Physics 102 - Information - Spring 2009

Instructor: David S. Armstrong
   Office: Small 212
   Phone: 221-3489 (W & M); 269-6087 (Jefferson Lab)
   Email: armd@physics.wm.edu
   Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:00-1:00, 2:30-5:00, and by appointment (or just drop by...).
   Physics 102 WWW site: http://physics.wm.edu/~armd/P102.html
Lecture: MWF 11:00-11:50, Small 113
Text: Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Douglas C. Giancoli, 4th edition, Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-13-227358-6). We will cover Chapters 17-35 inclusive. Be careful when you purchase the book: different editions cover different chapters. In the two volume version, you will need both Volume 1 (for Chapters 17-20) and Volume 2.
Registration: You must register for the lecture section, one problem session (102P) and one laboratory (102L).
Prerequisite: Physics 101 is the prerequisite (we will build on much of what was covered in Physics 101); students who have passed Physics 107 may also take Physics 102, but should see me to discuss certain material they may need. Students with AP or other credit for Physics 101 should also see me.
Syllabus: A schedule of what sections of the text will be covered, when the tests are, and when the homework is due is attached.
Laboratory: Labs will meet for the first time the week of January 26th. Details on the labs are available here.
Problem Sessions: The problem sessions are taught by full-time physics faculty members. Your problem session instructor is responsible for your final grade, and will provide office hours. Attendance in the problem sessions is strongly advised.
Homework: A set of problems is due at midnight on Thursday each week. The homework answers will be entered via the WWW using WebAssign (www.webassign.net). This software will enable provide instant feedback on which problems were answered correctly (and which were not). You will be allowed multiple attempts to upload answers (up to a maximum of 4 attempts per problem), and your grade will be based on the last submission. Solutions will be available on the WWW the morning after the due date.
To access WebAssign for the first time, you will need to pay a $15.45 access fee, which you can do via a credit card on the WebAssign site. Your username for WebAssign will be your W&M username (eg. mine is dsarms); for "Institution" you should enter "wm", and your initial password will be your student ID number. I have setup WebAssign accounts for all students who were registered as/of Jan. 15; if you "Add" the class after this date, email me and I will add you to WebAssign. You will have free access to WebAssign until Feb. 4, after which time you will need to have paid the access fee. If you don't have a credit card, you can bring me the cash and I will sign you up. A student guide to WebAssign is available.
Tests: There will be three 50-minute, closed-book tests during the semester. Calculators are permitted.
Exam: The final exam will be on Tuesday May 5, 9:00-12:00 noon.
Withdrawal: Questions about drop/add/withdrawal should be directed to your problem session instructor.
Math: We will be using calculus at the level of MATH 111 and MATH 112 throughout the course. Familiarity with basic algebra and trigonometry will be assumed. Appendices A and B in the textbook provide useful reviews of these required mathematical tools.
Grading: Your grade is the responsibility of your problem section instructor. Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
```
               A  93-100 %   A-  90-93
   B+  87-90   B  83-87      B-  80-83
   C+  77-80   C  73-77      C-  70-73
   D+  67-70   D  63-67      D-  60-63
   F  < 60
```
The grades will be calculated based on either
```
   Homework   - 15%  
   Laboratory - 20%
   Tests      - 40% 
   Final Exam - 25% 
```
or
```
   Homework   - 15%  
   Laboratory - 20%
   Final Exam - 65% 
```
For each student, the grade will be calculated using both equations, and the result with the larger numerical grade will be the one used to determine the letter grade. This procedure means that students who may have had difficulty with one or more of the in-class tests have the chance to make up for it with a good performance on the final exam; after all - what is relevant is how much physics you have learned at the end of the course!
Notice that in either case the homework counts for 15% and the labs 20% of the final grade. Warning: There is one additional criterion: You must pass the laboratory section of the course to pass the entire course. Anyone not passing the lab will be given an "F", regardless of the results of either of the formulae.
General Education Requirement: The combination of Physics 101 and Physics 102, along with the laboratories Physics 101L and 102L, together satisfy GER 2A (physical sciences) as well as the laboratory requirement for GER 2. The hyphenated designation PHYS 101-102 in the catalog indicates a continuous course, the two parts of which must be taken in numerical sequence. This General Education Requirement is intended to introduce the student to the nature of scientific inquiry, including how scientific theories are developed and tested, the nature of empirical knowledge (as well as the limits of science), and the historical, cultural and intellectual context of science. Physics 102 will explore many of the underlying fundamental laws governing all of the natural world, primarily those of heat and thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and geometrical and wave optics. In particular, the role of mathematics in describing the physical universe will be a central underlying theme of the course. The presentation will follow a logical (rather than historical) ordering, however, the historical development of major physical ideas will be discussed as appropriate. The GER2 criteria are described completely here.

last updated: January 19 2009

Physics 102: General Physics
Physics Department
College of William and Mary

http://physics.wm.edu/~armd/P102_info.html