Students would be introduced to the following:

Geometric Optics: Fermat’s Principle, colour dispersion, plane surfaces and prisms, thin prisms, the combination of thin prisms, images formed by paraxial rays, optical fibre, spherical surfaces, derivation of the Gaussian formula, thin lenses, spherical mirrors, lens aberrations, optical instruments.

Heat: Macroscopic and microscopic descriptions of temperature and thermodynamic equilibrium measurement of temperature and heat, Heat capacity and specific heat capacity, heat transfer, thermal energy balance. Kinetic theory of gases, First law of thermodynamics, Second law of thermodynamics, the third law of thermodynamics.

Atomic Theory: Discovery of the electron, atoms and the periodic table, light sources and their spectra, the structure of the atom, Photoelectric effect, X-rays, electromagnetic waves and vacuum tubes, vacuum tubes and transistors, electron optics, spinning electrons, Radio, Radar, TV, and microwaves, photon collisions and atomic waves.