Syllabus_spring2010_phys172.PDF

1 PHYS 172 Modern Mechanics Spring 2010 Course web page: go to www.physics.purdue.edu Select Phys 172 in the ?Current? drop-down box on the left Press ?Go? To do BY THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK: 1. Obtain the textbook1 (at campus bookstores). 2. Obtain the PHYS 172 Laboratory Manual (from bookstore). 3. Obtain an iClicker audience response remote (not a CPS pad). 4. Register for WebAssign. 5. Register on CHIP ? your PHYS 172 online gradebook. 6. Register your iClicker on CHIP. 7. Check course web page for any late announcements, etc. 8. Attend lectures and recitation sessions 9. Complete assigned homeworks and Lab #1 orientation on webassign 10. Lab meetings will be not held during the first week. Note: The instructions for webassign, CHIP and iClicker are posted on the PHYS 172 course web page. Attendance is required for three evening exams this semester: Exam 1: Wednesday, Feb 10 8:00-10:00 pm Exam 2: Wednesday, March 10 8:00-10:00 pm Exam 3: Wednesday, Apr 14 8:00-10:00 pm (Exams are scheduled to take place in ELLT 116) Note: Make-up exams will NOT be given for any of these exams. Any student with a valid approved reason for missing an exam may receive an EX grade (see section VII). The date and time of the Final Exam will be announced later in the semester. General Information and Syllabus PHYS 172 is the first semester of calculus-based physics with an emphasis on modern mechanics. A first semester calculus course such as MATH 161 is a co-requisite for PHYS 172; calculus concepts will be introduced gradually throughout this course. We assume a mastery of high school algebra as a prerequisite, and prior exposure to high school physics is highly recommended. This is a 4 credit hour course. The rule of thumb at Purdue University is that you should spend twice as many hours (on average) studying for this course outside of class as you do in class. That is, eight hours a week spent reading, doing the homework, recitation, and laboratory assignments, and studying for the quizzes and exams would be a typical investment of time for most students in this course. 1 Note that the new edition is slightly different from older versions used in last years. While the content is very similar, using older edition may pose some inconveniences (like references to textbook page numbers in lectures will not match). 2 Course Coordinator: Professor Sergei Savikhin Office: Room 64, PHYS Phone: 494-3017 Office Hours: Tues, 9:30-10:30 am, or by appt2 Email: sergei@physics.purdue.edu Lecturer: Professor Oana Malis Office: Room 170, PHYS Office hours: by appointment2 Phone: 494-3039 Email: omalis@purdue.edu Lecturer: Professor Denes Molnar Office: Room 248, PHYS Office hours: by appointment2 Phone: 496-8310 Email: molnar@purdue.edu Recitation Instructors: Edwin Antillon eantillo@purdue.edu Jordan Kendall kendallj@purdue.edu Paris Miles-Brenden pmilesbr@purdue.edu Ben Phillabaum bphillab@purdue.edu Lishan Weng lweng@purdue.edu Laboratory Coordinator: John Buncher Office: Physics Room 271 Phone: 45577 Email: jbuncher@physics.purdue.edu Lab Instructors: Suprem Das srdas@purdue.edu Sourav Dutta sdutta@purdue.edu David Garand dgarand@purdue.edu Dan Hartzler dhartzle@purdue.edu Xing Liu dhartzle@purdue.edu Matyas Matolcsi mmatolcs@purdue.edu Noah Oppondo nopondo@purdue.edu Mark Palenik mcpaleni@purdue.edu Chandan Setty csetty@purdue.edu 2 Office hours can change during semester, check announcements on the course web page. 3 Recitation and Laboratory Sessions: Each student is assigned by the Registrar to a specific Recitation and a specific Laboratory section. You will be given the name, email address, and Help Center/Office Hours schedule of your Recitation Instructor and your Lab Instructor at your first meeting time. Recitation sessions will be held during the first week as scheduled. Labs will only have an on-line assignment during the first week but will not meet. Labs will be held as scheduled during the second week. A day-by-day schedule for PHYS 172 can be found at the course web site. I. Required Books & Accessories Textbook: ?Matter & Interactions ? Volume 1 ? Modern Mechanics? (Third Edition), by Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood (Wiley); packaged with Webassign. Lab Manual: ?Physics 172 Laboratory Manual? (Purdue University). WebAssign: Go to: www.webassign.net/purdue/login.html Each student must be registered for this course with the on-line computerized homework service WebAssign. Instructions should accompany your textbook purchase, or get information from the course home page or the WebAssign URL above. Note: The first assignment is due during the first week of class. Clicker: NOTE: We are using the ?iClicker? audience response system. Other systems are in use on campus (CPS), but only iClickers can be used for PHYS 172. When you buy your iClicker, save your receipt. In rare cases units need to be returned to the bookstore, and having the receipt is helpful. You must register the serial number of your own iClicker on CHIP, the course on-line gradebook. If you fail to do this, you may lose the points from the lecture quizzes you have earned. Never use a clicker registered to anybody else in this class, and never have two clickers in your possession at any lecture. This is a violation of the Academic Honesty policy. Anybody found in violation of this policy will receive a failing grade. Other: Homework problems on WebAssign will require use of a computer with internet access. You will also need a scientific calculator for exams, recitations, and labs. 4 II. Schedule Two 50-minute lectures will be given per week on Tuesday and Thursday in room 114 Physics Building. You should attend the section assigned to you by the Registrar. ? Lectures are not optional. You are expected to read the assigned sections of the text prior to each lecture and use the lecture session to clarify and reinforce the ideas encountered. ? Clicker Questions: You will be given questions every lecture; these are graded and count towards your final grade. Some lectures may begin with a clicker question, so arrive promptly and have your clicker ready to use. Each week also has a one hour recitation section; you are required to attend the recitation section assigned to you by the Registrar. Recitations will be held during the first week of class. Weekly laboratory sessions meet for two hours; you must attend the lab section assigned to you by the Registrar. Labs will NOT meet during the first week of class, but you must complete the first Lab assignment on WebAssign by the end of the first week. A complete schedule of class meetings is on the course home page, and will be distributed in class. This schedule shows all holidays and evening exams, as well as indicating the daily reading assignments. The time and date of the final exam will be announced later III. Course Content Major portions of Chapters 1 through 11 of the textbook will be covered this semester, as indicated in the reading assignments for each lecture (see Schedule). The goal of this course is to teach you how to understand and describe a wide range of physical phenomena using only a few fundamental principles of physics. This curriculum features a unified approach that combines traditional mechanics, a modern view of quantized atomic levels, and statistics to derive basic thermodynamics from mechanics. Applications will include topics involving asteroids, black holes, nuclear fission and fusion, quantization in atoms and molecules, and heat capacity. Throughout this course you will generate computer animations describing specific physical behaviors using short but powerful programs that you will write yourself. The programming language is called VPython, and no prior programming experience is assumed. 5 IV. Grades Grades will be determined from points earned in each of these categories: Three evening exams, worth 100 points each. A two hour final exam, worth 200 points. Fourteen weekly labs that are worth a total of 100 points. They will be graded 10 points each but renormalized to be worth about ~7 points each. The total score obtained on the WebAssign homework assignments will be normalized to a maximum of 100 points. The total score on clicker questions given during lectures will normalized to 75 points. The three lowest scores are dropped, so each lecture will be worth a little more than 3 points each. Some credit will be given for just answering the questions and account for attendance. The weekly Recitation grades will be worth a total of 45 points. There are 15 recitations, so they will be worth 3 points each. Evening Exams (3) 300 38% Final Exam 200 25 Labs 100 13 Homework (WebAssign) 100 13 Clicker questions 40 5 Recitation 40 5 TOTAL 780 100% We will use an absolute scale to set the grades as given in the table below: Grade Points Percentage A+ 741 95% A 694 89% A- 694 89% B+ 671 86% B 640 82% B- 624 80% C+ 601 77% C 562 72% C- 546 70% D+ 523 67% D 484 62% D- 468 60% F <468 <60% 6 At the end of the semester, if the grades are lower than we think is fair due to possible variations in exam difficulty level, then we may lower the grade thresholds, but we will not raise the thresholds. A running tally of your scores will be posted in the gradebook on the CHIP system. See the course home page for a link to CHIP. You should check this on a regular basis; report any questions or discrepancies to your Recitation Instructor. It is your responsibility to ensure that the grades are accurate, and report this within 2 weeks from when the grades are recorded. V. Getting Help This course will require a significant amount of time and effort. When a topic is not understood, or if you are stuck on a particular problem, try some of the following options: A. Go to the Help Center, Room 12 PHYS Bldg. It is staffed during regular hours all day long by Teaching Assistants who are trained in this material. B. Ask your instructor during lab, recitation, or lecture. C. See the instructor during office hours, or make an appointment. We are happy to work through physics problems with you. D. Perhaps as a first resort, consult with a friend in the class. Peer consultation is a very effective way to learn physics (as long as you are not simply being told the answer). VI. Requesting Extensions of WebAssign Deadlines for Homework and Recitations Note: Any requests for extensions of Lab assignments should be made directly to your Lab TA or Lab Director. In a typical week you will have WebAssign assignments due for your Recitation, the Lab, and two regular homework assignments. Each of these assignments has a specific deadline, and after that deadline no credit will be given. If special situations arise where completing the assignment in time is impossible, you may request an extension of up to one week. You may go to the Physics Department Undergraduate Office in Room 144 and fill out a WebAssign Extension Request Form. (The form will also be available on the course web page.) You must identify by name your Recitation Instructor, who will receive the form and decide whether to accept or reject the request. Valid reasons include documented illness and family emergencies, but it can be a case where you simply have multiple exams on the same day. If you make such requests (involving undocumented conflicts) more than two or three times per semester, however, your TA will be instructed to reject excessive requests that do not result from a documented conflict. 7 VII. Absences and Excused (EX) Grades Unexcused absences from exams and quizzes will receive a score of zero. If the absence is for a valid and documented reason, you may receive an EX (Excused) grade by filling out an Absentee Report in Room 144, the Undergraduate Physics Office. When an Excused (EX) Grade is given for an approved absence, the designation ?EX? will appear in the CHIP gradebook. This will be replaced by the average of your other scores in that category at the end of the semester when calculating your total score. Except in cases of extended illness, no excused grades will be given for the lecture questions; instead, the three lowest scores will be dropped for all students. Do not file an Absentee Report unless more than three lectures are involved. NOTE: Make-up exams will NOT be given for any of the exams. Any student with a valid approved reason for missing an exam may receive an EX grade. Excused grades will typically be given for these three circumstances: (a) illness; (b) personal crisis (e.g., automobile accident, death of a close relative, weather conditions which make it impossible to get to the university); and (c) required attendance at an official Purdue activity (e.g., exam conflict, athletic event, band concert). Contact the relevant instructor IN ADVANCE (if at all possible) by email (preferred) or phone. Then go to room 144 Physics to fill out an Absentee Report. If you will be or have been out for five consecutive days, you must contact the Dean of Students; they will send us a letter. ? In case of illness, go to the Purdue University Student Health Center (PUSH). You should receive a slip from the Center with the date, doctor?s name, and a telephone number. OR go to your private physician and obtain a written excuse. Take your excuse to the undergraduate office, Room 144 Physics. (We only need a doctor?s excuse, not a diagnosis or any personal information.) ? In case of accidents, funerals, etc., after contacting your instructor by email or phone go to Room 144 with written evidence of your excuse (police accident report, funeral notice, etc.). ? In case of required attendance at an official Purdue activity, go to Room 144 at least a week in advance of the event and complete an Absentee Report, including documentation. VIII. Academic Honesty Any effort to represent somebody else?s work as your own, or allowing your work to represented as somebody else?s is cheating. Working with other student on your homework is encouraged and is not cheating. However, having somebody else solve problems assigned to you IS cheating. Entering clicker responses for anybody else is cheating. If a student is found cheating, he or she will receive an F for the course and be reported to the Dean of Students. In serious cases the Dean may suspend or expel the student from the university. sergei Microsoft Word - Syllabus_spring2010_phys172.doc