Fall 2016, Modern Physics
Instructor Pete Kernan, Rockefeller 211, kernan@case.edu, 368-4037
Recitation Leader Sean Quinn: spq@case.edu
SI Ryan Chaban: ryan.chaban@case.edu
Lectures:
Schedule Recitations:
MWF 3:20-4:10 PM (Clapp 108)
T 10:00-10:50 AM (Kent Hale Smith 123)
T 1:00-1:50 PM (Bingham 103)
Textbook Modern Physics 2nd Ed. by R. Harris
Response System iClicker
Topics Special Relativity and basic Quantum Mechanics. The Quantum topics include wave functions, superposition, the Schrödinger equation, simple potentials, the Hydrogen atom, tunneling, and fermions vs. bosons. We’ll cover more
if time permits, e.g. statistical mechanics, particle physics, cosmology . . . .
Website www.phys.cwru.edu/courses/p221/. Note that this is not on Blackboard.
We will use Blackboard for for viewing Mediavision, but almost everything else
will be posted on this site. It is assumed that you will be aware of everything
posted on the course website. This will include homeworks, solutions, equation
sheets for exams, and grades. You will be able to verify your grades on the
website at some point following the first midterm.
Lecture You are responsible for all of the information relevant to your performance
in the course provided in lecture, whether or not you attend. Read the textbook
ahead of time. You probably paid for it, so extract some value from it. You’ll
get more out of the lecture if you do. The material will be presented mostly
sequentially (the book order) – but some sections and chapters may be skipped,
and additional concepts and examples, not covered in the text, will be discussed
where I find them useful. Please ask questions during lecture. It helps me to
know if you understand what I am trying to communicate. If you’re not sure
that’s a good reason to ask a question. If you have a question about a topic
that we’ve moved on from write it down and ask it during the question and
answer time at the end of class – I’ll try to reserve the last 10 minutes for
this purpose. In addition, if I make an error on the board please draw my
attention to it. If you’re not sure, ask anyways. The lectures will be recorded
by Mediavision. Which means you’ll be able to watch the good bits over and over
:). A curious fact: I’ve learned that the students that benefitted the most from
the Mediavision recordings in this course in the past had excellent attendance!
Recitations The recitations will provide students an opportunity to practice collaborative problem solving. You’ll get a head start on the homework through small
group discussions of problems. The groups will present their progress towards
grasping the main points of problems they work on to the rest of the class. Explaining physics is a great way to learn it, and in addition to each other you’ll
have an experienced physicist as a guide to help you over any rough spots.
Even though you’d be better off if you didn’t know it, in the interest of full disclosure I here note that attendance in recitations is optional. Attendance is very
much encouraged though, it is highly correlated with excellent performance
in the course.
Supplemental Instruction The goal of the SI program is to practice what you
learn in class and on your own through collaboration with your peers. You will
ask questions, review material, work sample problems, and prepare for exams.
Your SI Leader has succeeded in the course and has experience helping others
do the same. Go to a session, bring your friends. He is looking forward to seeing
you!
http://students.case.edu/education/tutoring/instruction/
Bulletin Board We have provided a bulletin board for semi-public discussion of our
course activities.
P221 Bulletin Board: http://www.phys.cwru.edu/forums/list.php?94.
Anyone can read the boards, but you must login to post. This is an appropriate
place to ask for homework help or about course policy or to share your awareness of physics relevant to the course, for example, a recent experiment that
bears upon what we are working on. You may also ask these sorts of things
in person. Please reserve email for personal issues only. Ask yourself before
sending an email: is this relevant only to me or would other students in Modern
be interested in the answer? If the latter, post it.
A special feature of this bulletin board is that you can write mathematical
expressions using TeX markup in your posts, see
http://www.phys.cwru.edu/forums/read.php?5,38
for instructions. Do not try to use special unicode character apps to plug
symbols into the board; it won’t work, your post will fail. Instead take a little
bit of time to insert the equations in TeX, it’s really easy to do the simple
equations we’ll need. And it’s really hard to follow a mathematical argument
written using the ASCII character set. You can see how equations in TeX were
formatted by double-clicking on them. Feel free to respond to other’s posts on
the boards. I’ll read everything, but only chime in when it’s useful.
Homeworks Generally due every Monday @ 3:20 PM, the beginning of class. Homework may be turned in before lecture begins or at the end of lecture. Late
homework will not be accepted. No excuses. In lieu of student requests for
dispensations due to athletic events, family emergencies, homework eating dogs
(or roommates), alarms which inexplicably malfunction (at 3:03:03:0 sudden
illnesses (generally with a fast recovery) . . . the two lowest homework scores will
be dropped. If you know you cannot attend class to turn in your homework,
then either turn it in ahead of time, or have a friend drop it off for you. I will
be around for a few minutes after lecture, but not long enough for you to dash
back to your room after class to get your homework.
Doing homework should be an ongoing process, as opposed to a kind of triage.
As you read the text and go to class you will learn enough to do some of the
homework problems well in advance of the due date for the set. This is why the
recitations will engage the problems long before they are due. We recommend
that you attempt, and solve when possible, the problems as you encounter the
material related to them. Doing the problems as you encounter the material in
lecture will make learning the physics easier.
Collaboration on homeworks is fine, but your solutions must be your own.
When detected, all identical or close copies of submitted homeworks will be
given a zero score. Help your classmates, but do not do their work for them.
Copying is an ineffective way to learn physics. Misappropriating homework
points by copying will not make up for the lost opportunity to learn the material in the right way. It is common in my experience that homework points
unjustly awarded will be returned in multiples on the exams. One purpose of
the homework is to help you develop enough expertise with the concepts to
solve novel physics problems (such as may appear on exams). For this goal
to be realized you should accept only the help you really need. And give help
generously, but only as much as is really needed. That is, it is best for everyone
to try hard to fight through any difficulties before seeking help. But if you
need it, then get it. Myself and your recitation instructor are here to help you.
Forming ad-hoc study groups is also smart. ESS tutoring is also available. If
you are having difficulties it is best to patch them quickly. The material we’ll
be working on during the semester often assumes mastery of prior material.
Staple your homeworks. Make sure you write your name on it. Printing paper is
preferred (if you use paper from a spiral notebook you must remove the ragged
edges). Write neatly. Box your answers. My graders may penalize you, at
their discretion, for sloppy presentation or anything else that makes their jobs
harder. Thus a no-name homework with ragged edges in which the grader must
struggle to figure out what is going on may be docked 25% from whatever score
is earned (10 pt penalty per infraction, each HW will be worth 120 pts).
Exams There will be 3 midterm exams and a final. The exams will be closed book,
closed notes. Cell phones must be turned off. An equation sheet will be provided. Basic equations that you should know from previous physics courses will
not be provided. Any necessary physical constants will be provided. Results
which may be derived from fundamental ones may or may not be provided –
depends what the point of the problem is. It is possible that you will derive a
result in one part of the exam which may be used in another, later, part.
There will be no makeup exams. If you must miss an exam because of an
academic conflict, make arrangements in advance1 to be excused from it. If
an exam is missed because of sudden illness, or another emergency, provide a
medical doctor’s note, or the moral equivalent, in order to be excused from it.
Undergraduate Studies may be asked to confirm such an excuse. Only a Dean
can excuse you from the final.
Polling We are going to use the iClicker response system to enhance the lectures.
You should have purchased a iClicker +. I understand that the older iClicker
should also work. They are available in the bookstore.
These will be used to provide real time student feedback on understanding of
the topic under discussion. The basic idea is that if I know what you know and
don’t know, then I can address the relevant issues appropriately. And, it turns
out it is more fun than not doing it.
If you think the effort and/or cost isn’t worth it and don’t want to participate,
or cannot because you’re sleeping in your room or otherwise occupied during
class, you won’t be penalized for that. But because I think this will benefit
the entire class I am going to bribe you. Specifically, your response data will
be worth up to 35 normalized points on one problem on the final exam. The
normalization is such that the final would be worth 350 points on this scale.
Essentially what this does is provide insurance against bombing a problem on
the final exam.
To get this benefit you’ll need to register your clicker (via a procedure to be
determined) by the last day of class.
It is a violation of course policy to enter responses on behalf of another student.
One person, one vote and all that. If such a violation is detected both parties
will be ineligible for the bonus.
1
A minimum of one day ahead of time.
Exam Dates Hour exams: in Schmitt during class time.
exam1
The dates we decided on are: exam2
exam3
Wed Sep 21
Wed Oct 19
Wed Nov 30
The final exam is Mon Dec 19 from 3:30-6:30 PM, location TBD.
Reading the Syllabus Read this document carefully. Please bring any inconsistencies you find to my attention.
Evaluation
Homework
20%
Midterm (each) 15%
Final
35%
Web Resources
http://www.phys.cwru.edu/courses/p221/ Home Page
http://www.phys.cwru.edu/forums/
Bulletin Board
http://blackboard.case.edu
Blackboard
Academic Integrity If you have not already, familiarize yourself with the University Academic Integrity Policy:
http://students.case.edu/handbook/policy/integrity.html.
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