Syllabus

PHYS 181, Physics for Scientists and Engineers II

Fall Semester 2004

 

Instructors: Bill Cathey, Clark Administration Building,  room 110, telephone 784-1740, billca@unr.edu

                     Alina Vincent, LP 216, contact through the WebCT

Class location and times: Schulich Lecture Hall, Room 2;

MWF 1:00 – 1:50;

Final exam on Dec. 13, 2004, 12-2 pm

Text: Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Volumes I and II , by Douglas C. Giancoli, Prentice Hall, Inc.,

          Third Edition, 2000., Chapters 17-32.

Help sessions: Monday 2 - 4  in LP 104

                          Wednesday 4 - 6 in LP 105

Office hours:  by appointment

Course description: Physics for Scientists and Engineers II (3+0) 3 credits. Thermodynamic laws, kinetic theory, electric charge, field, potential, current, dielectrics, circuit elements, magnetic fields and materials, electromagnetic oscillations. Prerequisite: MATH 182; PHYS 180.

Online material: Course material such as sample exams, homework assignments and solutions, as well as quiz solutions will be available through the WebCT (http://www.webct.unr.edu/). Additional information will be provided during the semester as materials become available.

If you are having problems with the WebCT go to  http://teaching.unr.edu/OTL/webct/difficulties.html

Final grade calculation:

Three one-hour exams (45%), graded quizzes and homework (30%), comprehensive final exam (25%).  Students who receive an average of 87 or higher on the three one-hour exams and quizzes/homework do not have to take the final examination. Note that it is possible for all students to earn an A.

 

 

 

 

GRADE

%

GRADE

%

A

87

C

67-72

A-

85-86

C-

65-66

B+

83-84

D+

63-64

B

77-82

D

53-63

B-

75-76

D-

50-52

C+

73-74

F

<50

 

Hints on how you can earn your A:

Ask lots of questions.

Read the text before lectures.

Do all homework.

Be prepared for quizzes

Come to class.

Attend help sessions.

Learn the material instead of memorizing.

Average 87 or above on the graded work.

Quizzes and Homework:

A 15-minute quiz will be given in class almost each week. Each week the in-class quiz and/or some of the selected homework problems will be graded. Some credit will be given for homework that is turned in but not graded. The solutions for the homework problems will be posted on the WebCT immidiately after the class period, so no late homework assignments will be accepted.   The graded quizzes and homework will count 30% towards your grade.  Questions on the quizzes will be similar to the assigned homework and the topics discussed in class.

Solutions to quizzes will be posted on the WebCT. A maximum of 2 (two) missed quizzed can be made up at the end of the semester, provided that the absences were valid (keep you doctor notes, plane tickets, etc... to show us at the end of the semster).

Examinations:

There will be three hourly examinations and a final examination. Each exam will concentrate on material since the last exam; however, content from any part of the course prior to that exam may be included. The final exam will cover content from the entire course. Each exam will have at least one question that requires an essay answer. Before an exam, the instructors will describe what will be included on the exam. Sample exams from previous years will be available on the WebCT site.

A list of equations will be provided on your copy of the examination; you will not need to prepare your own list of equations. Any equations that you need to memorize, and there will be very few, will be given to you prior to an exam. 

The answers to questions on exams are to be put into a form ready to key into a calculator. Calculators will not be needed or allowed on exams.

Tutoring center:

We highly recommend you take advantage of the free tutoring available to all students. Please visit Student Academic Support Cervices in the Thompson Building, Suite 100, call 784-6801 or e-mail Dr. Marsha Urban at urban@unr.edu for further information.

Academic dishonesty:

Cheating will not be tolerated. Students who cheat on an exam, quiz or an assignment will receive a zero for it. A second case of cheating will result in a grade of F for the course.

Disability statement:  If you have a disability for which you will need accommodation, please contact the instructor or Mary Zabel at the Disability Resource Center   (Thompson Building           Suite  101, (775) 784-6000 ) as soon as possible to arrange the appropriate accommodations.

Teaching philosophy and assumptions of the instructors:

The content of the engineering physics sequence of courses is vital to all engineers and scientists in order to have an understanding of the basic concepts of science and technology. It is assumed that all students recognize the value of these courses, but it is also assumed that students will ask about the relevance of material when it is not apparent. One of our main objectives is to enable you to learn even more science and engineering on your own after you have completed your formal university education.

 

For each hour in class, students are expected to spend 3 to 4 hours in additional study. Doing homework and understanding the textbook are key elements to success in the course. You are responsible for learning the content of the course and developing an understanding of the concepts presented. The instructors will provide as much as possible in the way of effective teaching and assistance for you to understand the course content. However, the student is ultimately responsible for what is learned.

 

Students are urged to ask questions in the class as well as outside the regular class times. There is no such thing as a stupid question is this course! All questions will be answered, although some may have to be deferred until after the formal class time in order to maintain the required pace of the course.

 

It is assumed that all students have been reasonably successful in the courses required prior to this course. These include calculus-based mechanics and two semesters of university-level calculus. It is not assumed that students have had a previous course in electricity and magnetism, although a good high school course will prove useful.

 

The calculus used in the text and the lectures may occasionally go beyond what has been covered in your math courses. When this is the case, the mathematics will be explained along with the physics. However, it is assumed that the student who took the MATH 182 class would know at least how to evaluate a definite integral and their use to find areas and volumes and to be able to handle simple differential equations, infinite sequences and series.  An objective of the course is to strengthen your skills with applications of mathematics, especially calculus and vectors. The math in this course is also one of the most challenging parts; savor it because the math you learn will serve you well in the future.

 

The main topics of this course are electricity and magnetism, with a sprinkling of thermodynamics. At the level of this course, these concepts are essential topics for all scientists and engineers. You will learn the basic physics concepts plus a few applications. The number of applications is enormous, and we will unfortunately not have time to cover all of them. After completing this course, however, you will be able to develop an understanding of more applications that will be of interest to you

 

Note that you will be learning material of value to all types of engineers – and businessmen and politicians as well- but there are limits! It is important, for example, that you not fall into the trap of thinking that only electrical engineers need to know about electricity at the level of this course. This point will be reinforced throughout the course.

 

An understanding of electricity and magnetism began in the last century with some simple entertaining observations. Next came mathematical descriptions that enabled one to make predictions and go beyond the obvious experiments. In the last part of the 19th century, applications rapidly emerged and they have never stopped. We now have a highly organized description of electric and magnetic phenomena and can learn the basic aspects very efficiently.

 

One consequence of the efficient organization of the knowledge is that it is tempting to try to memorize the material rather than understanding it. The instructors will point out the relatively small number of things you need to memorize. Our teaching styles are designed to encourage you to understand the physics concepts that you will keep long after you have forgotten what you memorized.

.

You are encouraged to ask why a particular approach to learning a subject is used. It is important not only for you to understand the subject content but how the content is learned most effectively.

Attendance at all classes is necessary to get the most out of the course. Lectures and demonstrations will be provided that complement the text, and information related to exams and homework will be announced in the class. Roll will not be taken in class, and we will not know when you are absent; however, we will provide something of value at each class so that you will want to attend.

 

It will be assumed that students have read the textbook on the topics of the lectures. It will not be assumed that the students understand all aspects of the text. Questions are encouraged.

 

Students are encouraged to use study groups to learn physics. Discussions with colleagues about science are the way we all learn the subject, even the most talented researcher who is breaking new ground. If you are not familiar with the Tutoring Center, the Math Center, and the Writing Center, you need to visit them. They provide excellent assistance and are frequented by good students.

 

At mid-semester and at the end of the semester, you will be given the opportunity to fill out an evaluation of the course. Please make good use of these opportunities to improve the quality of your courses. You may at any time make suggestions regarding the course by sending an email or memo to the instructors. We only ask that you keep in mind that the primary task of the instructors is to enable you to learn the content of the course and not necessarily make it less rigorous.