Dear Physics 605 Students,
Welcome to How Things Work I. This is a course in conceptual physics
that focuses on objects that involve motion, mechanics,
liquids, heat, gases, and sound. It considers objects from our daily
environment (baseballs, frisbees, roller coasters, vacuum
cleaners, rockets, clocks and much more!) and focuses on their
principles of operation, histories,
and relationships to one another. The demonstrator and lecturer is
Professor Lou Bloomfield who has originated and developed the courses How
Things Work I and II at UVa. The lectures are on CD Roms and will
be sent to you by UPS .The lectures are not rehearsed, but are edited versions
of live lectures given in Phys 105 at UVa. Assignments and administrative
information related to the course have been edited from the CDs. Most of
the several hundred students in the class take it as an elective to fullfill
a science requirement. Although the class that is taped is an undergraduate
class, you will still find the lectures and demos interesting and stimulating.
Our purpose in making this course available to teachers is to provide you
with a myriad of physics examples of “How Things Work” in everyday life
and demos that you can use in your classroom as a teacher. This is an excellent
way to motivate young people to learn about science. Some of you may find
the level of physics discussion in the classroom on the CD's rudimentary.
However, you may find the multiple-choice exams more challenging as well
as arriving at the correct explanations for the essay questions for the case
studies that I assign for homework. Most of the lectures start with a question
and proceed to discuss the physics surrounding the question. From the discussion
of specific applications we arrive at the general physics principles. The
case studies assigned for homework are quite informative and provide an
excellent way to study and learn physics concepts. You may also obtain information
on how to build any of the demos you see in this course. For example, see
the website http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/demonstrations.html#skating.
After I get confirmation from the School of Continuing and Professional
Studies that you have registered, I will set up a user name and password
on WebAssign for you. I will notify you by email and you will be able to log
on to WebAssign. You then should learn how to submit homework and take exams
on WebAssign. The CD's will be sent by UPS to the address on your registration
form. Please RSVP via email when you have received the CD's.
The recommended text is the second edition of How Things Work, ISBN
0-471-38151-9 . You are welcome to buy the book online such as Amazon.com.
You may also get it from the UVa book store. The phone number is 434-924-3721.
In the second edition the chapter on water steam and ice is on the website
and not in the book. You will need access to the website material, which
is located at http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW/book.html. Note that in
the table of contents you can click on the blue type, which is the material
not in the book, and it will come up on the website. This material is actually
contained in the longer first edition. If you have the first edition, you
really don’t need the second edition of the book, since all problems are
rewritten on WebAssign.
To view the Lectures and Demonstrations on the CDs in real media format with
your computer, you will need RealOne Player. You can can be download it from
the internet for free. The website is http://www.real.com/realplayer.html.
To view or read the Lecture Slides and notes, which are in PDF format,
you will need the software program Acrobat Reader. You can download Acrobar
Reader for free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Please click on the other links and learn more about the details of this
course.