Lecture: 2:00-3:15,
T Th, Room 204,
Instructor: Michael Fowler, office Physics 307, 924-6579, e-mail mf1i.
Office hours: Wednesday 3:00-4:30 pm—but come by or e-mail anytime!
Grader: Woody, dw7uh. Office hours Wed 1:30 to 3:00 Room 220
Midterms: September 29, November 5.
Homeworks: handed out Thursdays, due in the following Thursday at 2:00 pm.
(except Sept 10: extended to next Tuesday)No credit will be given for late homework!
Final Course Grade will include: Homework (35% of total), Midterms 10% each, Final 35%, in-class questions (clickers) 10%.
The chapter numbers in
this table refer to the PDF lecture notes available
here.
|
Lecture# |
Date |
Chapters |
|
|
1 |
Aug 25 Tues |
1,2 |
Course Introduction; Counting in
Babylon |
|
2 |
Aug 27 Thurs |
3 |
Early Greek science: Thales to Plato |
|
3 |
Sept 1 Tues |
4 |
Motion in the Heavens: stars, sun,
moon, planets |
|
4 |
Sept 3 Thurs |
5 |
Aristotle |
|
5 |
Sept 8 Tues |
6 |
Measuring the solar system |
|
6 |
Sept 10 Thurs |
7 |
Greek science after Aristotle |
|
7 |
Sept 15 Tues |
8 |
Basic ideas in Greek mathematics |
|
8 |
Sept 17 Thurs |
9 |
Using geometry to understand the stars |
|
9 |
Sept 22 Tues |
10 |
Classical knowledge comes to Baghdad |
|
10 |
Sept 24 Thurs |
11 |
Later Islamic science |
|
Midterm I |
Sept 29 Tues |
|
|
|
11 |
Oct 1 Thurs |
12 |
Copernicus and Galileo |
|
12 |
Oct 8 Thurs |
13 |
Life of Galileo |
|
13 |
Oct 13 Tues |
14 |
Galileo’s scaling: why giants don’t
exist |
|
14 |
Oct 15 Thurs |
15 |
Galileo’s acceleration experiment |
|
15 |
Oct 20 Tues |
16 |
Naturally accelerated motion |
|
16 |
Oct 22 Thurs |
17 |
Using vectors to describe motion |
|
17 |
Oct 27 Tues |
18, 19 |
Brahe, Kepler,
Newton |
|
18 |
Oct 29 Thurs |
19, 20 |
Newton’s Laws |
|
19 |
Nov 3 Tues |
20 |
More on Newton’s Laws |
|
Midterm II |
Nov 5 Thurs |
|
|
|
20 |
Nov 10 Tues |
21,22 |
Speed of light; Michelson Morley |
|
21 |
Nov 12 Thurs |
23 |
Special Relativity |
|
22 |
Nov 17 Tues |
24 |
Time dilation |
|
23 |
Nov 19 Thurs |
25, 27 |
Synchronizing clocks, paradoxes |
|
24 |
Nov 24 Tues |
28 |
Momentum, work, energy |
|
25 |
Dec 1 Tues |
30 |
Conserving momentum, E = mc2. |
|
26 |
Dec 3 Thurs |
31 |
General relativity |
|
27 |
Dec 8 Tues |
|
Review, catchup. |
|
|
|
|
|
Important! Homework Policy: Feel free to consult books or any other source of information to help with your homework assignment, including talking with each other. But the version you hand in should have been written by yourself on a clean sheet of paper, and not copied from someone else. It is also important that it be easily readable—an important part of the homework task is clear presentation.
Always give a reference to any source (book or internet) that provides
a significant part of your answer.
Note that the homework questions are more challenging (and I
hope more interesting!) than what I expect you to tackle in the exams.
File of Midterm and Final Exam Questions PDF
to relevant sites.