BMS1031

Medical biophysics

6 points · 3 lectures and one 3-hour laboratory class or problem/tutorial session per week · First semester · Clayton campus

Objectives On completion of this subject students will be able to understand and to apply many of the fundamental concepts of physics as they relate to the biomedical sciences. Students will be able to apply the laws of motion as they relate to movement (biomechanics), the concepts of work energy and power as they relate to man functioning in his environment, the concept of heat and the thermal properties of matter and their relation to the behaviour of gases, the concepts of thermodynamics and be able to explain how heat is transported in man; students will be expected to understand applications of all the above concepts to medicine, eg the physics of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Students will be able to apply the laws that relate to electrical phenomena such as potential difference, current flow, resistors and capacitors and their relationship to the physical-chemical basis of biological membrane potentials, nerve conduction, EEG and ECGs. Students will understand wave motion and the physics of sound and the properties of light and their relationship to auditory and visual phenomena in man, together with details of how human eye and ear function. Finally concepts related to nuclear physics will be covered with particular attention being paid to radiation physics, the effects of ionizing radiation of tissue and the use of radiation in medicine and in the biomedical sciences.

Synopsis The subject will cover many aspects of physics, with emphasis placed on those areas with clear relevance to medicine and the biomedical sciences. The examples used in teaching will be taken from the biomedical sciences. Students will be expected to focus on understanding the basic principles of physics, as applied in a biomedical context.The subject will cover five major areas namely (i) force and motion and associated mechanical topics, (ii) energy, work, power and heat and the thermal properties of matter, (iii) electricity, forces, fields, potentials and current flow, (iv) wave motion in relation to light and sound, (v) electron and radiation physics. More specifically the subject will cover: displacement, velocity and acceleration, Newton's laws of motion; energy, work, power and momentum, the elastic properties of materials and vibrational motion, the temperature and behaviour of gases, the first law of thermodynamics and the thermal properties of matter, the mechanics of non-viscous fluids, viscous fluid flow and cohesive forces in liquids; electric forces, fields and potentials, direct currents, resistance and capacitance; wave motion, the nature and speed of sound, the wave properties of light, mirrors, lenses and imaging, radiation physics; radioactivity, radiation and its interaction with matter. All five areas will have one or more applied lectures that will show how the physical processes and principles described above relate to specific biomedical topics: forces in muscles and the skeleton, electrical signals in nerves and muscle, the motion of fluids in the cardiovascular system, the mechanics of breathing, how we hear and how we see, the dangers and benefits of radiation.

Assessment Theory examination: 70% · Practical examination: 15% · Practical skills and written reports: 15%

Prescribed texts

Kane J S and Sternheim M M Physics 3rd edn, Wiley, 1988

Back to the 1999 Medicine Handbook