Physics 101 - Information

• Instructor: David Armstrong
  Office: Small 212
  Phone: 1-3489
  Email: armd@physics.wm.edu
  Office Hours: Wed. 1-4 PM, or by appointment.

• Text: `Physics for Scientists and Engineers', Fishbane, Gasiorowicz, and Thornton, 2nd Edition (Prentice Hall, New York: 1996).
• Sections: You must register for the lecture section, one problem session (101P) and one laboratory (101L). Labs and Problem sessions begin the week of Monday, 30 August. The tutoring sessions on W, Th at 4 pm are optional.
• Syllabus: A schedule of what sections of the text will be covered, and what problems will be assigned as homework is available.
• Homework: A set of problems is due at noon on Friday each week, except for those Fridays on which there is a test. Papers must be stapled, with your name, and your problem session instructor's name printed in the upper right-hand corner. Homework is graded by a graduate student and solutions will be available on the WWW, posted in the glass display case outside the lecture room, and on reserve in Swem Library (ask for call number "OPC Armstrong" at the reserve desk). Late homework will generally not be accepted.
• The Net: Feel free to communicate with me by email: armd@physics.wm.edu. I will be using email regularly to make announcements, provide hints, etc. Copies of course information, materials and problem solutions will be posted electronically via the World Wide Web. Open the Physics Department home page, http://physics.wm.edu and look under Courses for www class based information and select Physics 101. You can access the Web using a browser on any campus machine that has internet access.
• Tests: There will be three 50-minute, closed-book tests during the semester. Bring a calculator.
• Withdrawal: Questions about drop/add/withdrawl should be directed to your problem session instructor.
• Final Exam: The final exam will be given on Monday December 6 1999 at 8:30 AM.
• Grading : Your grade is the responsibility of your problem section instructor. Letter grades will be assigned as follows:

  			A	94-100 %	A-	90-93
  B+	87-89		B	84-86		B-	80-83
  C+	77-79		C	74-76		C-	70-73
  D+	67-69		D	64-66		D-	60-63
  

  The final grade calculation will use either the formula
  

     Grade = 0.4 T + 0.1 H + 0.25 L + 0.25 E 
  

  or

     Grade = 0.1 H + 0.25 L + 0.65 E 
  

  in which T is the average of three tests, H is the homework, L is the laboratory, and E is the final exam.

  For each student, the grade will be calculated using both equations, and the result with the larger numerical grade will be the one used to determine the letter grade. This procedure means that students who may have had difficulty with one or more of the in-class tests have the chance to make up for it with a good performance on the final exam; after all - what is relevant is how much physics you have learned at the end of the course!

  Notice that in either case the homework counts for 10% and the labs 25% of the final grade. Warning: There is one additional criterion: You must pass (60% minimum) the laboratory section of the course to pass the entire course. Anyone not passing the lab will be given an "F", regardless of the results of the formulae.

• General Education Requirement: The combination of Physics 101 and Physics 102, taken with the laboratories Physics 101L and 102L, together satisfy GER 2A (physical sciences) as well as the laboratory requirement for GER 2. This General Education Requirement is intended to introduce the student to the nature of scientific inquiry, including how scientific theories are developed and tested, the nature of empirical knowledge (as well as the limits of science), and the historical, cultural and intellectual context of science. Physics 101 will explore many of the underlying fundamental laws governing all of the natural world, in particular those referred to as "classical mechanics". In particular, the role of mathematics in describing the physical universe will be a central underlying theme of the course. The presentation will follow a logical (rather than historical) ordering, however, the historical development of major physical ideas will be discussed as appropriate.