Physics 2A Fall 2007 Course Outline
Instructor: Perry Hacking; Office Planetarium; 660-3593 (x3245); Office Hours: Mondays - Wednesdays 2-2:45; Tuesdays 5-6; Saturdays 1:30-2:30PM. Note, office hour for Saturday is in Physics 102.
Text: College Physics, by Serway & Faughn. 7th ed..
Prerequisites: Math 170 (Trigonometry) with a grade of C or better, or equivalent.
Exams: There will be four 50-point exams and a 100 point comprehensive final exam. The exam questions will be similar to the homework questions.
Homework: There will be homework assignments for every chapter of the book that we cover. Homework will be worth 100 points total.
Labs: We will perform approximately 15 labs. Your total lab work will be worth 100 points.
Grading: I will total all of your points at the end of the semester to determine your grade. The grade scale is as follows:
each exam for the course
90 - 100 A 450 – 500 A
80 - 89 B 400 - 449 B
65 - 79 C 325 - 399 C
50 - 64 D 250 - 324 D
Students who withdraw after _______ will receive a letter grade based on the entire semester's requirements.
Preparation: Make certain that you are ahead in your reading, and current on your homework! Homework will be due almost every time we meet (including labs). You will be able to find every topic that we cover in your text.
About this course: Learning about physics is learning about everything in nature. This course lays the foundation for many future courses for you, many of which are not physics courses. The best way to learn physics is by seeing as many different ways that it can be applied in the real world. That is what we are going to do. Most of the examples that we will use will be simple ones that isolate the concepts that we will be learning about. Of course the real world is more complicated and real world problems often involve many different laws or concepts. The process is the same, however - try to identify what concepts are at work. Before we can tackle the real world, we will start in this course to understand and solve problems that usually involve only one or two concepts, and rarely three or more. Some students fail to see the relevance of this course to their work or lives. But if you understand that we must learn first with simple examples, we can then graduate to the real world of medicine, engineering, science, and even economics. For example, I would hate to have my blood drawn by a technician that did not understand how membranes stretch and fluids behave under pressure? Would you?
The official course objectives can be found at: Physics 2A Course Objectives
Advice: This is a very important course for you. I will assume that it shares top priority with your math course in your schedule. If you do not give this course top priority, future physics and related courses will suffer. This course is often thought of as the cornerstone of your entire education in any technical field. Make it a strong cornerstone. Even though the homework grade is only worth 20% of the total points, it is probably the most important aspect of this course. Practice, practice, practice. That will be our motto. Homework will be our tool. We will practice a great deal in class also. You can be assured that I will treat this course as your most important one also. I pledge to do my best to make this wonderful course as understandable and interesting as I possibly can. I hope to fill you with the wonder that I have for our physical universe around us.
However, when I stumble and you become confused, it is YOUR responsibility to stop me and ask for clarification or a different explanation or illustration. Silence on your part translates into an assumption on my part that you understand.
Come to class with an active mind ready to learn every evening that we meet. Don't show up burned out and hungry. This is not a painting class where you can relax and unwind. I require your full attention. Note - if you are a "morning person", then you should take steps to make certain that you are fully ready and attentive every Monday and Wednesday evening! I need fresh brains!
Disabilities: If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible..
Here is our schedule - note that I may switch lab and lectures from Mondays to Wednesdays as is required to ensure that you will be ready for the tests. Don't assume that Mondays will always be lecture and Wednesdays will always be lab.
Week Chapter Subjects Lab
1. 1-3 Powers of Ten, Scientific Notation, Units & Conversions, 1 & 10
Significant Figures, Errors, Mean, Standard Deviation,
Graphing, Simple Motion, Vectors, Problem Solving
2. (weds only) 3-4 Vectors, Newton's Laws of Motion
3. 4 Newton's Laws of Motion 11 (and maybe 12)
4. 4 & 5 Test 1, Energy 14
5. 5 Energy 18
6. 6 Collisions 19
7. 7 Rotational Motion 13
8. 8 Rotational Equilibrium 17
9. - 16 & 5
10. 9 Test 2, Solids and Fluids
11. 10 Thermal Physics 21
12. (weds only) 30
13 11 Energy in Thermal Processes, Test 3 31
14. 13 & 14 Vibrations and Waves & Sound 32
15 14 40 & 41
16 Test 4, Final