PH 212
General Physics
(Calculus-based)
Winter 2016
Newton
Einstein
Homework Format/Schedule Course Description
Exams Labs Grades Climate
Section 1 Class times:
Professor:
Office hours:
MW
F
Huygens
Homework
Links
Projects
8:00 – 9:50 AM
8:00 – 10:50 AM
Dennis Gilbert, 239/16, 541-463-5049, gilbertd@lanecc.edu
W 11:00-11:50 AM; 11 hours exam review;
and by appointment
www: http://galileo.seas.harvard.edu/students/?courseID=4805
----------------------------------------------------------Section 2 Class times: MF
11:00 – 12:50 PM
W
10:00 – 12:50 PM
Professor:
Office hours:
Evan Keith, 125/16, 541-463-3218, keithe@lanecc.edu
TuTh 11:00-11:50; and by appointment
www: http://galileo.seas.harvard.edu/students/?courseID=4804
----------------------------------------------------------Text:
Giancoli, Physics for Scientists and Engineers – with Modern
Physics, 4th Ed.
Student Study Guide
Co/Prerequisite:
Math 252 (second term/semester calculus or equivalent)
PH 211 (or equivalent) previously
Journal:
Hard copy weekly entries by Friday 5:00 PM
in class, in professor’s office, or Science Office drop box
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Reading
questions:
Answered online by midnight before each class, except
exam days and the first class of the term.
Resources:
Tutors in SRC, MRC,TRIO
Group Study
Mastering Physics
Harvard ILT site
Textbook
Homework Solutions
Practice Exams, Solutions
MyMathTest
Online resource sites
Student Study Guide
Homework Format and Schedule (updated continuously):
Format your homework according to the following rules: Put your name class
and chapter number on the first page. Write only on one side. Staple the pages
together. Leave some space between problems, and pay attention to elements
of good form as reflected in the homework review criteria. Some problems will
be done on Mastering Physics. The following is the tentative schedule:
week chapt Homework for this week’s study
10
9,15,25,30,40,46,49,57,67,75,93,100,103
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10
11
11
13
13
36
36
14
14
15
15
16
16
32
34
32
34
35
35
due
comments
In vol. 1
1-11
7,10,24,28,31,32,33,35,41,51,80
1-20
2,17,18,29,37,43,44,50,83,91,95
1-25
3,4,10,23,31,37,43,44,80
In vol. 3
2-3
7,10,22,25,31,32,59,77,80,87
In vol. 1
2-10
10,11,16,24,37,41,49,51,72,76,86
2-17
8,14,22,23,55,61,63,72
2-24
6,32,38,44,51,52,58,59
9,12,23,26,52,53
In vol. 2
3-2
3-4
3,35,52,59,63,70,71,75
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Course Description:
PH 212 concerns a variety of topics. We will continue the study of Classical
Mechanics, particularly rotation and fluids. Then we will go beyond the
Newtonian framework to Special Relativity of Einstein. Following this, we will
study oscillations and waves in a medium, and then light and optics. This
introduces a different kind of motion than studied so far in Classical Mechanics.
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It is both a new application of Newtonian physics and a bridge to Quantum
Physics and new areas of Applied Physics and Engineering. We will continue
to mention from time to time (when it suits our purposes) the connection of
Classical Mechanics to other intellectual and cultural developments that arose
from, or along with, the phenomenal success of the Newtonian framework and its
evolution into Modern Physics.
Extensive research has shown that most people enter introductory physics
classes with deeply held beliefs and intuitions. This is to be expected, since by
adulthood people have had much experience with mechanical motion. Most of
these beliefs and intuitions, if summed up, are not unlike the understanding of the
most brilliant thinkers 400 years ago. However, the classical mechanics of
Newton radically advanced the understanding of mechanical motion since then.
Wave motion and the behavior of light is also counter-intuitive in a number of
ways. And finally, Special Relativity introduces a whole new framework of
understanding and defines a limit on insights provided by Classical Mechanics.
To change one’s thinking to incorporate these understandings is no small task.
Physics education research has shown that for most people, it is not nearly
enough to read a text or attend lectures, as necessary as these activities are.
Active engagement in constructing and re-constructing your understanding is
required, and these activities are an important component of the learning
environment of this course.
Asking questions is a component of active engagement. You are invited and
encouraged to ask questions about the subject matter and also about the
structure of the class learning environment. Your understanding of the design of
the class will help you get the most out of the class.
Asking questions and joining and paying attention to discussions in small groups
and the whole class is not just an optimal environment for learning, but it is part
of learning the language and habits of discourse needed for your career and
future study, which is a living part of understanding the subject matter of the
class.
The course operates within a lecture-lab format, which means we will move
between lecture, small group work, problem solving, demonstrations, short
laboratory exercises, and lengthy lab investigations. Activity in class will also be
coordinated with work outside of class.
Even though most people cannot learn physics just from a text, reading the text
before discussions is extremely valuable to (1) gain familiarity with the subject
matter, (2) gain familiarity with the way you are currently thinking, (3) reconnect
with your personal experience involving the topic, and (4) connect the subject
with your current academic/career path. This will prepare you for the class
activities and the deep learning that we expect to be taking place. Reading the
text again later will help in sharpening and solidifying your thinking. The text
has a variety of resources and additional ancillary resources.
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To support use of the text in the course and to keep us working together (“on the
same page”!), answers to brief reading questions will be due midnight (our
time) before we meet the next day for class. You will also be able to raise
concerns you want addressed in the next class as well. (Work schedules or
online access may make this unworkable, so other arrangements will be made as
necessary. Speak to your professor if this is your situation.)
You will also submit, in hard copy, weekly journal entries, which are due by
each Friday at 5:00. They will be read and commented on by the professor
each weekend and handed back to you in class. Journal entries provide you the
opportunity to carry on a mindful conversation with the professor about the
course subject matter as well as about what is working (or not) to support your
learning. Taking the time to think about your learning has been shown to help
you learn better. In addition, journaling supports and encourages the
development of a robust internal conversation that is part of an intellectual life.
Practice is useful and necessary to gain mastery of precise use of physics
concepts and develop and refine what are called problem-solving skills that
make use of basic physics principles. This practice is the primary purpose of
regular homework assignments throughout the course, which is an important
component of your learning.
Advice concerning the general goals of the course
1. Physics is the study of matter and motion in its most fundamental forms. You
will see in Classical Mechanics that there are relatively few concepts. Because
of their great power and generality, precision of understanding is necessary, and
this takes some effort to accomplish. Special Relativity has its own few
assumptions which lead to a variety of amazing conclusions, as well as provide
the starting point for all sorts of calculations. Oscillations and Wave Motion have
basic assumptions, but we will also investigate many wave phenomena, which
are tiny worlds of understanding of a specific sort.
So in this class, we will engage a wide variety of concepts of various levels of
generality. Several kinds of conceptual representations will also be used –
graphs, diagrams, mathematics, narrative, etc. It will be useful for you to
understand them and apply them individually and together. This requires
practice on your part. Conceptual understanding is the foundational element
of this course.
2. Physics can make quantitative predictions and reach quantitative conclusions.
Calculation is an essential part of theoretical work in physics as well as part of
the practical application and investigation involving physics. Mathematics
provides an important representation of physics concepts as well as the
language of calculation, and thus is an important tool of problem solving and
problem posing.
The novice physics problem-solver usually uses trial and error within a
framework of searching for sufficient formulas and data and using mathematical
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skills to solve for unknowns (“plug-and-chug”). In contrast, the expert physics
problem-solver has a much wider variety of strategies and tactics and begins with
a conceptual understanding of the physics involved in the physical situation and
applies mathematical tools in a targeted manner and often creates the formulas
that lead to the solution. While the novice is limited to a case-based
understanding, the expert works from basic principles that apply to many cases.
And, while the novice is, at best, a problem solver, the expert can creatively pose
problems. The course will support your development toward being an expert
physics problem-solver and problem-poser.
3. In this calculus-based version of General Physics, you will use the
mathematics in which physicists express elementary physics, namely calculus.
At this point, you need to be co-enrolled in the second term of Calculus (Math
252), or to have successfully taken Math 252 or the equivalent previously. We
will continue to need to use some elements of calculus before you encounter
them in the calculus math classes, if you are taking them concurrently. You will
see that this is not a significant problem. We will take the time to provide
explanations as needed, and generally need to do so anyway because
everyone’s knowledge of calculus is not perfect. You will also find that
understanding the physics in this class will help you understand calculus if you
are taking it concurrently.
If you are anxious or wonder whether you need better understanding of the
mathematics used in the class, you are welcomed and encouraged to raise
questions specifically pertaining to the mathematics. A more urgent need
than understanding calculus is a good basic mastery of algebra and
arithmetic, and you will be provided with help in sharpening these skills.
4. As this course is part of your academic journey, several things are worthy of
your attention. First, different courses engage you in different traditions of sensemaking with their own languages, patterns of reasoning, and cultures. Pay
attention to understanding these different languages and different uses of similar
words and ideas. Subject matter areas are interrelated, so your understanding in
each area will help with understanding and asking questions in the others.
Second, your journey is part of a path toward becoming self-directed
professionals. Increasing responsibility will be expected of you to find validation
of your level of understanding, to schedule your class work, to be prepared for
work in class, and to be more reflective and self-aware.
Third, your journey is yours in the active sense that you are taking it. Appreciate
your own path of learning in the class. Ask for the help you need. Organize with
other students. Make conscious choices and learn from each other. As you
learn more and become more mindfully engaged, you are becoming more
capable of contributing to the wider community and meeting new challenges.
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Homework:
► Homework will be assigned from the text and will be due as posted above.
Providing constructive feedback to your classmates on their homework
after they hand it in will be part of your homework assignment.
► The purpose of doing homework goes well beyond “getting the answer”
and is mainly mindful practice of problems solving skills. Thus, you are
required to show your work and reasoning as appropriate to receive full
credit. A model solution will be posted in week one. What constitutes
good solutions will be an ongoing topic of discussion.
► You are welcome and encouraged to work on homework with your
classmates. Please feel free to seek help from the professor or from
physics tutors in the Science Resource Center, and the Math Resource
Center, and from other students in physics study sessions. However, the
work you turn in must be your own.
► Answers to assigned problems are posted for you to check that you have
arrived at the answer expected. Arriving at that answer is a secondary
purpose of homework, which is increasing and solidifying your
understanding of basic principles and approaches to problem solving that
are more general than their use in any specific problem.
► Complete solutions will be available soon after the due date. These
solutions will be useful feedback about your current understanding; please
use it for this purpose. As you use these solutions, however, you will find
that you may occasionally need to do a little thinking about how one step
follows from the next, and you will encounter the fact that there are often
many different good ways to solve a problem. Your aim in using these
solutions is not to memorize them for use on similar problems, but to gain
a sense of general principles that will enable you to solve problems you
haven’t seen before.
► Some homework will make use of an online service, Mastering Physics,
providing instant feedback or tutorial support. Details of the schedule of
this work will be provided in class and on the Mastering Physics site.
► Since homework is an essential mode of practice, there will be penalties
for late homework; a minimal level of homework participation is required.
Projects:
In the class, there will be ongoing and specific projects, which will count toward
your grade (under projects, later). Ongoing projects include your participation in
the online reading questions, Mastering Physics, online forums, daily class
activities, and weekly journaling. During the course, a few specific projects may
also be assigned.
Exams:
There will be two midterms and one final exam. Exams will cover the broad
range of subject matter and course learning activities. Exams are closed book,
but generally useful equations and physical constants will be provided. For full
credit, you must show all work necessary to demonstrate the result. The
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professor, time permitting, will provide practice exams and solutions
approximately a week before each mid-term. There will also be review sessions
(essentially collective office hours) at times and places set by the class.
Exams are not used solely to measure your current level of understanding, but
are organized and used as opportunities for learning. Expect to spend time
analyzing and learning from your exam experience; you will re-do part of your
exam as part of the exam experience.
Students who audit the course generally do not participate in exams.
Labs:
The facilities we use allow the course to be organized in a lecture-lab format,
which allows a fuller integration of lecture-like and lab-like activities. There will
be both short, directed lab activities as well as longer investigations that involve
more extensive skills of inquiry, experimental design and presentation. In
general, the aims of lab work include the following:






To provide direct contact with concrete systems for analysis and
exploration;
To support the development of conceptual understanding;
To provide experience in investigation and inquiry;
To support the development of analytical skills of experimentation,
including lab design, data analysis, analysis or error and uncertainty,
modeling, and estimation;
To provide familiarity with lab equipment, including software interfaces and
sensors; and
To support the development of presentation skills, including use of data
presentation software.
Students will keep and maintain Lab Notes that document an honest record of
experimental work in the class, and students will produce Lab Reports and fill
out worksheets on specific investigations. More information about these reports
will be provided along with these activities.
Help:
Many forms of help are available beyond the classroom, including tutors in the
Science Resource Center, Math Resource Center, Physics Study Sessions,
online help, reading materials, and professor office hours. Contact the
professor as soon as possible, if you are not learning at the level you
desire, or if you could use help thinking through how you will deal with
unexpected difficulties.
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Grades:
The professor has the responsibility for determining grades. Different
components of the course will generally contribute in the following proportions;
however, because these components are not linearly independent and learning is
accumulative, the professor will exercise a more holistic and non-linear grade
determination as the situation warrants.
Exams - 60%
Homework - 15%
Labs - 10%
Projects - 15%
Letter grades are based on the following criteria:
A
excellent performance
B
good performance
C
satisfactory performance
D
less than satisfactory performance
F
unsatisfactory performance
Please note that grades are not based on ranking in the class (for example, a “C”
is not defined as average). Grades are based on performance, a standard set
before the class by the professor that does not immediately fluctuate with student
performance (i.e. grade standards are not “curved”). Thus, learning from each
other and helping and encouraging each other, instead of competition, is the
optimal strategy for getting good grades. Generally your grades reflect your
actual performance, not a judgment about your capabilities. To achieve a level
of performance that reflects your capabilities, you must plan for and spend
regular and adequate time and attention focused on the course.
A level of minimum participation in the class is required for continued
enrollment and a passing grade. One fourth of work assigned in the following
categories must be satisfactorily completed at the half-way and end of the
course:
 Written end-of-chapter homework
 Reviewing written end-of-chapter homework
 Mastering Physics end-of-chapter homework
 Reading questions
 Journal entries
 Lab activities
 Other class activities
Not only does this participation help you learn, it helps you productively engage
in the class discourse, which helps everybody learn.
Class Climate:
Student Rights and Responsibilities: Students have both rights and
responsibilities. You have the right to be taught by a qualified teacher, graded
fairly and expeditiously, and provided with a respectful, stimulating learning
environment. Students also have a role in creating and maintaining a respectful,
stimulating learning environment. You should participate in a thoughtful manner
by sharing your ideas and responding to the ideas of others. When another
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person in the class is speaking, you should give that person your full attention.
You should treat everyone in the classroom with respect; belittling or derogatory
remarks are not appropriate. Really thriving in this class involves openly sharing
your current understandings, which are often in need of improvement (Otherwise,
why are you in the class?). Not only is there much to learn from the free
expression of each other’s mistakes and misconceptions, you will not learn as
well if you feel intimidated from expressing yourself for fear that you will be
belittled or dismissed.
Since you are here to learn, you are responsible for completing assigned
readings and work on time, as well as showing up for class in a prepared
manner. You have a responsibility not only to yourself, but to other students who
will be distracted or discouraged when you are not engaged in learning or when
you are not fully present for group activities. Cell-phones/ pagers and personal
computers are to be turned off during class (and no text messaging) unless there
is a reason that you have cleared with the professor. You should be attentive
and focused on the work at hand; you are not allowed to do work for other
classes or use class computers or your laptop or other devices for activities
outside the class during class time. You will have timely ten-minute breaks
approximately each hour to conduct personal business or do work involving other
classes.
If you have questions, or you are unclear about elements of the subject matter or
operation of the class, it is part of your responsibility to ask questions. If part of
the class is not working well for you, you have the responsibility to share this fact
with the professor.
Academic dishonesty is inappropriate in the class and college environment. If it
appears to the professor that your behavior is similar to that of students who
have engaged in academic dishonesty, the professor will take action that will
reach a determination of whether academic dishonesty took place. You have the
right to due process in this determination. In general, the professor does not
make the determination of whether academic dishonesty took place, because
part of the optimum learning environment is a practice of trust by the professor.
Academic dishonesty: Students registered in this class are assumed to be
giving their word to the college that they will not cheat. Therefore, all students
proven guilty of academic dishonesty in this class will receive an F/N grade
with the recommendation that they be suspended. (In other words, don't
waste time thinking about cheating.)
Professor Rights and Responsibilities: Professors have the right to be treated
as professionals and to create, structure and teach classes in the manner that
their expertise and training best informs them. Professors for this class don’t see
the class as either teacher-centered or student-centered, but as subjectcentered. That is, the subject matter, and what is needed to best learn it, will
direct the roles of both the students and the professor. That is what professors
will keep in mind as they exercise their responsibility to structure the environment
in which you learn. For example, you may wonder whether it is appropriate to
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ask a particular question. Your main job is to ask the questions you need to ask.
You should not hold back because you think it might interrupt the class. It is your
professor’s responsibility, and not yours, to determine whether there is sufficient
time to answer questions or whether the questions are sufficiently distracting to
other students. Each of you are also encouraged to use multiple avenues to
keep your professor informed about what is working (or not) to support your
learning in this class.
The classroom is a sacred space in that here people transform their thinking
processes, which involves vulnerability and what we will become, and it is the
professor’s responsibility to define appropriate rules for the class and to protect
the boundaries of the class. In accordance with Lane policies, a professor may
dismiss a student from a class for the day for in-class behavior that is deemed to
be disruptive or inappropriate. All guests (or other non-students) may attend only
with the consent of the professor, and may attend only under the conditions set
by the professor. For example, adult guests are usually expected to participate
in class activities.
I welcome the responsibility to encourage you to use college procedures to
improve the course and your learning environment. I invite you to inform me of
problems you have with the course, make suggestions for improving the class or
your learning, and make suggestions for maintaining the quality of the class and
your learning. I encouraged you to find out about the student complaint
procedure or other resources for redressing grievances, which you may do by
asking me or consulting the college catalog.
Thanks:
This course parallels similar physics courses at other institutions. The faculty
and the faculty lead for this course thanks colleagues and students at Lane and
other colleges and universities who have contributed good ideas toward the
structure and content of this course and the resources for this course. Students
have made and are encouraged to make suggestions to their professor. Thank
you in advance.
Links:
Following are some addresses to useful websites:
(More links may be added throughout the term to the version of this document in
the Handouts section of the online ILT class management site for this course.
Sharing of useful sites is also possible through a forum on the ILT site.)
MIT E&M lectures (includes waves and optical phenomena)
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-andMagnetismSpring2002/VideoLectures/
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MIT Classical Mechanics lectures (includes rotation, fluid mechanics, and
oscillations)
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/
phet site (Physics Education Technology – Univ. of Colorado)
http://phet.colorado.edu/new/index.php
Mechanical Universe video presentations
http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html
© Dennis Gilbert, 2006-2016
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