Physics 211-02: Science and Engineering Physics I – Spring 2009
1. PROFESSOR
Jason W. Barnes
Office: Engineering-Physics Building Room 331
Email: jwbarnes@uidaho.edu – Phone: (208) 885-7469
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:20PM-12:20PM or by appointment
2. CLASS WEBSITE: http://barnesos.net/phys211/
3. COURSE SCHEDULE
Classroom: Engineering-Physics Building Room 122
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:30AM-11:20PM
RECITATION: Tuesday, Wednesday 5:00PM-6:00PM EP-122
4. TEXTBOOKS
Serway & Jewett, Physics for Scientists and Engineers (7th edition), with webassign – required
5. CLASSWORK AND GRADING
Grades for the course will be individually curved – i.e. curved separately for each assignment. The
curves will be set by those that turn in each assignment – hence not handing in work will not lower the
curve, and will likely be quite detrimental to your final grade. Make sure to get your work done.
5.1. Homework (40%)
Physics is not a spectator sport. In order to learn how the universe works, you will need to sit down
and think about it outside of class, and this thinking usually involves a pad of paper, a pencil, and a lot
of math. To that end homework is an important part of this course, and you will need to keep up with it
in order to be able to understand the course as it moves on to the next topic.
ALL HOMEWORKS FOR THIS CLASS WILL BE TURNED IN ONLINE AT
http://webassign.net/ . I have already added everyone to the online class list that was registered in the
course as of New Year’s. If you’ve registered since then, either come by or email me as soon as possible so
that I can include you in the class list.
There are two types of homeworks. Daily Homeworks are due nearly every class period. These are
conceptual problems or easy computations that are intended to reinforce the previous lecture. Chapter
Homeworks are a set of 7-10 questions and problems that are due after we have covered an entire chapter.
These are substantial problem sets that might take you 4-6 hours to complete.
I do understand that as students you have other things in your lives than this class, though, and that
the weekly homeworks can seem relentless. If you need an extension, click the “request extension” button on webassign BEFORE the due date. Each student gets 2 free 1-week extensions over the course of
the semester, no explanations required. Past your two freebies I’ll need a reason to justify more extensions.
5.2. Exams (60%)
The class has 4 exams, each 50 minutes long and administered in-class. The exams have a mixture of
multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, and problems. Each of the exams covers just the most
–2–
recent subset of book chapters and is not cumulative; however, do note that each chapter depends to a
large degree on the previous chapters.
Note that according to the University of Idaho the following are valid reasons for missing an exam:
Patricipating in an approved field trip or other offical UI activity, confined under doctors orders, called
to active military duty, granted leave of absence by the academic dean, and if an exam falls on a day
objectionable to a student because of religious beliefs.
However, during the second hour of the scheduled final exam period students will be given the opportunity to RETAKE one of the first three exams. If you missed one of those exams due to being out of
town on a University-endorsed activity or if you wish to retake an exam in order to improve your grade,
you will be given a chance to do so at the time of the final exam.
6. GETTING HELP
The math and problems in this class are not all that hard. However the concepts behind the problems
are in general quite different than conventional ways of thinking, and can rather difficult to wrap your
brain around. To that end, please make maximum use of the following resources for support:
Recitation. The recitation for our Phys 211 section is Wednesday at 5PM in room 122. The recitation for the other Phys 211 section is Tuesday at 5PM in room 122. You should by all means attend at
least our recitation, and the other recitation, too, if you’re having trouble. While no new concepts are
introduced in the recitations, the TA will answer questions and work problems for that hour. These are
very useful for understanding the nuts-and-bolts of physics problemsolving.
Ask your TA. The TAs for this course and all of the other physics courses hang out in room 309
for a significant fraction of most days. All of these TAs are willing and able to answer any questions that
you might have about concepts or problems. The schedule for when they are available is posted outside of
room 309.
Tutoring. The University of Idaho offers tutoring to students FREE OF CHARGE for one class per
semester. (I think that they charge you if you need help in more than one class at once). Read more about
tutoring at: http://www.students.uidaho.edu/taap.
Ask me. If all else fails (or before then!), come by my office hours or send me an email.
7. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Students are encouraged to work together on homework. However, each student must write up their
solutions independently. Copying from someone else’s answers is not appropriate, even if you both talked
about the answers together. Talk about the problems and their solutions, but be sure to do and submit
your own work.
Cheating and/or violations of the University’s code for academic dishonesty (see
http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/fsh/2300.html) will be referred to the appropriate administrative authorities for disciplinary action.
8. DETAILED SCHEDULE
on subsequent pages – “*” indicates Daily Homework due.
–3–
Table 1. Approximate schedule (subject to change)
Date
Chapter
Topics
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
Jan
Jan
Jan
Jan
Jan
Jan
Jan
Jan
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
Feb
14
16*
19
21*
23*
26HW
28*
30*
2HW
4*
6*
9HW
11*
13*
16
18HW
20*
23HW
25*
1
2
2
2
3
3
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
7
7
Class organization, measurements
Position, speed, velocity
no class – MLK-Jr. Day
Acceleration
Calculus and Problem-Solving
Vectors
Vector Addition, components
~x, ~v , and ~a
Circular motion, Galilean relativity
Vector motion problems
Newton’s 1st and 2nd laws
Newton’s 3rd law
Consequences of Newton’s laws
Circular motion and non-inertial frames
no class – Presidents’ Day
*** FIRST EXAM ***
Resisted motion
Work and vector dot-products
Kinetic and Potential Energies
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
Feb 27
Mar 2HW
Mar 4*
Mar 6*
Mar 9HW
Mar 11*
Mar 13*
Mar 16
Mar 18
Mar 20
Mar 23HW
7
8
8
8
9
9
9
-
Energy problems
Energy Conservation
Power and Friction
Energy conservation problems
Momentum, Conservation, and Impulse
Collisions
Center of mass, systems, and rockets
no class – spring break
no class – spring break
no class – spring break
*** SECOND EXAM ***
Associated Reading
1.all
2.1, 2.2, 2.3
2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7
2.8 and p42
3.1, 3.2, 3.3
3.4
4.1, 4.2, 4.3
4.4, 4.5, 4.6
5.1, 5.2,
5.5,
5.7,
6.1, 6.2,
5.3
5.6
5.8
6.3
1-5
6.4
7.1, 7.2, 7.3
7.4, 7.5, 7.6
7.7, 7.8, 7.9
8.1, 8.2
8.4, 8.5
9.1, 9.2
9.3, 9.4
9.5, 9.6, 9.8
6-9
–4–
Table 2. Approximate schedule (subject to change)
Date
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
Mar 25*
Mar 27*
Mar 30*
Apr 1HW
Apr 3*
Apr 6*
Apr 8HW
Apr 10*
Apr 13HW
Apr 15*
Apr 17*
Apr 20HW
Apr 22*
Apr 24*
Apr 27*
Apr 29HW
May 1*
May 4*
May 6*
May 8HW
May 14
Chapter
Topics
Associated Reading
10
10
10
11
11
11
12
12
15
15
15
13
13
13
39
39
39
39
39
-
Rotational dynamics
Torque, moment of inertia
Rotation problems
Angular momentum
Conservation and gyroscopic motion
Angular momentum problems
Intro to statics
Statics problems
Simple Harmonic Oscillators (SHOs)
Damped, forced oscillators
Pendula and problems
*** THIRD EXAM ***
Newtonian gravitation
Gravity and astrophysics
Gravity problems
Einsteinian Special Relativity
Lorenz transformation and applications
Velocity transform, energy, momentum
Special relativity problems
Energy and mass
*** FINAL EXAM ***
10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4
10.5, 10.6, 10.7
11.1, 11.2, 11.3
11.4, 11.5
12.1, 12.2, 12.3
15.1, 15.2, 15.3
15.6, 15.7
15.4. 15.5
10-12, 15
13.1, 13.2, 13.5
13.3, 13.4, 13.6
39.1, 39.2, 39.3
39.4, 39.5
39.6, 39.7, 39.8
39.9
13, 39