Physics II

Winter 2002

Course Overview



Instructor: Dave Feldman Email: dave@hornacek.coa.edu
Office: Second Floor, Turrets Annex Phone: x249, 276-5284
Mailing List: physics2@hornacek.coa.edu Office Hours: Stop by whenever I'm around, which is a lot. Feel free to email or call to set up a time.
Tutors: Jacob Usinowicz, Hua Wang Help Sessions: Wed, 6:30 - 8:00, TAB.


Course Overview

As our primary text we will use the Six Ideas books by Tom Moore. We will cover part of unit E and part of unit R.

I have several goals for this course:

  1. I want you to gain a firm understanding of the main ideas of special relativity, and get a broad introduction to electricity and magnetism.
  2. I want to help you improve your quantitative literacy, problem solving skills, and mathematical confidence.
  3. I want you to learn independently about a topic of your choosing. I want you to gain experience orally presenting technical information.


Evaluation

Your evaluation will be roughly based on the following: I will assign grades (for those who so opt) by following the guidelines in the COA Course Catalog. I do not have any quota of A's, B's, etc.


Policies and Stuff: First Draft

  1. The final version of this and related documents can be found on the course web page, http://hornacek.coa.edu/dave/Teaching/Physics.2.W00.
  2. Homework will be due Fridays at the end of the day. More than one unexcused late homework assignment will likely result in me mentioning this in your narrative evaluation and may result in a lowering of your grade.
  3. You are strongly encouraged to work together on homework. You can also consult me, class tutors, other faculty, friends, and family. However, the homework you hand in should represent your own understanding. This means that if your friends get a homework problem and you don't understand how they did it, you shouldn't photocopy their solution and turn it in.
  4. There will be a midterm exam which will be open notes, open book, and (essentially) untimed. You may not, however, get any help from any humans during the exam.
  5. Instead of a final exam, you'll do an end-of-the term project. Information on what is expected for your final presentation can be found in a separate document.
  6. I will almost always assign reading for each class. You should do the reading, and come prepared with written questions. Click here for details.
  7. In order to make time for final presntations, we'll need to schedule a few extra classes toward the end of the term.
  8. More than two missing homework assignments will result in a grade no higher than a C.
  9. As I plan on sending out homework assignments and other information via email, it is important that you check your email regularly.
  10. I expect you to attend class and labs.
  11. Do you want to do one or more mini-projects in lab, like we did in Physics I?
  12. Info about labs can be found here.
  13. Academic misconduct -- cheating, plagarizing, etc. -- is bad. Any cases of academic misconduct will result in a judicial hearing, as per pp. 14-15 of the COA handbook. Possible consequences range from failure of the assignment to expulsion. For more, see the revised statement on academic integrity passed by the faculty last winter.


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Web page maintained by dave@hornacek.coa.edu.