These areas of physics embody concepts which are foreign to our everyday experience. To give a feel for this we are presenting to students two adventures of Mr. Tompkins, the hero of Gamow's Mr Tompkins in Wonderland. George Gamow is a well known physicist of this century.

Mr Cyril George Henry Tompkins, after listening to a popular lecture on the theory of relativity, dreams of a visit to a fantastic city in which the speed of light is only 25kmh-1. What does he observe there? At first, nothing unusual seems to happen around him - a policeman standing on the corner looks as policeman usually do! The streets are nearly empty. But when a cyclist coming down the street approaches Mr. Tompkins, he is absolutely astonished. For, the bicycle and the man on it appear unbelievably flattened to him. When the clock strikes twelve, the cyclist, who seems to be in a hurry, pedals harder. Though he does not gain much in speed, he appears flattened even more. Mr. Tompkins decides to overtake the cyclist and ask him about it. He borrows a bicycle and pedals on it hoping to get flattened. But amazingly, nothing happens to him. Instead, the picture around him changes completely. The streets grow shorter, the windows of the shops begin to look like narrow slits and the policeman on the corner becomes the thinnest man he had ever seen!

In another adventure, Mr. Tompkins dreams of going to a land where the value of Planck's constant is very high. He goes hunting in a forest. When he encounters a tiger, much as he tries, he cannot shoot it - for the tiger is spread out in space and appears as one too many to Mr. Tompkins.

What topsy turvy worlds Mr. Tompkins visits in his dreams! And what weird experiences he has! We are sure students will be interested in finding explanations to these happenings in Mr. Tompkins' dream world. This course will help them to do so.

Block 1: The Special Theory of Relativity:
1. Emergence of special relativity
2. Relativistic kinematics
3. Relativistic dynamics

Block 2: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics:
4. Wave-particle duality
5. Matter waves and uncertainty principle
6. Schrodinger equation
7. Observables and operators

Block 3: Application of Quantum Mechanics to Some Systems:
8. Some simple systems
9. Spherically symmetric systems: hydrogen atom
10. Atomic spectra
11. X-ray spectra

Block 4: Nuclear Physics:
12. Radioactivity
13. The Nucleus
14. Applied Nuclear Science
15. Elementary Particles.

Assessment is by two assignments (30%) and a final examination (70%).

Programmes for which this course is required or in which it can be included:
Bachelor of Science.