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Note: Thursday office hours are in Upham 238. The first Thursday of every
month, office hours will run from 3-6:30pm. Morning office
hours (7-9 am) available by appointment every day but Tuesday.
Travel Schedule: Prof. Benjamin will be out of town for professional
travel (conferences, NASA/NSF review panels, invited colloquia) on the
following days: Sept 20-22 (Tues-Thurs), Nov 10-11 (Thurs-Fri), Nov 14-15
(Mon-Tues), and Nov 28-29 (Mon-Tues). On these days, office hours are
cancelled, but class will be held at schedule time unless otherwise announced.
Course Prerequisites: MATH 152 is a corequisite.
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Required texts: |
Physics for Scientists
and Engineers, Serway & Jewett,
6h edition |
Other required materials: Scientific calculator, graphing capability is not necessary. You may want to purchase a Texas
Instruments TI-30X IIS calculator, as this is the type of calculator you will
need to use during the exam.
Course Objectives: Introductory Physics I is the beginning of the calculus-based course
sequence designed for science majors. The principle objectives are:
We will be going through the fundamentals
of classical physics, stopping off in fluid mechanics, and then jumping ahead
to the cool, mind-blowing stuff (special relativity, general relativity, and
quantum mechanics). Along the way, we will learn some of the mathematical
techniques that are common to all fields of physics.
Supplemental materials: Some of
you will probably want to have examples of additional worked-out problems and
practice problems. Some recommended materials for this course are:
• Student Solutions Manual &
Study Guide for Serway & Jewett’s Physics for Scientists and Engineers with
Modern Physics, Volume 1 by J.R.
Gordon, R. V. McGrew, & Raymond A. Serway (ISBN 0-534-40855-9)
Web Site for Textbook:
This website provides example problems,
animations, and other supplemental materials.
University of
Illinois-Practice Exams:
http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys211/fall04/practice/
Attendance:
It is a disadvantage to miss any lectures because the lectures, demonstrations,
and in-class activities will greatly enhance your ability to understand the
material. There will be assignments done in class that are worth points. If you
are ill, please contact me before class. Otherwise, you will lose the points for any day you
are absent. Late exams are not allowed, but in special cases you may take an
exam early.
Grading policy: The grade you earn in this class will be based upon the five assignment
types listed below. The maximum number of class points is 1000 (not counting
extra credit). A grading scale is given below for your reference. You can use
the score below to determine your guaranteed grade. At the end of the
course, if five people have not earned an A with the grading scale below, the
grading scale will be uniformly slid downward so that five people earn A’s. For
example, if the fifth highest score in the class is an 850, then the grading
scale becomes A (850-1000), B (750-849), C (600-749) and so on. Grades are not curved, encouraging you
to work together, but I expect each student to hand in their own work.
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Grading Scale |
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Grade Breakdown |
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Letter |
Score |
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Assignment |
Weight |
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A |
900-1000 |
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Midterm exams |
30% |
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B |
800-899 |
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Final exam |
20% |
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C |
650-799 |
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Homework |
25% |
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D |
500-649 |
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Participation |
20% |
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F |
0-499 |
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Preflights |
5% |
Exams (3 exams@100 class points each): Midterm exams are scheduled for Oct 3, Oct 31, and
Nov 28.
Final exam (1 exam@200 class points): The comprehensive final exam is on Monday, December
19 at 10 am.
Homework (250 class points): Homework will generally be at 11 PM on Mondays. The
Planner has the link to the homework on the Saturday before the due date
(just to remind you not to leave the homework until the last minute!) The
homework will be turned in on-line using a web-based system developed at the
University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign and served off a computer at
UW-Madison. For each homework, there are two due dates to keep in mind. To
receive full credit, the homework must be completed by the assigned due date.
Homework completed after the assigned due date, but before the second due date
will be awarded 80% credit. No credit is given for homework completed after
this second due date. You may work a problem as many times as you like and only
the highest grade is recorded in the gradebook. You can never lower your score
by reworking a problem.
Note that
the homework questions have their own point system. To convert from homework
points to class points:
Class points= (homework points
earned)/(total homework points)*250
You should consider the homework the minimum
number of problems needed to understand the material. I recommend that you work
out at least five additional problems for each chapter from the text. The
answers to odd problems are provided and I have the solutions to even problems
as well.
Preflights (50 class points): Before every lecture there will be a series of three
to four conceptual (“preflight”) questions for you to answer using our on-line
system. Your answers must be submitted by 8AM the day of the lecture. If
for some reason you can’t get a computer connection, you can print out the
questions and turn in your answers at the beginning of class. I will be using
your preflight answers to put together my lecture so please do the best job you
can. Your grade comes from turning in the preflight, not for whether you get
the answers right. After the preflight is closed, you can check the form for
the correct answers. The preflight questions for a given week will be available
by the preceding Saturday morning, so you can work a week ahead.
Participation (200 class points): Each day, there will be two to three questions to
work out or discuss in class. You will receive 2 points per question correct,
and 1 point for attempting the question. After Sept 19, we will be using
“clickers” to answer many of these questions. (Instructions on obtaining these
clickers will be given out later.) If you have a pre-excused absence,
you will not lose points for the questions. The three lowest daily scores will
be dropped. To convert discussion points to class points:
Class
points= (discussion points earned)/(total homework points)*200
Extra Credit: The Physics department has arranged a series of colloquium on Fridays
(See the Physics department website.)
You can receive extra credit by attending these talks and turning in a
half-page single-spaced summary (either written or typed) of what the talk was
about and what you learned. Each report will earn 5 extra credit class points. You
can receive no more than 25 extra credit points during the semester. For
those of you unable to attend these talks/events, you can receive extra credit
by doing some research and writing up the solution to an alternate set of
questions that will be posted to the course News page.
How to do well in this course: 50% of your grade in this course comes from exams, so
it is important to make sure that you prepare properly for the exams. I will be
providing additional help/pointers as the first exam draws near. But note that
50% of your grade is completely under your control. If you start your homework
promptly, turn in all your preflights, and do all of the class activities,
there’s no reason why you can’t get nearly 100% on this part of the course. You
will seriously hurt your grade if you don’t turn in the homework, preflights,
and attend the classes/in-class activities.
Returned Papers: I will return assignments to the class after they have been graded. If
you do not pick up your assignment on that day, old assignments will be left in
the SPS (Society of Physics Students) office (Upham 122). This room is occupied
by physics students for most of the day so it should be accessible.
Course Schedule: This course will
cover Chapter 1-5 (Laws of motion), 7-8 (energy), 14 (fluid mechanics), 16-18
and 34 (waves), 39-40 (special relativity and quantum mechanics), 44 and 46
(nuclear and particle physics/cosmology) in Serway and Jewett textbook. The tentative topic schedule, homework
deadlines, and pre-flight question deadlines are given on the on-line course
planner.
Special needs
statement: Students with special needs
should contact the instructor to make appropriate arrangements.
The University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory
learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and
graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding Special
Accomodations, Misconduct,
Religious Beliefs
Accomodation, Discrimination
and Absence
for University Sponsored Events. (For details please refer to the
Undergraduate and Graduate Timetables; the Rights and
Responsibilities section of the Undergraduate
Catalog; the Academic
Requirements and Policies and the Facilities and
Services sections of the Graduate
Catalog; and the Student
Academic Disciplinary Procedures [UWS Chapter 14]; and the Student Nonacademic
Disciplinary Procedures [UWS Chapter 17].)