While this course is under development, there are three ways in which to earn extra credit:
1. You can obtain extra credit for writing a test question. This can be either a multiple choice question or a short answer question, in the style that appears in the Sample Midterm Exam contained in the course information packet.
Your question must be original and interesting enough that I would seriously consider using it on an exam. It should focus primarily on a physics concept rather than a calculation. To receive credit, you must provide a correct answer to your question (For a multiple choice question, you must explain briefly why one answer is right and the other three are wrong). Your question may involve topics discussed in Physics 105N, although I will then not be able to use it this semester.
Whether or not I use your question on an exam, I will credit you with 1/3 of a point toward your final semester grade for each good multiple choice problem and 2/3 of a point for each good, four-part short answer question. Thus 10 multiple choice questions or 5 short answer questions will raise your grade by one step (e.g. from an A- to an A).
Submit your questions to me in writing. Either hand them to me in class or put them in the lock box outside my office (Physics Room 133). If several people write questions together (strongly encouraged), I will share the credit among them. Please ask my permission before submitting more than 10 multiple choice questions or 5 short answer questions per person. Please don't submit frivolous, repetitive, poorly written, or poorly thought out questions. Please don't copy one another's questions; I will notice the duplication. If you draw ideas from a written reference, please indicate that reference.
2. You can obtain extra credit for writing a homework problem. This can be either a one part exercise or a multiple part case, in the style that appears in the "How Things Work" manuscript.
Your problem must be original and interesting enough that I would seriously consider using it on a homework problem set or in the textbook itself. It should focus primarily on a physics concept rather than a calculation. You must also provide a correct answer to your own problem. Your problem may involve topics discussed in Physics 105N.
Whether or not I use your problem in the homework or in the textbook, I will credit you with 1/3 of a point toward your final semester grade for each good one part exercise and 2/3 of a point for each good, four-part (or longer) case.
Submit your problems to me in writing. Either hand them to me in class or put them in the lock box outside my office (Physics Room 133). If several people write problems together (strongly encouraged), I will share the credit among them. Please ask my permission before submitting more than 10 exercises or 5 cases per person. Please don't submit frivolous, repetitive, poorly written, or poorly thought out problems. Please don't copy one another's problems; I will notice the duplication. If you draw ideas from a written reference, please indicate that reference.
3. You can obtain extra credit for finding conceptual mistakes in the "How Things Work" manuscript. In addition to typographical errors and wording problems, there are also conceptual mistakes in the manuscript. If you are the first person to point out one of these mistakes, I will credit you with 1 point toward your final semester grade.
The mistake you find has to be conceptual in nature (not a typographical error or wording problem). Something that I have written must be flat out wrong, either because I did not think out what I said or because I do not fully understand what I am writing about. Since many of the topics in the manuscript are outside of my area of expertise, these mistakes are more common than I would like to admit. If you can find one of them first and prove to me that I am wrong, you will get the credit.
If you believe that you have found a conceptual error and are the first to do so, you should post it to the course newsgroup: uva.phys.phys106n. Your posting must identify the mistake and explain what is wrong with it. The posting with the earliest time stamp will receive the credit. Please check the newsgroup before you post to make sure that the mistake has not already been found. If two or more people report a conceptual mistake together, I will share the credit among them. I reserve the right to limit the extra credit you can earn this way to a total of 10 points per person (one letter grade).