Physics 241E, Fall 1996 General Physics II ________________________________________________________________________________ Section Instructor Office Class Final Exam 0003 (33675) Liuti 327D 9:00- 9:50 MWF Wed., Dec. 11, 2:00 pm 0005 (31589) Poon 167* 10:00-10:50 MWF Tues., Dec. 10, 9:00 am 0007 (34205) Norum 136 11:00-11:50 MWF Mon., Dec. 16, 9:00 am ________________________________________________________________________________ TEXT: Physics, vols. 1 and 2, Fishbane, Gasiorowicz, and Thornton ________________________________________________________________________________ Grade weighting: 3 quizzes in lecture 10% 3 one-hour exams 30% Problem session quizzes 30% Final Exam 30% ________________________________________________________________________________ The aim of this course is to teach you to understand the physical world and to teach you how to solve problems about that world. Both elements matter. Your grade will depend on your ability to solve problems, but an understanding of the material is crucial to your ability in problem solving, as is the acquisition of a set of skills about problem solving. The lectures are oriented towards helping you understand why and how we understand what we do about physics, not simply towards helping you learn how to plug in formulas in order to solve problems, and not simply towards helping you pass tests. Understanding the material is the best long-term way for you to be able to solve the problems that an engineer faces. Read each assignment before the lecture and again as soon as possible after the lecture. Attending the lectures and seeing demonstrations is an important way for you to understand the material; we strongly encourage you to attend regularly. It is crucial, because of the amount of material to be covered, that you keep up. To encourage you to do so, and to give you a chance to improve your grade directly, we will give short quizzes during three lecture periods spread randomly throughout the semester. These quizzes will be worth 10% of your grade. This means in addition that once you have chosen a particular lecture section to attend, you will want to stick with it. Doing the assigned problems and attending the problem sessions is an important way to acquire problem- solving skills. You must be enrolled in a problem session in addition to the lecture, and you may not switch problem sessions. Homework problems will be collected the week they are due. Each week in your problem session, either of the two following possibilities will occur with roughly equal probability: 1. a problem on the homework you have handed in will be graded; or 2. a short, pledged quiz will be given during the problem session which will consist of one of that week's assigned problems or a slight variant on one. THIS MEANS YOU MUST WORK OUT THE PROBLEM ASSIGNMENTS IN ADVANCE! WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO WORK WITH EACH OTHER TO DO SO, ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA SIMPLY TO COPY PROBLEM ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS. 30% of your final grade will be determined by the combination of graded problems and PS quizzes; your two lowest weekly scores (not hour-exam) will be dropped in determining that portion of your grade. The weekly score grades within a given problem session will be normalized so that all the sessions have the same average, to avoid any difficulty that might arise because a given problem session teacher may give particularly easy or particularly hard quizzes. NO MAKEUP EXAMS OR QUIZZES ARE GIVEN; WITH A VALID EXCUSE BEFORE THE EXAM OR QUIZ, THE REMAINING EXAMS OR QUIZZES WILL BE APPROPRIATELY AVERAGED. WITH- OUT A VALID EXCUSE GIVEN BEFORE THE EXAM OR QUIZ, THE EXAM OR QUIZ GRADE WILL BE A ZERO. You should work at least six hours per week outside of class and problem session. Up to date information about this class is available on the Web at http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/241e/home.html ________________________________________________________________________________ Attendance policy: Attendance is not taken, but you are responsible for all assigned material, whether it is presented in lecture or not. You are also responsible for knowing the problem assignments and for any announcements that may be made in lecture of changes in the schedule. ________________________________________________________________________________