Introduction

Physics 190 / Fall 2006 MWF 9am; T 1-4 and TBA Professor Ann Silversmith Email: asilvers Office G070, x4704 Research Lab G072 x4739

Welcome to Physics 190. I'm excited to be here and I hope you are too. We have a lot of great physics to learn this semester. This class meets MWF at 9 am, and class attendance is quite important. In my mind you and I have appointments to work together every MWF from 9 to 9:50am. In addition to our 3 weekly appointments, 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.

Course Description and Goals

This course covers basic mechanics of single particles and of extended objects as well as introductory relativity. Our goal is to cover material in chapters 1-13 in your textbook (see attached for a list of topics) and have 3 weeks at the end of the term to become acquainted with Einstein's ideas about Relativity. In all of our work we will concentrate on understanding the physics in a conceptual way and on translating physical situations to mathematical equations. This translation process (from the language of English to the language of Mathematics) is often the most challenging and rewarding part of this enterprise.

Textbooks:

Our text is Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Douglas Giancoli, a standard calculus-based physics text that you will get to know very well this year. I think you will find it readable and I hope that you'll be able to learn from it. We do not have time in three 50 min lectures to cover all the good stuff that is part of this course; you will have to rely on the textbook. The book has many worked out examples that will help you master problem-solving techniques. Take a few minutes tonight and explore the text.
Later this semester we will study the Special Theory of Relativity and we will rely on additional texts, Basic Concepts in Relativity by Resnick and Halliday, and Mr Thompkins in Paperback by George Gamow. These are oldies but goodies. The Gamow book, in particular, is lots of fun—something to look forward to at the end of the semester.

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 Wednesday at the beginning of class time. It will be graded and returned the next week. There will be 2 quizzes on the 2^nd and 8^th Fridays.
• Lab will count for another 25% of the grade. I tell you about lab grading this week in lab. Important note - there are guaranteed to be questions on the exams that are based your lab work.
• Exam scores make up the final 50% of the grade. There will be 2 midterms and a final. The weighting will be as follows: 2 exams @ 10-15% and 15-20% and a final exam @ 15-25% (% chosen to optimize grade). The exams will be closed-book exams. The midterms will take place during lab periods and will probably be during weeks 5 and 10. The final will be cumulative and will be held on Friday afternoon December 15^th.
  • 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 discuss it with me and allow two weeks notice. You will need to provide Allen Harrison, Associate Dean of Students (KJ 104; ext. 4021) with appropriate documentation of your disability.

Homework Problem Sets

• You will receive an assignment of roughly a dozen problems every Wednesday and can access the problem sets through Blackboard. Your solutions to the problems will be collected the following Wednesday at the beginning of class. Your work will be graded and returned the following week. For the sake of the grader (and for fairness) late HW is strongly discouraged and will be penalized: -20%/day. HW will not be accepted at all after Friday of the week it is due.
• Solutions to problem sets will be available Friday afternoon on electronic reserve through the library's webpage, and accessible through Blackboard.
• 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.

Note: These assignments are meant to represent a full week of work. Start them early!

Lab

Lab begins this week with an outdoor lab that uses air rockets, so let's all hope for good weather. Meet in our lab room and bring rain jackets if the weather looks crummy. As indicated on the schedule, we will use two of our lab periods for midterm exams. Always plan to spend 3 hours in lab.

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. 1) You bring a written medical excuse and 2) 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 problem 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 these days. 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.
Your homework assignments will be divided into 2 sections. For section 1 (the longer part of the assignment) you are strongly encouraged to discuss the problems with other students. Please appreciate that you should only hand in work that reflects your own understanding. For section 2, you must work on your own. I will rely on the problems in this part of the homework for information about your individual ability to apply physical ideas.
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!