University of Evansville (UE), 2011 Fall, 3 hours, 3 credit hours.
Sections
Very reassuring I think.
Caption: Albert Einstein (1879--1955) with friends Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine, ca. 1903. The Olympian Academy.
Credit: Unknown photographer.
From Wikipedia.
Permission: Public domain at least in USA.
Also my favorite Einstein quote:
In my youth I despised all authority---and I have been punished for it by being
turned into an authority myself.
--- my memory of this quote. Like a lot of folks, the big E
may have said roughly the same thing several times.
Wave your hand or just speak up as seems appropriate.
Laptops can be used for in class-related activities only: taking notes, look-ups during group activities, etc.
which is the site you are maybe viewing right now.
This site contains the preliminary syllabus and the course lectures.
The site is/will be/may be linked from the official physics department
UE Physics.
Copying on tests is absolutely out of line.
Teaching a fellow student about a problem line by line is fine. Allowing them to directly copy is not.
It's a well known text and we'll be doing all/almost all of it.
We study the concepts and principles/laws of physics----mostly
classical physics---which is
physics known before 1900---but with a lot of
forays into post-1900 physics too.
Classical physics isn't out-of-date:
it's still very useful and beautiful.
Classical physics is, in fact, an
emergent physics to use a jargon term we will
discuss by and by.
We will also see a bit about how physics manifests itself in everyday life, technology, and remote realms---atomic
and cosmological.
There is a MATH COMPONENT---but it's elementary.
Caption: "Sherlock Holmes
and Dr. Watson. From the Sherlock Holmes story The Greek Interpreter.": year 1893sep.
``It's elementary, Watson,'' said Holmes annoyingly.
Credit: Sidney Paget (1860--1908) in the
The Strand Magazine, 1893sep.
Linked source: Wikipedia
image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paget_holmes.png.
Permission: Public domain at least in USA.
It's there because physics is very mathematical, and so getting some understanding of
the mathematical aspect of physics is essential.
It is also one of the gaols of this course to develop student math skills a bit.
Caption:
"Detail of a scene in the bowl of the letter 'P' with a woman with a set-square
and dividers; using a compass to measure distances on a diagram. In her left
hand she holds a square, an implement for testing or drawing right angles.
She is watched by a group of students. In the Middle Ages, it is unusual to see women
represented as teachers, in particular when the students appear to be monks.
She may be the personification of Geometry. Illustration at the beginning
of Euclid's Elementa, in the translation attributed to Adelard of Bath.
Year: 1309--1316, France (Paris)."
Credit: Unknown 14th century artist, posted by User: Leinad-Z:
From Wikipedia.
Public domain at least in USA.
There is not a lot of math compared to
Algebra Physics or
Calculus Physics.
But we cover more ground in one semester than those courses do in two.
The breadth of topics is the hard part really---but as I always say, it's
nothing like organic chemistry.
I will lecture---but I won't lecture on everything you have to know.
I will cover harder bits of
Hewitt
and expand on it where it seems necessary---this is the value added part.
We will break for group activities once or twice per day.
These will be group work on problems or little experiments.
Everyone must participate and I will circulate helping/annoying folks.
So break into groups of 2 to 4 right now.
Introduce yourselves while I circulate and get names.
Say about 5 minutes.
The readings are a necessary prep. It's almost impossible to learn things
with one going over in a lecture. So Reading and lecture on the same material
is essential. It takes brain exercise to develop those neural connections which
constitute learning.
As the instructor now plans it, by the end of the course nearly all
Hewitt
will have been read.
At the start of every class, each student will give me a slip of paper testifying
that they have done the reading for that day.
You should say explicitly that you have done the reading and put your name down.
If you miss a class, you can report the reading done by email.
No late reading reports accepted.
You should read searchingly, questioningly, going back and forth
to see that it all coheres.
Homeworks will usually be due the day after a chapter has been completed.
The homeworks will be marked for completeness and some questions will
be marked in detail.
The is some penalty for being late.
The homework problems are made up by the instructor and often based on
problems in
Hewitt.
The homeworks will be posted when ready and solutions will be posted sometime after the
homeworks are marked.
It's much more useful for students to always think out their own
argument and not just accept the instructor's argument (which
may not be all that good or may be
specious) and try
to mimic it on tests.
Actually, the password protection is just a little extra computer security.
Each student will read and then review a non-fiction book on a physics-related topic.
The review is NOT a synopsis although some synopsis has to be included.
The review is the student's judgment of the book: how authoritative is it,
how readable, how recommendable.
The review should be 5 to 10 pages of double-spaced 12-point font type---long
enough to develop the reviewer's themes, but also concise.
The review has got to enlighten and entertain me.
The students must choose a book and come and discuss it with me
by Friday, Sep23 (the end of the 4th week of the semester) for 1/5 of the
book review mark. (Changed from 1/6 for the interview.)
In preparation for this book review interview, the students should read 3 book reviews
in the journals
Nature or
Science
available in hardcopy in the library.
Current issues are not available electronically to
UE.
Book review is due Friday Nov11 (end of the 12 week of the semester).
It's good to get it done well before the end of the semester---you'll thank me.
I can suggest some physics-related books.
Absolutely, positively do NOT buy a book---unless you really want to.
The library is full of books and other can be obtained by interlibrary loan.
If you need some help on style, there's always
The Elements of Style
by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White
(1899--1985) (of Charlotte's Web)
to chew on.
There will be some multipli-choice questions, some short answer questions,
and maybe a longish essay-like question.
The questions will be drawn from homeworks or like homework questions or
not like homework questions.
The final will be more heavily weighted on the material since the last
in-class test.
The questions will be similar to the in-class test questions.
The in-class exams cover the material up to some cut-off point
that will be announced in class.
All students must AVOID knowing about given tests if they are
doing a make-up and must AVOID giving out information to
other students who have not yet done a test.
It's hard to fall completely behind if you attend lectures.
And there is lots of evidence that good attendance correlates
with achievement---but don't ask me to produce this evidence---it's
what deans tell me.
Letter grades will be assigned
per
the UE catalog, p. 52,
Grades--which allow instructors some freedom of
interpretation on how do determine ``average''.
I use a curve to automatically
assign letter grades during the semester---if there are enough
students to make a curve meaningful---if there arn't, I
just decide on letter grades.
There is NO fixed scale.
The curve is only used for current total grade: individual items (tests, etc. are NOT curved).
For these curved grades, I use the UE 11-point scale:
A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D+,D,F.
There is no plus with A, no minus with D, no plus or minus with F.
The final grades are decided on by the instructor
directly---the curve is NOT used, except as a guide.
In this course, I expect that the class
GPA
will be in the B- range (i.e., about 2.7)---but I am rather
parsimonious about A's---just being in the upper half of the class is not enough.
There do NOT have to be any D's or F's---the curve is NOT used for final grades.
I will submit MIDTERM GRADES (if there are any) and FINAL GRADES
as scheduled somewhere.
Remember that after an instructor has submitted FINAL GRADES,
any adjustments (except for purely clerical errors) are NOT easy.
This is true for any course.
Students should make any queries about their final grades before
the instructor submits them.
They are a measure of what you learn in a course: the learning itself is what counts ultimately.
If you've worked hard in a course and learnt a lot, then that helps you will all the following
courses and all the rest of your life.
The best strategy is to work hard in a course subject to all other constraints in life.
Of course, if you need a specific grade for some particular thing (e.g., a scholarship),
don't undershoot.
Don't imagine you can fine tune your effort just to get that specific grade.
Often I post grades under anonymous aliases.
But I havn't figured out whether I can do that at UE
or not.
Grades are confidential and the rules that apply vary from place to place.
You can just ask me for your currrent grades.
Yes/no?
Seems a good time to dig in.
http://physics.nhn.ou.edu/~jeffery/course/c_concep/con.html
Homeworks, homework solutions, and test solutions are posted below in section
Lectures.
Nota bene:
some problems will not have posted solutions.
These are typically problems in which some sort of argument has
to be given and there is no well defined ``right answer''.
To access the posted homeworks, homework solutions, and test solutions
you need the SUPERSECRET
username
and
password---which you
can get from the instructor right now.
TENTATIVE EXAM SCHEDULE
_________________________________________________________________
Exam Date Solutions (posted post-exam)
_________________________________________________________________
Exam 1 Sep23 F Exam 1 solutions
Exam 2 Nov21 M Exam 2 solutions
Final Exam Dec13 T Final Exam solutions
The final is at 10:15 am, Dec 13 T as per
final exam schedule.
_________________________________________________________________
Make-up tests are possible, but students must ask for them promptly.
--------------------------------------------------------------
readings 15 % 3 drops
homeworks 15 % no drops
book review 10 % no drops
2 in-class tests 30 % no drop
comprehensive final 30 % no drop
--------------------------------------------------------------
Good attendance is recommended and is encouraged by the daily readings, but not
marked in itself.
In any course, just showing for the lectures keeps the student
at least partially up to date just in itself.
There are absolutely NO extra credits.
About grades: they are important, but they are not everything.
Beware of aliens bearing grades.
Exam 1 solutions Tentative Date: Sep23, Friday. Exam 1 covers parts 0,1 of the text. There will be 40 multiple-choice problems (total of 40 marks) and one essay-like question (10 marks). About 70 % of the multiple-choice problems will be drawn from homeworks 0,1. The test is out of 50 marks altogether. It is closed book.