Physics 104 Course Description

The goal of this course is to make you familiar and comfortable, at the conceptual and basic problem-solving level, with the physics of electricity, magnetism, optics, and wave motion.

Physics is a subject -- as is the case for all sciences -- in which there is little indoctrination (aka "teach"). The student must learn the subject. This takes effort and, although the Instructors can and will advise, guide, assist and otherwise make your learning more efficient, you must be pro-active in assimilating the information and process into your world view. We believe this is a qualitatively different process than the more frequently encountered authority figure declaiming "truth" and requiring the student only to memorize (aka "learn") the doctrine. Critical thinking, creative doubt and logical argument are the tools of the scientist. Moreover, the final arbiter is nature itself - that is, the test by experiment. To this end one of the goals of the laboratory experience is to build confidence in the students ability to confront hypothesis and expectation and to extract confirmation. A secondary goal of this course is to hone the the skill of communication of technical information. You should learn to read dense technical text quickly and accurately. You should learn to write technical reports clearly, completely and understandably.

Reading technical material for content and understanding is difficult. This first attempt at learning is to read the assigned chapter in the textbook -- on your own and prior to lecture (1). All of the following items are only helpful if this is done.

The first exposure you will have to any material will be when you, on your own and prior to lecture, read about it in the text-book (1). This first step is one that all of the following items rest on, and should be taken very seriously.

The lecture will not simply duplicate what you have read, rather it will take the concepts you are having difficulty understanding and will expand/explain them, usually with the aid of demonstrations. You are responsible for the material in the text assignment, even if it is not covered in lecture. Thus, the lecture is not a substitute for reading the text. If there are no questions and you feel that you understand the topic completely, the lecture may be superfluous -- although it still may be useful.

Your participation is required both prior to and during each lecture! Before every lecture you will be required to work through a brief "Pre-Flight" on the Web. Each Pre-Flight will probe your understanding of the reading material assigned for that lecture, and must be completed by 7 am on the day of the lecture to receive credit. Your answers to these questions will be used by the lecturer in preparation of the material for that day's lecture. There are no "bad" Pre-Flight answers as long as you give it your best shot: You will receive credit simply for providing us with feedback. However, you must answer all questions, including the reasons - for credit. The lectures themselves will be interactive, and your participation will be useful to you in maintaining focus and reinforcement of the readings. Based in part on Pre-flight responses, a selection of concepts will be explained and discussed. Thus, attendance at the lectures is strongly advised.

Again, do not expect to learn everything from the lecture. Your reading of the textbook before and after the lecture, and problem solving are the venues in which much of the learning is done.

In the discussion sections you will work on the problems in groups. The TAs will guide you as necessary. Please do not give up on the problems early, do discuss them with your partners, consult your text and ask TA questions to solve the problem. If you have figured out how to do the problem help others – it will reinforce what you learned. The discussion sections do not directly prepare you for the exams, however, this is where you learn problem solving techniques which you will find are beneficial throughout your career. We believe that this process can improve your understanding of physics and certainly will improve your problem solving skills.

The weekly lab cycle gives you the opportunity in a somewhat different venue to explore the concepts you have read about in the textbook and/or discussed in the lectures. You are required to read the lab manual and come prepared. Sometimes the labs may appear to be somewhat out of sequence with the lectures/discussion. However, the goal of the laboratory work will not be affected by this distraction.

The Web-based homework covering each week's material is due at 11 pm on the Monday indicated on the Planner; for 100% credit. This means you will have the background of reading the text and the experience of lectures, problem session during the discussions and a hands-on lab to guide you in finishing each weekly homework assignment. Homework help is available in Office Hours. Homework finished up to four days late is given 80% credit. Homework problems are designed to test your understanding of the concepts as well as to perfect your problem-solving skills.

To help you keep track of "what is due when" please consult the daily Planner that is linked from the Physics 202 homepage.

Participation

Success in Physics 202 relies on student engagement in learning the material. We are open to your suggestions and feedback. The Pre-Flights before each lecture and the in-class questions are venues for feedback. Even though these are graded on participation only, they are an important element of the course since they tell us what you do and don't understand; it is to your own benefit to take them seriously. The lectures will reflect in part both by Pre-Flight information and by student questions.

Required Background

The only pre-requisite for this class is the calculus. There is not a great deal of calculus required, but we are assuming a good grasp of the concepts of trigonometry and algebra and familiarity with those relating to the calculus. If you are not comfortable with these subjects, please review early and get help with your questions.

Required Materials

Written Materials:

Textbook: Physics for Scientists & Engineers, Sixth Edition, Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett, Jr. (Brooks/Cole)
Laboratory: Physics 202 Laboratory Manual (Available at the University Book Store)
Laboratory notebook: Spiral bound, preferably with 5 or 6 mm rulings. Bring to your first laboratory.

Calculator:

To help solve homework and exam problems you will need some kind of scientific calculator (i.e. one that can calculate sines, cosines, tangents, find square roots, etc, in addition to having the usual arithmetic functions).

Course Component Details

Textbook:
The required text for this class is the "PHYSICS for Scientists and Engineers" by Serway and Jewett. Optional study guides and solution manuals for this text may be available at the book store, but are not required. The textbook publisher has also made available a very nice Web site containing additional questions, solutions, animations etc. You can find this at: http://www.brookscole.com

Lectures:
Lectures are held in 2103 Chamberlin on Tuesday and Thursday at 8:50 AM and 9:55 AM, and you are encouraged to attend and participate. You are required to complete a Web-based lecture "Pre-Flight" before 7 am on Tuesday and Thursday lecture (you are encouraged to read the textbook and do the Pre-Flights before the lecture, not to leave them to the last moment). Lecture notes may be printed from the web, but be advised that they might be slightly altered afterwards.

During each lecture you will participate in answering multiple choice questions. These questions are often based on lecture pre-flights, and will give you a chance to tackle in groups what you worked on alone before lecture. These conceptual questions in pre-flights and lectures are typical of exam questions.

Lab Session:
Lab sessions are held in 3314 and 3310 Chamberlin. The laboratory portion of Physics 202 will consist of eleven 3-hour laboratories, each involving a series of activities, including (i) setting up simple experiments to investigate topics you've studied in class, (ii) making predictions about the outcome of your experiments, (iii) performing measurements of different phenomena, (iv) analyzing your experimental results, and (v) answering questions concerning your results and predictions. You must do at least 10 out of 11 labs to pass this course, irrespective of other grades you obtain.

Homework (Web based):
Each week you will be responsible for completing computer-based homework assignments . These assignments are graded and are an integral part of the course.

Each homework set must be completed by the time indicated. 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 (Mondays). Homework completed after the assigned due date but prior to the following Friday will be awarded 80% credit. No credit is given for homework completed after this second 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.

Problem Solving Sessions:
Discussion or Problem Solving sections will emphasize collaborative learning of topics which have already been covered in lecture. Students will work in teams to help them master the concepts and problem solving techniques. One of the problems from each discussion period is graded to provide both the student and the instructors with feedback regarding student's mastery of the week's topics.

Exams:
Three 1 hour multiple-choice exams will be given (See the Planner and Exams pages). You will be assigned a room for each exam based on your discussion section. Bring a calculator and writing utensils to all exams. In addition, bring your official university identification card to show upon request.

The final exam will be two hours in length and will cover material from the whole semester. You will be told when and where to take your final exam as soon as that information becomes available to the Physics 202 staff.

Grading:

Your final grade for Physics 202 will be based upon your total score on all the components of the course. The total possible score is 800 points, broken down as follows:

The cutoffs on total points will be set such that roughly the following percentages of the class participants are met :
A(15%), AB(10%), B(25%), BC(10%), C(>30%), D(< 10%) F(Hopefully, 0%) .

For some parts of the course the average score is typically very high, while the average score on exams is significantly lower. There is no reason you should not be able to score well on your web based homework and Pre-Flight assignments. You should also be able to do well on Labs and Discussions. This means that you cannot offset low examination scores by high homework/pre-flight/lab/discussion grades. On the other hand, you can seriously lower your grade by doing poorly on the homework/pre-flight/lab/discussion. The payoff for doing well on the homework, pre-flights, discussions and labs is your confidence in better understanding of the physics which can be expected to result in higher examination scores.

Gradebook:
The web-based gradebook will show, for all aspects of the class, exactly how you are progressing. At the end of the course, discussion, homework and lab components will be put together to obtain the final grade. During the term, you should regularly check that the exam, homework, lab, and discussion grades are correctly entered in the gradebook. It is your responsibility to bring any problems with your assigned grades to the attention of your section instructor immediately.

Absences and Excused Grades:
There is no way to make up missed hour exams, discussions or labs.

If you need to skip an exam, discussion, lab, ... for a valid reason, (a) illness; (b) personal crisis (e.g. automobile accident, required court appearance, death of a close relative, weather conditions which make it impossible to get to the university); and (c) required attendance at an official UW activity (e.g. varsity athletics, band concert), email your excuse to reeder@hep.wisc.edu (for exams) and your TA (for labs and discussion) BEFORE the scheduled event.

Unexcused absences from any hour exam, discussion or lab will be assigned a zero; Excused hour exams will be either replaced by the average of your grades on the other exams or a makeup exam will be given, based on discussion with the lecturer. Excused discussions will be replaced by the average of your other discussion grades. Labs must be rescheduled for the make-up lab days during the hour exam weeks, (see your TA, if you are unsure).

Back to main Physics 202 page

Pre-Flights + Lectures	30
Labs	55
Lab Reports	45
TA grade of Quiz/Lab	100
Web-based Homework	70
Final Exam (2 hours)	200
3 Hour Exams (1 hour each)	300