Physique [ WMDS1100 ]

A good  understanding of the lectures requires a good knowledge of the derivatives and integrals of functions. In physics, it twill be assumed that the students have seen and understood the kinematics and geometrical optics.

The course starts with a chapter on mathematics dealing with the exponential processes which play an important role in the medical context while allowing one to revise important and indispensable concepts that will be used in the following. The next part of the course focuses on point, solid and fluid mechanics. The course will concentrate on the basic notions and their possible applications in medecine. In the same spirit, thermal physics, electricity, magnetism and optics will be studied. The course ends with special questions of biophysics concerning  transport phenomena (Fick's laws, osmotic pressure etc') and ionising radiations.

The objective of this course is twofold : on the one hand, to introduce the student to the scientific approach and on the other hand, to stimulate his motivation and commitment in order to make this course meaningful and to give him the opportunity to learn and practice the casuistry i.e. solving concrete problems from the general theoretical principles and from the study of similar cases (a competence that is essential for physicians !). The student should therefore be able to analyse and interpret a given physical situation after having identified the important parameters and eliminated the irrelevant ones. The students must acquire good knowledge of the basic notions of general physics in a medical context. The content of the course is in agreement with the learning outcomes defined by all universities of the french community of Belgium.

The evaluation is based on a written exam. During the first part of the exam, the student will have to solve two problems. One comes from the syllabus or has been solved during the tutorials and the second one is new and if possible, with a medical connotation. The second part of the exam is devoted to a series of multiple choice questions, some of them refering to one of the video sequences shown during the lectures at the end of each chapter.

The teaching activities include the theoretical course, many tutorials and guidance sessions. During the lectures, experiments will be shown on a big screen. Furthermore, at the end of each chapter, a video sequence will be projected. These sequences will present an experiment about a physical situation that is very familiar at the beginning and then progressively replaced in a medical context. Each student will then have to answer to a series of multiple choice questions, the objective being to measure their capacity of analysing a given physical situation. The tutorials, given in auditorium, will be  devoted to the resolution of many problems. Finally, guidance sessions will be organized every day of the week.

The course is divided in the following nine chapters :

1. Exponential processes
2. Elements of biomechanics
3. Point and solid dynamics
4. Periodic phenomena
5. Static of fluids and dynamics
6. Elements of thermal physics
7. Electricity and magnetism
8. Optics and medical imaging
9. Special questions of biophysics

The supportive material of the course involves a syllabus and slides that are available on icampus before each lecture. As a book of reference, we recommend the one of J. Kane and M. Sternheim entitled « PHYSIQUE » edited by Dunod.