Physics 1A WINTER 2014
Syllabus
Instructor:
Wesley Campbell
Office: PAB 4-337
Phone: x5-1088
Email: wes@physics.ucla.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:30–1:30 and Thursday 12:00–1:00 in PAB 4-337
Lecture
Location:
Time:
PAB 1425
Tuesdays & Thursdays 10:00am – 11:50am
Classes start: Tuesday, January 7
Holidays:
None on Tues-Thurs (MLK Day, Mon. Jan. 20, Presidents Day, Mon. Feb. 17)
Last lecture:
Thursday, March 13
Discussion sections
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
1:00pm
John Miller
Kinsey PV
1240B
John Miller
PAB 1434A
2:00pm
3:00pm
Thursday
Friday
Peter DeVore
Kinsey PV
1240 B
John Miller
PAB 2434
4:00pm
John Miller
PAB 2434
Teaching assistants:
TA:
John Miller
Office:
Office Hours:
Email: johnmiller@physics.ucla.edu
TA:
Peter DeVore
Office:
Office Hours:
Email: pdevore@physics.ucla.edu
This course is designed primarily to help students learn three main concepts; linear
momentum, energy, and rotational momentum and their associated conservation laws. The
description of physical phenomena in terms of these concepts it naturally done in the language
of mathematics. Students are expected to be familiar with calculus and physics at essentially
the level of high school. We will have many reasons to use vectors, as well as integration and
differentiation of simple functions.
From the course listing:
“Recommended preparation: high school physics, one year of high school calculus or
Mathematics 31A and 31B. Enforced requisites: Mathematics 31A, 31B. Enforced
corequisite: Mathematics 32A. Recommended corequisite: Mathematics 32B.”
There will be 10 weeks of instruction, with the following topics distributed approximately as
follows:
Week number
and start date
1. Jan. 6
2. Jan. 13
3. Jan. 20
4. Jan. 27
5. Feb. 3
6. Feb. 10
7. Feb. 17
8. Feb. 24
9. March 3
10. March 10
Topics
Introduction, Units, 1D kinematics, Vectors
Motion in 2 & 3 dimensions, ballistics
Newton’s Laws
Friction, Newton’s Laws, Exam 1 Thurs. Jan 30 in class
Work and Energy
Conservation of Energy
Linear Momentum, conservation thereof, collisions
Rotational Motion, torque Exam 2 Tues. Feb 25 in class
Rotational energy, conservation of angular momentum
Static equilibrium, Gravitation
Book
Chapters
1-2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11, 13
Grading
Grades will be assigned on a numerical scale for each assignment and letter grades will be
assigned at the end of the quarter based on the distribution of grades. Letter grades will be
approximately 1/3 A, 1/3 B, and 1/3 C or lower.
Homework: 10%
Exam 1: 25%
Exam 2: 25%
Final Exam: 40%
All 3 exams will be closed book, but students will be allowed to bring and use one 8.5”x11”
piece of paper with handwritten notes (both sides) and a calculator. You must show your work
on your exam, so please practice this while you do homework. The use of cell phones for any
reason during all exams is forbidden, and students will get a 0 on the exam for a breach of this
policy. Each student must be present in person at the established time (see schedule above)
for all 3 exams—no make-up exams will be offered to anyone. Exams 1 and 2 will take place
during class and will be 1 hour each. The final exam is scheduled for Friday, March 21, 2014
11:30am – 2:30pm. There will be multiple versions of each exam handed out at random, so
please be sure to clearly write which exam version you have for grading purposes. Students
who require special testing conditions through cooperation with the Office of Students with
Disabilities (O.S.D) must contact Dr. Campbell via email in the first week of class for special
testing arrangements to be made.
Homework will be assigned and graded online through Mastering Physics. Late homework will
not be accepted. The course ID for this is MPCAMPBELL46714 . Students will be given 3 tries
per problem as a default with no penalty (possibly fewer for multiple choice), and if you need
more tries, please contact your TA, who will be able to reset the counter for you. Online hints
will be available at no penalty. It will be to the benefit of all students who use copious amounts
of paper while working out their homework solutions, so feel free to dig through the paper
recycling bins around the physics building for scratch paper. Students are permitted to work
together on homework, but each student must be able to explain how they got their answer
(anything else is considered cheating). Generally, homework will be assigned at 10am on
Tuesdays and will be due exactly 1 week later.
Text and Required Resources
Homework will be online and will use the Mastering Physics system. The text for this course is
Sears and Zemansky’s University Physics by Young and Freedman, Volume 1. I will use
the 13th edition as my guide, but you can probably do fine with a previous edition.