Physics 241E is a calculus-based introductory physics course covering electricity and magnetism along with a general treatment of waves and wave optics. It is part of the required Engineering School curriculum.
Times: MWF 10:00 - 10:50 AM
Location: Physics Room 203
Instructor: Sergio Conetti, Room 217 High Energy Physics Building (434) 982-5371, e-mail:conetti@virginia.edu. Office hours Monday 2-3, Wednesday 1:00-2:00 pm, Room 312B in the Physics Building or by appointment.
Required text: Physics, Vol. 2, Fishbane, Gasiorowicz, and Thornton, 3rd Edition (Prentice Hall) along with material on waves from Vol. 1 (spring semester; ancillary text: Student Study Guide and Selected Solution Manual, Volume 2.
The aim of this course,
which is a continuation of Physics 142E and has as a prerequisite the material
of that course, is to teach you to understand the physical world and to solve
problems about that world. Both elements are important to you.
Your grade in
the course will depend on your ability to solve problems. You will achieve such an ability by understanding the basic concepts and by practicing on a large variety of problems. 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. There are
extensive discussion sessions, led by a teaching assistant, where problem
examples will be treated more explicitly. Understanding the concepts
is the best long-term way for you to be able to solve the problems
that an engineer faces.
Problem solving skills are honed by doing problems. You should
look at more problems than the ones assigned as homework, at least to convince yourself that
you would know how to handle them. Feel free to consult with each other on how to do the problems,
but don't put yourself in the position of copying answers from your partner(s). And, to validate your approach
to any given problem, feel free to consult the TA's (or the course instructor during his office
hours). But be aware that the TA's will be instructed not to give explicit information on how to
solve any given homework problem.
Note: No make-up exams are given! With a valid excuse before the exam, the remaining elements of the course will be appropriately averaged. Without a valid excuse before the exam, the exam grade will be a zero.
The midtem exams will be a mixture of problems (like the ones you do in the homework or in the discussion sessions) and of conceptual, multiple choice questions; the final exams will be multiple choices.
Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 900-1200
The workshops ( www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/241w.rmm5a.fall05) are labs, which will be completed in groups. All students should register for a workshop section. You must attend the first meeting on time, or your name will be dropped from that section. You must also buy the manual, which is available in the UVA bookstore. The workshops are an enjoyable way to work with your peers and increase your understanding of physics. Please note that the workshops are not formally part of this course but rather a separate entity and must be signed into or out of separately.
Homework problems will be posted on this syllabus and in the toolkit and will be due each week at 12 noon Monday morning. The homework problems have to be worked in full and clearly on paper, and must be returned, before the deadline, in the lockboxes located in the Physics Building ground floor (across from the vending machines). The homework should either be pledged or, if you do it in collaboration with some other student, should contain the statement "this homework was done in collaboration with xxyy". In order to create the overall homework grade, each week 2 of the assigned problems will be graded.
Getting help on the homeworks:
- The TA's for PHYS 241E will hold their sessions in the hours listed below, and will be available for help with problems or lecture material. During these sessions , which will last 50 minutes each, you will be reminded of the basic concepts you have learnt in class and then will be shown how to solve various problems related to the ones assigned as homework.
- The engineering school also provides tutoring assistance, consult the Dean's Office for specific hours.
Attendance at all lecture is strongly recommended. 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 assignments, schedule, etc..
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#1 (1-3) | Aug. 24 Wed. | electric charges, forces | 21 |
#2. (4-5) | Aug. 26 Fri. | continuous distribution of charges | 21 |
#3. (1-3) | Aug. 29 Mon. | electric fields | 22 |
#4. (4-5) | Aug. 31 Wed. | responses of charges to fields | 22 |
#5. (1-3) | Sept. 2 Fri. | Gauss' law | 23 |
#6. (4-5) | Sept. 5 Mon. | conductors and fields | 23 |
#7. (1-3) | Sept. 7 Wed. | electric potentials | 24 |
#8. (4-5) | Sept. 9 Fri. | potentials and fields | 24 |
#9. (6-7) | Sept. 12 Mon. | potentials near conductors | 24 |
#10. (1-4) | Sept. 14 Wed. | capacitors | 25 |
#11. (5-6) | Sept. 16 Fri. | dielectrics | 25 |
#12. (1-4) | Sept. 19 Mon. | current and resistance | 26 |
Sept. 19 Mon. Exam 1, 17:00-18:30/19:00-20:30 Chapters 21-24
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#13. (7) | Sept. 21 Wed. | electric power | 26 |
#14. (1-3) | Sept. 23 Fri. | DC circuits | 27 |
#15. (4) | Sept. 26 Mon. | measuring instruments | 27 |
#16. (5) | Sept. 28 Wed. | Time dependence in circuits | 27 |
#17. (1-2) | Sept. 30 Fri. | magnetic fields | 28 |
October 3 Mon.: reading day
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#18. (2-3) | Oct. 5 Wed. | magnetic forces on charges | 28 |
#19. (4-5) | Oct. 7 Fri. | magnetic forces on currents | 28 |
#20. (1-3) | Oct. 10 Mon. | making magnetic fields: Ampere's law | 29 |
#21. (4-5) | Oct. 12 Wed. | Making magnetic fields: Biot-Savart law | 29 |
#22. (1-2) | Oct. 14 Fri. | Faraday's law | 30 |
#23. (2-3) | Oct. 17 Mon. | motional EMF | 30 |
Oct. 17 Mon. Exam 2, 17:00-18:30/19:00-20:30 Chapters 25-28
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#24. (4-5) | Oct. 19 Wed. | time-varying fields, generators | 30 |
#25. (1-3) | Oct. 21 Fri. | magnetic materials | 31 |
#26. (1-2) | Ot.24 Mon. | inductance | 32 |
#27. (3-4) | Oct. 26 Wed. | Inductance and RL circuits | 32 |
#28. (5-7) | Oct 28 Fri. | Oscillations in circuits | 32 |
#29. (1-2) | Oct. 31 Mon. | Transformers, R,L,C circuits | 33 |
#30. (3-5) | Nov. 2 Wed. | RLC circuits | 33 |
#31. (1-2) | Nov. 4 Fri. | Maxwell's equations | 34 |
#32. (1-4) | Nov. 7 Mon. | Waves in mechanical media | 14 |
# 33. (5-8) | Nov. 9 Wed. | Waves in mechanical media | 14 |
# 34. (1-5) | Nov. 11 Fri. | Wave interference | 15 |
#35. (2-4) | Nov. 14 Mon. | Electromagnetic waves | 34 |
Nov. 14 Mon. Exam 3, 17:00-18:30/19:00-20:30 Chapters 29-33
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#36. (5) | Nov. 16 Wed. | Polarization | 34 |
#37. (1-3) | Nov 18 Fri. | Wave interference | 37 |
Thanksgiving recess
Session (Sections) | Date | Topic | Chapter(s) |
#38. (4-6) | Nov. 28 Mon. | Wave interference | 38 |
#39. (1-3) | Nov 30 Wed. | Diffraction | 38 |
#40. (4-5) | Dec. 2 Fri. | Applications | 38 |
#41. | Dec. 5 Mon. | Review of modern physics | 40 |
Final exam
Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 900-1200
All problem sets are due at 12 noon Monday mornings
Assignment | Due Date | Problems |
1 | Monday, Sept 5 | Problems 21.11, 21.24, 21.29, 21.51, 21.55 |
2 | Monday, Sept 12 | Problems 22.4, 22.18, 22.30, 22.33, 22.46, 22.70 |
3 | Monday, Sept 19 | Problems 23.34, 23.57, 23.60, 24.19, 24.27, 24.62, 24.88 |
4 | Monday, Sept 26 | Problems 25.11, 25.27, 25.32, 25.48 |
5 | Tuesday, Oct 4 | Problems 26.34, 26.84, 26.86, 27.19, 27.30, 27.32 |
6 | Monday, Oct 10 | Problems 27.47, 27.56, 27.61, 28.9, 28.22, 28.35 |
7 | Monday, Oct 17 | Problems 28.11, 28.24, 28.34, 28.50, 28.60, 28.72 |
8 | Monday, Oct 24 | Problems 29.17, 29.34, 29.45, 29.62 |
9 | Monday, Oct 31 | Problems 30.10, 30.16, 30.32, 30.35, 30.48 |
10 | Monday, Nov 7 | Problems 31.28, 32.13, 32.42, 32.48, 32.58, 32.62 |
11 | Monday, Nov 14 | Problems 33.8, 33.20, 33.34, 33.40, 33.59, 33.83, 33.84 |
12 | Monday, Nov 28 | Problems 14.6, 14.30, 14.42, 14.61, 15.55, 15.57 |
13 | Monday, Dec 5 | Problems 34.42, 34.57, 37.8, 37.34, 38.36 |
Discussion sessions will be held in Room 203 of the Physics bldg. at
the following times
Tuesday 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 PM Thursday 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 PM |