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Note: Thursday office hours are in Upham 238 (after lab). 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. I will not
be on campus at all on Tuesdays, but can be reached via e-mail.
Course Prerequisites: PHYSCS 172 is a prerequisite, MATH 254 is a
corequisite.
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Required text: |
Physics for Scientists
and Engineers with Modern Physics,
Serway & Beichner, 6th edition |
Other required materials:
• Scientific calculator,
graphing capability is not
necessary. You might also wish to buy a Texas Instruments TI-30X IIS calculator
to get used to using the same calculator as will be provided during the exam.
• Student Solutions Manual &
Study Guide for Serway & Jewett’s Physics for Scientists and Engineers with
Modern Physics, Volume 2 by J.R.
Gordon, R. V. McGrew, & Raymond A. Serway (ISBN 0-534-40856-7)
Web Site for Textbook:
University of
Illinois-Practice Exams:
http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys211/fall04/practice/
Course Objectives: Introductory Physics III is the conclusion of the calculus-based course
sequence designed for science majors. The principle objectives are:
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 daily questions done in class that are worth points. If
you are ill, please contact me before class to make arrangements to make up in-class work.
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 four people have not earned an A with the grading scale below, the
grading scale will be uniformly slid downward so that four people earn A’s. For
example, if the fourth 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 |
|
Assignment |
Weight |
|
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 |
20% |
|
D |
500-649 |
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Labs |
20% |
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F |
0-499 |
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Participation |
10% |
Exams (3 exams@100 class points each): Midterm exams are scheduled for Sep 30, Oct 21, and
Nov 28.
Final exam (1 exam@200 class points): The comprehensive final exam is on Friday, December
16 at 3:15pm.
Homework (200 class points): Homework will generally be due at 11 PM on Thursdays.
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)*200
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.
Discussion (100 class points): There are two components to your discussion grades:
preflights and in-class activities. There will be a preflight before every
lecture. Each preflight turned in
will receive 6 points; each in-class question will be worth 2 points if you get
it correct, and 1 if you get it incorrect. You will get to drop the three
lowest in-class discussion scores.
To convert discussion points to class points:
Class
points= (discussion points earned)/(total homework points)*100
Preflights: Before every lecture, you will have a
series of questions to answer (“preflight”) on your reading assignment for that
lecture. Your answers must be submitted by 10 AM 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.
In-class activities: During most lectures, I will be
supplying a discussion problem or activity for that day’s lecture, which I
expect you to work out in groups. Starting Sept 19, you will be submitting your
answers using “clickers”, until then we’ll stick with paper and pencil
activities. You will be discussing the activity with your classmates, but
writing up individual responses.
Labs (200 class points): I will also be your instructor for the lab section of
this course, and will give you a separate syllabus covering this section of the
course, and how the grades will be assigned.
Extra Credit (25 class points): The Physics department will be arranging 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 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 stored
in a clearly labeled box stored in the new SPS (Society of Physics Students)
room: Upham 122. This room is heavily used by physics majors, and will
generally be open during the day.
Course Schedule: This course will
cover Chapter 23 through Chapter 39 of the book, covering electricity and
magnetism, light and optics, and modern physics. 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].)