PHYS185 – Fundamentals of Physics 1
Fall 2009
Instructor:
Nicole DiGironimo, nd27@drexel.edu
Disque Hall, room 902
Lecture: Tuesday 7-10pm, Curtis Hall rm343
Office Hours: By appointment only, please email me
Textbook:
Sear and Zemansky's University Physics, 12th ed., Young and Freedman. 2007. Addison Wesley.
Please note that this book comes with an access code for the website, "Mastering Physics." To get
started, please go to: http://www.masteringphysics.com/site. Follow the instructions for self-study.
Course Information:
The Drexel University course catalog states that our course will cover: “vectors; statics, kinematics, and
classical dynamics, including Newton's laws, torque, projectile motion, and circular motion; work; power
and energy; impulse and momentum; and rotation, in a calculus-based course.” This is an accurate list of
what we’ll cover this term. This is a lot of introductory physics and it can all be found in the first 10
chapters of your textbook. To completely meet the expectations of the course, we will cover at least one
chapter a week, so it will be vital that you keep up with the readings and assignments.
Class Structure:
Each class will be broken up into 3 segments. During the first segment, we will review information from
the previous week. When we’re all ready, we’ll move onto the new material. Then in the third segment
of our class, we’ll do some practice problems from our current chapter.
We will not have class on October 13th but there will be mandatory individual meetings that week. We
will schedule these individual meetings in class on October 6th. The purpose of the individual meetings is
to check-in on how the course is going for everyone. It will provide us with ample time to deal with any
issues that may arise. We also will not have class on November 3rd.
Short Physics Exercise:
Each week we will begin our class with a short physics exercise. I will collect your exercise and then we
will go over it as a group. The primary purpose of this exercise is for you (and me) to gauge your
understanding of the material we’ve covered. Sometimes the exercise will involve multiple-choice
questions and sometimes they will be short-answer questions. Regardless of the format, you should
show all of your work and explain your thinking as best as you can. You can always use your notes and
your textbook to answer these questions.
Each exercise will be worth 5 points. The emphasis is placed on your work/thinking/effort – not on
whether you have the correct final answer.
Practicing at Home:
Outside of class you will be expected to work on review the textbook chapter and complete two
questions chosen from our textbook. Although I will not collect your work on these questions, we will go
over them in class and it will benefit your learning and your grade to attempt the problems before class.
The second way you can review and prepare outside of class involves the Mastering Physics Webpage.
You will be expected to work through the Active Physics lessons that relate to the chapters we covered
in class. There are notations in the textbook to let you know which Active Physics lesson relates to the
material in that section of the chapter. I suggest you do the Active Physics lessons as you review the
chapter and our notes from class. There is nothing for you to turn in after you complete these lessons.
Outside of class I also expect you to skim the upcoming chapter. This will significantly increase your
chances at doing well in this course. It will also enable us to have more productive class meetings, which
is extremely important for a class that only meets once a week.
Attendance and Participation:
Obviously your attendance in class is vital to your success in our physics course. However, I understand
that life can occasionally interfere with school. If you know you will be missing a class, you need to email
me as soon as possible. If I am informed of your absence prior to the start of our class, you will be
excused from class and you will not lose attendance points. However, if you do not let me know – you
will receive a zero for your attendance grade on that day.
Your participation in our class is also extremely important. It’s necessary for me to hear feedback from
you during class; I can’t know if you understand what we’re covering unless you tell me! Additionally, I’ll
need you to participate in the third section of our class – the practice problems. In many situations, I’ll
ask you to work with other students in the class to develop a solution to a physics question. Your
attentiveness during lecture and your willingness to contribute to the learning of your classmates will
determine your participation grade in this class.
Exams:
There will be two take-home exams during the term. The first exam will cover chapters 1-5. It will be
handed out in class on October 6th and it will be due at the start of class on November 10th. The second
exam will cover chapters 6-10. It will be handed out in class on November 10th and it will be due at the
beginning of the final exam on December 8th. The final exam will be a cumulative exam; you will be
allowed to use one double-sided crib sheet for the final exam.
My goal is to reduce the stress often caused by exams by incorporating take-home exams and by
providing you with ample time to complete each exam. As with any assignment, you should feel free to
discuss the exams with me if you have any questions. However, you should not discuss the exam with
any other students, faculty, or tutors.
Academic Honesty:
The short physics exercises that begin each of our classes should be done individually. Discussion and
collaboration is strongly encouraged when working through at-home and in-class practice problems; you
should use this opportunity to learn from each other. However, collaboration can often lead to
academic honesty infractions if you’re not careful. If you directly transcribe the work of another, you are
plagiarizing their work.
Students caught plagiarizing another's work or permitting cheating off their own work will receive a zero
on the assignment or exam for the first violation. Students will fail the course and will be reported to the
Office of Judicial Affairs if there is a second violation.
Students are referred to the current edition of the Student Handbook for additional information on the
university’s position on academic honesty.
Grading:
Your final grade in this class will be calculated using the following formula:
Attendance
Participation
Short Physics Exercises
First Take-home Exam
Second Take-home Exam
Cumulative Final
5%
5%
20%
25%
25%
20%
Course Calendar:
Date
Textbook Coverage
Practice Problems
Active Physics Lessons
September 22
Chapter 1.1-1.10
1.67 and 1.80
None this week
September 29
Chapter 2.1-2.6
2.62 and 2.76
1.1 – 1.14
October 6
Chapter 3.1-3.5
3.48 and 3.60
3.1 – 3.7
October 13
No class this week (Individual Meetings)
October 20
Chapter 4.1-4.6
4.37 and 4.50
2.1.1, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.9
October 27
Chapter 5.1-5.4
5.61 and 5.86
2.1.2, 2.1.5, 2.2-2.8, 2.10,
4.2-4.5
November 3
No class this week
November 10
Take-home exam #1 is due
November 10
Chapter 6.1-6.4
Chapter 7.1-7.5
6.57 and 6.81
7.46 and 7.65
5.1
5.2 – 5.7
November 17
Chapter 8.1-8.5
8.69 and 8.97
6.1 – 6.4, 6.7 – 6.10
November 24
Chapter 9.1-9.5
9.70 and 9.96
7.7, 7.12, 7.13
December 1
Chapter 10.1-10.7
10.55 and 10.76
7.1, 7.8 – 7.11, 7.14
December 8
Take-home exam #2 is due
Date of the in-class Final Exam