Introduction for Physics 161

PHYSICS 161

Fall, 2002 Daniel Finley
M W F 11:00 AM Regener Hall 103

Office: Physics & Astronomy Bldg., 800 Yale Boulevard, Room 168
Telephone:     277-8799 ;     email:     finley@tagore.phys.unm.edu
Office Hours:
Text:     Fundamentals of Physics , Halliday, Resnick, in 5 paperback parts, for easy carrying, or two hardback volumes.
We will use parts 2 and 3 this semester.
From time to time we may also need to refer back to material in part 1, which was covered in the previous semester of this sequence.
All 5 parts will be covered over the course of the 3 semester course.

I am happy to talk with you about physics, math, or how they relate to the world, your text, and/or your assigned homework!
The class homepage is at     http://panda.unm.edu/courses/finley/p161.html
The class's Teaching Assistant will probably be Hank Anderson. He will be available for discussions and/or questions. He has an office in the Physics and Astronomy Building, on the NE corner of Yale and Lomas, and will have a regular office hour once a week at a time yet to be determined.
For a meeting at other times, please send him email by clicking here, suggesting a time and place.

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this second semester of a general introduction to physics. I look forward to working with you and getting to know you better. We will begin with Chapter 19, with a little review from Ch. 15, and work (with some exceptions) through Chapter 33, following the syllabus. Your input, in terms of questions and comments, and your work with problems and exams, will help determine our pace, although we will be guided by the weekly syllabus. It is very important that you READ the text material before coming to class; therefore, you should refer often to the syllabus, which lists what material we will be discussing each week.

The syllabus is also a Reading Assignment Guide.
Please use it to read carefully through the material to be covered, BEFORE the lecture.
Then, re-read it, afterward; it should be easier this second, or (perhaps) third, time.
Questions are encouraged at all times during any lecture!
Introductory physics is a difficult course; it can be made much easier if all of us do our part, and do it on time!
Please remember that an important portion of your part is to ask questions, both inside and outside of class, especially of me but also of each other.
It is also important that you spend at least 10 hours per week on the material for this class, in addition to classtime!

Grading Policy

The key to passing this class is to understand the basic concepts well enough that you can solve the homework problems, and know why you made the choices and decisions that you did in solving the problems! Please, after you have solved each problem, go back and think about why it worked. If you cannot decide that, ask me questions about it, look at the web-posted solution, or both. When you can do this---solve the homework problems, and understand which concepts were involved in doing this---you should have little trouble with the exams.
Be sure and work through ALL the examples, and checkpoints, in the textbook. That means putting your pencil to the paper; not just reading through the words in the book, and saying you "understand" them. The examples are very good at trying to explain what the "Key Ideas" are. Try to "guess," in advance what those key ideas will be, and then check to see if you were correct.

The exams will have questions that involve the same concepts as did the homework problems; many times they will look a lot like the homework problems, or the examples in the text, or problems I have worked in class. Sometimes the questions will ask that you explain the concepts in words, or choose between alternative interpretations of the concepts.
The exams are NOT like "high school." There is no intent that the grades should be 90 to 100 is an A, etc. Instead the intent is to give you clues as to how well you are integrating the concepts of physics into problem solving in physics. Therefore, the letter grades on exams are "curved" to match with what you are telling me about your understanding. The more actual, correct "work" that you can put on an exam question, relevant to that question, the more partial credit I will assign.
I add that exams will require last time than they did last semester!

Although I'd like to think I can explain things well enough that you'll understand everything the first time in the lecture, that's highly unlikely to happen. Therefore, please ask questions! I will always ask for questions at the beginning of each class, so consider coming prepared with a question. On the other hand, if I skip a point in class, please feel free to ask a question right at that moment! I will always answer questions about problems, about lectures, about whatever sort of physics you are wondering about at the moment. I also answer questions received by email!

The only way to really learn the physics is by sweating through the problems and examples, making lots of mistakes, getting hopelessly stuck at times, and even experiencing profound frustration. (Talk with someone else at that point.) This method is a hard course, but it goes with the territory. You should allocate plenty of time to read the text (twice!) and to do the assignments. Please do them at a time when you are alert with no distractions. Setting aside one hour before the football game to do your physics homework is not a good idea. Even worse is trying to do them 1 hour before they're due. This is an especially bad approach, of course, for the WebAssign problems. If you can't devote the necessary time, you really shouldn't be taking this course. I'd like to see everybody succeed, but that's only possible if you can make the commitment and put in the time. The reward for all this effort, hard work, and frustration on your part is that you will have developed the problem solving skills, work ethic, and discipline that will be very important for the rest of your life---and, of course, you will have passed this course!
 
Computation of Grades
 
At the end of the semester, each student will have created 5 grades:

  1. one for the average of all scores for the Homework, which includes both problems turned in in class, on paper, and also the WebAssign problems turned in by computer (on the Web).
    As well, it will include any optional Bonus Problems that you chose to turn in. The bonus points go on top of your final homework grade, allowing you at least the possibility of a score that is more than 100%.
    Please click here to go to the webpage with more details on homework grading, and also on the class policies on homework.
  2. grades for each of the three exams,
    each exam takes the entire regular classtime, of 55 minutes,
  3. and the score for the Final Exam, which is required.
    and is scheduled for Wednesday, 11 December, 10-12 AM, in the usual classroom.
    It is comprehensive over the electricity and magnetism part of the class.

To determine your complete grade, I will drop the lowest of each student's three Exam grades. The remaining 4 grades will then each count 25% toward your complete grade.
Because the lowest exam grade will be dropped, and because of the curving of grades, there will be NO make up examinations.
Each of these 5 grades will be "curved," so that the class average becomes a grade somewhere near C+.
The complete grade made from the 4 grades described above will also be curved, with the class average for it treated as above. Therefore, the individually-curved grades should be considered as "good" approximations, only, relative to the complete grade determined at the end.

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