58200 - Applied Physics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will know the fundamentals of mechanics, thermology and thermodynamic, electromagnetism, waves and oscillations and their main applications to biological phenomena and medical instrumentations and procedures.

Course contents

Basic math skills (online, in italian language)

Scientific method (webinar)

Fundamental physical quantities, measurement units and errors (webinar)

Scalar quantities and vectors (webinar)

Kinematics (speed, velocity, acceleration) (webinar)

Newton’s laws of motion, dynamics (force and acceleration),

Kinetic and Potential Energy

Matter (solid, liquid and gas)

Hydrostatic pressure

Superficial tension and related phenomena

Viscosity and its consequences

Laminar flow

Turbulent flow

Sphere falling in a fluid (Stokes Law)

Not-viscous fluids

Solutions and concentrations

Diffusion

Osmosis

Thermology and thermodynamics

Heat transfer

Temperature

Gas

Ideal gas and equation of state

Thermodynamic processes

Kinetic theory of gases

Entropy

Electromagnetism

Electric charge and field

Energy and potential difference

Electric current (Ohm’s laws)

Joule heating

Magnetic field

Movement of charges in a magnetic field (Lorentz Force)

Time-varying electromagnetic fields

Electrical transformer

Varying currents and potential differences

AC and DC adapters

Bioelectrical signals and their acquisition

ECG and related problems

Electrical safety for patients and operators

Defibrillator

Oscillations and wave

Sound and sound perception

Geometrical Optics (lens and eye)

Fourier’s Theorem

Pressure measurements

Atoms and atomic models

Photoelectric effect

RX production

Electromagnetic radiation and its interactions with matter

Laser

Atom’s nucleus

Radioactivity and its laws

Ionizing radiations and their interactions with matter

Ionizing radiations in hospital

Readings/Bibliography

Romano Zannoli, Ivan Corazza
Elementi di fisica (nuova edizione)
Società Editrice Esculapio

Teaching methods

The course is made up of lectures with the support of Power Point presentations.
Before starting the course, the students are warmly invited to take the online mini-course in mathematics made available on the Almamathematica spaces and the introductory physics lessons.

• Introduction (only italian language)
• Basic math skills (only italian language)
• Basic physic skills (only italian language)
  

These courses are available both for all the people with unibo credentials and for external users with SPID (Italian Digital Identity).

These topics should already be known by the student (being part of the exam program for the entrance test to the health professions) and they are fundamental for understanding physics. Online lessons are not mandatory, but strongly recommended. The topics covered online will not be taken up again during the frontal hours and will be considered already known.

The purpose of this choice is to reduce the time spent in the classroom on retrieving concepts that should already be known and focus on applications of physics to physiology, clinics and medical instrumentation, which are of real interest to future healthcare professionals .

Assessment methods

The exam will be a multiple-choice quiz. An oral examination will be performed only if necessary. The final score will be weighted averaged with the scores of the other modules, to obtain the global grade.

Office hours

See the website of Ivan Corazza