Updated 3/15/06. Links to the solutions to the Final Exam are on the margin. The multiple choice questions were graded yesterday and have been uploaded into Tycho. Grading of the "problems" will not be started until tomorrow since graders had their own finals today. Grades are due on Monday by 10:30 am, so check your own MyUW for when they will be posted.

Many of you have written about HW 8 in Tycho and I have tried to repply individually, but better put a note here. When we removed the problem from the assignment we couldn't change the "total" number of points. The maximum is 25 though, not 30, so no one is getting shortchanged. Those of you who had solved the problem before it was removed had the points taken away.in my Excel spreadsheet that I am using for grading.

Quarter went very fast, I wish you all well in Phys 122 next quarter or whenever you take it (if you have to take it). This coming quarter I am assigned to the 117/121Z labs, so if you have some idea on how to improve the labs (you just finished doing them) let me know. Probably too late to incorporate in the next edition of the lab manual, but I can pass it along for the next person.

Updated 3/9/06. Link to the solution to Exam 3 is on the margin. All exams in Phys 121A have been graded, but Question 3 of the Phys 121B has not been graded yet. Please note that on Exam 3, Question 4 was different for each section. The mean of the 121A class was close to 60%.

The final exam for Phys 121A is on Monday, March 13 from 2:30 PM  to 4:20 PM, and the one for Phys 121B is on Tuesdsay, March 14, also between 2:30 PM and 4:20 PM. Both exams have 20 multiple choice questions (11 from lecture, 4 from tutorials and 5 from labs) and two problems (one from lecture and one from tutorial). The total number of points is 150. The final exam thus is about 50% longer than the term exams, but you have an extra hour to complete it. You should have plenty of time to do so.

It is hard to write a "study guide" for a comprehensive final. Given that Physics constantly builds on previous knowledge, one should know "everything". The final exam will have considerable more emphasis on the last half of the course than on the beginning concepts; by now you should be really familiar with position, velocity, acceleration, vectors, uniform accelerated motion, Newton's three laws, free body force diagrams and internal and external forces to systems of particles. There are three great "conservation" principles developed and used in Mechanics: conservation of energy and the work-energy equivalence and conversion, conservation of linear momentum for a system in the absence of external forces, and conservation of angular momentum for a system of objects in the absence of external torques (to be done in class today, Wednesday, and done in Tutorial this week and some in lab two weeks ago). Thus on reviewing and writing notes, keep in mind things like center of mass, linear momentum, torque, moment of inertia, rotational  kinetic energy and angular momentum. All of these topics, of course, require a knowledge of forces and kinematics, both linear and angular. Review those linear concepts you don't remember while reading the later chapters. You likely don't have time to "learn the book" at this stage, given you have many other finals and ours is so close to the start of the exam period.

Office hours: I will be at the Study Center tomorrow, Thursday, from 3:30 pm on. The Tycho homework is due Friday at 6 pm this week, not the usual Thursdsay. I will go to the Study Center again on Friday right after the Phys 121B class ends at 3:20 pm, probably stay until 5:30 pm or until there are no more customer before then. I will have additional office hours for those who can attend on Monday and Tuesday from 10 am to 12 noon at the Study Center. If no one is there, I'll be sitting in the last room. I may update still one more time this note.  

Updated 2/25/06. Please read the update below. This is just an added note. Looking at the text, we have done essentially all of Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12, except for small sections on potential energy for atoms and how to derive forces from potential energies by differentiating the potential (quite obvious if one starts from, for gravity near the Earth, PE = mgy, and - dPE/dy = -mg, where y is the vertical coordinate and the operation is the derivative of the Potential Energy. This is quite important if the forces are not constant, or the potential energy is not constant, but we have not gone over it. So the third exam will cover from chapter 9 through 13.2 (not section 13.3). The sections 13.1 and 13.2 are part of this week's Tycho homework. I suggest that on reviewing you look at the printouts (and YOUR solutions) of the last three Tycho homeworks, plus notes or other information you have form lectures. On Monday I will look for additional samples of exam problems, so there will be another update.

Updated 2/24/06. The solution to the multiple choice questions of exam 2 can be downloaded from bar at left.

The third exam will be on Friday, March 3. It will cover the the three Tycho homeworks that were due betwen the three tests, and topics on impulse, momentum, conservation of linear momentum, work, kinetic and potential energies for gravitation and springs, work-energy theorem, power, gravitation, and rotational kinematics (not rotatioinal dynamics). More specific sections from the book will be posted on Saturday morning (from my home!). The exam will have 10 multiple choice questions, one problem from lecture and one problem from tutorial following the format from the two previouis exams.

Updated 2/17/06. The solutions to the tutorial and lab questions from Exam 2 are linked. The solutions to the multiple choice have not been linked yet (later today), but the right answers were, in order from 1 to 10, B, D, D, C, B, E, B, E, D, E.

Update 2/09/06. The 2nd exam will be tomorrow, Friday, February 10. This exam will have 10 multiple choice questions written by OEV, one lab problem and one tutorial problem. We have been pretty much following the schedule, so the topics to be covered are approximately:

1. From lecture coverage, Newton's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd laws, friction forces, uniform and an introduction to non-uniform circular motion, and relative motion. I was asked in class if test will cover Kepler's 3rd law and the answer was no, it was just one more example of approximate uniform circular motion.

2. The Tycho homework emphasized will be the one in the last three assignments, including the one due today, EXCEPT for the two problems on linear momentum and conservation of momentum.

3. The lab portion includes all the labs from the beginning, but not the lab this week (work, energy).

4. The tutorial portion includes the tutorials of the previous weeks, but not the tutorial this week (momentum)

Since Physics, and particularly mechanics, is a topic building continuously on previous material, to say that we test only on what is current would be inaccurate. It is impossible to build dynamics without having a good knowledge of kinematics.

I'll be at the Study Center today, Thursday, from 2:30 pm on to answer questions. Tomorrow morning (Friday), I'll be in my office from 11 am to about 12:15 pm to answer questions. As usual, I'll try to answer e-mail questions if they are extremely long!

Unfortunately I don't have a "sample test" of multiple choice questions for this section from teching Phys 121 eight years ago or Phys 114 seven years ago. The second test in that occasion was all problems. Every chapter in the text has 4 or 5 multiple choice questions quite similar to the ones I write under Stop to Think questions. Solutions to these multiple choice questions are at the end of the respective chapter, with an explanation. You should try them.

Update 1/25/06. The solution to the First Exam can be accessed through new link on left.

Revised 1/22/06. Added Solution to sample test 1. If you would like to talk with me on Monday morning, please come by my office between 10 am and 12 noon, B 445.

The first exam will be next Monday, January 23, at the regular class time. The exam will consist of 10 multiple choice questions worth 5 points each, one problem from the lecture portion (25 points) and one problem from the tutorial portion (25 points) of the course.

The exam will be printed in white paper for the multiple choice questions and two colors of paper for the problems. At the end of the exam, please break it up (if you have time) and put it in the respective boxes by color. Both Phys 121A and 121B will be required to finish their test within two or three minutes of the bell ringing. In particular Phys 121A must be out of the room quickly so students in 121B have a chance to sit down before the bell rings again.

BRING A SCANTRON (BUBBLE) SHEET TO THE EXAM TO ANSWER THE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS. THEY WILL BE MACHINE GRADED AND SCORES RECORDED ON TYCHO. BRING ALSO A SOFT PENCIL TO FILL IN THE BUBBLES. These sheets can be purchased at the University Bookstore main location or the HUB (about 40 cents each). The say "Standard Answer Sheet, Office of Educational Assessment" on the top left. Bring also a soft, #2 pencil, and an eraser. When filling bubbles and changing your mind, make sure to erase well the first answer.

If you are well organized, you can write your name, student number and class number before you come to class and save some time. You will be asked to fill in your name on the top cover of the exam and in the interior pages.

You can bring one page of notes, one sided, to the exam. You should bring a calculator, but you are required not to use graphing programs or other programs or text stored in the calculator. Much (most) of the exam can be done without a calculator, or numbers (with units) are relatively simple.

While the multiple choice questions are graded as marked, the two problems will be hand graded for method, accuracy, and clarity. Please write in an organized way! If you need extra space for the problems, write on the back of the corresponding page (not in another page because it will go to a different grader). You can use the back of the multiple choice question pages or the cover sheet for scratch paper.

As mentioned in class, I have not taught Phys 121 for quite a few years. The exams I have don't quite match the current text (most texts do one dimensional, two dimensional and circular kinematics up front, then Newton's laws including the third law), so old exams don't match with the current text or pace. Nevertheless, I found a few multiple choice questions and some problems from the last time that I taught Phys 114 and Phys 121 which are posted in PDF file form (you need Acrobat Reader to read them, but this program can be obtained for free from the Internet). The file is large... I will write a solution to all the questions to post them hopefully by the weekend. The link is on the margin of this page.

The text will cover the first two Tycho assignments, the first two tutorials, and essentially the first lab (although there is no lab question), themes that are reasonably connected. You should read also Chapter 6, Section 3 (Projectile motion), and you can read Chapter 8, Section 3 (Newton's third law: examples there include a problem similar to the one of the astronaut and one similar to the one of pushing boxes on a frictionless surface) if you are not too sure of the action-reaction pair. You should review the topics in the schedule as posted. 

Although we will talk about friction on Friday this topic will not be in the test. From the questions I have received by e-mail, I think that one of the most difficult concepts so far is that in F = ma the force F is the vector sum of all the forces, not necessarily the force doing some "action". For example, in both the flowerpot and the tennis ball Tycho problems the force F is the sum of a normal force minus the force of gravity. Both problems asked to find the normal force, which may be variable (it is not always equal to the weight).

I may add some more information to these notes!