Physics 10310
Course Information -Fall 2010
INSTRUCTOR:
Prof. LoSecco
Office: 402A NSH
office hours: M
Lab
Coordinator: Prof.
Livingston
Office: 224
Course
Description
Materials: The textbook is Physics
for Scientists and Engineers, 5th edition, by Paul A. Tipler
and Gene Mosca, published by Freeman and
Worth, Inc.
and available as 1 soft-bound volume.
You will also need any scientific calculator.
The web page for this course will be updated
regularly (see http://www.nd.edu/~losecco/phys10310) with new information and resources. Please plan to check this regularly for
announcements. This course also has a
Concourse course site, on which you will be able to check your grades,
and
where we will mirror any announcements made to the course web page. This can be found at http://concourse.nd.edu, and there is also a link from the 10310
home page.
Laboratory: All students in Physics 10310 must also be
registered
in PHY11310 (laboratory) unless repeating the course. All students
report the
first week at your scheduled time to Jordan Hall 213 for assignment to
groups.
Each group meets on alternate weeks through the semester.
An unexcused absence from the laboratory
normally results in an automatic zero for that day's experiment.
Exams: Three "hour-exams" of 75 minutes each and a
final exam of 2 hours are
scheduled as shown on the semester schedule for
the
course. The three hour-exams formally
begin at
Exams are closed book. During exams you
may have only calculators, pens, and pencils on your desk. Honesty is expected and under the honor
system the primary
responsibility for regulation lies with the students. Any student who
will be
unavoidably absent from an exam must obtain permission in advance to
make up
the exam at a later date. Travel plans are not a legitimate excuse for
missing
an exam. If you are ill on the morning of the exam, e-mail or call your
professor as soon as possible and get an excuse from the infirmary.
The "hour-exams" are on September 16, October 7 and November 11. The "hour-exams" are all scheduled for room 101 DeBartolo Hall. The final exam is on December 15.
Homework problems: The text contains numerous excellent
problems.
Working them will greatly enhance your understanding of the material,
your
ability to use it in later courses, and your performance in this course. WebAssign (www.webassign.net) contains a list
of required and suggested problems for the current
chapters. The required problems, which are chosen to emphasize some of
the important parts
of each chapter, must be done on WebAssign by the due date and
time. The online problems
are taken from the textbook.
Other suggested problems should not be handed in, but be advised that, for the "Suggested" problems, we have tried to choose "conceptual" problems that ask probing questions about the material, and "cumulative" problems that integrate material from previous chapters, ie, good conceptual and exam questions. Unexcused late problem sets will normally not be accepted. Solutions are posted on the web page after the due date, and you are strongly encouraged to check your solutions against those posted. While you are encouraged to discuss the problems with your classmates, you are expected to do them by yourself. Online problems are randomized. It is unlikely you will get the
same numeric result as your friends.
The Honor
Code will be applied to these problem sets as follows:
you must
spend at least 20 minutes on each problem before seeking help from
another
person. Since that other person or persons will not be there to help
you on the
exams, it is in your best interest to attempt each problem and grapple
with the
concepts yourself before asking for help.
Discussion Sections: Hour-long
recitation sections are scheduled for Tuesdays every week.
Attendance at these sections is
required! The discussion sections will
include time for questions about the material, but their primary focus
will be
group problem-solving exercises. Groups
of 4 or 5 students will work together to solve unfamiliar problems
based on
that week's material, and each group will be graded on their work. These discussion sections are designed to
help you understand the material and to think hard about the concepts
you are
learning.
Semester Grade: The numerical grade is calculated at the end
of the
semester using the following approximate weighting: exams 40%, homework
15%,
laboratory grade 15%, Discussion Sections 10%, final
exam 20%. The letter grade scale will be based on the performance of
the class
as a whole. You will be able to track
your grades on the Concourse web page.