APPPHYS 100N: Powering the Future: How Physics Drives Green Energy
General Education Requirements
Course Description
Explore the profound connection between physics, energy use, and our changing climate. This course delves into the fundamental principles governing climate change and human energy use. We’ll cover how the greenhouse effect is governed by the solar spectrum, electromagnetic radiation and absorption, molecular dynamics, energy balance, atmospheric composition, and feedback loops. We’ll discuss the physics of energy production (fossil fuels, nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal), electrical transmission, and storage (especially pumped hydroelectric and batteries). You'll gain a quantitative understanding of energy sources, their potential, and the challenges of efficient energy transformation, transmission, and storage. This course can serve as a stand-alone course or as a complement to courses that teach engineering or that more explicitly address broader societal issues. This course is for you if you’ve taken high school or higher physics, you’re curious about the scientific bases of climate change and energy production, and you want to understand and discuss the trade-offs between different energy sources in a First-Year Seminar.
Meet the Instructor: Kathryn Moler

“As a student, I felt torn between my desire to better understand the world and my desire to help make it a better place. I chose to study Quantum Materials both because they are fascinating and because I hoped that we would learn how to design transformative energy materials. Unfortunately, the world is running out of time, and we urgently need to decarbonize our energy systems with technologies that are already available or that can be developed quickly. Whether you are wondering where to put your efforts, considering research or scholarship directions, or simply want to understand energy from a fundamental perspective, join me in this class.”