phys114 syllabus

Syllabus: B CUSP 144, Winter 2010

General Physics: Fluids, Waves, and Modern Physics

Office Hours

Also available by appointment in my office.

Lecture: UW1- Lecture schedule: TTh 3:30 to 5:10pm
Lab: CC-331 (Cascadia)W 3:30 pm to 5:30pm

Course Texts: Walker, "Physics", 4th edition (UW custom Volumes 1 and 2); and McDermott and Shaffer "Tutorials in Introductory Physics".
Webassign.com homework will be due as announced, typically weekly.

Tentative Weekly Course Schedule:

Lecture Instructor's Comments

First and foremost I would like to say welcome to physics at the UW Bothell. For some of you this may be your first physics course, and I hope you enjoy many facets of this intellectual endeavour. I will do my best to make the quarter an enjoyable experience and appreciate in class participation and questions from students. Always feel free to ask questions, and if I can't respond in class, please come to my office.

BCUSP 144 is the second of a three-quarter sequence of algebra-based introductory physics courses. You should find this course challenging and stimulating, though perhaps it will not fit your preconceptions of what a university physics course should be. I hope that you also find it to be interesting and enjoyable. Have a great quarter!

You are strongly encouraged to visit with me regularly during office hours, by appointment, by e-mail, etc. Get used to the idea of seeing the Professor outside of class during the quarter; it will pay off for you in many ways as the years go by! This will not happen unless YOU take the initiative, and now is a great time to start.

Memorization of material is not particularly helpful in this class. Your goal in this class should be to understand how each new topic is related to all of the previous material, and how the concepts, rules and formulae can be applied to solve real-world problems. Never let anything go by if you do not understand. Generally, ask questions immediately. If it is inconvenient to interrupt, make a quick note to yourself and inquire later.

My sincere hope is that you will come to view the world in a new way, as I have after learning physics. For the most part the hard work of succeeding in a physics course is up the student. One can think one has understood the material, but if one is unable to apply the knowledge, the subject was not truly learned!

General Comments

Expect to study hard for this course. Physics is by no means an easy subject, and you must pay for the knowledge you gain with time and effort.
For many the mathematics will be challenging. Don't worry too much, it is fairly typical in physics courses for the math requirements to be ahead of students' current placement. This is remedied by in-class work and homework.
Be aware that many technical majors have a minimum grade requirement for a core of lower-division technical classes including the General Physics sequence. Therefore, each student is strongly urged to discuss departmental entry requirements with their undergraduate or departmental advisors, and plan their course loads accordingly. The course grading policy is detailed below.
No electronic equipment is acceptable in the classroom unless by DSR request. This includes cell phones, laptop computers, ipods, etc. Multitasking simply lowers performance in all attempted tasks.

Grading Policy

Concurrent enrollment in BCUSP 144 lecture and LAB BCUSP 147 lab is mandatory; students will receive a combined grade for lecture and lab. The final course grade is based on the best two of three midterms, the final exam, the HW, potential supplemental HW, and lecture exercises (using the new infrared response system), and lab participation and reports. The lecture instructor may adjust individual final grades by no more than 0.2 grade points (about 5 % out of 4.0 possible) based on records from the lecture infrared response system and/or the supplemental homework related to the lecture. All percentages in the summary below are used to determine your raw grade, before this adjustment is applied.

Midterm exams: There will be two closed-book midterm exams. Each midterm will emphasize recent material, but may include questions dealing with topics from far earlier in the course. The exams may include both multiple choice and essay-style questions. After correcting for different average scores on different midterms, the midterms will contribute 40% to your final raw grade. You are permitted to bring one 8.5"x11" page of notes (front only) to each midterm. Calculators are permitted. Cell phones, radios, etc. are not permitted. Laptop computers are not permitted, and the use of the text-storage capability now available on many calculators is not permitted. Exams are to be your own work; you are not permitted to collaborate with any other person. The University reserves the right to ask for valid identification from any student during examinations.
Note that there will be no make-up exams. Students with outside professional, service, or career commitments (i.e. military service, ROTC, professional conference presentation, NCAA sports, etc.) conflicting exactly with the exam dates must contact the intructor early in the quarter to establish alternate examination procedures. Students who miss an exam without making prior arrangements with the lecture instructor will drop that exam score. Except for extreme circumstances, a final grade of 0.0 may be assigned to any student who misses two midterm exams.
Final Exam: A one or two-hour closed-book comprehensive final exam worth 25% of the final raw grade will take place on Tuesday, Finals week, from 3:30 to 5:10pm. This examination will cover material from the entire course. You are permitted to bring one 8.5"x11" page of notes (front and back) to the final exam. Calculators are permitted. Cell phones, radios, etc. are not permitted. Laptop computers are not permitted, and the use of the text-storage capability now available on many calculators is not permitted. The final exam is to be your own work; you are not permitted to collaborate with any other person.The Physics department reserves the right to ask for valid identification from any student during examinations. A final grade of 0.0 may be assigned to any student who does not take the final exam.
Exam Re-grades: If you believe that the points on the examination were incorrectly totaled or if there is a gross error in the grading, you may return an exam for regrading. To do so, you must resubmit the examination no later than at the beginning of the lecture following the one in which the exams are returned. You must write a brief note on the front page or attached to the front page of the exam explaining the possible error in the grading. Do not make *any* changes or marks on the other pages of the examination. Portions of each examination are scanned or photocopied. You should be aware that any request for a regrade may result in a regrading of the entire exam. Therefore your total score may increase or decrease.
Labs and In-class Tutorials: You must pass all of the labs in order to pass the lab class, which is graded as C/NC. Do not skip these important activities!
Homework:

Lecture homework will be assigned and collected weekly through the webassign.com system. The problems will be assigned directly from the course textbook.
In-class assignments may be given and completed at home
Some homework will be supplementary to regular homework and in-class work

Your responsibilty: Check your grades on the webassign.com system every week or two and report any problems to both the lecture instructor immediately. Lab, tutorial and exam grades should be recorded for your review within one week from the date that papers are submitted for grading. Tycho homework grades should be recorded within 24 hours of submission. Supplemental HW should be recorded every two weeks or so. Grading problems that are reported in a timely fashion will be investigated and, if action is warranted, corrected. The instructor may choose to ignore grading complaints that are not reported in a timely fashion.