Physics 141 Principles of Physics I  - Fall, 2005

Instructor:  Professor Wolfgang Losert (www.ireap.umd.edu/~wlosert/phys141_2005)

 

The first of a two-semester series in general physics. The first semester covers the fields of mechanics, oscillations and waves, and thermodynamics.  The course includes three weekly lectures with demos and interactive quizzes, and one discussion and lab session per week.

 

Lectures:  Wed 8/31 Fri 9/2  Wed 9/7  Fri 9/9  Mon 9/12   Wed 9/14  Fri 9/16   Mon 9/19    Wed 9/21   Fri  9/23   Mon 9/26

                 Wed 9/28  Fri 9/30  Mon 10/3   Fri 10/7   Mon 10/10   Wed 10/12   Fri 10/14  Mon10/17   Wed 10/19   Fri 10/21

                 Mon 10/24  Wed 10/26  Fri 10/28  Mon 10/31  Wed 11/2  Fri 11/4   Mon11/7   Fri 11/11   Mon11/14    Wed1/16

                  Fri 11/18   Mon11/21  Wed 11/23  Mon 11/28  Wed 11/30  Fri 12/2  Mon 12/5  Wed 12/7  Mon 12/12 

 

ToDo for registered Students:   

▪ Add yourself to the online course in WebAssign  http://webassign.net 

             1) Go to http://webassign.net and press the “login” button

             2)  Enter your username, institution, and password.  Your username is the portion of your email address before the “@” symbol; i.e. if your email is student1@wam.umd.edu then your username is “student1”.  Your institution is “umd”.  Your password is initially set to your student ID number.  You may change this once you log in.

             3) You will need to pay for access.  You can do this by:

· Buying a new book at the University Book Center or Maryland Book Exchange, which should be bundled with an access Code Card.

· Paying on-line with a credit card.

▪ Register your "clicker" -  a required tool for all lectures:  http://www.physics.umd.edu/ (link in upper right hand corner)

 

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Syllabus 

This course covers basic physical principles in the fields of mechanics, oscillations and waves, and thermodynamics. 

What you should learn in this course: 

- Understanding the basic principles of mechanics, oscillations and waves and thermodynamics:   This includes knowledge of scientific facts such as Newton's Laws that describe how objects move, wave equations that e.g. tell us how sound propagates.  Since most physics laws are quite abstract, it takes a lot of experience (through practice and examples in lecture) to know when to apply which law of physics.   

- Problem solving skills:  Once you have decided what law of physics you want to use for a particular problem, the second step is to learn how to write it down as a mathematical equation and how to solve the equation. 

 

Lecture M,W,F,  11:00am-11:50am (PHY 1410), Physics Building

 

Lab (start 9/12-13) and Discussion (start 9/6):

0102      M.........3:00pm- 3:50pm (PHY 4208)    Discussion        M……......4:00pm- 5:50pm (PHY 3314)  Lab    

0103     Tu........ 8:00am- 8:50am (PHY 1402)     Discussion       Tu........ 9:00am-10:50am (PHY 3314)  Lab   

0104     Tu........10:00am-10:50am (PHY 0405)   Discussion       Tu........11:00am-12:50pm (PHY 3314) Lab   
0105     Tu........ 1:00pm- 1:50pm (PHY 0405)     Discussion       Tu........ 2:00pm- 3:50pm (PHY 3314)   Lab   
    
Textbook:  Serway and Jewett: "Physics for Scientists and Engineers", 6th Edition, Vol. 1 (Thomson: Brooks/Cole, 2004) ISBN: 0-534-40956-3,  including web-assign access code card (we have requested that the textbook and clickers and access code cards be bundled and sold as a package.  However, it appears that only the book and webassign access code are bundled, while the clickers may need to be bought separately. Clickers are ISBN: 0-534-40804-4

Lab manual:  "Physics 141 Laboratory Manual", Fall 2004 edition, (Wiley) ISBN 0-471-71009-1

 

Professor:  Wolfgang Losert,  wlosert@umd.edu    www.ireap.umd.edu/~wlosert/, 3359 AV Williams Bldg, ext: 5-0629 

Office hours:  12 - 2pm  Wednesday or by appointment. (3359 AV Williams Bldg, ext 5-0629)  Feel free to email or call  to make an appointment.  Please suggest 2-3 possible meeting times—check my calendar at:  www.ireap.umd.edu/~wlosert/Calendar/ 

 

Teaching Assistants:  

Sections: 0103 and 0105:

  Safa Motesharrei,  Office:  Physics 3103B, email:  ssm@umd.edu

   Office hours:  Wednesday 1.30pm-2.30pm

Sections 0102 and 0104:

  Evan Ochsner, Office:  Physics 4223, email:  evano@umd.edu

    Office hours:    Thursday 4pm-5pm

 

Grading

Homework and quizzes	25%
First Hour Exam	15%
Second Hour Exam	15%
Lab	20%
Final Exam	25%

 

Homework
Weekly web based homework assignments using webassign.  Homework due Friday before class (11am).  You have to submit the homework on the web, AND submit a hardcopy of the homework that includes the mathematical steps and explanations for your reasoning in class Fri.  Homework is extremely important as it will help you clarify your understanding of the material, point out areas of weakness and help you prepare for the exams. It is extremely difficult to do well in this course without carefully doing the homework.

 

Quizzes

You will need to complete a short on-line quiz before each lecture (except the first lecture)

 

Midterm Exams
There will be two 50 minute in class mid term exams: Wednesday, October 5 and Monday, November 7.  These exams will have questions very similar to the homework and the quizzes. Each counts 15% toward your course grade.

Final Exams
There will be a 2 hour final exam at a time and place TBA during finals week.  The final exam is cumulative.
Discussion 
The discussion is scheduled just prior to your lab session.  This is an opportunity to obtain clarification of the material presented in class, in the text, or in the lab.  Discussion sessions will give you a "hands-on" introduction on how to solve problems.  They are also an opportunity to get help from the TA and from fellow students.   

 

Laboratory
The experiments in the laboratory are an integral part of this course. Twelve experiments are scheduled. You cannot pass this course unless you do every experiment, and submit a report.   You need to start a draft of your lab report before you come to the lab.  Bring a page with your name, lab title, and a brief introduction (a few sentences in one to two paragraphs) into what the purpose of the lab is in your own words.  Include in this pre-lab writeup at least one question for the TA about the purpose of the lab, or  questions about technical aspects of the experiment and data analysis. 20% of the lab points  will be subtracted if you do not prepare the introduction and question for the TA prior to lab.   You will have to submit a lab report at the end of each lab period.  If you need more time and  hand in a report after the end of lab, 20% of the points for that lab will be subtracted.  

 

Week 1 (9/12 -13)       Experiment 1 "Errors and Significance of Data"

Week 2 (9/19 -20)       Experiment 2  "The Freely Falling Body"

Week 3 (9/26 -27)       Experiment 3   "Equilibrium of forces"

Week 4 (10/3 -4)         Experiment 6  "Centripetal forces and acceleration"

Week 5 (10/10-11)       Experiment 4   "Two-dimensional collision"

Week 6 (10/17-18)      -Make up week (only one experiment may be made up)

Week 7 (10/24-25)        Experiment 5    "Ballistic Pendulum"

Week 8 (10/31-11/1)   Experiment  7 "Angular Momentum and its conservation" 

Week 9 (11/7-8)          Experiment  8 "Simple Harmonic Motion and Hooke's Law

Week 10 (11/14-15)     Experiment  9 "The Pendulum"

Week 11 (11/21-22)     Experiment  10 "Standing waves on a string"

Week 12 (11/28-29)     Experiment  11 "The ideal gas law and absolute zero"

Week 13  (12/5-6)        Experiment  13 "Fluid Dynamics"

Week 14 (12/12-13)     -Make up week (only one experiment may be made up)

 

Tutoring
The Physics Department has a free tutoring service, the Slawsky Clinic, run by a group of retired senior physicists. It is located in Room 1214 in the Physics building. The time reserved for PHYS141 is 10-11 and 12-1 Monday through Friday.  However, you can usually get help at any time they are open, from10 AM until 3 PM. See http://www.physics.umd.edu/academics/ugrad/slawsky.html

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Please feel free to email or call with any questions:  wlosert@umd.edu , 301-405-0629