Physics 104 News
Spring 2006

News will be posted on this page in reverse chronological order
(i.e., most recent messages first)

5/13/2006

The final course grades have been posted in the student gradebook.  They have also been sent to the registrar, but it will take a few days before they appear in your MyUW pages. Congratulations on having completed Physics 103 and 104, and have a great summer.

5/12/2006

The final exam scores have been posted. The exam counts 250 points out of your final total, but the posted scores are on the 100 point basis as usual. The following tables may help you to interpret your curved score:

Number Correct
 9
 10
 11
 12
 13
 14
 15
 16
 17
 18
 19
Curved Score
 49.15
 50.98
 52.82
 54.65 56.49 58.32 60.15 61.99 63.82 65.66
 67.49

Number Correct
 		20
 21
 22
 23
 24
 25 26
 27 28
 29
Curved Score
 		69.32
 71.16 72.99 74.83 76.66 78.49 80.33 82.16 84.00 85.83

Number Correct
 30
 31
 32
 33
 34
 35
 36
 37
 38
 40
Curved Score
 87.67
 89.50
 91.33
 93.17 95.00 96.84 98.67 100.50 102.34 106.01

For an explanation of the curve and how letter grades correspond to curved scores, see the Syllabus page, under Grading. There is a histogram of the exam available.

The exam, answer key and solutions have been posted on the Practice Exams page.

The answer string posted in the gradebook is a record of what was on your scantron answer sheet. It is a string of 41 digits; the first digit is the exam code, and the rest are the exam questions. "1" means answer "A" was bubbled in, "2" means answer "B", etc.

I have seen hundreds of thousands of answers scanned by this machine with never a single known error. The probability of the machine having made an error with your answer sheet is therefore vanishly small.

4/21/2006

The midterm 3 scores have been posted. The exam counts 125 points out of your final total, but the posted scores are on the 100 point basis as usual. The following tables may help you to interpret your curved score:

Number Correct
 7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Curved Score
 48.29
 51.16
 54.02
 56.89 59.75 62.62 65.48 68.35 71.21

Number Correct
 		16
17
18
19
20
21  22
23  24
25
Curved Score
 		74.08
 76.94 79.81 82.67 85.54 88.40 91.27 94.13 97.00 99.86

For an explanation of the curve and how letter grades correspond to curved scores, see the Syllabus page, under Grading. There is a histogram of the exam available.

The exam, answer key and solutions have been posted on the Practice Exams page.

The answer string posted in the gradebook is a record of what was on your scantron answer sheet. It is a string of 26 digits; the first digit is the exam code, and the rest are the exam questions. "1" means answer "A" was bubbled in, "2" means answer "B", etc.

I have seen hundreds of thousands of answers scanned by this machine with never a single known error. The probability of the machine having made an error with your answer sheet is therefore vanishly small.

3/24/2006

The midterm 2 scores have been posted. The exam counts 125 points out of your final total, but the posted scores are on the 100 point basis as usual. The following tables may help you to interpret your curved score:

Number Correct
 10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Curved Score
 43.11 46.49 49.88
 53.27 56.66
 60.04 63.43 66.82

Number Correct
 		18
19
20
21  22
23  24
25
Curved Score
 		70.21 73.59 76.98 80.37 83.76 87.14 90.53 93.92

For an explanation of the curve and how letter grades correspond to curved scores, see the Syllabus page, under Grading. There is a histogram of the exam available.

You will undoubtedly notice that the exam scores have been curved down. This is because the exam had a mean 83.56, and as of last week we curve to a mean of 80. The high exam mean is unusual. In most cases the exams will actually be curved up, because the mean will be around 70.

The solutions and the answer key have been posted on the Practice Exams page. All answers to number 20 were considered correct, because none was actually correct. For an explanation see the solutions, posted on the Practice Exams page.

The answer string posted in the gradebook is a record of what was on your scantron answer sheet. It is a string of 26 digits; the first digit is the exam code, and the rest are the exam questions. "1" means answer "A" was bubbled in, "2" means answer "B", etc.

I have seen hundreds of thousands of answers scanned by this machine with never a single known error. The probability of the machine having made an error with your answer sheet is therefore vanishly small.

3/14/2006

From this point on, we will be switching to an 80/10 curve this semester instead of 70/15. You will see higher numerical scores for exam, lab and discussion. The grade boundaries have also changed, so letter grades will not be affected, except that homework and lecture preflight scores will have more weight in deciding borderline course letter grades. For details on the new grade boundaries, see the Grading section of the Syllabus.

2/16/2006

The first midterm exam has been canceled. Because of scheduling conflicts it will not be possible to give this exam. For those of you who took the exam early, before it was canceled, your scores will not be factored into your grades. I will post solutions to the exam tomorrow. The exam will then become another practice exam, more so for those who already took it.

We will give the second and third midterms as scheduled. The second exam will cover everything this exam was to cover, and additional material through the end of chapter 21 (AC circuits and electromagnetic waves). The third exam will cover chapter 22 (reflection and refraction) plus the chapters it was originally scheduled to cover.

The final exam will cover the entire semester as usual. It will count 250 points, and exams 2 and 3 will count 125 points each.


1/6/2006

Welcome to Physics 104 for the Spring 2006 semester. If you took Physics 103 in the fall (2005), your password has been reset to your 10 digit UW Student ID number. This will not affect you unless you changed your password.

If you find that you can't log in, you are probably not on the roster yet. I have updated the roster on Fridays during break. If you were not registered by 11 AM Jan 6, you will have to wait until Jan 13 before you can log in. 

Homework is due Wednesday at 5 PM, all semester; 80% credit until the following Wednesday at 5. All homework sets are open and can be worked on as soon as you can log in. No grading will take place until Jan 25, so don't expect your points to appear in the gradebook until then. To be on the safe side, keep a hard copy of your work until the scores begin appearing in the grade book.

After the first week of classes, homework and other questions can be brought to Consulting in 2238 Chamberlin. The Consulting Room Schedule will be posted after classes begin.

Please browse the web pages. Much of the course work will rely on the web for feedback and information. Therefore, it's required that you be familiar with it. In particular, get familiar with the Planner that you will use to keep track of course activity (work and deadlines). Also read the Syllabus page for an overview of the course. The page also explains details about the course rules and structure, suggests outside resources and tells about exams and grading.

If you have difficulty logging in, please read the login Help page and follow the instructions carefully.

We will have class participation in lecture, so come prepared to think and learn.

The first "pre-flight" is due Wednesday, January 18, 11 AM (yes, before the first lectures).
The first lectures are on Wednesday, January 18, 1:20 PM and 2:25 PM.
The first lab sections will meet on Monday, January 23 (no labs the first week).
The first discussion sections will meet on Tuesday, January 17 (yes, before the first lectures).
The first homework assignment is due on Wednesday, January 25, at 5 PM.

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