Winter
2004
Instructor:
Aurel Bulgac
E-mail:
bulgac@phys.washington.edu
Class:
Section A MTuThF, 1:30-2:20 pm, PAA A102
Section B MTuThF, 2:30-3:20 pm, PAA A102
Office:
PAB B478
Phone:
(206)685-2988
Office Hours:
W 1:30-2:30 pm, Th 12:30-1:30 pm, PAA Study Center AM018 and by appointment.
TA:
Yeechi Chen
Office hours: Tu 3:30-5:00
pm, W 2:30-5:00 pm and Th 3:30-5:30 pm in PAA Study Center, AM018
Course web page: http://faculty.washington.edu/bulgac/114W04/welcome.html
Epost for Phys 114, Winter 2004
Use Epost to start a discussion group, find buddies to study with,
etc. I shall only ocasionally check this discussion board.
Send an anonymous message to the instructor
Unless you sign the message, there is no way for me to know who send
the message or the sender's email.
The best thing is to use the link above to my e-mail if you want
me to know who you are, as then your e-mail
address will show up. Several times I tried to answer to anonymous
e-mails, in which the author sent me an
e-mail address and he/she expected an answer, but the e-mail address
supplied was wrong.
|
| Tycho |
Textbook:
Douglas C. Giancoli, Physics, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall.
You might find the following link of interest and helpful:
http://cw.prenhall.com/giancoli/
Homework assigment:
Homework is not required, but it is strongly advised
that you do it. One cannot
master the material unless one is able to solve
correctly problems. As a matter
of fact this is how you are going to be tested
in exams, but solving problems
and providing exact numerical answers. Unless you
practice by solving problems
the most likely outcome of the exams will be failure.
As you already know, unlike
many other fields of human inquiry, physics
is an exact science.
You must have a computer account for email and work.
Your homework will be
done on the web using a system called Tycho,
developed at the University of
Illinois. Thus system is still under development
and so far it has been greatly
appreciated by the students using it. There are essentially
two things we will use:
homework and gradebook.
In the homework portion, every week several problems
will be posted for you to
solve. As you will discover immediately, there are
two types of problems:
a) Standard Homework Problems have a numerical answer.
You will get
immediate feedback as to whether the answer supplied
is correct or not. In many
problems, you can ask for pre-programmed help. Full
credit is given (if done
before the deadline) for the correct answer, independent
of how many submissions
were needed to obtain it. b) Interactive Examples
are often somewhat more
difficult problems (level 2 or 3 of Giancoli's text).
Help in these problems usually
comes in the form of more questions. The hope of the
writers is that solution of
these problems will lead to better conceptual understanding
rather than just
equation manipulation.
Since some problems unfortunately still have bugs,
you might run into the unpleasant
situation that you have the correct solution but
the computer would not budge and will
not accept it. If you are 200% confident that your
solution is correct, send me a detailed
e-mail, containg the name of the problem, your
numerical input (NB these
numbers differ from student to student), describe
your approach and write your answers.
The first five students who run into such difficulties
and send me a correct solution
will have their score to that particular problem
raised by 50%. Those points will be added
to your final homework grade at the end of the
course.
In addition I shall assign a number of problems from
the end of each chapter in
the textbook, see the syllabus below. These additional
problems will not be graded
however. Each week I shall provide solutions to the
end of the chapter problems
assigned as well as to the rest of the problems in
the corresponding section. The
solutions would be accessible as links in the syllabus.
Many students in the past
have found these solutions extremely helpful in gaining
a deeper understanding
of the material presented in class and in the textbook.
Please note that some of
the symbols do not show up correctly, mostly various
Greek letters, so you will
have to do some guessing. There is no simple way for
me to correct this.
Click on the link http://tychosrv.phys.washington.edu/courses/phys114/winter04/
to login into the Tycho sytem and do your graded homework.
Follow the
instructions on the login page. Your homework, exam
and final grades will be
posted using the Tycho system as well. The sudent
database is updated daily
during the first week of the quarter daily and every
two days during the second
week. If you experience difficulties login into the
Tycho system please write to
Laura Clement lclement@phys.washington.edu.
Exams: EXAMS MAY NOT BE TAKEN LATE
THERE WILL BE NO MAKEUPS. Iffor
some reason you miss one of the midterms,
the one you missed will be your
low grade. Please arrange your vacation schedule
so you take the final exam at
the proper time.
There will be three one-hour
mid term exams and one final exam. Each hourly
exam (from 2:30 pm to 3:20 pm
sharp) will consist of multiple-choice questions
and these will be machine graded.
No partial credit will be given. The exams are
closed book, but you will be
permitted to have one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of hand
written notes to aid
you, no xerox copies or any other copies of any kind. In
addition you will only be allowed
to have a calculator, an eraser, a #2 pencil and
a pen. Scratch paper will be
provided. Do not forget to bring a bubble sheet
(Standard Answer Sheet). You
can get them at the Hub, By George and other
places around the campus.
The final exam will be over all
the material covered during the quarter. The
problems on the exams will be
chosen from the Tycho homework or the end of the
chapter problems (level II or
III of difficulty). On each hourly exam there will
be approximately ten multiple-choice
problems. You will be expected to solve
numerically each problem and
choose the correct answer among the 4-5 alternatives
suggested. On a typical
exam the average student will provide correct answers
to about 5-7 problems, with
a standard deviation of approximately 2.
Cheating will be dealt with harshly.
Grading:
Grading will be done on a curve,
with the class average being about 2.7. This will
vary depending on the performance
of the class as a whole. Approximately 5-10 %
of the class will receive 4.0,
and
0.7 will be the lowest passing grade.
Each hourly exam will also count
for 25 % of the grade, while the final two-hour
exam will count as two one-hour
exams for 25 % of the grade. Your score on each
exam will be normalized so that
each exam, regardless of the number of questions
or the difficulty of the exam,
will count the same. This score will be converted to
an exam grade point (2.3, 3.2,
etc.). The approximate (it can change slightly!)
formula which will be used to compute each grade for
each exam is
Your Grade = (Your exam score - Average exam score)/Standard Deviation + 2.7
At the end of the quarter, your
lowest exam grade will be dropped and your course
grade will be the average of
the remaining three exam grades and, if that is the
case the extra credit for the
homework. The graded homework on Tycho is not
required for the grade. However, if you have
worked out the assigned problems
and obtained the correct answers before the posted
deadline you can received
up to 0.3 point towards your final grade (on top of
the grade based on exam results).
0.3 will be awarded for 100% correct answers.
The instructor reserves the right
to modify this grading procedure in any way as long
as no student receives a course
grade lower than one calculated by the method
described above.
General remarks
All the mathematics you need to know to be able
to take this course is summarized
in Appendix A of the textbook. Please review
various number notations, solving
linear and quadratic algebraic equations and
systems of 2-3 linear equations
with respectively 2-3 unknowns, plane
geometry, areas and volumes and basic
trigonometry.
This physics course provides the basis for all applications
of physics, and
future physics, biophysics, and chemical physics courses
or topics you may
have to or be willing to explore. The subject matter
of PHYS 114 is mechanics,
which according to the dictionary means [the] science
that deals with energy
and forces and their effect on bodies. This definition
actually covers just about
all of physics! But don't worry, here we will focus
on what we can learn about
the motion of ordinary-sized objects (for example,
bigger than a molecule but
smaller than a galaxy) moving at speeds much less
than the speed of light.
Objects outside these limits require quantum mechanics
and relativity, which
you will hear about if and when you take PHYS 116.
Specifically, we are going to learn about Newtonian
mechanics, which as every
schoolchild knows, relates the falling of an apple
to the motion of a planet in
its orbit. Isaac
Newton's triumph in bringing the heavens down to earth came
when he was 24 years old, and he had to invent calculus
to finish the job. Our
task will be much easier! We will scrupulously avoid
any whiff of math beyond
the high school level, although by the time we are
finished you should be able
to understand what calculus is all about and appreciate
its power.
Most 114 students are not planning to major in a mathematical
science like
physics or chemistry, or an engineering field. But
whether your interests are in
the life sciences, social sciences, arts, or humanities,
the content of PHYS 114
is fundamental for scientific literacy, a commodity
which seems to be getting
in shorter supply even as our world gets more and
more technological.
In class, you will learn a few facts about mechanics,
and how to make a few
calculations that someday might be handy contesting
a speeding ticket, but
mostly we will focus on the process of thinking used
in science. Sometimes
this is called the scientific method. Really, it is
an approach to analyzing
information that has been found to be astonishingly
successful - so much so,
that it took us from Newton's world of witch-burnings
and horse-drawn
transportation to our world of instant communications
and jet aircraft in
only 300 years. It provides a way to distinguish what
is probably right from
what is probably wrong, in an agreed-upon manner.
Unfortunately it is not
universally agreed-upon, even yet - witch hunts still
go on... Above
all,
science
is about clear and unambiguous communication of ideas.
Please feel free to ask questions in class, to ask
for a revision of some
material "in different words," and to use the office
hours for a "smaller group"
discussion of particular topics and try also Epost
as well. It is very important
that you keep up your reading and advance through
the homework problems
as the course progresses. It is almost impossible
to get a good grade without
working a fair number of homework problems.
The Physics Department runs a Study Center where assistance
with course
work is available for many hours Monday through Friday.
There are a number
of computers in this room as well where you can access
the internet. The
Study Center is located in this building, downstairs
from the Foucault pendulum.
In the Study Center there are tables assigned to different
courses. Depending
on the time of the day, there may be one, two, or
three Teaching Assistants
working through the tables answering questions.
At some times there will be
additional faculty assistance. Sign your name to the
list on the wall when you
want individual assistance, and as soon as a TA is
available she/he will call
your name. Some students have found useful to form
"groups" who work
homeworks together.
NB Some of the material here has been borrowed from
my colleagues' webpages.
Tentative Syllabus
| Dates | Topics | Chapter-Section | Homework Assignment
not graded, solutions will be posted here. |
| (chapter #.problem #) | |||
| January 5-9 | Kinematics | Ch. 1, 2 | 1.3, 1.21, 2.2, 2.8, 2.9, 2.12, 2.14, 2.19, 2.20, 2.23, 2.24, 2.27, 2.29, 2.30, 2.41 |
| January 12-16 | Kinematics | Ch. 2, 3 | 3.1, 3.2, 3.8, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.20, 3.21, 3.26, 3.32, 3.45, 3.36, 3.51, 3.66 |
| January 19 Holiday | Martin Luther King Day | ||
| January 20-23 | Dynamics | Ch. 4 | 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.12, 4.18, 4.21, 4.23, 4.24 4.28, 4.30, 4.31, 4.32, 4.37 |
| January 26-30 | Dynamics | Ch. 4 | 4.44, 4.45, 4.47, 4.49, 4.52, 4.56, 4.69, 4.72, 4.74, 4.77, 4.78, 4. 79, 4.80, 4.81 |
| February 5, Thursday | Exam # 1 | Chapters 1-3 | |
| February 2-6 | Circular motion and Gravitation | Ch. 5 | 5.7, 5.8, 5.11, 5.12, 5.17, 5.18, 5.19, 5.30, 5.35, 5.41, 5.43, 5.44, 5.45, 5.53 |
| February 9-13 | Work and Energy | Ch. 6 | 6.1, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 6.8, 6.10, 6.13, 6.20, 6.21, 6.22, 6.23, 6.24, 6.25, 6.27, 6.30, 6.31, 6.32, 6.33 |
| February 16 Holiday | Presidents Day | ||
| February 17-20 | Energy conservation | Ch. 6 | 6.36, 6.37, 6.39, 6.40, 6.43, 6.47, 6.49, 6.51, 6.53, 6.54, 6.58, 6.68, 6.69, 6.84 |
| February 19, Thursday | Exam # 2 | Chapters 4-5 | |
| February 23-27 | Momentum | Ch. 7 | 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.7, 7.11, 7.16, 7.21, 7.23, 7.25, 7.32, 7.33, 7.57, 7.62, 7.74 |
| March 1-5 | Rotational Motion | Ch. 8 | 8.11, 8.15, 8.16, 8.19, 8.24, 8.26, 8.31, 8.33, 8.36, 8.40, 8.41, 8.42, 8.62, 8.74 |
| March 4, Thursday | Exam # 3 | Chapters 6-7 |
|
| March 8-12 | Rotational motion | Ch. 8 | |
|
Section 114A Monday, March 15 2:30- 4:20 pm Section 114B
|
Final Exam | Chapters 1 - 8
|
|
