PHY2054 - Summer 2006- Department of Physics at the University of Florida

Course Content and Format

PHY 2054 covers electricity, magnetism, light/optics, and a few modern physics topics, encompassing the majority of the topics listed for 'Physics 2' in the MCAT outline. Covering this amount of material in the Summer term requires us to move rapidly while sticking to a tight schedule............read on!

In the biweekly lectures, the experimental basis for many of the fundamental principles are demonstrated, the physical laws explained, and illustrative problems are worked out, time permitting. The lectures expand and illustrate the textbook material, which you are expected to read before class!

You had to pass Physics 1 to get into this class so you already know that physics is a science that is both quantitative and cumulative. A good number of the ideas and techniques learned in Physics 1 are required for understanding the new concepts introduced in PHY2054. Knowledge of and facility at using vector manipulations, Newton's laws, work, energy, power, wave motion, etc. are assumed.

“Doing physics” involves applying a relatively small number of ideas that we call 'physical laws', 'physical principles' or 'basic physical concepts' to a wide variety of physical situations, i. e. , exercises and problems. These many kinds of examples/exercises/problems make the reliable memorization of specific solutions impossibly difficult.......instead we strongly suggest that you get the needed practice by doing your homework regularly.

Summer term is the academic fast lane........the Summer C schedule allows us only 11 weeks to cover material that is spread over 14+ weeks in a normal semester. We can fit the lecture material into the Summer term's longer class periods but you have to assimilate the material on a shorter time scale, so it’s harder to catch up if you fall behind.

Do you: (a) plan to miss several classes and/or (b) intend to take another quantitative course like math or chemistry along with PHY2054?? If so, WATCH OUT!!----my strong advice is: DON'T TRY THIS unless your grade in Physics 1 was at least a B!!

The bottom-line question for YOU is: Are you realistically prepared to spend 10 or more hours per week outside of class-time on this course??....................If not, you probably should not be taking it!

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What to Expect: Course Details

The recitation (discussion) section provides you with a smaller classroom environment in which to discuss and ask questions about details of the homework and related material. You will get more out of the recitation if you do the homework before you go to the class. Your recitation instructors are free to choose their own schemes for grading: they may assign and grade homework, give weekly quizzes, evaluate class participation, etc. Be sure that you understand your instructor's grading system, since your recitation score is 23% of your grade [see below].

Homework

Recommended homework problems from the text are listed on the Homework/WebAssign page. This is a minimum homework assignment, selected to generally give an average student enough practice in the basic concepts to yield a ‘C’ grade on the exams. Those aspiring to higher grades should work additional problems---textbook problems adjacent to the assigned ones are usually good choices.

WebAssign: Eight of the problems listed each week are available for you to work on-line in WebAssign format. Your score on the WebAssign problems contributes 8% to your total point score for the term. Each assignment is due at 11 PM Sunday. This deadline is firm: there are no exceptions and no make-ups. It is your responsibility to begin work on assignments early enough to avoid problems with server slow-downs, computer crashes, car trouble on your way back from wherever, etc. etc.!! Your final score will be based on your best 9 of 10 assignments.
You have up to ten tries on each problem and you get instant response indicating if your solution is correct. Be careful in rounding off answers--the tolerance is set at 3%. Questions are based on textbook problems but each of you receives a version with different numbers. We encourage you to work together and discuss solution methods but you can't copy each others' answers.

In addition to the recommended homework, three or more selected review problems for each chapter are listed in the Lecture Schedule. We suggest that you try these after you've done the rest of the homework---if you can work the review problems 'cold' without much difficulty you ought to do pretty well on the exam.

PROBLEM SOLUTIONS

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Exams, Exam Policies, and Grading

Exams

Due to the compressed schedule and holiday/break interruptions the following testing/weighting format is adopted:

For each exam, you are permitted to use a calculator, scratch paper, and one card or page of notes no larger than 21.5 x 28 cm. Exam questions may be based on but are rarely identical to assigned problems. Many exam questions will be conceptual.

Exam Caveat! Timely return of test scores to students in this high-enrollment class necessitates multiple-choice, machine-graded exams. Students sometimes lose points through unfortunate errors in marking exam answers on the SCANTRON® sheet. This sheet is the only item that is graded so please be careful to mark it accurately. Mistransfer of answers to the SCANTRON sheet will not be grounds for the award of extra points, even in borderline grade situations.

Exams are to be taken at the times and places listed above. Make-ups are discouraged and are allowed ONLY under the following rules:

Your Exam Score: Each exam is designed to yield a class average of approximately 60% and letter grades have approximately the following percentage ranges:

Exam score distributions will be posted on these Web pages so you can get a general idea of your standing in the class. BUT [Caution # 2] note that the letter grade distribution for each test is approximate, as stated above. Every class is different and final letter grades are determined by the distribution of scores after all data [the four components listed below under 'Grading'] are compiled. Thus the above letter-grade 'curve' is not exact so if you try to 'average' your approximate letter grades, do so with caution, especially if you have borderline scores. You cannot assume that (for example) two low 'C' grades on Tests 1 and 2 gives you good prospects for a C grade in the course.

Two, 2-hour exams @ 23%...........….…... 46%
Recitation grade…………….......…….….. 23%
WebAssign Homework................................8%
Final exam………....……......….………... . 23%
Total……………………….…….........….... 100%

Letter grades in this course are assigned on a scale similar (but rarely identical!) to that given two paragraphs above. However, note that previous summers' grades have been within 3 percentage points of these.
A and B grades imply superior or outstanding performance and are only awarded for same.

The recitation section instructors have some freedom in the schedule and nature of their quizzes. In the calculation of the final class grade, the grades from the different recitation sections will be normalized to an average of approximately 15/23 with at least one maximum grade of 23.

NOTE: Any changes to the syllabus will be announced in class and, for your convenience, will appear on the class webpage under Announcements. It is your responsibility to keep informed.

Students with disabilities requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.

The University's honesty policy regarding cheating and the use of copyrighted materials applies.