Last changes August 21, 2005
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: (361)593-2623; or department phone (361)593-2618. University phones
have voice mail; my not being in when you could have called is no excuse.
email: phcox at tamuk.edu
Department fax number: (361)593-2184
Professor's Webpage:http://physics.tamuk.edu/~cox/
(Note no www before "physics".)
Office hours:
Scheduled office hours (subject to change):
MWF 12:00-12:50, TR 9:30-10:50
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 apply these concepts to work unfamiliar problems, as evidenced by satisfactory completion of an assessment exam. Further information will appear on related webpages.
Text: Serway and Jewett, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Sixth edition. 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. There should be other similar texts in the library of any college or university where physics is taught.)
Evaluation:
Twenty-five percent of your semester point score will come from the final
exam, which will take place according to the published schedule. The
final will be comprehensive, though not necessarily completely so.
Fifty percent of your semester point score will come from quizzes. Each
quiz will be scored as twenty-five to fifty points, at usually 10 or 15
points per problem depending on length, importance, and difficulty. Each
such point will be worth about a tenth of a percent of your course grade;
the exact value will depend on the number of quizzes, which may vary due
to unforeseen circumstances.
Fifteen percent of your semester point score will come from assignments.
These will be on-line, courtesy of the textbook publisher. To access
them you will need the website address and the Course Access Code given
in the first day's PowerPoint presentation, plus the PhysicsNow access
code in your textbook.
Ten percent of your semester point score will come from class participatory
activities. More information about these will come when the proper
hardware is available.
Evaluation, forms:
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. Because certain government policies require
such information, I will generally check attendance. However, there is
very little of this course grade directly related 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, if you miss just
once, that class that you miss will probably be the only time that some
concept will be covered that will mean ten or twenty points on a quiz or
the final (or both).
Actions such as coming late, leaving early, being interrupted by cell
phones, etc., are substantially matters of infractions of courtesy to your
classmates, and I expect to leave responding to such interruptions to their
discretion, as long as they are not substantially disruptive.
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.
If degree candidates will require an early final, they should notify me
early in the term, and again about two weeks before finals. At the
latter time, a time for such an early final will be arranged. If an
early final is scheduled for degree candidates, then other students may
choose to take the final at that time, thereby finishing early. However,
the final will cover the entire course even if the early exam time
precedes discussion of some sections.
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 14 and 19-20, perhaps also 15, if time
permits (rare) on to Chapter 22, will be covered in lecture. Chapters
15-18 and from 23 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 is being 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 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. Further, under government
regulations you may face financial penalties.
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.
Th. Sep. 1: Quiz 1. Chapters 1 and 3: Units, Vectors
Mon. Sep. 5: Labor Day holiday
Tu. Sep. 13: Quiz 2. Chapters 2 and 4: Motion
Th. Sep. 22: Quiz 3. Chapter 5: Newton's Laws
Th. Sep. 29: Quiz 4. Chapter 6: ": Friction, Circles
Th. Oct. 6: Quiz 5. Chapters 7 and 8: Work, energy
Th. Oct. 13: Quiz 6. Chapter 9: Momentum
Tu. Oct. 25: Quiz 7. Chapters 10,11,13: Rotation, gravity
Th. Nov. 3: Quiz 8. Chapters 12, 14: Elasticity, fluids
Th. Nov. 10: Quiz 9. Chapter 15: Oscillation
Tu. Nov. 22: Quiz 10. Chapters 19,20: Temperature, heat
Chapters 21,22: Thermodynamics: Tested on final, if covered
TF Nov. 24,25: Thanksgiving holiday
Dead week: Nov. 28 through Study Day, Dec. 2
Final exam: Sat., Dec. 3, 10:40 AM-1:10 PM, same room
Misconduct: See the Student Handbook. Students who engage in any form of misconduct are subject to disciplinary procedures. This includes academic misconduct which specifically includes plagiarism and all forms of cheating. You should be acquainted with the Student Handbook sections that relate to the various types of misconduct.
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 may 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.
A special warning: a problem being in a multiple-choice format does not mean it is a quick-answer problem; it principally means that applying the correct concept, rather than the details or accuracy of the calculation, is being assessed.
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 especially of how to apply them. The reason physics is required, for 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 problem. (A long problem may require more than half an hour simply to work out the details; that's why 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.