Course Description: (3 hours credit, 3 hours lecture per week) A calculus-based introduction to physics. Topics include: kinematics, vector analysis, force dynamics, equilibrium, work, energy, momentum, collisions, fluid dynamics, and thermal physics. Prerequisite: One year of high school physics or PHYS 1305, 1105. Corequisite: MATH 2313.
This course qualifies toward fulfilling the general education requirements at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in the area of Science, provided the accompanying laboratory course, PHYS 2125, is also taken.
Meetings: Sec. 002: Lecture 11:00-12:15 TR, Hill 117
Faculty: Dr. Paul H. Cox,
Professor
Office: Hill 211
Phone: 2623; or department phone 2618. University phones have voice mail;
my not being in when you wanted to call is no excuse.
email: phcox at tamuk.edu
Professor's Webpage:http://physics.tamuk.edu/~cox/
(Note no www on the front.)
Office hours:
Scheduled office hours (subject to change):
MTWRF 10:00-10:50, MWF 12:00-12:50, R 12:30-2:30
Unscheduled Office Hours by appointment
Informal office hours when in
Course objectives:
Students who should pass this course will be able to:
(1) Work correctly with physical quantities. This includes correct and
complete treatment of appropriate units, which includes mathematically
correct combining of units and correct conversion of different units (whether
within metric, including using prefixes, or between "British" and metric).
This also includes correct treatment of accuracy in data.
(2) Work correctly with vector quantities, especially when information does
not group direction and size data; work both with size-and-direction forms and
with component forms of vector data, and convert between them.
(3) Analyze situations to recognize all the information which is
present and all the influences which must be acting; identify all the
forces; and group those forces which are on a relevant object.
(4) Solve new problems, using general principles and techniques, in
the areas discussed in the course: motion, forces and Newton's Laws,
work and energy, impulse and momentum, rotation, fluids, temperature and
heat, etc.
Student learner outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to recognize, in unfamiliar contexts, the concepts covered in the course, and will be able to work unfamiliar problems involving these concepts, as evidenced by satisfactory completion of an assessment exam.
Text: Young and Freedman, University Physics, I believe the tenth edition was specified though the eleventh is also in the bookstores; either will serve. We will use mostly the first half; PHYS 2326 will cover roughly the second half. (The material can be learned from any text at this level if you just study by topic, not by chapter number. There are several such texts in Jernigan Library and also in the physics departmental library room, Hill 204.)
Evaluation:
One-third of your semester point score will come from the final exam. It is
scheduled for Saturday, December 6, from 10:40 to 1:10. The final will be
comprehensive, though not necessarily completely so.
Two-thirds of your semester point score will come from assignments and
quizzes. These will usually alternate, with usually at least one or the
other each week. Assignments will be distributed in class, normally due at
the start of the next class period. Each quiz will be scored as twenty-five
to fifty points, at usually 10 or 15 points per problem depending on length
and difficulty; homework assignments will be scored at five points per
problem. There should be 400 to 600 such points, from quizzes and homework
combined, during the semester.
Most test (quiz and final) questions will be short problems. Multiple-choice
or other short-answer question forms may be used occasionally, generally
graded all-or-nothing. (The final exam may be about 1/3 multiple choice.)
Otherwise, partial credit will be possible when earned by legible,
comprehensible work, but such credit may be lost due to accompanying
incorrect steps; correct answers accompanied by incorrect steps or
incorrect usages will not receive full credit. Certain significant errors
will receive substantial penalties whether relevant to work or not (and can
cancel partial credit; however, negative scores will not be given). This
includes incorrect use of units, vector notation, and equal signs.
Point values awarded will be determined generally by penalizing steps omitted
and mistakes made (not according to an A-quality = 90%, etc., scale).
Hence total points scored will be curved at term end before assigning letter
grades, unless that would produce downward revisions.
Attendance, etc.:
Prompt regular attendance is important to success in every scheduled endeavor,
including classes. However, there is no component of this course grade
directly attributed to attendance. If you can complete the assignments
and score high (honestly) on all the quizzes and the final, you can receive
an A without sitting through any other part of the course. (However, that is
extremely implausible unless you are registered for this course only in order
to validate knowledge acquired elsewhere.)
You should recognize that, in accordance with Murphy's Law, the time
you miss will probably be the only time that some concept will be covered that
will mean ten or twenty points on a quiz. Actions such as coming late,
leaving early, being interrupted by cell phones, etc., unless they are
substantially disruptive, are matters of infractions of courtesy to your
classmates, and I leave responding to such disruptions to their discretion.
Make-up quizzes will not be given. If absences on a quiz date are
foreseeable, an early quiz may be arranged. Otherwise, if the circumstances
causing the absence warrant, a substitute credit based on other quiz results
may be allowed (it will be calculated near the end of the term, when I have
enough information to estimate your performance relative to your peers). The
amount of allowable substitute credit will depend on the circumstances, and
will also be a decreasing function of the time when I receive information
about the circumstances.
Since the regular final exam time for a class at this time period is early in
the finals week, no special arrangements will be made for degree candidates.
However, if there are degree candidates in the class, they should notify the
instructor early in the semester, and remind him about two weeks before
finals, so as to ensure that their grade will be reported in time.
Reminder: If you are taking PHYS 2325 because of a program requirement, you
will normally be required to take 2125 at some time. If you are repeating
and/or you are not clear on your requirements, see me after lecture.
Content, schedule:
Most material in Chapters 1 through 12, 14 through 16, if time permits (rare)
on to Chapter 18, will be covered in lecture, possibly also Ch. 13. Chapters
13 and from 19 on (though Ch. 39 material is rarely if ever reached) will be
covered in PHYS 2326. Handouts may be provided for some material.
A recommended problem list may be developed; in its absence, you may consider
all odd-numbered problems in the text to be suggested. These problems will
not be graded, but may be examples for lecture discussion. Test questions
should generally be comparable.
The pace should be about a chapter a week, half a chapter or more a
session; students are expected to read ahead so as to be prepared with
questions on any confusing points. Each quiz problem will involve at least
some material since the preceding quiz, but may be cumulative as well. The
final will be comprehensive, though with somewhat more than proportional
coverage of material not tested earlier.
I do not drop students for excessive absences, normally; if you simply stop
coming, you may expect to receive an F.
The following Tentative Schedule is rather optimistic; it is subject
to change. If delays occur for any quiz, later quizzes are likely to be
delayed the same number of periods, unless material is skipped. Exact dates
for each quiz will be announced at least a period in advance.
Sep. 4: Quiz 1. Chapter 1: Units, vectors
Sep. 16: Quiz 2. Chapters 2 and 3: Motion
Sep. 25: Quiz 3. Chapter 4: Newton's Laws
Oct. 2: Quiz 4. Chapter 5: ": Friction, Circles
Oct. 9: Quiz 5. Chapters 6 and 7: Work, energy
Oct. 16: Quiz 6. Chapter 8: Momentum
Oct. 28: Quiz 7. Chapters 9,10,12: Rotation
Nov. 6: Quiz 8. Chapters 11, 14: Elasticity, fluids
Nov. 13: Quiz 9. Chapter 13: Oscillation
Nov. 25: Quiz 10. Chapters 15,16: Temperature, heat
Chapters 17,18: Thermodynamics: Tested on final
Dead week: Thanksgiving through Study Day, Dec. 4
Final exam: Saturday, Dec. 6, 10:40 AM-1:10 PM, same room
Students with Disabilities, including learning disabilities, may have reasonable accommodations made if appropriate notice is given. This normally requires registration, including appropriate documentation, with the Services for Students with Disabilities office.
Misconduct: See also the Student Handbook. Students who engage in
any form of misconduct are subject to disciplinary procedures.
My quiz/test problems will be story problems and will require thinking; knowing formulas will not be enough. It will sometimes not be obvious where to start in order to arrive at the required answer, while in many cases information will be provided that seems related but is not actually required. If you don't see how to get the final answer but do see how to get some addtional values, do that and then look at the overall problem again with the new information. On quizzes, each problem will relate substantially to a current topic but will often require additional steps based on previous material; on the final the same applies except that the topic and the extra steps can be from any part of the course.
The purpose of tests is to see if you have learned at least some of what you were supposed to. In a physics course that learning does not involve straight memorization, it involves understanding of basic principles and of how to apply them. The reason physics is required by most curricula that require it, is that people in that field believe it is important for you to understand these principles and be able to use them in new situations - the situations that were not covered in your courses. The only way to test if you have some degree of that ability is to give you test problems that call for you to apply your knowledge in a new situation, or at least one that is at least somewhat different from those that were previously discussed. Unfortunately this calls for a skill which may not be teachable; the only way I know to acquire it is practice, on as varied a problem set as needed. The recommended problem list is only a minimum, intended to be extensive enough to include problems covering all the major topics, without being very repetitive. If you have trouble, repetition with variations may be an answer, and is the reason that physics textbooks have long lists of problems. Countering the necessity of a possibly unteachable skill as a requirement for mastery of physics, is the fact that mastery of that skill is not required for progress in physics; since I curve grades, as low as 40% of possible points has been known to be a passing grade.
Physics is not a subject one can learn by only listening and reading; it requires practice. A few students in this course have had sufficient correct practice before starting this course; most students should expect to have to allocate substantial amounts of time - not on the night before the final - to this material.
I think the approach to learning this material that seems to work for the most students is: read, then work problems, then ASK QUESTIONS. First, read the text, seeing if it seems to make sense. If so, try some problems. If a single problem gives you some difficulty, try another before spending a lot of time on one: just a change of context might be enough to let you recognize what you missed on the first try. As a rule of thumb, if you have spent half an hour on a single problem without making progress, it's time to look at a different one. (A long problem may require more than half an hour simply to work out the details; that's wht I indicate 'half an hour without progress'.) At whatever point you encounter significant difficulty, you have identified something to ask about in class. Continue reading and noting questions through the chapter; you may even find that some later application of the concept answers your early questions. Now attend the lecture, and ask your questions. After lecture continue with reading and problems. When no one asks questions, the lecture may go smoothly but not as much learning may occur.
IF YOU DON'T ASK YOUR QUESTION, IT PROBABLY WON'T GET ASKED. And in that case you won't have the knowledge you need come test time. Don't wait, thinking to ask someone else; they are likely to have an inadequate answer, if not a wrong one, if they have an answer at all. As college students, you are becoming adults, expected to act responsibly on your requirements; you are also expected to be learning how to acquire knowledge on your own initiative, not waiting for it to be handed to you. Even if I recognize what your difficulty may be, I won't come to you to resolve it. In most cases I won't even recognize what your problem is until you can put it into some specific question, because I never faced the types of difficulty with physics that many of you have.