Instructor:

G. Jones (x4697, Office: Science G071 Lab: Science G074)

Class Time:

Lectures: MWF, 1:00 pm. Science G041

Textbooks:

Primary Text: Louis Bloomfield, "How Things Work" 5th edition.

Syllabus:

The syllabus will change over the semester and is only meant as a guideline.

Office

Hours:

My office hours are posted on my door. Please try to come during these times. If necessary you can set up a time to see me, call ahead to see if I am in, or find me in my office or my lab.

Tentative office hours: MWF 2:00-2:30 after class, Thursday 11am

Grading:

Homework 25%, two exams 20% each, cumulative final 30%, clickers and class participation 5%.

Problem

Sets:

Homework will be due in class on Wednesday most weeks. You may discuss questions with classmates, but what you write must reflect your own understanding, and must be in your own words. Please remember the honor code. Late problem sets will be marked down 15% if they come in after I begin class, and will not be accepted after I have given out the solutions (usually the next class period). I will drop the lowest homework grade.

The process of reasoning from basic physics principles is more important than getting the right answer. Show your reasoning in some logical fashion and make notes at steps where the reasoning might not be clear. No credit is given for mere correct answers. Feel free to justify your answers to unclear multiple choice answers (occasionally justifications can also be marked wrong.)

Problems will be assigned from the book over material not covered during the class periods.

Exams/Final:

Two exams will be given during the class period. The date is subject to change. Material for the midterms and final will draw heavily on the homework since that is the material that I find most important. The final will cover the whole course but will emphasize the material covered after the last midterm.

Other

Resources

Consider learning more at the following sites. Note: these pages are excellent learning tools but you MUST CITE YOUR SOURCE IF YOU TAKE ANY INFORMATION, IDEAS, OR UNDERSTANDING FROM THEM. A simple note with the webpage is enough citation for this class.

www.howstuffworks.com

www.howeverythingworks.org

www.wiley.com/college/bloomfield see "companion sites:student companion site"

Week

Date (Mon.)

Chapter

Items

Topics

1

8/25 (F)

Ch. 1

Tablecloth trick, snowy boots, rocket car

Inertia, acceleration, forces, Newton's laws

2

8/28

Ch. 2

anti-lock brakes, air bags, padding, fastball

Friction, momentum, impulse, coefficient of restitution

3

9/4

Ch. 3

Frisbee, seasons, ice skater, cats, wrench

Angular momentum, moment of inertia, torque,

4

9/11

Ch. 9

Swing, sweet spot, clocks, violins, ears

Energy, springs, resonance, damping, Q

5

9/18

Ch. 5

Bed-o-nails, barometer, hydraulics, balloons

Static fluids,buoyancy, hydraulics

6

9/25

Ch. 6

Curveball, Airplane

Golf ball dimples

Moving fluids, Bernoulli, turbulence

7

10/2

Ch. 7

Winter coat, lightbulb, global warming

molecular picture, heat transfer, blackbody

8

10/9 (MW)

Ch. 8

Refrigerator, AC

Heat capacity, thermal expansion, PV=NkT

Fall Break

9

10/16

Ch. 8

Car engine

4 strokes, Diesel, octane, 2 cycle

10

10/23

Ch. 10

Balloon, Xerox

Electrostatics, Coulomb, charge

11

10/30

Ch. 10

Balloon, Xerox

Electrostatics, Coulomb, charge

12

11/6

Ch. 12, 13

AM/FM, diffraction, cell reception, color

Light, wavelength, color vision

13

11/13

Ch. 14

Blue Sky, rainbow, 1 way mirror, lenses

Light, reflection, refraction, vision

Thanksgiving

14

11/27

Ch. 15

Eye glasses, fiber optics

optics

15

12/4

Ch. 16

Big Bang, bombs, reactors

Nuclear Physics