandwidth and the Physics of Waves
15.2 Overview of Fiber-Optical Communication Systems (Sec 15.2.pdf)
15.3 Modulating a Laser Beam with Data
15.4 Wavelength Multiplexing in Optical Communication
15.5 The Virtues of Lasers for Optical Communication
15.6 Hardware for Wavelength Multiplexing
15.7 Laser Beam Routing
16. Communication Networks and The Internet
16.1 The Physics Behind the Internet
16.2 The Goals of Computer Communication Networks
16.3 Noise in Analog and Digital Systems
16.4 Challenges in Networking
16.5 Broadcasting Networks and Switching Networks
16.5.1 Circuit-switching networks
16.5.2 Packet-switching networks (e.g., the Internet)
16.6 Failure-Resistant Communications
16.7 Wireless Mobile Cell Phone Networks (Sec 16.7.pdf)
16.8 Propagation of Wireless Waves in Terrain
