PHYS 11A Section 1, Spring 2009 General Physics: Mechanics

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1 Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 9:50 AM in Mendocino 1015 Discussions: Section 2: Wednesdays, 10:00 10:50 AM in Sequoia 232 Section 3: Wednesdays, 11:00 11:50 AM in Sequoia 325 Instructor: Dr. Jerome Buerki Office, Phone: Sequoia 432, , Website: The best way to contact me is by . Course Website: SacCT: WileyPLUS: Required Text: D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, Volume 1 J. Wiley and Sons, Inc., 8th Edition (2008) with WileyPLUS registration code Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:00 2:50 PM in Sequoia 432 or by appointment. Midterms: Monday, February 23, 9:00 9:50 AM Monday, March 23, 9:00 9:50 AM Monday, April 27, 9:00 9:50 AM Final exam: Friday, May 22, 8:00 10:00 AM (in principle in Mendocino 1015) Course content: The course discusses Newtonian mechanics. This material is covered in chapters 1 15 of the textbook. The text will be followed fairly closely, so a workable outline of the course is provided in the table of contents. We will spend on average one week per chapter. Prerequisites: Introductory calculus, Math 30, must have been passed. Second semester calculus, Math 31, should also have been completed; if not, it must be taken concurrently. Concepts from these courses, in particular derivatives and integrals, will be used extensively in Physics 11A, and it is your responsibility to be confortable with these mathematical concepts! Course objectives: Your specific objective should be to understand and to be able to apply the fundamental laws and results of Newtonian mechanics. A broader and equally important goal is to develop an analytical, logical approach to problem solving, and to acquire a certain level of intuition, or feel, for physical phenomena. 1 / 5

2 Lectures: During lectures, about 30 minutes will be devoted to the exposition of new material, such as basic definitions, fundamental laws, and the derivation of principal results, supported by illustrative examples. Five minutes at the beginning of each lecture will be devoted to summarize the material of the previous lecture, while the remaining 15 minutes will be used for example problem-solving and questions. Note: lectures will contain some explanatory material not found in the text. Attendance is expected, and it is recommended that you come to class prepared, i.e. that you are up-to-date on what has been studied so far in the course. Discussion sections: They will be used primarily to expand upon and treat applications of the material presented in lectures. Homework problems and exams will be discussed. Unannounced quizzes are possible. During exam weeks, or when needed, one of the discussion periods may be used as a lecture. Attendance and participation are expected. Laboratories: The most important purpose of the lab is to develop the student s proficiency in making basic physical measurements and driving meaningful conclusions from them. The physical phenomena under investigation in the various experiments will be approximately synchronized to the principles discussed in lectures. Descriptive accounts of the experiments, including data, diagrams, graphs, analyses, etc., are to be assembled in an informal lab report. Lab reports will be evaluated for completeness, accuracy, and usability. The lab component of the course grade will be based on: 1) the grade obtained for the lab reports, and 2) the instructor s assessment of the student s preparedness and performance in the lab. Attendance is mandatory (missing more than two labs will get you an F), and a passing grade in the lab part of the course is a requirement for passing the whole course! Homework: There will be weekly homework assignments to reinforce the material covered in class. Assignments will be available online on WileyPLUS, usually at the beginning of the week. The assignments must be completed on WileyPLUS by the indicated due time (usually on Wednesday by the time the lecture starts), and the scratch papers used to solve the problems must be turned in by 12 noon on the due date in order to get credit for the homework! Although they are scratch notes, please try to make them readable, and indicate clearly the separation between problems! Solutions will be posted on SacCT after the discussion sessions on which the homework is due. Late homework will not be accepted. Homework will be evaluated based on effort and accuracy. 2 / 5

3 Exams: There will be three one-hour exams the best two of which will be used for credit and one two-hour final exam. A typical exam will consist of a number of short-answer questions and a few longer problems to be worked out. Any subject matter covered in lectures, discussion sections, homework, textbook, or labs may be included. The one-hour exams are scheduled for the dates indicated above; if these dates need to be changed, you will be given at least one week notice. The exams will be closed book and closed notes, except for a one-page, single-sided, letter-size formula sheet. No text is allowed on the formula sheet, except single words to describe the formulas. In particular, no definitions are allowed! The formula sheet will be turned in together with the exam, and will be checked for compliance with these rules. You are allowed a scientific calculator, but nothing may be programmed on it. I reserve the right to clear the memory of your calculator prior to or during the exams. No PDA or Phone-based calculators are allowed. Use of cell phones and PDAs is prohibited during the exams, and all rings must be muted! If you are expecting an important phone call, let me know before the beginning of the exam. There will be no make-up exams. The final exam follows the same rules, but is two-hour long, and a two-page formula sheet is allowed. It is comprehensive, but will be somewhat weighted to the material covered after the last one-hour exam. Grades: Credit for the various components of the course are as follows: Hour exam #1 20 % Hour exam #2 20 % Final exam 30 % Homework and quizzes 15 % Lab 15 % Letter grades are assigned approximately as follows: A % B % C % D % F 0 39 % However, I will take into consideration the distribution of scores prior to making a final decision. Lab grades may follow a different scale depending on the instructor. 3 / 5

4 Add/Drop policy: After the first three weeks of class, dropping the course will be approved only for serious and compelling reasons. Handouts / materials All needed printed materials will be provided via SacCT, Sac State s Course Management System (formerly WebCT). Please make sure you are familiar with its use, it is available at If you have never used it before, please follow the link on the page to the student resources page. You must have a Saclink account to use SacCT, if you don t have one, get one ASAP (note: this should only be the case for those who are Open University students regular students use Saclink accounts to register for classes). Homework has to be completed on WileyPLUS, which requires a registration code that can be purchased either with the textbook, or separately from the WileyPLUS web site. A simple scientific pocket calculator is sufficient for homework, labs, and exams. There will be some computer based homework and labs; the University computer lab should be sufficient for this work. Academic Dishonesty Statement: The Department of Physics and Astronomy has unanimously approved the following statement: The faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy will not tolerate academic dishonesty. Falsification of data, copying, unauthorized collaboration, plagiarism, alteration of graded materials, or other actions (as described in, but not necessarily limited to the Sacramento State Policy Manual) will be promptly reported to the Office of Student Affairs. The offending student will be penalized on the assignment in question. Serious infractions will result in course failure and a recommendation for administrative sanctions. If you have any questions regarding this statement, please come and speak with me about it. Additional Information: If you have a disability and require accommodations, you need to provide disability documentation to SSWD, Lassen Hall 1008, Please discuss your accommodation needs with me after class or during my office hours early in the semester. 4 / 5

5 Indicative Schedule: The following outline of the course is indicative, and may be slightly modified according to needs. Wk Lecture Discussion ( W) 1 M 1/26: Introduction, 1: Measurement W 1/28: 2: Motion along a straight line Motion along a straight line 2 M 2/2: 2, continued Vectors W 2/4: 3: Vectors Motion along a straight line 3 M 2/9: 3, continued Vectors W 2/11: 4: Motion in two and three dimensions Motion in two and three dimensions 4 M 2/16: 4, continued W 2/18: 4, continued + review Motion in two and three dimensions 5 M 2/23: MIDTERM 1: Chapters 1 4 W 2/25: 5: Force and motion I Force and motion, typical examples 6 M 3/2: 5, continued Exam discussion W 3/4: 6: Force and motion II Force and motion 7 M 3/9: 6, continued W 3/11: 6, continued Force and motion 8 M 3/16: 7: Kinetic energy and work W 3/18: 7, continued Energy 9 M 3/23: MIDTERM 2: Chapters 4 6 W 3/25: 8: Potential energy and conservation of energy Energy Spring recess 10 M 4/6: 8, continued exam discussion W 4/8: 9: Center of mass and linear momentum Center of mass and linear momentum 11 M 4/13: 9, continued Center of mass and linear momentum W 4/15: 10: Rotation Rotation 12 M 4/20: 10, continued Rotation W 4/22: 11: Rolling, torque, Rolling, torque, and angular momentum and angular momentum 13 M 4/27: MIDTERM 3: Chapters 7 10 W 4/29: 11, continued Torque and angular momentum 14 M 5/4: 12: Equilibrium and elasticity Exam discussion W 5/6: 12, continued Equilibrium and elasticity 15 M 5/11: 13: Gravitation Gravitation W 5/13: 13, continued 5 / 5

PHY2048 Syllabus - Physics with Calculus 1 Fall 2014

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