Professional physicists have traditionally experienced careers in education, industry and government, but a sound knowledge of basic physics has become increasingly important to other areas of endeavor as well. For example, a strong undergraduate background in physics is considered essential to a career as a commissioned officer in one of the high-technology branches of the Armed Forces. The junior and senior years include upper-division courses in analytical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, mathematical physics, electronics, thermodynamics, optics, modern physics, and quantum mechanics. Research planning and senior research project in the senior year give students an opportunity to apply physics to a theoretical or experimental project or to the design and construction of apparatus. The program for physics majors retains flexibility in that a student who does not intend a profession in physics may, at the discretion of the department head, replace up to six credit hours of physics courses numbered above 300 with courses numbered above 300 in other science fields.
Physics courses for majors in other fields.
As a service to other departments, and to meet the expectations of the college core curriculum, three separate basic physics sequences are individually designed to meet the requirements of specific groups of disciplines. All basic physics sequences have concomitant laboratories. Descriptive courses in elementary astronomy, ASTR 201 and ASTR 202 are provided as electives.