Physics 213 Fundamentals of Physics I

Fall 2008

 

Instructor: Dr. Laura Van Wormer, Gerstacker 108    Office hours: MWF: 10 until noon, and 1:30-2:30 pm. 

I will be around on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though I may be in lab. Feel free to stop by whenever you have a question or want to talk.  If you can’t find me, try e-mail (vanwormerla) or voice mail/phone call (5249), and we can schedule a time to meet.  I check email at home as well.

Course web site: home.hiram.edu/www/physics/PHYS213/phys_213.htm          Daily schedule link

Meeting time and place: MWF 2:45-4:05 pm Colton 2 for class (Colton 17 for lab)

Text: Thomas Moore's Six Ideas That Shaped Physics, 2nd Edition, Units C (Conservation Laws), N (Newtonian mechanics) and T (Thermodynamics)

 

Goals: I have several goals for this course; some are academic and some are not. The non-academic goals include showing you how much fun physics can be and how relevant it is to your life!

 

There are many skills and ideas that I hope you will have understood and mastered this term. The concepts that you will learn to understand and apply are:

§         conservation of momentum, in various interactions

§         conservation of energy and the various types of energy

§         Newton’s Laws and motion

§         thermodynamics, entropy and heat engines

Among the skills you will practice and apply are:

§         critical thinking

§         problem solving techniques

§         mathematical skills such as graphing, using vectors and taking derivatives

In lab we will work on developing and applying knowledge of concepts and practice hands-on skills:

§         acquiring reproducible data

§         interpreting them within a theoretical framework

§         understanding the application and limitation of experimental data and theoretical frameworks to the natural world

§        using forces and motion, conservation of momentum and energy and thermodynamics

§         analyzing uncertainties and errors on measurements and calculations

§         writing and re-writing a science paper

§         using Excel and Word

 

Grading contract: You will have 2 mid-term exams, daily homework assignments, a lab grade (consisting of the weekly labs, a lab report and a re-write) and a final exam. The exact percentages assigned to each portion will be up to you--within limits!  Click on the underlined link above to find the grading contract.

 

Homework:  Understanding physics is nearly impossible without DOING physics. Most people learn best by working on problems together; therefore I encourage talking with others in order to learn and understand—share your ideas!  However, the solutions you write up should be your own.  I also would love to work with you individually or in groups, so please stop by and let’s talk! 

 

Newton for Windows        Newton for MAC

 

StatMech for Windows    StatMech for Mac

We will have both daily homework problems and weekly ones. 

 

Daily homework problems will be due at the beginning of class on the day we cover that material in class – yes, before we cover it!  BUT I will grade it primarily on effort, AND you will have a second chance at it.  The grading scale works like this:

0: no effort

1: a poor initial effort

2: a fair effort with modest conceptual errors OR a good effort with serious conceptual errors and/or math errors

3: a good effort with modest conceptual errors and/or math errors OR a fair effort with minor errors

4: a good effort with only a few very minor errors

5: a good effort with correct results and reasoning

 

I’ll grade it and return it the next class, and post the solutions.  You will have one week from the original due date to resubmit with the corrections (in a different colored ink), and can earn up to 2 more points (for a max of 5).  The resubmitted problem will be graded using the original scale.  To gain points, the corrected problem must explicitly locate and correct your errors of reasoning or math. 

 

Weekly homework problems will be due on Mondays and will be from the chapters covered during the week.

 

Exams: There will be two midterm exams during the semester, on Wed Oct. 8 and Wed Nov. 5.  The exams are closed book, closed notes, but I will allow you to create an equation sheet.  We will talk more about this in class. There will also be a comprehensive final exam on Monday, Nov. 24 from 9-11 am.

 

Laboratory: Labs begin Tuesday, Sept. 9. You will need to purchase a quadrille-ruled lab notebook, available in the bookstore, before your first lab session.    There will be a formal lab report and a rewrite (each roughly one quarter of your lab grade) and a lab notebook and checkout questions that you must answer before you leave each lab (the other half of your lab grade).  

 

Note: EVERY lab experiment must be satisfactorily completed.  If you must miss your lab, please arrange ahead of time with both lab instructors to attend one of the other lab sections that week.  If you do not pass the lab portion of the class, you do not pass the course.