Welcome
to
Physics
1D03
PHYSICS 1D03 - MECHANICS
Me: Dr. W. Okoń
Office: ABB-150
e-mail: okon@physics.mcmaster.ca
Office Hours: TBA
Course web page (all sections):
http://physwww.mcmaster.ca/PHYS1D03
Course web page (this section)
http://physwww.mcmaster.ca/~okon/1d03/1d03.html
I will be posting news and lecture notes here!!!
Components of the course
-Labs: every second week, 4 labs in the term.
15% of the final grade.
-Tutorials: every second week, alternating with labs.
6% of the final grade.
- CAPA assignments, every week. 3% of the final grade
- Two term tests. Total 20% of the final grade. (MC + long)
- Final exam, 2.5 hours. 51% of the final grade. (MC + long)
- Classroom participation. 5% (i-clicker quizzes – see outline)
Things you need
- Lab manual (check bookstore asap) (same manual is used for
1D & 1E)
- Textbook (Serway) (same book is used for 1D & 1E)
- Casio fx-991 calculator
- i-clicker
Labs
• Read the schedule for your lab/tutorial section.
• There is a pre-lab assignment (in the lab manual) to be
completed and handed in just before each lab. This
encourages you to prepare properly.
• In the lab, students work in pairs. The report is completed
during the lab period and handed in before leaving (one
report per pair).
• You must complete all the labs. A make-up week is
provided at the end of term.
• If you’re repeating the course, go to ABB-241 to get a
lab exemption form (there is no tutorial exemption!)
Tutorials
Tutorials alternate with labs. Dates for each section are on
the lab schedule. Labs/Tutorials start on Mon Sept 16.
Each tutorial will be led by two graduate or senior
undergraduate student teaching assistants.
In the tutorials you will learn to discuss physics problems,
and to work effectively in groups of 4 or 5. Problems will be
taken from the CAPA practice assignments.
Tutorials: Working in groups
• seeing other ways of doing a problem deepens
understanding
• getting practice in communicating how to do a
problem - an essential skill!
• getting practice in working in small groups. This will
come up often in the next four years (and later).
ASK YOUR TAs QUESTIONS !!!
Avenue to Learn
• Avenue, CAPA, and Tutorials: We will be using
McMaster’s Avenue to Learn system to post course
information, and to give students access to the CAPA
computerised assignments.
You will be tested on the material in CAPA problem
sets at the start of the tutorials, which you must
attend. Information on using the system can be
found at
http://avenue.mcmaster.ca.
Homework Using CAPA
• There will be a CAPA assignment each week. Answers are entered
into the computer The CAPA system tells you immediately whether
the answer is correct, and allows you to try again. You can long
on/off and keep working on an assignment as often as you like.
•The CAPA assignments themselves are worth 2.5% of your grade;
and the tutorial quizzes are based on the same problems.
•You will get access to the CAPA assignments directly from Avenue
to Learn. You have to get your login working to do CAPA!
•Read the CAPA help page before you start!
Concept Quiz Instructions
• Think about the problem by yourself for 1-2 minutes
• Find a neighbour who disagrees with you, and
convince him/her that you’re right
• Use your i-cliker to answer
• Bring your clicker to every class - if you forget it and
you need it, too bad 
i-clicker Registration
• Go to the course website and follow the link
or
• Go here: http://www.iclicker.com/registration/
- Use student number
- If you make a mistake, do it again, don’t email me!
- Do it when you get your clicker
Example Quiz
A dump truck loaded with watermelons is driving at
10 m/s along a bumpy road. One of the watermelons
tumbles off the back of the truck and falls to the road
(it starts 5 m above the road and takes 1 second to
fall). How far behind the truck is it when it hits the
road?
A) less than 1 m
B) 5 m
C) 10 m
Lectures
• Important concepts and principles. Frequent
demonstrations. Less time on complete solutions to
example problems.
• Read the text as well; the lectures won’t include
everything. Reading BEFORE helps a lot !!!
• Lecture slides will be posted on my web page.
The slides are not the whole lecture! Take notes
as we work things out on the blackboard.
Missed Work Forms (MSAF)
For missed tutorials and midterm tests:
*When you use the MSAF form, the weight of the missed item is
always added to the final examination.
*The mark on Avenue will eventually show up as "-2" if I received the
form, but this may take up to a week as the forms need to be
processed.
*E-mail me ONLY if your mark does not show as "-2" after about a
week after you submitted the form.
*DO NOT fill out an MSAF form for missed class attendance or CAPA
– these will be ignored/deleted and you will loose one form.
Doing well in Physics 1D03
• Keep up with the course! Spend at least a few
hours every week on the course, even the weeks you
have two math tests and a chemistry test. Attend the
lectures and tutorials. Read the text. Do the problems.
• Practice problems from the text will be listed each
week. Try several of these. Think hard about them;
don’t give up on the difficult ones.
• Discuss questions and problems with other students.
Explaining something helps you clarify your ideas.
Engineering I requires a lot of your time. Expect to work
many evenings and weekends. Organise your time
early in the term, before the deadlines arrive!
Physics 1D3 Lecture 1
15
Homework 
• Read the course outline and find the course web page.
Read everything…
• Get the 1D/1E lab manual (2013 edition). If the bookstore is
out of stock, put in an order right away.
• Buy the text (new or used, any edition)– you’ll find it
useful for the next few years !!! Read the first two
chapters of the text (review); the next lecture is on Chapter 2.