2205

PHYSICS 2205
General Physics - Part I
Spring 2004

Professor M. Blecher
blecherm@alphamb2.phys.vt.edu
Robeson 211
Ext. 6525
Home Page

Office Hours
Days/Time:
M, W: 4:00-5:00 PM, F 9:30-10:30 AM
place: 211 Robeson hall

The best way to reach me via email is to use the address blecherm@alphamb2.phys.vt.edu. If you make an appointment with me, I'll meet with you at mutually convenient times other than my office hours. However, as there are more than 100 students in the class, it will not be possible for me to meet with you if you drop in unexpected.

If I am traveling I'll let you know in lecture. If I'm out for an unexpected reason a notice will be posted on my office door and on the lecture room door.

Lecture
Day: T,R
Time: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Place: CHEM-PHYS 1030 Recitation
none

Prerequisites: MATH 1016 (alg & trig)

Texts

Physics, 5th Ed. . D. C. Giancoli (Prentice Hall)

text website http://cwprenhall.com/giancoli/.

OPTIONAL:

Study Guide, 5th Ed. J. Boyle (optional) .

General
The university has gone to great pains to protect your privacy. Grades cannot be posted by SS number or name. Thus you can view your grade only through the BLACKBOARD system. However, this presents a problem for returning graded homework (HW). I proceed in the following way. As soon as Blackboard allows me access I will give everyone registered a 3 digit ID number, known only to you and me. This number appears as the grade for #0 lab and carries no weight towards the final grade. You view it in BLACKBOARD as you do your other grades. This number allows me to return graded homeworks that are not tied to names or SS numbers. When you hand in HW use only this number to identify yourself, do not use your name. Physically hand in your homework by placing it in the box in the lecture room and in the section that corresponds to the first letter of your last name. Graded HW is returned in a similar box outside my office (211 Robeson). Your HW will be in the section corresponding to your ID number. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS!!!

You may be tested on all of the following material in the textbook: chapters: 1-7, 8(1-5), 9(1-3), 11-12, 23, 24(1-10), 10(1-9). I will try to cover all of the material, but some topics will be emphasized more than others. Read the material to be covered before coming to class and you'll get much more out of the lecture. Afterwards reread the material with lecture notes in hand. Such diligence usually pays off, unfortunately it isn't uniformly practiced.

Physics strives for a precise quantitative description of nature. The language used is mathematics and thus the prerequisite for this course is taken seriously.

Pop quizzes (10-15 minutes) covering recent material may be given at any time during lecture. They will be of the closed book, no formula sheet variety. This is the method I use to make sure you are keeping up with the course material.

Grading
N Homeworks 20% (N undetermined)
M Quizzes 20% (M undetermined)
2 Exams 20% each
Final exam 20%

The average of the N-2 highest homework grades, and M-2 highest quiz grades will be used. Thus, there will be no makeup quizzes available and no late homework accepted. The quizzes, exams and final will be of the multiple choice type. On the exams, but not the quizzes, the normalized grade is obtained as follows: the student(s) with the highest number of correct answers, say N, gets 100%, students with N-1 correct answers get 95%, and so on. Homeworks and quizzes are not renormalized. Your final letter grade is determined from the above as follows:

A+(100-97),A(96-93),A-(92-89)
B+(88-85),B(84-81),B-(80-77)
C+(76-73),C(72-69),C-(68-65)
D+(64-61),D(60-57),D-(56-53),F(52-0)

There is no other way to receive credit for the letter grade!!! And as there must be a dividing point between grades, I cannot do individual favors at the end of the semester if you are just one point below a higher grade.

Homework
Approximately 5 problems will be assigned for homework each week. One of these problems will be graded. It wouldn't be prudent to guess which one will be graded - do them all. Many of the assigned problems have answers listed at the end of the text. No credit will be given for just copying the answer, you must explain how it is arrived at.

Homework is due at the start of class on Tuesday. See above for HW identification and hand in procedure. Solutions will be posted on my office door. The grader will have the graded assignments back in the box outside my office before the next Tuesday class. I will save any homework not picked up on Thursday after class.

I will assign the homework in class, but it is also available from the syllabus through my web site: www.phys.vt.edu/~blecherm/2205.html, click on assignments, click on the .pdf files labeled S04.

If done with care a homework assignment should take 6-9 hours. If not done with care your final grade will reflect that fact. Don't start your homework one or two days before it is due. Study regularly even if it is for a short time. Try to complete at least one problem each study period. This method will give you ample time to formulate questions. I don't mind students discussing the problems, however, what you hand in should be your own work. If you rely upon others for solutions you'll do poorly on exams. If you copy someone else's work it is an honor code violation.

Exams
The best way to study for exams is by doing additional problems. There is a common misconception that exam problems are nothing like the in class examples or the homework problems. Not so! Exams will be given in class and I will give you at least a 1 week notice. A makeup exam is available to those with a valid excuse. In this class all necessary formulae and constants will appear on the printed examination form. No other sheets are allowed. Calculators are allowed. The final exam covers all course material, however, material lectured on after the last hour exam is emphasized. The final exam is W May 12, 1:05-3:05 PM in CHEM-PHYS 1030.

Quizzes
Quizzes will be of the multiple choice variety. Anyone arriving after the quizzes have been handed out will not be allowed to take the quiz. Failure to turn in the quiz in a timely manner at the direction of the instructor may be cause for a grade of zero. The quizzes are not trivial; you will have to keep up to do well on them and they count 20% of the grade.