Physics 407 -- General Physics I -- Summer 2005 (6/13-8/5)
I. Purpose of this course
Physics 407 is a calculus based study of the fundamental principles of
classical mechanics, which govern the motion of objects. In the
summer,
it is an intensive course that finishes in 8 weeks, with 7
lecture hours and one lab each week.
II. Registration
You must be registered for both PHYS407 and the lab section PHYS407L.
Please go to the Physics Department Office (Room 105 DeMeritt
Hall)
to add or drop the course (forms may be obtained at the Registrar's
Office).
III. Prerequisites
You must have a basic understanding of high school algebra, geometry
and trigonometry, and be registered for Calculus I (MATH 425) (unless
you have already taken and passed MATH 425 or equivalent).
IV. Textbook
You must have a copy of the textbook: Fundamentals of Physics, 7th ed.,
Halliday/Resnick/Walker (John Wiley 2005). It is very important
that you read the chapter(s)
before you come to the lecture that covers that chapter(s). Please
refer to the schedule below (subject to change) for such reading
assignments. You should bring your textbook to the Lectures.
Also on reserve in the Physics Library:
- Student's
Solutions Manual to Accompany Fundamentals of
Physics, 7th Ed.
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, 2nd
Edition, Giancoli.
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Serway.
V. Lectures
The purpose of the lectures is to give you a broad overview of the
material. You are expected to have reviewed beforehand the lecture
material. During lectures I will go over the key concepts, do examples,
and illustrate the principles with demonstrations when possible. Some
lecture notes will be available for download via the course home page (http://plasma4.sr.unh.edu/ng/phys407/phys407.html),
by clicking at the dates of the lectures in the schedule. These notes
are to remind you about some topics covered in the lectures, not to replace the lectures
themselves or the textbooks
VI. Homework
Doing homework is key to doing well in this class. Since this is
an
intensive course, there will be two homework assignments each week,
except
only one for the first week, the week of July 4th, and the last week,
which means 13 assignments in total. Assignments
are to be done through WebAssign (https://www.webassign.net/login.html)
and will be graded automatically and instantly so that you can get the
feedback
at once. You DON'T need to buy the WebAssign enrollment card to
be able to use WebAssign since the department has already paid for it. The
deadlines
for submission of assignments through WebAssign are 11:59 PM on Monday
or Thursday (except for the last week), unless otherwise announced.
However, you should
work on your homework as early as possible before a deadline so that
you
can have time to ask for help if you encounter difficulties in solving
these
problems. To emphasize the importance of doing homework, homework
grade
will count towards 25% of the total grade of the course, excluding the
assignment
with the lowest grade. A
separate sheet on how to use WebAssign is provided along with this
handout.
VII. In Class Concept Questions
Short Concept Questions will
be included in almost every lecture. You need a “Remote Pad” (“Star
Trek Communicator”, available at the bookstore) to participate in the
interactive concept questions during class. You need to register the
device for this class with the Enrollment Code and Serial # of your
“Pad” and the Physics 407 Class Key (Q9868W742) on the e-Instruction
website (www.einstruction.com). Follow the instructions on the
website after you log on. For more instruction, download this
form via http://plasma4.sr.unh.edu/ng/phys407/cpsregistration.pdf
Please bring your “Star Trek Communicator” (Remote Pad)
with you every class. You receive credit every time you
use it in the classroom to answer the Concept Questions and will be
instantly graded through
e-Instruction (count towards 5% of the final grade). You will get
full credit for attempting
to do ALL the questions, whether your answers
are correct or not.
Possession of two or more clickers is a violation of
Academic Honesty Policy and would be treated as such. Note that a
student who gives his/her own clicker to another classmate to use in
class is also in violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.
VIII. In Class Group Problems
On Mondays or Thursdays, when there is no quiz, you will work in
groups of two or three on some written problems. The focus of these
group problems is problem-solving. You will need to discuss the
problems within each group, but each student is to write down the
answers on his/her own problem sheet. I will go around to provide
help on the problems. The group problems will be graded and count
towards 5% of the final grade.
IX. Examinations
There will be 3 closed book one-hour quizzes and 1 two-hour final exam.
Calculators
and one page (5 pages for the final) of your own handwritten notes are
allowed
for each quiz. THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP TESTS. Quizzes
count towards 30% of the total grade. The final exam counts towards 25%
of the total grade. You must not miss the quizzes and the
Final Exam (except for documented illness or family emergency
). The following
are the dates for the exams:
|
Date:
|
Time:
|
Room:
|
Quiz 1
Thu, June 23 |
11:30AM - 12:30AM |
DeMeritt 152 |
Quiz 2
Thu, July 7 |
11:30AM - 12:30AM |
DeMeritt 152 |
Quiz 3
Mon, July 25
|
11:30AM - 12:30AM |
DeMeritt 152 |
Final Exam
Thu, August 4
|
10:10AM - 12:30AM |
DeMeritt 152 |
Approximately half of the three one-hour
quizzes and the 2-hour final exam will consist of questions
qualitatively
similar to those you have seen in homework/concept questions/group
problems. Moreover, some questions in the finally exam will be
similar to those you have seen in the three quizzes. Thus, it is
important to keep a record of all your course works and review
them before the tests.
X. The Laboratory
The purpose of the labs is multi-fold. First, you gain hands-on
experience
with the physical principles that we discuss in lecture. Second, you
begin
to experience how science is done, including using a theory to design
an
experiment, taking measurements, and understanding sources of error.
Third,
in writing the lab reports, you will gain experience in technical
writing. Additional instruction fro writing lab reports can be
downloaded from: http://plasma4.sr.unh.edu/ng/phys407/Lab.pdf.
The Lab Instructor
will spend a few minutes at the beginning lecturing on the lab itself
or
on the relevant physics concepts.
The labs will meet in DeMeritt 101 from 12:10 PM to 2:00 PM on
Wednesdays . Everyone should attend their first scheduled lab
during week 1 (on June 15). Lab
instruction manuals may be picked up at the
first lab meeting.
You must hand in all the laboratory write-ups to pass the
course. For most labs, you will need to
do pre-lab questions before you come in to do the lab. Your Lab
Instructor will let you know the due dates of the lab reports and
will give give you more information on how lab reports are graded. If
you
miss a lab in a particular week, you must make it up. Please contact
the
Lab Instructor as soon as possible to arrange for a make-up lab. The
lab
grade counts towards 10% of the total grade of the course.
However,
you are required to do all the labs in order to pass the course.
XI. Grading
The final grade will be composed of:
| 3 one-hour quizzes: |
30 % |
Every quiz counts |
| Final exam: |
25 % |
Mandatory! |
| Laboratory: |
10 % |
ALL Labs required for pass! |
| Homework (WebAssign) |
25 % |
Lowest homework grade is dropped
|
In Class Concept Questions
|
5 %
|
Three lowest grades are dropped
|
In Class Group Problems
|
5 %
|
Lowest grade is dropped |
| Total: |
100 % |
|
Normally, getting 50% of the total points will get a grade C,
subject
to adjustment. We strongly suggest that you keep all of your graded
work
at least until the end of the semester. On occasion, a grade is not
entered
correctly, and the only way we can correct it is if you have the graded
work for us to see.
XII. Getting Help
My office hours are 1:30-2:30 PM on Monday and Thursday, at 245B
Morse Hall. These are hours set aside
especially to help you - do not feel like you are imposing or cheating
by coming in. If you have problems that need immediate attention,
please come to see me any time, send me an e-mail or give me a call.
Occasionally a student may have compelling non-academic reasons for not
being able to complete work on time (for example, illness, death in the
family). If you find yourself in such a situation, please come talk to
me as soon as you can (or E-mail or call if you are at a distance) so
we can determine what course of action is best to help you finish the
required work.
The textbook has a web site: http://www.wiley.com/college/halliday
(follow link to Student Companion Site). It has many resources
that
provide additional help. We also have this home page of the
course: course:
http://plasma4.sr.unh.edu/ng/phys407/phys407.html.
I may put additional materials that may be helpful to you later on. So,
please
come back often, especially to check any changes in the schedule.
XIII. Syllabus and Schedule
Below we give an approximate schedule, subject to change.
Day
|
Lecture (Chapter covered) |
Lab
|
WebAssign
(Chapter) |
Exam (Chapter) |
| 6/13, Mo |
Measurement/Units (1)
|
|
|
|
6/15, We
|
1D Motion (2)
|
Lab1 Describing
Motion
|
|
|
6/16, Th
|
Vectors (3)
|
|
HW1 (1-2)
|
|
6/20, Mo
|
2D/3D
Motion (4)
|
|
HW2 (2-3)
|
|
6/22, We
|
Forces (4-5)
|
Lab3 Vector Addition
|
|
|
6/23, Th
|
Newton's Laws (5)
|
|
HW3 (4)
|
Quiz 1 (1-3)
|
6/27, Mo
|
Friction (6)
|
|
HW4 (5)
|
|
6/29, We
|
Kinetic
Energy/Work (6-7)
|
Lab4 Newton 2nd Law
|
|
|
6/30, Th
|
Conservation of
Energy (7-8)
|
|
HW5 (6)
|
|
7/6, We
|
Systems of
Particles (8-9)
|
Lab5 Measuring g on Inclined Track |
|
|
7/7, Th
|
Conser. of Momentum
(9)
|
|
HW6 (7)
|
Quiz 2 (4-7)
|
7/11, Mo
|
Collision (9)
|
|
HW7 (8)
|
|
7/13, We
|
Rotation
(10)
|
Lab7 Measure g by Atwood Machine |
|
|
7/14, Th
|
Rotational
Inertia (10)
|
|
HW8 (9)
|
|
7/18, Mo
|
Rolling/Torque
(11)
|
|
HW9 (10)
|
|
7/20, We
|
Angular
Momentum (11)
|
Lab8 Conser. of Mechanical Energy |
|
|
7/21, Th
|
Equilibrium (12)
|
|
HW10 (11)
|
|
7/25, Mo
|
Elasticity
(12)
|
|
HW11 (12)
|
Quiz
3 (8-11) |
7/27, We
|
Gravity
(13)
|
Lab9 Conservation of Momentum
|
|
|
7/28, Th
|
Simple
harmonic motion (15) |
|
HW12 (12-13)
|
|
8/1, Mo
|
Oscillations
(15)
|
|
|
|
8/3, We
|
Reviews
|
Lab10 Moment of Inertia of a Pulley
|
HW13 (13,15)
|
|
8/4, Th
|
|
|
|
Final (1-13,15)
|