Physics& 221 — Engineering Physics

Spring 2009
Everett Community College
Instr. Kristine Washburn

Syllabus + Schedule   |   Application Projects   |   Slides   |   How to Pass Phys121   

Important dates

  • Fri, Apr 3 - Last day to drop with 100% refund
  • Fri, Apr 17 - Last day to drop with 50% refund
  • Fri, May 22 - Last day to drop with W
  • Mon, May 25 - No school: Memorial Day
  • Fri, Jun 12 - Final exam 10:00am-12:00pm

    • Instructor Information

    Course Information

    Textbook

    Pre/Co-requisites

    Prereq: Grade of C or higher in PHYS& 121, MATH& 152; ENGL 098 with grade of C or higher or placement in ENGL& 101. Note that PREREQUISITES must be completed before taking a course.

    Coreq: While taking this course you must be concurrently enrolled in Physics& 231. Either this quarter or next you must also take Physics 130: Fabrication Skills and Safety. This is required for Phys& 233 which you'll be taking in Winter 2010.

    Course Objectives

    The objectives of this course are

    These objectives will be achieved through the homework, application projects, and lecture activities such as interactive lecture demos and group quizzes.

    A94%
    A-90%
    B+86%
    B82%
    B-78%
    C+74%
    C70%
    C-66%
    D+62%
    D58%
    D-54%
    E0-54%
    Item Number Points Each Points Total
    Homework 10 15 150
    Application Projects 5 25 125
    Participation in lecture activities 20 5 100
    Midterms 2 100 200
    Final — 200 200
    Total     775

    Grades

    The numbers in the table of grades are all lower cutoffs for the corresponding letter grades. If you are taking this class on a S/NS basis, the cutoff for an 'S' is 70%.

    Here are some of the things I look for when grading:

  • Did you understand the physical principles involved?
  • Did you use the appropriate equations, numbers and units?
  • Are all parts of your answer consistent and correct? I often award partial credit if the first part of a problem is wrong but the subsequent parts are consistent and done correctly.
  • Show your work. If you do not show your work there is no partial credit.
  • Does your answer make physical sense? I often deduct extra points if an answer is not only wrong but physically implausible.
  • Are your explanations communicated clearly? Though this is not a writing class, good communication skills are important no matter what you do in your life. Poor grammar and spelling and illegibility may also count against you.

    • Homework

    Points-wise, each homework is worth 15% of one midterm. Thus, I strongly urge you to take your homework seriously. Think of it as a weekly open-book take-home exam that you can work with your classmates on.

    Your homework will be in the form of Mastering Physics, the online homework system that came with your textbook. If you bought your textbook used you can purchase online access at the Mastering Physics website. Please see Kristine's Guide to Passing Engineering Physics for useful tips before you get started.

    At the Mastering Physics website, www.masteringphysics.com, enter the information listed below:

    Course ID: MPWASHBURN07826
    Student ID: last four numbers of your EVCC student number

    Once you have completed this step you should see a list of assignments. Online homework is due at 11:59pm on Wednesday nights. Online problems will be graded according to the following rules:

    I encourage you to work on all homework as groups; however, you should know that the numerical values for any online problem are assigned randomly by the computer; so the answer to your problem will not be the same as other students. All homework decreases in point value by 2% each hour it is late. For example, homework that is 24 hours late will lose 48% (roughly half) of the possible points earned.

    Application Projects

    Just as important as understanding physics concepts is understanding how to apply them. To this end, there will be five mini-projects that involve applying physics concepts from class to real-world situations. These will require you to spend time outside of class taking measurements and making calculations. In general, the equipment required for these projects will be very simple. You can borrow the following equipment from Kristine: stopwatches, tape measures, bathroom scale. Because there is no lab fee for this class, any lost or damaged equipment must be replaced by you. Because of the nature of the measurements needed for these projects, you are highly encouraged to work with a partner. However, you should all take your own data (no duplicate data!) and do your own analysis.

    Lecture Activities

    Research has shown that very few people learn from listening to a lecture, no matter how eloquent and thought-out it is. To make lecture time more conducive to learning, we will often do activities where you will be required to think and work during class. Below are descriptions of the types of activities I will use most often in this class. Points for participation in these activities are based on attendance and your level of participation (as gauged by the instructor). There is no way to make up for missed lecture activities.

    Workbook and Slide questions

    To incorporate more conceptual aspects of physics, I will occasionally have questions in my powerpoint slides for you to think about individually and in pairs. I will also occasionally use questions from the workbook which came with your text. Rather than have you bring your workbook to class everyday, I'll put questions from it in my powerpoint slides. Any powerpoint slides shown in class are posted online for you to download. The link is at the top of the course homepage.

    Interactive Lecture Demonstrations

    People, including scientists and engineers, often have deeply held misconceptions about how physics works. Because of this, we will use Interactive Lecture Demonstrations meant to help you learn what your misconceptions may be and correct them. This type of demonstration is often less flashy than what most would think of for physics demos, but they are designed to help you realize and let go of commonly held misconceptions. These will involve you watching a demonstration, making some predictions, and then seeing and discussing the actual answers. Because these demonstrations are meant to help you confront misconceptions, don't be afraid of saying something wrong; just be open to the right answer!

    Video Analysis

    The plug-and-chug aspect of problem solving is easily mastered by most students. But more important than that is the ability to take real world situations and abstract them to a level where they can be analyzed using the plug-and-chug equations. To gain practice with this, we will sometimes do video analysis projects in class. These will involve analyzing the kinematics of a situation in a video recording and applying physics we've covered to solve a problem. We will work in pairs on these using the physics program's laptop computers.

    Group Quizzes

    Watching the instructor work out example problems on the board does not necessarily teach you how to solve problems. To get practice with problem solving, we will often have in-class group quizzes. These are meant to get you practicing problem solving during class. You are welcome to work in pairs for these.

    Exams

    There will be two midterms and one final exam. Exams are always cumulative but focus on more recent material. You must bring a calculator. There are no notes or books allowed during exams but a formula sheet will be provided. If you are planning to miss any of the exams let the instructor know during the first week of the class.

    There will not be review sessions before exams. If you have questions while you're studying I encourage you to come to office hours.

    Policies

  • GROUP WORK
    • I encourage you to work in groups and discuss results. The ability to work well in a group is an important skill. In this class you are encouraged to work in small groups on all assignments both in class and outside of class. You must work in pairs on labs. More specifically, you are encouraged to discuss methods, graphs, results, and hypotheses. But you must still do all your own work.

  • CHEATING
    • Cheating will not be tolerated. All work you turn in must be yours - all the words, all the calculations, all the thinking. If your work looks too similar to someone else's or too closely resembles something published on paper or online I will suspect cheating and investigate it fully in accordance with the college's policies on cheating. The college's sanctions for cheating include suspension and/or expulsion from the college.

    Please note that for Application Projects each person is required to take their own data. Having identical data will result in missed points on the first occurence, a zero grade on the second occurence and a failing grade in the class on any subsequent occurence.

  • LATE WORK and MISSED EXAMS
    • There are no make-ups for in-class activities. The total points the homework is worth decreases by 2% every hour it's late. The same policy goes for Application Projects: I will "time stamp" late assignments when I get them and deduct points accordingly. You may not submit application projects electronically. Missed exams can be taken 1-2 days in advance if a valid excuse is provided within the first week of class.

    Course Schedule


    WEEK
    TOPICS
    READING
    ITEMS DUE
    Week 1
    3/30-4/2    		 Syllabus, Units, Vectors, Motion Ch. 1, 2, 3  
    Week 2
    4/6-4/9    		 2D Motion Ch. 4 HW 1: 4/8
    Week 3
    4/13-4/16    		 Force, Newton's 1st & 2nd Laws Ch. 5, 6 AP 1: 4/13
    HW 2: 4/15
    Week 4
    4/20-4/23    		 Newton's 3rd Law
    **1st Exam, Thu 4/23: Ch. 1-6**    		 Ch. 7 HW 3: 4/22
    Week 5
    4/27-4/30    		 2D Statics and Dynamics Ch. 8 AP 2: 4/27
    HW 4: 4/29
    Week 6
    5/4-5/7    		 Impulse and Momentum Ch. 9 HW 5: 5/6
    Week 7
    5/11-5/14    		 Work and Energy Ch. 10, 11 AP 3: 5/11
    HW 6: 5/13
    Week 8
    5/18-5/21    		 Rotation
    **2nd Exam, Thu 5/21: Ch. 7-11**    		 Ch. 12 HW 7: 5/20
    Week 9
    5/26-5/28    		 Rotation, Gravity
    No school Monday: Memorial Day    		 Ch. 12, 13 AP 4: 5/26
    HW 8: 5/27
    Week 10
    6/2-6/4    		 Simple Harmonic Motion Ch. 14 HW 9: 6/3
    Monday 6/8 Simple Harmonic Motion Ch. 14 AP 5: 6/8
    HW 10: 6/8
    Thursday 6/11 **Final Exam: Fri, 6/12 10:00-11:50am**
    Ch 1-14, with emphasis on Ch 12-14

    Caveat

    All information in this syllabus is subject to change by the instructor.

    Resources

    This page created and maintained by Professor Kristine Washburn of Everett Community College
    *March 2009*