Phys 329, Spring 2015

Classical Mechanics

Instructor:           Aurel Bulgac 
E-mail:                 bulgac@uw.edu  
Class:                   MWF,  11:30 am - 12:20 pm, PAA A110
                         
Office:                  PAB B478 
Phone:                  (206)685-2988 
Office Hours:       Mondays, 2:30-4:00 pm, my office.

TA:                       Egor Klevak, office B438
Office Hours:      Monday 12:30-1:20 pm, Study Center
                             Tuesday 1:00-2:00 pm, office B438


Textbook:      Classical Mechanics, by Tom W.B. Kibble and Frank H. Berkshire, Imperial College Press, 5th edition

Homework:  There will be weekly homework assignments (assigned typically on Wednesdays either in class or by email) and each homework will be due a week later in class.

Quizzes:        There will be 15 minutes quizzes on most Mondays. You will be allowed to collaborate (not too loudly) with your neighbors. No notes or books are allowed during quizzes.

Syllabus:       We will cover chapters 1-12.

Final exam:  PAA  A110, Wednesday,  June 10th,  2:30 pm -   4:20 pm

You will be allowed to use one sheet of handwritten notes (both sides OK), no books or other notes.

Lectures:  I will try to record all lectures on Panopto (both audio and slides) , which can be reached also through Canvas.  You will be able to review the lectures using a desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone by following the link above, where you will also find a number of tutorials for students and sample recordings. 

Grading: 

Homework and quizzes will count for 70% of the final grade and the final exam will count for 30% of the final grade.  The weight of a quiz is approximately 1/3 of a weekly homework. Half of the credit for a weekly homework assignment will come from a careful grading of one problem, the other half credit will come from a very cursory look at the other problems.
           
I will employ an approximate scale: 4.0 = 90%, 3.0 = 75%, 2.0 = 60%, etc.  If for some reason this really doesn't work out sensibly then I'll make an overall adjustment.

Gradebook:  Here you will find your grades for homework, quizzes, final exam and final grade.