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PHY2053 General Physics I

Fall 2018


Course Announcements:

Mastering Physics Course Code: laurence12553

Exam 1 Review Questions

Exam 1 SOLUTIONS


Exam 2 Review Questions with Answers

Exam 2 SOLUTIONS


Exam 3 (Take Home)

Section #: 606232
Class Time: TR 12:30PM -- 1:45PM
Room: 7/277

Instructor: Douglas H. Laurence
Office: 7/135
Office Hours: Here

Course Materials:

For this course, you will be required to have the following materials:
Further, you are expected to have a notebook (or paper of any form), a writing utensil, etc., so that you can properly take notes during the class. Feel free to record audio of the lectures to playback later; whatever helps you learn, I'm on board with it.

Reviews and Review Material

There are two more references I would recommend. For math, noting beats Paul's Online Math Notes, which provide an excellent review of all necessary math. For physics, MIT's Physics II lectures from 1999, given by Walter Lewin, are sort of the gold-standard for online lecture videos for physics. YouTube still has the videos uploaded, and a playlist for them can be found here. Note that these videos are with calculus, but they can still provide a lot of useful information for our course without calculus.If you need more reference materials, feel free to ask me and I'll be more than happy to recommend additional sources.

Course Topics:

During the semester, we will cover the following topics. Note that these topics are subject to change with notification by the professor.


Exams:

The exams will be a mixture of multiple choice questions and free response problems. There will be 10 multiple choice questions worth 2.5 points each (total of 25 points) and 3 free response problems worth 25 points each (total of 75 points). There will actually be FOUR available free response problems, of which you only need to answer THREE; you CANNOT do the fourth problem for extra credit. The material covered on each exam is going to break down like:
Make-up exams will not be offered in this course. Instead, if you have a legitimate emergency and cannot make it to the exam, I will give you the option of replacing your score with either the average of your other two exams (there are three exams and a final in the course) or your grade on the final exam. However, the choice must be made at the time you will be missing the exam; you can't simply wait until the end of the course and choose the better of the two options. If you know ahead of time that you will have to miss an exam, please let me know in advance. Legitimate reasons to miss an exam are outlined in the Student Handbook for Broward College; any other reason is up to the discretion of the professor.

Homework:

Homework will be assigned through MasteringPhysics (course code laurence12553), with roughly one assignment due each week, though it depends on how long a particular topic takes us to cover in class; you will be able to see the homework schedule through the MasteringPhysics website. To access MasteringPhysics, you must go to the following website: http://pearsonmylabandmastering.com. This website, speficically, offers a 2 week free trial for MasteringPhysics in case you need time to purchase your access code. I will discuss how to register for this 2 week free trial on the first day of class.

While each homework assignment will vary in the number of questions asked, each assignment will be worth the same number of points, i.e. each homework assignment will be equally weighted. Some homework assignments which have a lot of subject matter to cover will have extra credit questions assigned. Each homework assignment will also be available for you to turn in late up to one-week after the due date, so even if you're running a bit late, make sure to turn it in! If, for any legitimate reason, you absolutely need an extension for your homework, please let me know before the due date of the homework, and I'll be happy to provide you a reasonable extension.



Tentative Course Schedule:

This syllabus is subject to change with prior notification from the professor


WEEK TUESDAY THURSDAY
August 20 Ch 3: Vectors Ch 2: 1d Kinematics
August 27 Ch 2: 1d Kinematics Ch 4: 2d Kinematics
September 3 Ch 4: 2d Kinematics Ch 5: Newton's Laws
September 10 Ch 5: Newton's Laws Ch 6: Applying Newton's Laws
September 17 Ch 6: Applying Newton's Laws Review for Exam 1
September 24 Exam 1 (Ch 2 - 6) Ch 7: Work and Energy
October 1 Ch 8: Energy Conservation Ch 8: Energy Conservation
October 8 Ch 9: Momentum and Collisions Ch 9: Momentum and Collisions
October 15 Ch 10: Rotational Kinematics Ch 10: Rotational Kinematics
October 22 Ch 11: Rotational Dynamics Ch 11: Rotational Dynamics
October 29 Review for Exam 2 Exam 2 (Ch 7 - 11)
November 5 Ch 12: Gravitation Ch 13: Periodic Motion
November 12 Ch 14: Mechanical Waves Ch 16: Temperature and Heat
November 19 Ch 17: Phases and Phase Changes Thanksgiving Holiday
November 26 Ch 18: Laws of Thermodynanics Review for Exam 3
December 3 Exam 3 (Ch 12 - 14, 16 - 18) Review for Final Exam
December 10 Final Exam, 12:30PM - 2:20PM End of Class

*Blue days are days off, red days are exam dates

Grading Scheme:

I use a sliding grading scheme, with exam grades dependent on how well you do.

Homework 15 points
Lowest-Graded Exam 10 points
Mid-Graded Exam 20 points
Highest-Graded Exam 25 points
Final Exam 30 points
Total 100 points


Grading Sale:

Letter Grade Points Earned
A 85.0 - 100.0
B 75.0 - 84.9
C 65.0 - 74.9
D 55.0 - 64.9
F < 55.0