Physics 107: Fall 2005: General Information

Physics 107 - Information

Instructor: David S. Armstrong
   Office: Small 212
   Phone: 221-3489 (W & M); 269-6087 (Jefferson Lab)
   Email: armd@physics.wm.edu
   Office Hours: Mondays, 11 AM - 1 PM, 2 PM - 4 PM, and by appointment.
Text: College Physics by Paul Peter Urone, 2nd edition (ISBN 0-534-37688-6).
WWW: physics.wm.edu/~armd/P107.html
Sections: You must register for the lecture section, one problem session (107P) and one laboratory (107L). Labs will meet for the first time the week of August 29th; Problem sessions will meet briefly the first week of classes.
Syllabus: A schedule of what sections of the text will be covered, the in-class tests, the labs, and the homework assignments is attached.
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 3 attempts per problem set), and your grade will be based on the last submission. Solutions will be available on the WWW the morning after the due date.
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 set up WebAssign accounts for everyone who was enrolled as/of Monday August 22; if you added in after this, send me an Email and I will add you to WebAssign. To access WebAssign, you will need to pay a registration fee of $9.95, which can be paid online using a credit card (if you don't have a credit card, then come see me). You will have a couple of weeks before you have to pay the access fee.
The Net: Feel free to communicate with me by email: armd@physics.wm.edu.
Tests: There will be three 50-minute, closed-book tests during the semester. Calculators are permitted.
Exam: The final exam will be Thursday Dec. 8 , 1:30 - 4:30 PM.
Withdrawal: Questions about drop/add/withdrawal should be directed to your problem session instructor.
Grading: Your grade is the responsibility of your problem section instructor. Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
```
               A  94-100 %   A-  90-93
   B+  87-89   B  84-86      B-  80-83
   C+  77-79   C  74-76      C-  70-73
   D+  67-69   D  64-66      D-  60-63
   F  <60
```
The grades will be calculated based on either
```
   Homework   - 10%  
   Laboratory - 20%
   Tests      - 40% 
   Final Exam - 30% 
```
or
```
   Homework   - 10%  
   Laboratory - 20%
   Final Exam - 70% 
```
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 10% and the labs 20% of the final grade. Warning: There is one additional criterion: You must pass (60% minimum) 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 107 and Physics 108, taken with the laboratories Physics 107L and 108L, together satisfy GER 2A (physical sciences) as well as the laboratory requirement for GER 2. 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 107 will explore many of the underlying fundamental laws governing all of the natural world, primarily those referred to as "classical mechanics" and "thermodynamics". 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.

last updated: August 22 2005

Physics 107: Physics for the Life Sciences
Physics Department
College of William and Mary

http://physics.wm.edu/~armd/P107_info.html