SYLLABUS – Physics 116B, General Physics (Fall 2009) Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
TR, 11am-12:15 pm, SC 4309
MWF, 9:10-10:00 am, SC 4327
MWF, 2:10-3:00 pm, SC 4327
Instructor Richard Helms
Office: 6410 Stevenson Center
Phone: 322-7633
Email: richard.helms@vanderbilt.edu
Office hours:
Tuesday, 3-5 pm, Help Desk
Drop by or make an appointment at other times
Description This is the second semester of the introductory physics course, intended primarily for engineers and pre-professional
students. It is the continuation of 116A or 117A, so I’ll assume that you’re already familiar with the physical and
mathematical concepts from that class. This semester, we’ll spend largest part of the course covering electricity and
magnetism (including circuits), followed by optics and modern physics (relativity, quantum physics, nuclear/particle
physics).
Online For right now, this syllabus and any other information will be posted on the web at the link below. After the change period
ends, everyone in all three sections will be enrolled in a single, consolidated OAK section.
http://www.hep.vanderbilt.edu/~helmsr/phys
Textbook University Physics, 12th Edition, Young and Freedman
We’ll cover chapters 21-44 (vols. 2 and 3 of the paperback edition). Try to read, or at least skim, the scheduled chapters
beforehand so that we can address your questions in class (see the schedule below). We’ll both get a lot more out of the
lectures if you have some foundation for what we’re talking about. I won’t cover every topic in every chapter, and I’ll try to
let you know if I feel a section can be skipped completely. An electronic version of the book is available through Mastering
Physics, so if you already have the 11th edition, you should be fine.
Homework Homework will be submitted online through
MasteringPhysics. Problems will be assigned weekly and
due on Wednesday at noon. The course ID for this semester
is VUHELMS2.
Important: When you register for Mastering Physics, make
sure that your Student ID (not your login) is the same as
your VUNet ID. On the home page, click Edit Student ID.
Then enter your VUNet ID (e.g., obamabh) in the box shown
at the right.
You’re free to work with others on the homework, but it’s
your responsibility to make sure you know how to solve
the problems. On the exams, you won’t get hints, multiple
tries, help from friends, etc. Mastering Physics is valuable, but it isn’t the ultimate measure of your learning in the course.
The homework assignments are graded according to the following rules:
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You get 6 tries to answer a non-multiple-choice question or part. Each incorrect try reduces your score for that part by 6%.
If the question or part is multiple-choice with n choices, you lose 100%/(n-1) for each unique wrong answer you submit.
Hints have no impact on your score.
Late assignments will be penalized 25% per day, up to a maximum penalty of 75%.
Midterm Exams There will be four, 90-minute midterm exams on the dates
shown. Each midterm will be given twice, once at 5:30 pm and
again at 7:30 pm. You can come to whichever time you prefer.
If either time gets too crowded, I may need to assign times.
Midterm Exam Dates Exam 1 Wednesday, September 23 All exams start at Exam 2 Wednesday, October 14 5:30 pm or 7:30 pm Exam 3 Wednesday, November 4 There are no alternate midterms. If you have a conflict because
in SC 4309 and 4327. Exam 4 Wednesday, December 2 of an official University activity, you must notify me within
two weeks of the beginning of the semester, and you must take the exam before the rest of the class.
In emergencies where an exam cannot be taken early, the average of the other exams and the final may be substituted for the
missed exam. This must be arranged with me before the exam. Don’t miss an exam until alternate arrangements are in place.
You can use your calculator on the exams, and it would be wise to carry spare batteries. A formula sheet will be provided
before the exams. You can start with that sheet and add whatever you like, or you can make your own sheet from scratch. In
either case, your formula sheet is limited to one sheet, front and back.
Clicker Questions In order to make the class time more fun and effective (hopefully), I’m going to pose several questions each day that you can
respond to with clickers. The questions will mostly encourage you to follow along with my lecture, and let you apply the
ideas we’re covering. I may also ask questions to see if you’ve digested material from the last class, or to see if you’ve done
the reading for the current lecture.
Your responses will count for part of your grade, so you’ll need to get a TurningPoint clicker like the ones used all over
Vanderbilt. At this point, I haven’t decided how I’ll calculate clicker grades. I won’t record the grades for a couple of weeks
so that you have time to get your clickers and I have time to decide on the best system. Nevertheless, please register your
clickers on OAK and bring them to class as soon as possible. Registration instructions are documented in OAK (click Getting
Started).
Using any clicker other than the one registered to you is cheating, and will be referred to the Honor Council.
Final Exam The final-exam dates for Physics 116B are shown on the right. There won’t be any
scheduled alternates, but if you have a conflict with the final for your section, we
can make arrangements for you to take it with another section. Let me know well
before the end of the semester.
The final will be cumulative, with a small emphasis on the few topics covered
after the last midterm.
Grading For your final numerical grade, you may drop either your lowest midterm score,
or your combined participation score. The remaining scores will be combined
according to the weights shown on the left. I will convert your numerical grade to
a letter grade so that a grade of at least 90%, 80%, 70%, etc. will guarantee a letter
grade of at least A-, B-, C-, etc.
Please check OAK from time to time to make sure that my records match yours. If
you find any disagreements, let me know as soon as possible. If you feel that an
exam was graded incorrectly, I’ll be happy to take another look. Return it to me
within one week of getting it back with a written explanation of where you think
the error occurred.
Final Exam Dates Section 1 Friday, December 18 3pm Section 2 Saturday, December 19 9am Section 3 Friday, December 18 9am Grading Weights Participation 18% Homework 9% In‐Class 9% Midterm 1 Midterm 2 Midterm 3 Midterm 4 Final Exam 18% Drop the lowest of 18% these five scores. 18% 18% 28% Honor Code Of course, the Vanderbilt Honor Code applies to all work in this course.
Schedule The topics are color-coded to indicate the material covered on each exam. Some adjustments may be needed based on our
actual progress during the semester.
Week 1 2 Starting Aug 26 Aug 31 3 Sep 7 4 Sep 14 5 Sep 21 6 Sep 28 7 8 Oct 5 Oct 12 9 Oct 19 10 Oct 26 11 12 Nov 2 13 Nov 16 14 15 Nov 30 Nov 9 Dec 7 Topics Chapter Electric Charge/Electric Fields 21 Electric Fields 21 Gauss’s Law 22 Electric Potential 23 Capacitance/Dielectrics 24 Current/Resistance/EMF 25 DC Circuits 26 Magnetic Fields/Magnetic Forces 27 Sources of Magnetic Fields 28 Induction 29 Inductance 30 AC Circuits 31 EM Waves 32 Properties of Light 33 Geometric Optics 34 Geometric Optics 34 Oct 22‐23 ‐ October Break Interference 35 Diffraction 36 Relativity 37 Notes Photons, Electrons, and Atoms 38 Wave Nature of Particles 39 Quantum Mechanics 40 Atomic Structure 41 Thanksgiving Holidays Nuclear Physics 43 Particles/Cosmology 44 Review Dec 18/19 ‐ Final Exams Classes end Thursday, Dec 10 Sep 23 ‐ Exam 1 Oct 14 ‐ Exam 2 Nov 4 ‐ Exam 3 Dec 2 ‐ Exam 4