PHYSICS OVERVIEW SPRING 2014
Professor J.H. Hamilton: Office 6413-B Stevenson Center, (The Fourth floor is one above ground level; my and Ms. Soren
Secretary offices are down a corridor entered from door number 6413). Campus Phones: 322-2456; Secretary: 343-4431; email: j.h.hamilton@vanderbilt.edu, carol.l.soren@vanderbilt.edu
Office Hours: 12:00-1:30 p.m., Monday; 12:15-1:00 p.m. Tuesday in my office. Every Thursday there are optional question and discussion periods with the instructor, 12:15-1:00 p.m. in Room 4309. These are your opportunities to ask questions and clarify your understandings of the demonstrations, so avail yourself of them. You may come at other times, but I may or may not be free.
Textbook: Physics Matters: An Introduction to Conceptual Physics, by James Trefil and Robert M. Hazen. The lectures will in general follow its subject matter but not always. You are responsible for the material in the lectures and the material assigned from the text. On occasion, sections of the text will be required although they were not discussed in class. Supplementary notes on the
Philosophy of Science will be posted on OAK.
Class Attendance: It is strongly recommended that students attend all classes since: (1) some topics will be discussed in greater detail than in text, (2) there will be discussions of topics not covered in the text, (3) considerable attention is given to demonstrations and experiments that illustrate the physics, and are covered on exams, and (4) you may bring to exams your class notes or any other of your hand-written materials added to your notes, but not your book nor any machine copies. Before each hour exam you will be given a copy of last year’s exam. You are not allowed to bring or to copy into your notes old exams or answers to old exams for use on the exam. That is a violation of the Honor Code. You may not copy another student’s class notes for use on exams. You are on the Honor System to use ONLY your own class notes, supplemented by your own notes from the text. If you see a student using unauthorized materials, you are to report them to me. If you have an excused absence, you can copy that days notes from another student for your use on exams. I have observed in my classes that students who are very irregular in attendance do very poorly on my exams which follow more closely the lectures and demonstrations than the text. You should be sure you understand your notes by going back over them after class, adding comments as needed for better understanding. You are encouraged to make drawings of demonstrations in your notes. If you do not understand the physics behind the demonstrations, speak up in class or after class, especially on Thursday, or at office hours. Students talking during class, except to ask questions of the professor, will not be allowed. If you talk with other students during class, you will be asked to leave class and will be given zero for homework that week.
Exams: There will be three exams (75 min. (one class period)) worth about 130 points each; and a final exam worth 200 points covering the whole course. Every Thursday you will be asked to answer in class 2-3 selected problems from the assigned homework. There will be about 15 problems which will be normalized to 70 points total, 1/2 of a regular exam. You will not be allowed to use cell phones, electronic devices, BlackBerry, calculators, etc. on any of the exams. All of the calculations will involve multiplication and division of simple numbers that you are expected to be able to do without a calculator. Exams, homework, and quizzes are on the Honor System and you are required to report students who violate the system.
Help Sessions: Before each test there will be an extra, optional help session with a review and time for questions and answers.
Weekly help sessions with my grader will be arranged.
Homework: Questions and problems are assigned at the end of each chapter in the syllabus. On dates shown, you will be asked to answer and turn in 2-3 selected homework questions in class. Students who are away on University business on a Thursday homework day can make up the homework. There will be problems on each exam from the homework. You may write in your notes answers to the problems, but these must be yours and not copied from another student, since all notes used on the exam are under the Honor System to be yours. Review numbers in the syllabus are to help you understand the material.
Class Discussion: Students are encouraged to ask questions in class, and to submit questions for further discussions to the instructor. Speak up, if I do not see your hand. Since this course is to help develop a better understanding of physics and its discoveries, students are encouraged to bring to class articles from newspapers and magazines on new scientific discoveries for comments and criticisms.
Course Grade: Your grade will be from a curve of about 525 points. I will drop your lowest hour exam grade. I will give you a curve on each exam as a guide, but the curve on your total points is the more significant one. I also look at your individual exam scores and homework. Homework grades do count. Failure to do homework can change your grade, for example, from C- to D+ and good homework can similarly raise your grade, for example from D+ to C-.
Make-up Exams: If you have an approved absence from the College Dean’s office, you will be allowed to take a make-up exam or turn in your homework late. Remember, one exam will be dropped.

Honor System: The tests and notes taken in class are taken under the Honor System. There can be discussions together about the lecture notes and the homework, but each student must write their own answers to problems and cannot copy other students notes except when there is an excused absence for a day.
Alternate Exam: There will be only one final exam date and that will be Friday, April 25 at 3:00 p.m. You have ample time to plan any trip or other occasion so they do not fall during final exams so only with an excused absence from the Dean for
University business will you be allowed to take the final at another time.