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Physics at Hamilton |
Physics 200 is the first semester of a one year calculus-based course that provides an introduction to physics. Designed for students who plan to major in another subject, it is particularly suitable for chemistry majors and for students who wish to gain a general view of the subject on a more advanced level than Physics 100-105. (Note that it is possible for students who decide that they might wish to continue on in physics to go into 195 instead of 205 and thus switch into the majors sequence.) Students without a background in calculus should enroll in Physics 100/105 which covers the same material without calculus.
This course aims to provide a grounding in the subjects of mechanics, fluids, and thermodynamics. Mechanics is the study of how and why objects move, from the everyday experiences of the flight of a frisbee, through the excitement of a roller-coaster, to the motions of planets. Thermodynamics provides a language to study heat, temperature, and, ultimately, macroscopic properties of systems built from many microscopic systems.
In addition to exploring one model of the physical world, we shall learn a little about the history of our understanding of the physical world as it has changed throughout recorded history and shall develop an understanding of the underlying methodology of the subject. Physics seeks to build mathematical models of the behaviors of the world. It then tests those models by comparison with experiment and uses the models to predict the behavior of new situations.
Instructors |
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Lecture |
Laboratory |
Course Text |
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Seth Major |
James Schreve |
Seth Major |
Physics for Scientists and Engineers By Douglas Giancoli, 3th Edition Prentice-Hall, 2000 |
You will need a scientific calculator and will need to bring it to class and lab. We may not often use it in class but you should get into the habit of bringing it to every class. You will use it in lab all the time. If you have a graphing calculator then that will be ideal. If not, then an inexpensive scientific model that can handle trig functions, logs, and exponentials will be sufficient.
You will need a laboratory notebook that you should bring to every lab. This must be a bound notebook. You need to get this ahead of time. You will need it for the first lab!
You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the following policies. They outline your responsibilities in the course. I will go over this material on the first day of class but you should make sure that you have read this carefully.
These policies are based on those used for the past few years in this course and I am indebted to David Craig for their general outline.
Problem sets will be posted on Blackboard and/or the web site at least one week before the assignment is due. They will NOT be handed out in class but I will send an email notification.
Laboratory handouts will also be posted on Blackboard and an email announcement made. After the first week, you will be responsible for printing out the handout, doing the pre-lab, and bringing the handout and pre-lab with you to the lab. Note that failure to complete the pre-lab exercise before the start of lab will result in a significant grade penalty for that lab.
There will be two mid-term exams held approximately one-third and two-thirds of the way through the semester as well as a final held on Wednesday, December 13, from 2 pm to 5 pm.
There will be (roughly) weekly problem sets in all weeks that do not also include a midterm. There will be weekly laboratories that will be written up in your lab notebooks and the lab notebooks will be graded. The complete course grade will be divided between all the activities according to the following formula
| Running Total | ||
| Problem Sets | 30% | 30% |
| Labs | 30% | 60% |
| Midterms | 2@10% | 80% |
| Final Exam | 20% | 100% |
We cannot grade what we can't read and we can't give grades to unidentifiable work. You are responsible for presenting your work clearly, for marking it clearly on the first page with your name and the assignment number, and for making sure that you work stays together. I strongly recommend that you copy over your solutions and hand in a readable final copy. Always check that you have included units and significant figures.
Questions on the problem sets come in two flavors, exercises and problems. Exercises will be relatively quick and not involve a lot of work. These will be graded on your answer and there will be no partial credit. Problems are graded on your presentation of ideas and calculations, NOT on final answers. This doesn't mean that we don't want the correct answer, but it does mean that the answers by themselves are not worth anything, even if they are correct. You are being graded on the working that leads to those answers and all such work must be presented clearly and legibly, with all assumptions made clear, all non-trivial steps explained, and any non-standard notations clearly defined. Except in rare cases, a clear, well labeled, diagram is an essential part of all valid answers. Such diagrams should be large enough that all information can be presented without crowding. You should use my own answer sets as a guide to what I expect your homeworks to look like.
Lab write-ups should also be clearly legible and use large, clear diagrams. Apparatus, methods, and data should all be clearly presented and clearly distinguished. All calculations should done in the lab book. It is fine to have incorrect things, incomplete things, blind alleys, etc. in a lab book just so long as they are marked as such. All lab writups should normally include a clear discussion of the meaning of the results and any conclusions that have drawn. Oh yes, and it is practically never of any interest to tell us that your answer to something is x% different from a standard textbook value but we are always interested to know that you believe that your answer lies within some range of uncertainty as determined from the lab result.
I do not take attendance in lectures. However, I do use them for a lot of different things and you will be held responsible for those things whether you are in class or not. In addition to the obvious lectures, demonstrations, and discussions, these may include announcements, in-class assignments, and quizzes. If you know that you must miss a class then it is only polite to let me know in advance (this is especially true of scheduled absences such as sports travel, group performances, or field trips for another course). If you do miss a class then it up to you to find out from your classmates what you have missed and to make up any missed work. In particular, if you are going to miss a class with a quiz or a class when homework is due then you must make arrangements with me before the work is due.
Attendance at laboratories is mandatory. If you must miss a laboratory then a) you must inform us ahead of time except in the most exceptional cases (such as acute illness) and b) you must arrange ahead to time to make the lab up. In the exceptional case that you miss a lab without prior arrangement then you must contact me as soon as possible to discuss your reasons and to make arrangement to make up the work.
Most students find that it is extremely helpful to work together in various ways to study physics, especially when working through problem sets. This is normal and we encourage it. Similarly, the college provides a number of important resources to help you learn the material and apply it in the homeworks. These range from my office hours to the resources provided through the Q. Lit. center. You should get used to talking about physics among yourselves, with your friends from other classes, and with your professors, Q. Lit. tutors, and with students in other physics classes. All of these have something to teach you and you have something to teach them. Similarly, in lab you will be working in groups (usually of two) and will be expected to work very closely together, sharing ideas, checking answers, discussing the meaning of what you are doing.
All this collaboration is a good and vital part of the normal workings of physics. However, you have to exercise some good sense and good manners. In all circumstances, not just in physics, it is good manners to thank someone when they help you. In academic life it is not just good manners, it is a fundamental duty. When you get help, from whatever source, you must acknowledge that help. What does this mean to you? Well, if you do some problems as part of a group working session then indicate that fact on your solutions and acknowledge your collaborators by name. If you work with a tutor on some problems, then note that on your work. If you get a particularly good idea from your lab partner mention that specifically in your write-up. (The write up must always list the lab partners name at the beginning anyway.)
So, collaboration is a good thing in physics. Copying, however, is as strictly forbidden here as in all academic work. A common effort that results in a set of answers with clear indication that you worked with others is great for your problem set solutions and labs, though obviously not for quizzes and exams. However, work that you claim for your own but which is actually taken from another or done with another without proper acknowledgement is plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence. Make sure you understand the honor code and its supporting materials. If I see clear indications of actual dishonesty, such copying on homework or cheating on a quiz or exam, then I will take the matter straight to the honor court.
Assignments will be due Wednesday at 5 PM. After then the solutions will be posted and any assignments arriving after that time will be accepted, commented as usual, and returned with information about what the grade would have been, but the grade will be recorded as zero. If you can see that you are not going to make one of these deadlines then it is up to you to talk and work out some other arrangement before the deadline (this might, for example, result in some kind of extension). In cases such as illness or other serious emergency that prevent you meeting a deadline but don't give you advance warning, you should contact me as soon as possible to work something out.
As described above, after the first week you will be responsible for printing out the handout, doing the pre-lab, and bringing the handout and pre-lab with you to the lab. Failure to complete the pre-lab exercise before the start of lab will result in a significant grade penalty for that lab. Missing a lab is more serious. Normally, missing a lab without discussing it beforehand with an instructor will result in an automatic zero for that lab.
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Physics at Hamilton |