Online courses directory (19947)

This is an introduction to the physics of atmospheric radiation and remote sensing including use of computer codes. Subjects covered include: radiative transfer equation including emission and scattering, spectroscopy, Mie theory, and numerical solutions. We examine the solution of inverse problems in remote sensing of atmospheric temperature and composition.

Mechanical vibrations and waves, simple harmonic motion, superposition, forced vibrations and resonance, coupled oscillations and normal modes, vibrations of continuous systems, reflection and refraction, phase and group velocity. Optics, wave solutions to Maxwell's equations, polarization, Snell's law, interference, Huygens's principle, Fraunhofer diffraction, and gratings.

This class is an introduction to studies in science, technology, and society (STS), through examining a series of issues, events, conflicts, and problems as illuminated by STS approaches. This iteration includes units on the Aaron Swartz case, photography, and utopia / dystopia. There are regular guest speakers, and several field trips to encourage hands on learning.

Together, this course and 8.06 Quantum Physics III cover quantum physics with applications drawn from modern physics. Topics covered in this course include the general formalism of quantum mechanics, harmonic oscillator, quantum mechanics in three-dimensions, angular momentum, spin, and addition of angular momentum.

This course presents the phenomena, theory, and modeling of turbulence in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere. The scope ranges from centimeter to planetary scale motions. The regimes of turbulence include homogeneous isotropic three dimensional turbulence, convection, quasi-geostrophic turbulence, shallow water turbulence, baroclinic turbulence, macroturbulence in the ocean and atmosphere.

This is a freshman advising seminar. The professor of a FAS is the first year advisor to the (no more than 8) students in the seminar.

The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in a wide variety of applications has exploded in the last few years. In this seminar we explore how positions on the Earth were determined before GPS; how GPS itself works and the range of applications in which GPS is now a critical element. This seminar is followed by a UROP research project in the spring semester where results from precise GPS measurements will be analyzed and displayed on the Web.

This introductory course teaches the fundamentals of microeconomics. Topics include consumer theory, producer theory, the behavior of firms, market equilibrium, monopoly, and the role of the government in the economy. 14.01 is a Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) elective and is offered both terms.

This course is a core subject in MIT's undergraduate Energy Studies Minor. This Institute-wide program complements the deep expertise obtained in any major with a broad understanding of the interlinked realms of science, technology, and social sciences as they relate to energy and associated environmental challenges.

This course provides an overview of macroeconomic issues: the determination of output, employment, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation. Monetary and fiscal policies are discussed. Important policy debates such as, the sub-prime crisis, social security, the public debt, and international economic issues are critically explored. The course introduces basic models of macroeconomics and illustrates principles with the experience of the U.S. and foreign economies.

This course applies microeconomic theory to analysis of public policy. It builds from the microeconomic model of consumer behavior and extends to operation of single and multiple markets and analysis of why markets sometimes fail. We will study empirical examples to evaluate theory, focusing on the casual effects of policy interventions on economic outcomes. Topics include minimum wages and employment, food stamps and consumer welfare, economics of risk and safety regulation, the value of education, and gains from international trade.

This course, which concentrates on special relativity, is normally taken by physics majors in their sophomore year. Topics include Einstein's postulates, the Lorentz transformation, relativistic effects and paradoxes, and applications involving electromagnetism and particle physics. This course also provides a brief introduction to some concepts of general relativity, including the principle of equivalence, the Schwartzschild metric and black holes, and the FRW metric and cosmology.

8.322 is the second semester of a two-semester subject on quantum theory, stressing principles. Topics covered include: time-dependent perturbation theory and applications to radiation, quantization of EM radiation field, adiabatic theorem and Berry's phase, symmetries in QM, many-particle systems, scattering theory, relativistic quantum mechanics, and Dirac equation.

8.323, Relativistic Quantum Field Theory I, is a one-term self-contained subject in quantum field theory. Concepts and basic techniques are developed through applications in elementary particle physics, and condensed matter physics.

This course surveys research which incorporates psychological evidence into economics. Topics include: prospect theory, biases in probabilistic judgment, self-control and mental accounting with implications for consumption and savings, fairness, altruism, and public goods contributions, financial market anomalies and theories, impact of markets, learning, and incentives, and memory, attention, categorization, and the thinking process.

The unifying theme of this course is best captured by the title of our main reference book: "Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics". We start by covering deterministic and stochastic dynamic optimization using dynamic programming analysis. We then study the properties of the resulting dynamic systems. Finally, we will go over a recursive method for repeated games that has proven useful in contract theory and macroeconomics. We shall stress applications and examples of all these techniques throughout the course.

Networks are ubiquitous in our modern society. The World Wide Web that links us to and enables information flows with the rest of the world is the most visible example. It is, however, only one of many networks within which we are situated. Our social life is organized around networks of friends and colleagues. These networks determine our information, influence our opinions, and shape our political attitudes. They also link us, often through important but weak ties, to everybody else in the United States and in the world. Economic and financial markets also look much more like networks than anonymous marketplaces. Firms interact with the same suppliers and customers and use Web-like supply chains. Financial linkages, both among banks and between consumers, companies and banks, also form a network over which funds flow and risks are shared. Systemic risk in financial markets often results from the counterparty risks created within this financial network. Food chains, interacting biological systems and the spread and containment of epidemics are some of the other natural and social phenomena that exhibit a marked networked structure.

This course will introduce the tools for the study of networks. It will show how certain common principles permeate the functioning of these diverse networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility, and interlinkages arise in several different types of networks.

The objective of this course is to introduce you to the role of government in markets where competitive equilibria “fail.” In this course we will emphasize the importance of market structure and industrial performance, including the strategic interaction of firms. We will examine the behavior of individual markets in some detail, focusing on cost analysis, the determinants of market demand, investment behavior, market power, and the implications of government regulatory behavior. The course will be broken into three parts. In the first part, we will review firm behavior and the theory of the market. Here, we will discuss perfectly competitive markets (our “benchmark”), efficiency, market structure, strategic competition, and productivity. Once the foundations of the market are well understood, we will then move on to the second part of the course, where we will study “economic” regulation. Here, we will look at the behavior of natural monopolies and regulatory options for dealing with them. And in the third part of the course, we will study “social” regulation—focusing on environmental, health, and safety regulation.

This course is the second course of the quantum field theory trimester sequence beginning with Relativistic Quantum Field Theory I (8.323) and ending with Relativistic Quantum Field Theory III (8.325). It develops in depth some of the topics discussed in 8.323 and introduces some advanced material.

This is the first term of a theoretical treatment of the physics of solids. Topics covered include crystal structure and band theory, density functional theory, a survey of properties of metals and semiconductors, quantum Hall effect, phonons, electron phonon interaction and superconductivity.

This is the second term of a theoretical treatment of the physics of solids. Topics covered include linear response theory; the physics of disorder; superconductivity; the local moment and itinerant magnetism; the Kondo problem and Fermi liquid theory.

This course covers the concepts and physical pictures behind various phenomena that appear in interacting many-body systems. Visualization occurs through concentration on path integral, mean-field theories and semi-classical picture of fluctuations around mean-field state.