PHY2054 - Summer 2005- Department of Physics at the University of Florida

NOTE: Any changes to this syllabus will be announced in class and, for your convenience, will also be noted on these webpages under Announcements. It is your responsibility to keep informed by reading the announcements regularly. Last updated 22 April 2008.

Required materials--

1. Textbook: College Physics by Serway and Vuille, vol. 2, Eighth Edition,
Brooks-Cole / Cengage, 2008.

2. Personal Response System (PRS) remote transmitter made by
Hyper-Interactive Teaching Technologies (HITT) --available at bookstore(s)

        3. WebAssign on line homework system -- often available with text, or can be
         purchased on line at <www.webassign.net>. Purchase is normally good for
         one term only so if you used it last term you'll probably need to re-subscribe.
        >>But check it out before re-subscribing!

Optional materials__
Below are listed some study helps that some people find useful:

Our course is fortunate in having been awarded Supplemental Instruction ("Study Group") sessions by the UF Teaching Center. Your SI tutor is Mr. James (JJ) Stankowicz. Click on the Discussion/Recitation page at left for the schedule of sessions.

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!

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. While we fit the lecture material into the Summer term's longer class periods, you have to assimilate the material on a shorter time scale......thus it’s harder to catch up if you fall behind.

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

In the biweekly lectures, the experimental bases 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 vector manipulations, Newton's laws, work, energy, power, wave motion, etc. is assumed.

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

Caution (#1 ) 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 20% of your grade [= one exam; 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 homework problems listed for each week are available for you to work on-line in WebAssign format. Your score on the WebAssign problems contributes 15% to your total point score for the term. Each assignment is due at 11 PM Sunday. This 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, oversleeping, computer crashes, car trouble on your way back from wherever, etc. etc.!! Your final WebAssign 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 presently set at 3%. Questions are based on textbook problems but each of you will receive a version with different numbers. We encourage you to work together and discuss solution methods, but answers copied from someone else's Webassignment will generally be wrong for your problem set.

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 and Exam Policies

Exams

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

` 2. A 15-question final exam in the last class, covering only material not included in Exams 1 & 2.

3. The recitation score [in which most people do well] is equivalent to one exam: 25%.

[Scores on all exams will be normalized upward to 25 points, max.; See 'Grading' below]

1. Bring with you: calculator (check the batteries!), one card or page of notes (both sides) no larger than 21.5 x 28 cm, scratch paper (we can't supply it), and UF ID card..

2. During the exam, cell phones must be turned off and left in backpack or briefcase.

3. When finished, you must hand in both the SCANTRON® answer sheet and your printed exam copy before leaving the exam room. A score of zero will be recorded if either is missing.

4. Timely exam scoring and posting of your scores 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 strongly discouraged and are allowed ONLY under the following rules:

Two, 2-hour exams @ 25 points*...........….... 50
Recitation grade…………….......….….….......25
WebAssign Homework ...............................15
In-lecture quizzes.........................................5
Final exam*..……...……......….………...........25
Total……………………….……..........….... 120
*[Exam scores will be normalized to 25-point bases]

A, 101 and above ; B, 86 - 100 ; C, 64 - 85; D, 47 - 63; E, below 47
A and B grades imply superior or outstanding performance, are only awarded for same, and the exams are designed to determine these levels of scholarship. "+" and "-" grade ranges are not determined until the final averages are calculated; and are usually (but not always) the upper and lower 1 or 2 percent, respectively, of a letter grade's range.

Your Exam Score: Each exam is designed to yield a class average of approximately 60% [12/20; a]. 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 every class is different and final letter grades are based on total scores after all data [the five components listed above] are compiled.

Missed Assignments: Unforseen circumstances cause almost everybody occasionally to miss an assignment. There are no make-ups or extensions. To compensate for this, the lowest-scoring 10% of your WebAssignments and h-itt quizzes will be dropped.

The recitation/discussion 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 18/25 with at least one maximum grade of 25.
NOTE: you are expected to attend your section and to take the scheduled quizzes.

NOTE: Any changes to this syllabus will be announced in class and, for your convenience, will appear on these webpages under Announcements. It is your responsibility to keep informed by reading the announcements regularly.

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 academic honesty policy regarding cheating and the use of copyrighted materials is srictly followwed. Cheating is taken very seriously by this Department. If I have reason to suspect academic dishonesty (i.e, cheating) in this course, vigorous appropriate action will be taken.