Physics 108 - Information - Spring 2010

Instructor: David S. Armstrong
   Office: Millington 227
   Phone: 221-3489 (W & M); 269-6087 (Jefferson Lab)
   Email: armd@physics.wm.edu
   Office Hours: Thursdays, 1:00-5:00 PM, and by appointment.
Text: "College Physics: With an Integrated Approach to Forces and Kinematics", 3rd Edition, Giambattista, Richardson and Richardson (McGrawHill, 2010)
Sections: You must register for the lecture section, one problem session (108P) and one laboratory (108L). Labs will meet for the first time the week of January 25th.
Prerequisite: Physics 107 is the prerequisite (we will build on much of what was covered in Physics 107); students who have taken Physics 101 may also take Physics 108, but should see me to discuss certain material they may need. Students with AP or other physics credits, who haven't taken Physics 107 here at W&M 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.
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), 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 $19.95 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 (those of you who already have accounts from Physics 107 should still have whatever password you chose for 107).
I have set up WebAssign accounts for all students who were registered as/of Jan. 18 ; 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. 03, 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.
Email: Feel free to communicate with me by email: armd@physics.wm.edu. I can't guarantee that I will read emails sent in the evening until the next day.
Tests: There will be three 50-minute, closed-book tests during the semester. Calculators are permitted (but not PDAs, cell phones or messaging devices).
Exam: The final exam will be Monday May 10, 2:00 - 5:00 PM. NOTE: The Exam will be held in Millington 150
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  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 (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 108 will explore many of the underlying fundamental laws governing all of the natural world, primarily those of vibrations and waves, electricity and magnetism, optics, acoustics, as well as some aspects of quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, and radioactivity. 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: April 16

Physics 108: Physics for the Life Sciences
Physics Department
College of William and Mary

http://physics.wm.edu/~armd/P108_info.html