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PHYS2053 General Physics I

Spring 2018

Class Syllabus

Announcement: Exam 1 has been moved to Tuesday, February 13

Exam 1 Review Questions: here

Exam 1 with Solutions

Exam 2 Review Questions

Exam 2 Formula Sheet

Exam 2 (NO SOLUTIONS)

Exam 3 Review Questions (Gravity, Oscillations, and Waves)

Exam 3 Formula Sheet

Exam 3 with Solutions


Final Exam (Due at Midnight, May 3, 2018)

Section #: 584771
Class Time: TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Room: TBA

(Official) Office Hours:

M : 11A - 12P
T : 1130A - 1230P and 330P - 430P
W : 11A - 12P and 4P - 5P
R : 2P - 4P

If I'm in my office, feel free to ask me questions, whether or not it's during the "official" office hours.



Course Materials:

For this course, you will be required to buy two items:
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

For a great review of all the mathematics necessary for physics, I don't think you can beat Paul's Online Math Notes. It has thorough reviews of algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus, etc., all of which are essential to suceeding in a physics course. The number 1 issue that students have in learning physics, from what I've seen, is a lack of comfort with algebra; so the best thing you can do to ease the learning process is to make sure your math skills are honed and up-to-date.

Course Topics:

We will meet for lecture twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays from noon to 1:50PM. If you've never taken a physics class before, you should read my note on how to succeed in a physics class here. During the semester, we will cover the following topics:
If you have a question that you need answered, but don't have tine to meet me in my office during office hours, email me at TBA; make sure you include the class you're in with the section number, e.g. PHY2053 584771, so that I know what class you're in. I'm teaching seven courses this semester, so I might not be able to remember which class you're in off the top of my head.

Exams:

Your grade in the course will be based on your performance on the homework assignments, the 3 exams, and the cumulative final exam. See the grading scheme below. The exams will be a mixture of multiple choice questions and free response problems, with 10 multiple choice questions worth 2 points each (total of 20 points) and 4 free response problems worth 20 points each (total of 80 points). There will actually be FIVE available free response problems, of which you only need to answer FOUR; you CANNOT do the fifth problem for extra credit. The material covered on each exam is going to break down like:
Grade Calculation:

You can compute your grade in the class with the following formula (were HW is your grade on the homework, LG is the lowest-graded exam, MG is the mid-graded exam, HG is the highest-graded exam, and FE is the final exam):

Grade = (%HW*15) + (%LG*10) + (%MG*20) + (%HG*25) + (%FE*30)

For example, if you get a 94% on the homework, a 75% on exam 1, a 92% on exam 2, an 85% on exam 3, and an 83% on the final exam, your grade in the course will be: (0.94*15) + (0.75*10) + (0.85*20) + (0.92*25) + (0.83*30) = 86.5, which is a B (refer to the grading scale given below). For final grades, I round to the first decimal place; for instance, an 86.92 = 86.9, which is a B, but an 86.96 = 87.0, which is a B+.

Tentative Course Schedule: TBA

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


WEEK TUESDAY THURSDAY HOMEWORK
January 8 Vectors 1d Motion
January 15 1d Motion 2d Motion
January 22 2d Motion Newton's Laws Assignment #1, Due Thurs, Jan 25
January 29 Applications of Newton's Laws Applications of Newton's Laws
February 5 Class Cancelled Review for Exam 1
February 12 Exam 1 (Ch 2 - 6) Work & Energy Assignment #2, Due Tues, Feb 13
February 19 Work & Energy Conservation of Energy
February 26 Momentum & Collisions Momentum & Collisions
March 5 Spring Break Spring Break
March 12 Rotation of a Rigid Body Rotation/Dynamics of a Rigid Body
March 19 Dynamics of a Rigid Body Review for Exam 2 Assignment #3, Due Tues, Mar 20
March 26 Exam 2 (Ch 7 - 11) Class Cancelled Assignment #4, Due Tues, Mar 27
April 2 Gravity Gravity
April 9 Oscillations Waves
April 16 Heat/Thermodynamics Review for Exam 3 Assignment #5, Due TBA
April 23 Exam 3 Review for Final Exam Assignment #6, Due TBA
April 30 No Class During Finals Week Final Exam, 12:30PM - 2:20PM Assignment #7, Due TBA

*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