PHYS140 Fall 2006
General Information
I. Lectures
Tuesday and Thursday, 141
Loomis Laboratory of Physics (LLP)
Lecture Section
A1: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Lecture Section A2: 2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
II. Course Web Site:
http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys140/fall06/
The Student Gradebook is found on the Course Web Site:
Click on “Gradebook and Exam Results”, then “Student Gradebook”
and log on with your NetID and NetID password.
This is where you check your grades and sign up for
conflict exams.
Please check the Student
Gradebook regularly throughout the semester.
If it is not up to date (allow 2 weeks for corrections), please notify Prof. Pitts. The Student Gradebook CLOSES December 8, 2006.
III. Instructors
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Lecturers: |
Office* |
Office
Hour
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e-mail |
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Prof. Brian DeMarco |
329 LLP |
Noon-1 pm
Monday |
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Prof. Kevin Pitts |
437A LLP |
10-11 am
Monday |
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TA’s: |
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Rogan Carr |
390G LLP |
12-1pm Wednesday |
rccarr2@uiuc.edu |
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Matthew Brinkley |
112 MRL |
2-3 pm Tuesday |
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Matthew Stupca |
279 LLP |
10-11 am Tuesday |
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David Mertens |
390L LLP |
4-5 pm
Wednesday |
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Shengquan “Alex” Zhou |
390U LLP |
10:30-11:30 am Thursday |
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Lok-Hang “Tommy” So |
390Q LLP |
10:30-11:30
am Thursday |
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Scott Kathrein |
2nd
floor lobby LLP |
11-12 am
Tuesday |
kathrein@uiuc.edu |
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Ibrahim Cisse |
320 LLP |
4:50-5:50
pm Monday |
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Rebecca Lamb |
481 LLP |
10-11 am
Wednesday |
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Tim McArdle |
64 ESB |
12-1 pm
Friday |
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Joel Strand |
3008 MRL |
4-5 pm
Monday |
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Web Guru: |
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Danielle Chandler |
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* LLP = Loomis Laboratory of
Physics MRL= Materials Research
Lab ESB=
You
are welcome to attend any office hour listed, and to make appointments with any
of the TAs or Profs. DeMarco and Pitts.
IV. Assigned textbook:
How Things Work 3rded by Louis A. Bloomfield
Associated
web site for the text: http://www.wiley.com/htw/
The author also
maintains: http://www.physicscentral.com/
Another
helpful web site: http://www.howstuffworks.com/
V. Homework (HW):
The homework can be found
on the course web site, or directly at: http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys140/fall06/homework/
The homework is done online. It is posted at 12:30 p.m. every Thursday and
is due the following Thursday at 12:30 p.m., at which time the answers are
posted. Each 10-question homework set is
of equal value. You may work your
homework sets multiple times,
and the computer scoring system will keep
only your last saved answers. You must
remember to save your answers! Discussion is
encouraged. There is no credit for late homework. Your lowest homework grade is dropped at the
end of the semester
VI. Discovery Room (DR), 31 LLP:
The DRs begin on Monday, August 28. The DR week runs throughout the semester from
Wednesday 8:00 a.m. through Tuesday at noon.
Please note that the first week of DR is an exception, and runs from
Monday, August 28 through Friday, September 1 (see the course syllabus).
Your Pass/Fail grade is determined by your attendance at
your assigned discovery room, your
willingness to participate, and completion of a short DR worksheet. Being 5 minutes late counts as an absence: you
must sign an attendance sheet to get credit, which is removed 5 minutes into
the hour. If you cannot make your
assigned time, you may attend another DR only if you get prior permission from BOTH your own TA and
the TA whose class you wish to attend, and you must sign
the attendance sheet of the DR you attended. Check DR times and instructors on
the Physics 140 Web Page under “Instructors”.
Your lowest Discovery Room grade is dropped at the end of the semester.
We cannot help you to get into a DR section or to change
DR sections — only you can sign up for and drop DR sections in Banner.
There will be NO DRs in the
weeks after the hour exams.
VII. iClickers:
You must purchase an iClicker through the
university book store. You MUST then register your clicker to your NetID by
September 7: Choose
"Gradebook and Exam Results" on the course home page, then click on
"iClicker Registration" and follow the instructions. During
most lectures, the lecturer will ask multiple choice questions and you are invited
to respond using your clicker. Credit is
given for responses (right or wrong), with two points given per lecture. You may miss two lectures without any loss of
credit. iClickers will not be used in
every lecture.
You are responsible for changing the batteries in your iClicker.
iClicker
rules:
1.
Read the instructions on the back of your iClicker
carefully.
2.
iClicker Student Gradebook updates require at least
one week.
3.
Please note the iClicker registration deadline. If you do not register your iClicker by the
deadline, you will not receive iClicker points for
the semester.
4.
A blank iClicker grade in the Student Gradebook
indicates that the Student Gradebook has not yet been updated for that
lecture. An “AB” grade means “absent”
(and that the Student Gradebook has been updated).
VIII. E-mail
Any concerns,
questions, or comments about the administration of the course you wish to
submit by e-mail must be sent to Prof. Pitts (kpitts@uiuc.edu). Please bring physics questions to any TA’s,
Prof. Pitts’, or Prof. DeMarco’s office hours.
You may
also e-mail the TAs about re-scheduling a DR, but all administrative questions
must be sent to Prof. Pitts.
All e-mails must be sent
according to the following rules:
1.
You must use your UIUC express e-mail account.
2.
You must have PHYS140 in the subject line.
3.
You must have the reason for the e-mail in the
subject line (e.g., double conflict exam, homework question, etc.).
4.
Your full name must appear in the e-mail message.
Your
email messages will be deleted as spam if you do not follow these rules.
IX. Hour Exams on Tuesdays at 7:00
p.m.
There are three 45-question
multiple-choice Hour Exams:
I. September 19, 2006
II. October 24, 2006
III.
November
28, 2006
Please see the course website for
exam locations.
CONFLICT EXAM: If you have a conflict
with the exam time, you may sign up for the conflict exam, which is given at
5:45 p.m. on that same day. This sign-up option will
appear in the Student Gradebook by the end of the second week of classes. To take
the conflict exam you
must sign up in the Student Gradebook by 10:00 p.m. on the Sunday preceding the
exam.
DOUBLE CONFLICT EXAM: There is a
double conflict exam given at 4:00 that same day. Only conflicts with other UIUC classes make
one eligible for the double conflict. You must e-mail Prof. Pitts detailed information of your UIUC
conflicts at least one week before
the exam, so it can be cleared by the Emergency Dean (see below).
You can view the
“Answer(s) You Marked” in the “Exam Results by Question” options listed under
“Gradebook and Exam Results” on the Course Web Site. If you think the displays do not accurately
reflect what you bubbled in on your answer sheet, send an e-mail message to chubert@uiuc.edu. In your
e-mail message, please include your name, the name of your discussion section, that this
concerns Physics 140, the exam number, the question number(s) and answer
letter(s).
X. Final Exam:
Lecture Section A1: Thursday December
14, 7:00-10:00 pm
Lecture Section A2: Saturday December 16, 1:30-4:30 pm
The Final Exam has 96 multiple-choice questions, is
comprehensive with a slight weighting on the material after the third hour exam.
Students are initially signed up to take
the exam for the lecture in which they are enrolled. If you wish to change
to the other exam, you must sign up in the Student Gradebook
before 10:00 pm November 30. This sign-up option will
be available in the in the second half of the semester.
XI.
Grading
Homework: 140 points
Discovery Rooms: 140
points
iClicker: 60 points
Each Hour Exam (3): 140
points each (420 total points)
Final
Exam: 240 points
TOTAL POSSIBLE: 1000 points
Your final grade for Physics 140 will be
based on your total score on all the components of the course (after the lowest
DR and Homework grades are dropped).
Letter grade ranges are: A+(900), A(860), A-(840), B+(820), B(790), B-(770), C+(750),
C(700), C-(660), D+(620), D(550) and D-(500), where the number in parentheses
is the lowest score for that grade.
HWs: You will be
graded on 13 homework assignments (14 total with the lowest one dropped), 10
points each. To get your HW score,
multiply your total sum of points of your 13 kept HW assignments times
140/130.
DRs: You will be
graded on 9 DRs (10 total with the lowest one dropped); each DR is worth 1
point. To get your DR score, multiply the
sum of your remaining 9 DR grades times 140/9.
iClicker: Each
lecture in which the iClicker is used is worth 2 points. The number of lectures in which the iClicker
is used is N (a number less than 29).
The lowest two grades will be dropped.
Your iClicker grade is then the sum of your points times 30/(N-2).
HEs: Your hour
exams are 45 questions each. To get your
score for each HE, multiply your score times 140/45.
Final: The Final Exam
has 96 questions and is worth 240 points.
To get your final exam score, multiply your number of correct answers
times 240/96.
EX grade: “Excused
Absence” (see Section XII):
HEs: Your grade becomes your grade on the
final. If you have an EX on an hour
exam, you calculate your grade by
multiplying your Final Exam grade times 140/240.
HWs, DRs and iClicker: After dropping the lowest grades, your EX
grade becomes the average of the rest of the grades.
AB grade: “Absence”
This becomes a 0
(zero) at the end of the semester.
XII. Excused Absences
If you must be absent
from class, please follow the applicable set of directions as detailed
below. Absences will be excused only if
the Emergency Dean approves an absence letter for you. If you have any questions about an Emergency
Dean approval, you must contact Dean Broga, Emergency Dean in the Office of the Dean of
Students. You must ask Dean Broga to
forward a letter directly to Prof. Kevin Pitts; we will not accept a copy of
the letter from a student. All excused absences must be turned in and recorded by noon
on December 1 (Please check your Student Gradebook).
Confining Illness:
Death of Family Member or Friend:
Personal Emergency
Emergency Dean: Dean Abbie Broga
Office of the Dean of Students
300 Turner Student Services Building
abroga@uiuc.edu 217-333-9183
How Excused Absences are applied:
Hour Exams: If your Confining Illness or
Personal Emergency Excused Absence dates include the date of an hour exam, you
will receive an EX grade. Your EX grade
becomes your fractional grade the Final Exam (i.e., calculate your grade by multiplying
your Final Exam grade times 140/240).
Homework Assignments: Since you
have a full week to do your homework assignments, an EX grade will only be
granted if four or more days of that week are Excused Absences. Please do your homework assignments early,
just in case an emergency occurs! An EX
grade becomes the average of the other homework grades, after the lowest
homework grade is dropped.
Discovery Rooms: Since you can easily make up a
missed DR in another section during the Wednesday morning through Tuesday Noon
DR week, an EX grade only be given if it was not possible for you to
re-schedule your DR in another section during the week that your Excused
Absence(s) were granted. An EX grade
becomes the average of the other DR grades after the lowest DR grade is
dropped.
XIII. Course Philosophy
This course is meant to be a fun
“kitchen cabinet” course to help us learn how things actually work. We hope that by the end of the course you
will understand why it is easier to stay up on your bicycle when you are moving
than when you are standing still, why violins and pipe organs are shaped the
way they are and why you need to always wear your seatbelt, pulled tightly, in
a car or airplane. But even more, I hope
you will discover questions you never even thought of before the course
started, and that this gentle touch into physics will spark your curiosity
about the intriguing puzzles that surround us every day.
Physics is actually a lot of fun and
we believe that if you can find that out, and hopefully learn a little
scientific method along the way, you will enjoy yourself and find your life
enriched.