About physics
Physics is the science of matter and energy and of interactions between the two. In older terms it is the study of the natural or material world and phenomena; natural philosophy.
In Germany we started to study physics in fifth grade. I was intrigued by fascinating experiments and thought exercises that my teacher, Heiner Platzbecker, presented to us between 7th and 13th grade; in regular class as well as in extracurricular meetings. So I decided to study physics in college, I wanted to understand the basic principles that govern our universe. I studied at the University of Cologne and at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I received a diploma in physics in September 1997 and a Ph.D in physics in August 2002.
Please also visit my page about Teaching. On there I have links about Physics Education Research and my Teaching Philosphy. There are other, non-physics writings scattered across my webpages, too.
Below on this current page, I provide links to my papers which I wrote during my physics studies. Other information, such as my CV, my diploma thesis, my dissertation, and my publications, as well as outside physics links are on the following pages:
Papers
During my studies I produced a few papers to turn in, or some lecture notes for my fellow students. You can find those papers in the PDF format; however, they are in German. Sorry...
Lectures and Labs
- During my physics
studies, I took a chemistry lab. It covered how to analyze and
detect certain elements and molecules. This paper is in German
and it is a summary of those procedures:
Uwe Muench: Chemische Nachweise. September 30, 1991. 14 pages.
PDF format: chemie.pdf - I attended numerous math courses. I typed up
a script of the lecture of one of them,
Complex Analysis (in German: Funktionentheorie), including
exercises and solutions. I also added an appendix, but 2 of the
9 sections of this appendix were never finished... Again, it's
in German:
Uwe Muench: Funktionentheorie. Mitschrift der Vorlesung. Summer Semester 1992. 148 pages.
PDF format: fkttheo.pdf
Seminars
I attended several seminars. For two of them it was required to write a paper, too.
- This is a presentation on results of the
Schwarzschild geometry (the simplest non-rotating solution of
Einstein's gravitational field equation). It is written
in German:
Michael Schaaf, Uwe Muench: Einige Resultate der Schwarzschild-Geometrie. Summer semester 1994. 16 pages.
PDF format: relasem.pdf
- This is a presentation on how to use
Fourier transforms to solve Partial Differential
Equations (PDE). PDEs appear in many physical problems. Again, it
is written in German:
Uwe Muench: Anwendung der Fourier-Transformation auf die Lösung partieller Differentialgleichungen. Winter semester 1992/93. Short version (only results): 8 pages; Full version (including proofs): 29 pages.
Short version, PDF format: seminart.pdf
Full version, PDF format: seminara.pdf.
Nuclear Physics labs
We did 8 advanced experiments in nuclear physics. Here are the lab reports. All reports are in German.
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe Muench:
Zählrohr und Statistik. Winter semester
1993/94. 50 pages.
PDF format: kern-2.pdf
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe
Muench: Gamma-Szintillation Winter
semester 1993/94. 51 pages.
PDF format: kern-5.pdf
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe
Muench: Gamma-Gamma-Koinzidenz. Winter
semester 1993/94. 20 pages.
PDF format: kern-7.pdf
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe Muench:
Analoge Elektronik. Winter semester 1993/94. 37
pages.
PDF format: kern-8a.pdf
- Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Digitale Elektronik. Winter
semester 1993/94. 22 pages.
PDF format: kern-8c.pdf
- Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Alpha-Reichweite. Winter
semester 1993/94. 38 pages.
PDF format: kern-9.pdf
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe
Muench: Beta-Szintillation. Winter
semester 1993/94. 46 pages.
PDF format: kern-11.pdf
- Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Ge(Li)-Gamma-Spektroskopie.
Winter semester 1993/94. 31 pages.
PDF format: kern-17.pdf
Solid State Physics Labs
We also did 8 advanced experiments in solid state physics. Here are the lab reports. Again, all reports are in German.
- Oliver Flimm, Uwe Muench:
Phasenempfindliche Gleichrichtung. Winter semester
1994/95. 33 pages.
PDF format: fest-1.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Lichtbeugung am Ultraschall.
Winter semester 1994/95. 28 pages (photographs not in file).
PDF format: fest-11.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Elektrische Messungen an einem
Ferroelektrikum. Winter semester 1994/95. 45 pages.
PDF format: fest-16.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Rotationsschwingungsspektren von
HCl. Winter semester 1994/95. 31 pages.
PDF format: fest-17.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Mikrowellen. Winter semester
1994/95. 37 pages.
PDF format: fest-21.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Magnetisierungskurven eines
Ferrits. Winter semester 1994/95. 38 pages.
PDF format: fest-23.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Versetzungen in LiF. Winter
semester 1994/95. 29 pages (photographs not in file).
PDF format: fest-25.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Überstruktur
in Cu3Au. Winter semester 1994/95. 36
pages.
PDF format: fest-27.pdf - Oliver
Flimm, Uwe Muench: Rotationsschwingungsspektren von
HCl. Presentation on the experiment. October 31, 1994. 21
pages.
PDF format: vortrag-fest.pdf