Physics 115

  Sections A and B

  Spring 2002
 

   Fluids, Elements of Thermodynamics
     and Electricity and Magnetism
 
 

Instructor:   Aurel Bulgac
E-mail:    bulgac@phys.washington.edu
Class:               MTuThF,  Section A 1:30-2:20 and Section B  2:30-3:20, PAB A102
Office:              PAB B478
Phone:             (206)685-2988
Office Hours:   ThF   12:30 - 1:20,  PAB  Study Center AM018  and by appointment.

TA:                  Jonathan Jerke
E-mail:    jerke@u.washington.edu
Office:              PAB B229
Office Hours:   MWF 9-10, 11-12, 1-2,  Tu 1-4,  Th 9-12    PAB  Study Center AM018.

Keep in mind that this page is updated throughout the quarter and it should be consulted in case you might have a question concerning various policies in this course.

Course web page:  http://faculty.washington.edu/bulgac/115S02/welcome.html

Laboratory,  Physics 118
 
 
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:

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 developemt 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.

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.

Click on the link  http://tychosrv.phys.washington.edu/courses/phys115/spring02/
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 student 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
Deborah Mercer dmercer@phys.washington.edu.

Some items of interest will be put on the web in pdf format. This requires your
browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) to have an Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin.
 

Exams:    EXAMS MAY NOT BE TAKEN LATE

THERE WILL BE NO MAKEUPS.  If for 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 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 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/scantron (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 very similar to the homework or end of the chapter
problems.
 

Grading:

Grading will be done on a curve with the class average being about 2.75. 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.

Homework will count for 10 % of the grade. Each hourly exam will also count for
22.5 % of the grade, while the final two-hour exam will count for 45 % of the grade.
Thus the final exam score will be treated as two exams.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.). 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 the homework grade.

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.
 

Partial Credit?
 

General remarks

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.
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. 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.
 
 

                                         Very  Tentative Syllabus
 
Dates Topics Chapter-Section Homework Assignment 
not graded, solutions as links - UWNetID required
(problem #)
Be advised that some Greek symbols, such as pi=3.1415926... Delta etc appear  in the solutions as some other strange symbols for unclear reasons. 
 April  1- 5    Fluids        Ch.  10.1 - 10.9   6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 24, 25, 30, 35, 36, 40, 43
 April  8-12     Temperature and Kinetic Theory        Ch.  13.1 - 13.12   12, 13, 14, 15, 26, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 45, 46
 April 15-19     Heat         Ch.  14   6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18, 24, 26, 28, 37,  41, 50, 58, 59
 Thursday, April 18         Exam # 1   Chapters 10 and 13 

  Version A 

    Average 7.52, Stand. Dev. 1.73

  Version B

   Average 7.57, Stand. Dev. 1.46


 Answers:

  Version A (white)
        1B, 2C, 3A, 4B, 5B,
        6B, 7B, 8B, 9A, 10A

   Version B (yellow)
         1C, 2B, 3C, 4C, 5D,
         6D, 7B, 8D, 9B, 10A

 April 22-26     Thermodynamics        Ch.  15.1, 15.2, 15.4 - 15.7
 
 

NB Tycho will sometimes accept as correct 
   1 atm = 100,000 Pa
but not 
   1 atm = 101,300 Pa.

  1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 23, 30, 31, 33
 April 29 - May 3     Electric Charge and Field       Ch.  16   3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 26, 27, 35,  49, 51, 53, 55
 May  6 -10     Electric Potential, Energy
    and Capacitance
      Ch.  17   1, 2, 3, 9, 13, 15, 19, 21, 32, 38, 43, 45,  46,  56, 71
 Thursday, May 9        Exam # 2    Chapters 14 - 16

    Version A
  Average 6.50 St. Dev. 1.91

    Version B
  Average 6.56 St. Dev. 2.23

  Answers:

   1B,   2D,   3A,   4C,   5A,
   6C,   7D,   8A,  9A, 10C,
  11A, 12B, 13C, 14D, 15C,
  16B, 17D, 18C, 19A, 20B

 May 13-17       Electric Currents        Ch.  18 and begining Ch. 19   2, 3, 6, 7, 8,9,10, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 34, 37
 
 May 20-24      DC circuits        Ch.  19   2,3, 7, 17, 18, 22, 25, 26, 30, 37, 43, 44, 46
 
 Holiday,  May 27     Memorial Day  
 May 28-31     Magnetism       Ch.  20   3, 5, 10, 13, 17, 19, 23, 31, 33, 41, 54, 62
Thursday , May 30      Exam # 3    Chapters 17 - 19 
 
 
Version  # students  average  st.  dev.
 A  64  6.41   2.02
 B  67  6.40    2.10
 C  26  6.96   2.16
 D  27  4.07   1.96
 
   Answers:
     1A,  2C,  3D,  4B,     5B
     6A,  7D,  8A,  9A,   10C,
   11B, 12C, 13D, 14D,  15A, 
   16C, 17A, 18B, 19C,  20D,
   21D, 22A, 23A, 24A, 25C,
   26C, 27B, 28A, 29C,  30D,
   31C, 32D, 33D, 34A,  35D,
   36C, 37C, 38C, 39A,  40C
 June 3- 7     Electromagnetic Induction, 
    Faraday's Law 
    and AC Circuits
      Ch.  21   2, 6, 12, 15, 22, 33
   

 Section A
 Monday, June 10th
          2:30 - 4:20 pm

 Section B
 Tuesday,  June 11th
          2:30 - 4:20 pm

      Final Exam     Comprehensive
     Chapters 10,  13 - 21
 
 
Version  average  st. dev.
 A  11.11  2.93
 B  10.80  2.45
 C  10.28  3.99
 D    9.54   2.97

 A histogram of the final grades is posted here. Note that there are anumber of students who recieved grades between 4.0 and 4.4, but those grades have been rounded down to 4.0. This histograms includes both sections A and B.
 

  Please be advised that some grades posted on MyUW are in error and the correct grades are on Tycho. Eventually the UW records will be corrected, but I have no clue how long it will take them. They do have the correct grades. In case they fail to correct your grade by Fall quarter. please let me know. I expect them to do it pretty soon however.


 

Answers

 Version A:  1C, 2A, 3B, 4D, 5D, 6A, 7A, 8C, 9D, 10B, 11C, 12B, 13A, 14C, 15C, 16D

Version B:  1C, 2C, 3A, 4B, 5D, 6D, 7C, 8A, 9B, 10B, 11A, 12A, 13C, 14C, 15D, 16C

Version C:  1C, 2B, 3A, 4C, 5D, 6B, 7B, 8D, 9C, 10A, 11D, 12A, 13C, 14D, 15B, 16A

Version D:   1B, 2D, 3C, 4C, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8A, 9C, 10D, 11A, 12C, 13B, 14D, 15A, 16D