SYLLABUS

PHYS 141 Principles of Physics – Spring 2006

Rm 3213, CSS building

X5-4855

Office Hours: W 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM or by appointment

TEXTBOOK: Serway and Jewett: "Physics for Scientists and Engineers", 6th Edition, Vol. 1 (Thomson: Brooks/Cole, 2004) with PRS (Clickers) & WebAssign

LAB MANUAL: "Physics 141 Laboratory Manual," Fall 2004 edition

LECTURE: MWF 3:00 PM -3:50 PM, Rm 0405, Physics Bldg.

LAB: SEC 0102 Th 2:00 PM - 3:50 PM, Rm 3314, Physics Bldg.

SEC 0104 Th 11:00 AM -12:50 PM, Rm 3314, Physics Bldg.

DISCUSSION: SEC 0102 Th 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM, Rm 4220, Physics Bldg.

SEC 0104 F 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM, Rm 1219, Physics Bldg.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Physics 141 is a 4 credit introductory course in physics with a lab. It is the first semester of a two-semester series. This first semester covers the fields of mechanics, oscillations and waves. The objective of this course is to understand the principles of physics that govern natural phenomena. Simple algebra, trigonometry, and calculus will be used.

COURSE PREPARATION: Reading the textbook before each class is required. You are responsible for all of the material in every covered chapter, regardless of whether or not the material was specifically mentioned in class. During the lecture we will focus on the material causing difficulties. Check WebAssign for the reading assignment schedule, lecture notes, homework solutions and course related announcements. You can also use the WebAssign communication board for course related discussions. For WebAssign, your directory ID is your user name, “umd” is your institution, and your directory ID is your initial password, which you should change once you log in.

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 PHYS 141 is Monday through Friday, 10:00 – 11:00 AM and noon – 1:00 PM. However, you can usually get help at any time they are open, from 10 AM until 3 PM. See http://www.physics.umd.edu/academics/ugrad/slawsky.html

DISCUSSION: Discussion sessions will give you an opportunity to obtain clarification of the material presented in class, in the textbook, or in the lab. Homework Problems, Quiz Questions, and Lab Experiments will be discussed. This is an opportunity to get help from the Teaching Assistant (TA) and from fellow students.

LAB: The experiments in the laboratory are an integral part of this course. You are required to do all of the assigned experiments and complete a lab report for each.

Lab Report: See the Laboratory Manual for a discussion on the format of the reports. Lab reports are due the week after completion of the experiments. Late lab reports will automatically lose 10% of the maximum possible points for each day the report is late. Contact me about extensions in case of sickness, etc. that might warrant an excuse. All late reports are to be turned in to my office. Be sure to read the lab manual before coming to class. You may be asked to present your experiment proposal based on your understanding of the manual. After the lab, you may also be asked to present the results.

LAB SCHEDULE:

PHYS 141 Laboratory Schedule Spring 2006
Dates	Experiment	Title
January 26	-	Introduction to Error Analysis
February 2	I	Errors and Significance of Data
February 9	II	The Freely Falling Body
February 16	III	Equilibrium of Forces
February 23	V	Ballistic pendulum
March 2	VI	Centripetal Force and Acceleration
March 9	-	Make Up Labs
March 16	IV	Two-Dimensional Collisions
March 23	-	Spring Break
March 30	VII	Angular Momentum and its Conservation
April 6	VIII	Simple Harmonic Motion and Hooke's Law
April 13	IX	The Pendulum
April 20	X	Standing Waves on a String
April 27	XII	The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat
May 4	-	Make Up Labs

GRADE:

Homework & Quizzes	25%
First Exam	15%
Second Exam	15%
Lab	20%
Final Exam	25%

EXAMS: There will be two 50-minute in-class exams and one two-hour final exam. The exam will include problems and conceptual questions. There will be no make-up exam unless prior arrangement is made with the instructor.

Tentative Exam Schedule:

Exam 1	Friday February 24
Exam 2	Friday April 7
Final	Tuesday May 16, 1:30 – 3:30 PM

HOMEWORK: Homework assignments will be made using WebAssign every week. The due dates are specified on WebAssign. Start working on the homework problems as soon as they are available. You may want to print out your problems first and work on hard copies before you submit answers electronically. You will get an immediate feedback from WebAssign on whether your answer is correct or not. You are allowed to make a number of attempts to get the right answer. Answer keys will be available on WebAssign after the grading is completed. Solutions for the homework assignments will be discussed at the Discussion sessions and posted on WebAssign. If you have any problem with the electronic submission, submit a paper copy to the instructor by the due. Late homework is accepted only in exceptional circumstances, and only with consent of the instructor.

QUIZZES: There will be a 10 minute quiz at the beginning of class occasionally on the material covered the previous week and/or on the material to be covered that week. The quizzes will start at 3 PM to be collected promptly at 3:10 PM. Your lowest quiz and homework grades can be dropped. Makeup quizzes are not allowed. If you miss a quiz due to illness, that will be the quiz that is dropped.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html.

Tips for the Lab Report

Science research involves writing a proposal, carrying out experiments, and publishing research papers. In a research proposal you propose an experiment to meet the science goal you want to achieve. You need to justify how the experiment will help understanding of the science you set for your research objective. While conducting experiments, scientists keep record of what they do, analogous to what you will practice with your lab notebook. Specifically, the lab notebook is to keep a record of what you did in the lab and to remind yourself of your findings. To communicate research findings, the results are published in science journals. No matter how great your discoveries, if they are not published no one else would know of your discoveries and the world will not be able to utilize them. Writing a lab report is similar to writing a journal paper for a publication. You should write down your findings in an effective and convincing manner to your peers. Tabulating the data and plotting graphs are the most effective way of presenting data. In addition to writing down your experimental settings, you must perform error analysis to convince people of the reproducibility and validity of the data.

Instructions: Read the instructions carefully before you start, again when you are doing the experiment and before you finish to avoid leaving out significant sections.

Handwriting: Write legibly, otherwise the TA won’t be able to grade the report. Typing with a word processor using a computer is desired.

Measurements: Make sure to use the right scale.

Tables: Re-tabulate the data properly in ascending or descending order. Do not hand in a copy of your lab notebook unless it is very neat. When you use computer software, such as Excel printouts, make sure the cells are formatted to reflect the precision of the instrument. For example, 3.000 must not show up as 3.

Experimental settings: Write down the experimental settings next to your readings

Graphs: Make sure to put in axis titles and error bars

Error Analysis and Numerical Calculations

Quantities: Define quantities (such as A, B etc.) before you use them.

Systematic presentations: First manipulate the expressions algebraically. Then, write down the corresponding numerical values of the quantities in the equation. Do not substitute numbers into the equations directly. Finally calculate the answer, write it down and underline it.

Discussion: Think about the experiment, look at the orders of magnitude, and ask yourself how you might improve the results. Put all thoughts/understanding on the paper.

Tips for Exam

To get full credit, you must show all your work. You will not receive credit if you do not show your work, even if you write down the "right" answer. When answering the "questions", use complete sentences. If the question is a true/false, a multiple choice, yes/no, or other similar question, explain why the answer you chose is the correct one. Your TA will deduct points if your handwriting is illegible, or if your answer is hard to understand because of poor grammar.

Contact Information:

TA: Mr. Ted Thorbeck

Rm 3109, Physics Building

X5-6190

thorbeck@mailfw0.umd.edu

Office Hours: M 2-3 & 4-5 PM

Lab managers: Mr. Bill Norwood

Rm 3304, Physics Building

X5-6006

bn5@umail.umd.edu

Mr. Giza, Thomas E.

Rm 3308, Physics Building

X5-6005

tg6@umail.umd.edu

Disclaimer: The instructor reserves right to make minor changes to meet the specific needs of the class during the semester.