Physics 111/112, General Physics I, Section 2, 3 credits: University of Idaho: 2008 Fall
and and
The course mottos: very reassuring I think.
Sections
This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor. Any changes will be announced in class as well as made on this page.
which is the page you are maybe viewing right now.
This page is the preliminary syllabus and includes
syllabus items
and
Tentative Schedule II.
This page is/will be/may be linked from the official physics department
course web page.
They are only approximately coordinated with lecture class.
.
Recitation, Thursdays, 5:00--6:00, EP 214, Leader: Jamie Hass.
The recitation period is in the regular classroom as you can see.
But the course instructor may also be present for some recitation
periods for awhile.
Probably there will be a concentration on getting homework problems answered.
Group study among students both in recitation and out is great.
As always students are encouraged to help each other with material and homework
problems.
But the there should be NO straight copying from each other---helping a person through
all the steps and comparing answers is good---straight copying is bad.
Homeworks will usually be due on Wednesdays, but the due dates for
particular homeworks may have to be set to other days to
accord with where we are in the material.
Students ideally should get most/all problems done BEFORE the recitation, but
undergraduates pioneered
just-in-time delivery
before anyone else.
NO RECITATION FOR SUMMER CLASSES
There is also the
Tutoring and Academic Assistance Programs (TAAP), Commons, Room 322 and 327.
This program offers small group tutoring for students. You can sign up for
a group or request a new group. Intro physics courses typically have
existing groups after a short period into the semester.
This is really a pretty good deal. Group work is very effective and social.
Ideally students should have their own informal groups in addition to any
formal group, but sometimes it's hard to get to know people and
TAAP
supplies a warm, fuzzy tutor.
The students should then have access to the online text and other Wiley online materials.
Nota bene: For this course section,
NO special features of the online book and resources will be required.
The online book is just required as a textbook for readings.
The students with online access can, of course, make use of the online self-tests and
other resources.
We will NOT be using online homeworks for example---though one got created by way of example
and I'm working on how to delete.
Therefore if a student wishes to just buy a hardcopy textbook and use that for the course that
will work as well.
A new hardcopy is about $170 and the online book from the bookstore is about $90.
You can buy access code online too---and that is cheaper than at the bookstore.
Online access is good for 12 months.
You can actually print out the whole textbook from the online version and put it in binder.
Cheap used hardcopies may be available.
It has lots of words and boxes and examples and stuff.
To old-timers (e.g., yours truly), it's a bit over-busy.
For
Physics 111,
we are planning to cover chapters 1--8, 11, and 16 and possibly 9.
See the
Tentative Schedule I below.
For
Physics 112
we are planning to cover chapters 18--22 and 24--27 and possibly 17 and 23.
See the
Tentative Schedule II below.
We will learn a little physics.
At this level physics is rather abstract and idealized.
We deal with ideal motions, ideal point masses, ideal surfaces, ideal monkeys, ideal
systems, ideal circuits, ideal optical systems.
Many real everyday motions and systems are much more complex than the cases we deal with:
just think about walking, bike riding, skipping rope.
In particular, real everyday motions usually involve resistive media and surfaces.
We discuss those resistive forces a bit and the special case of surface friction
is treated quantitatively.
The point of studying such ideal systems is to grasp the very basic laws of
classical physics---pre-20th
century physics in terms of discovery, but still very useful in practice.
You don't need know intro physics to walk, ride a bike, or play catch---or to
turn on your lights.
Moreover, the oceans were sailed west by
Columbus,
east by the
Polynesians,
and
pyramids
and
cathedrals
were build and all without knowing intro physics.
But you do need to know it---and whole lot more---to design a
rocket ship
or a CD player.
You can only get so far by empirical means alone.
Note the ``alone'': empirical means are still essential.
Now many in this course will never go on to advanced physics or engineering.
But you will go on to advanced something---and an improved understanding how to analyze
and predict from basic principles will be a boon---for many students, it may
be the most important
feature of this course.
That is the empowerment of intro physics.
Of course, studying intro physics is enlightening.
It helps understanding eternity and infinity.
As well as understanding home.
There is some math in this course.
Quite a bit actually---but that's good.
You-all are all in programs that need math skills.
It's no surprise to you that this is a pretty hard course.
But as I always say, it's nothing like
organic chemistry.
They are/will be posted along with their due dates
online on the
Tentative Schedule I/Tentative
Schedule II below.
Usually the due dates will be Wednesdays (unless this has to be changed).
The due dates are subject to adjustment during the semester.
These will be announced in class as well as on the
Tentative Schedule I/Tentative
Schedule II.
The course grader will mark all multiple-choice problems
and probably one full-answer problem chosen at RANDOM.
All questions are out of 5 points: there are part marks for full-answer
problems, but none for multiple-choice problems.
All homeworks count the same no matter what they are marked out of.
The solutions will be posted on the
Tentative Schedule I/Tentative
Schedule II eventually.
Typically about 50 to 70 % or more of the exam questions
will be drawn from
the homeworks or, in the case of the FINAL, past exams also.
Questions that reappear on the exams
might be tweeked a bit from previous versions.
Homeworks will count 10 % or less of the final grade.
Handed in homeworks should be stapled, UNFOLDED, and
your should appear on the front.
The in-class exams cover the material up to some cut-off point
that will be announced in class and on the course web on
Tentative Schedule I/Tentative
Schedule II.
The final is about 50 % weighted or more on material since the last in-class
exam and about 50 % weighted or less on all the material that came before
the last in-class exam.
If you are in
Physics 112,
then earlier topics includes all topics from
Physics 111.
The tentative dates for the exams are:
The in-class exams will consist of some tens of multiple-choice questions
and one or a few full-answer questions.
Most of the multiple-choice questions are NOT intended to be
hard or tricky; they are intended as a warm-up.
There might be a few harder mathematical ones in lieu of a full-answer questions.
No SCANTRONS are needed---but this might change.
The final (for academic-year courses) will be like a double-class exam in
terms of questions of various kinds.
The exams are closed book.
Calculators are permitted for calculational work only.
No stored solutions or formulae.
Cell phones MUST be turned off and be out of sight.
An equation sheet will be provided with the exams.
This is the same equation sheet that comes with the homeworks.
There are NO scheduled review days.
But students can keep the instructor busy answering questions
on the day before exams.
There are recitation periods recall.
And there might be time for a review day before the final.
Make-up exams are possible, but students must ask for them
promptly and avoid knowing anything about given exams.
Students are encouraged to keep good attendance.
Letter grades will be assigned following the
UI catalog---which allow instructors some freedom of
interpretation.
The instructor uses a curve to automatically
assign letter grades during the semester---if there are enough
students to make a curve meaningful---if there arn't the instructor
just decides on letter grades.
There is NO fixed scale.
The final grades are decided on by the instructor directly---any curve
is NOT used, except as a guide.
Students can always ask the instructor for their current
mark record and letter grades. Queries by email
are probably best for this.
The instructor will submit midterm grades and final grades
as scheduled in the
academic
calendar---which doesn't specify any midterm grade dates for summer courses.
Remember that after an instructor has submitted FINAL GRADES,
any adjustments (except for purely clerical errors) are
NOT allowed by university policy.
http://physics.nhn.ou.edu/~jeffery/course/c_intro/intra.html
Unfortunately, the recitations are NOT marked on any UI schedule that I can find.
The instructor is also available for help with things whenever you
can catch him such as his office hours as given in
the instructor's schedule.
I don't know how Jamie will run things: I've not had a chance to consult
with her.
NO PHYSICS DEPARTMENT TUTORING FOR SUMMER CLASSES
NO TAAP FOR SUMMER CLASSES????
For Physics 111.
For Physics 112.
This semester department has decided to use the online text for course.
Student can purchase registration access at the bookstore and should
then be able register online at the Wiley URL.
http://edugen.wiley.com/edugen/class/cls54091/.
It is also true that any ordinary introductory physics textbook of the last
30 years has much the same content as course text. With enough adaptation on the
student's part any such book would do as well for any course I teach.
As is discussed below homework problems are NOT drawn from the textbook for
courses I teach---but that may change.
This may not be true for courses taught by other instructors.
The Cutnell book is pretty good.
Those basic laws are NOT obvious---they are usually hidden in the complexity
of everyday motions and systems that we deal with empirically---learnt by
trial and error to oversimplify---and usually very effectively.
Using these basic laws, systems much more complex than ideal ones
can be analyzed---they can be
analyzed from first principles---or at least basic principles.
Eternity and infinity from our small platform.
Earthrise from Apollo 11, 1969jul16.
Credit:
NASA.
Not in this course.
The last material may receive less weighting on the final if the
time from the last in-class exam is short.
Nota bene:
Even though exams are formally restricted to set exam
topics, intro physics is intrinsically cumulative and
earlier topics are assumed known insofar as they are needed for the
exam topics.
_________________________________________________________________
Exam Date Solutions (posted post-exam)
_________________________________________________________________
Exam 1 Sep26 F Exam 1 solutions
Exam 2 Oct29 W Exam 2 solutions
Exam 3 Nov14 F Exam 3 solutions May be omitted.
Final Exam Dec17 W Final Exam solutions
The final is Dec17, W, 3:00--5:00 in the regular class room
as specified by Final exam schedule for 2008 Fall.
_________________________________________________________________
Academic-year courses
homeworks 10 % or less 1 drop
2 or 3 in-class exams 45 % or more no drop
1 comprehensive final 45 % or more no drop
Each in-class exam is worth 22.5 or 15 % of final grade.
Summer courses
homeworks 10 % or less 1 drop
3 in-class exams 90 % or more no drop
Each in-class exam is worth 30 % of the final grade.
Attendance is NOT kept and NO marks are assigned
for attendance.
Like any course, just showing up 3 times a week for session of physics
keeps you moving forward in the course.
There are absolutely NO extra credits.
See
Policy on Grades from the
UI Catalog.
Note that E-6 states that grade changes after instructor submission are
only allowed for clerical corrections, not for reweighting or additional work.
There is another avenue for grade emendation:
the Academic
Hearing Board (1640.02 C-4) can have a say on grades---but it's not
very promising.
Beware of aliens bearing grades.
No dated schedule has ever been adhered to by the instructor.
So there are no dates in this tentative schedule.
However, we have 15 weeks in the semester (not counting spring/fall recess) and we may lose about two weeks of classes for in-class exams and holidays: e.g., in the fall, Labor Day and in the spring Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day.
So about 13 weeks and 39 lecture class hours.
Since we are planning on 12 chapters (chapters 1--11 and 16 and possibly omitting chapter 9), we will be covering about a chapter per week with a bit of a safety margin.
Some parts of chapters may be omitted.
The instructor will follow CJ pretty closely with only occasionally (and hopefully advertized) deviations.
So CJ is pretty close to being the course notes.
In any case, if you knew the book really well you'd hardly need the notes.
No dated schedule has ever been adhered to by the instructor.
So there are no dates in this tentative schedule.
However, we have 16 weeks in the semester (not counting spring/fall recess) and we will lose about two weeks of classes for in-class exams and holidays: e.g., in the fall, Labor Day and in the spring Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day.
So about 14 weeks and 42 lecture class hours.
Since we are planning on 9 to 11 chapters (chapters 18--22 and 24--27 and possibly 17 and 23,) we will be covering about a chapter per week and bit.
In some cases, parts of chapters will be omitted.
The instructor will follow CJ pretty closely with only occasionally (and hopefully advertized) deviations.
So CJ is pretty close to being the course notes.