Introduction

Physics 190 / Fall 2009 Class: MWF 10am; Labs: 1-4 on your assigned day; Email: pmillet Office: SC G053 Research Lab SC G055

Welcome to Physics 190. For up-to-date information on reading and homework assignments and scheduled items like exams, consult the Blackboard site for this course.

Course Description and Goals

This course covers basic mechanics of single particles and of extended objects.  Our goal is to cover introductory ideas about Special Relativity, and also material drawn from chapters 1-14 in your textbook (see Schedule.xls for a list of topics).

This class meets MWF at 10 am, and class attendance is quite important. In addition to our 3 weekly class meetings, I’ll have office hours and I encourage you to come and work with me when you have questions about lectures, assigned work, or exams. 

Textbook:
Our text is Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker - a standard calculus based physics text that you will get to know very well this year. We do not have time in three 50min lectures per week to cover all the good stuff that is part of this course; the textbook will be an important source.  The book has many worked out examples that will help you master problem-solving techniques.

For our study of the Special Theory of Relativity we will rely on material I will post on our Blackboard site.

Mathematics

This course will make use of basic mathematics that you all know well: algebra, trigonometry, vector analysis, and geometry. Some of you have already taken calculus and you will be pleased to be able to apply it in this class. Others of you are taking it now for the first time. You will simultaneously be learning the elegant side of the math (in your calculus class) and the more rudimentary "what's it good for?" approach in this class. You will use the spreadsheet program Excel extensively to do numerical calculations and to do data analysis for lab work. You will use the mathematical software Maple to solve equations and to plot functions.

Grades
The grade for the course will be based on homework, labs, and exams as follows:

• Homework and Quizzes will count for 25% of the grade. There will be a homework set due every week at 5 p.m., probably on Wednesday. HW’s will be graded and returned the next week. There will be occasional short quizzes announced ahead of time. Quizzes will take at most 10min. of class time.

• Lab will count for another 25% of the grade. You will be informed about lab grading in lab.

• Exam scores make up the final 50% of the grade. There will be 2 hour exams and a final. The weighting will be as follows: hour exams are 12-13% each, the final exam will count 25%. All exams will be closed-book exams. The final exam will be cumulative.

Special considerations during exams:
Students with properly documented disabilities may need extended time on exams.  If you are eligible to receive an accommodation and would like to request it for this course, please let me know and allow me enough time before hand to make any special arrangements.  At the beginning of the term you will need to provide Allen Harrison, Associate Dean of Students (KJ 104; ext. 4021) with appropriate documentation of your disability.

Special considerations for religious observances:
Students who have conflicts because of religious holidays this fall should talk to the instructor early in the semester so that we can make accommodations.

Homework Problem Sets

• You can access the problem sets through Blackboard.  Your solutions to the problems may be handed no later than 5 p.m. on the day they are due. Your work will be graded and returned the following week. Late HW will be penalized: -20%/day.
• Solutions to problem sets will be also be available through Blackboard. No late problem sets are accepted after solutions are posted.
• Try to make your HW neat and easy to read. Show your work! We can’t give you any credit for correct answers if you give no justification. Underline or highlight your final answer so the grader can find it. Always remember to include units when appropriate.

Lab
Lab begins during the first full week of class. However, for extra emphasis I want to repeat information here about missed labs (which we strongly discourage!) The make-up policy for labs is straightforward. If you know ahead of time that you cannot come to lab one week, speak with your lab instructor. If the instructor agrees that the conflict is legitimate, then you can arrange to do the lab on a different day of the week than your assigned day. (It will normally not be possible for you to do the lab the next week.) If you miss a lab and have not communicated ahead of time with the instructor, there are 2 possibilities: you bring a written medical excuse or you do not.  In the first case your lab grade will be calculated based on (n-1) lab grades instead of n.  In the second a zero will be factored into your grade for the missed lab.

Working as part of a group
Once upon a time scientists worked on great problems all by themselves. Newton, for example, sat under the apple tree all alone, thinking about the mysteries of gravity. In general, though, that’s not the way science is done. Scientists work together in research groups and it is often more fun and usually more productive to work on physics with a group of people. Besides doing problem sets, you have the important jobs of keeping on top of the reading and participating fully during classes by asking and answering questions.  The success of the course depends on all of us!