Physics 105 - Fall 2008

Physics 105

Instructor: John S. Colton
 Email address: "john" plus underscore plus "colton" at "byu" dot "edu".
 Semester: Fall 2008
 Office hours: Wed 3-4 pm, in the Tutorial Lab
 Office: N335 ESC, available by appointment
Problem solving sessions: Fri 3-4 pm in 455 MARB; also Mon 1-2 pm in 455 MARB

T.A./grader: Becca Fluckiger
 Her email address: "physics105colton" plus "at" plus "gmail.com". This is NOT Dr. Colton's address. Don't send stuff to him here!
Office hours: Wed 12-2 pm, in the Tutorial Lab

Announcements

  • 23 Dec 08 - final exam solutions posted below
  • 20 Dec 08 - 5 points added to everyone's final exam; grade boundaries set (see email)
  • 11 Dec 08 - Here is the first page of this year's final exam, so you can see what formulas are given: final exam - page 1.pdf
  • 10 Dec 08 - Locations for final exam review set: Thurs 7-9 pm in W111 Benson; Fri 1-3 pm in C215 ESC.
  • 9 Dec 08 - Rate the Tutorial Lab TAs link added
  • 1 Dec 08 - Solutions to this year's exam 4 posted below
  • 25 Nov 08 - Last year's final has been posted below, with solutions.
  • 17 Nov 08 - A couple weeks' worth of demo videos were posted below
  • 14 Nov 08 - Evening exam TA review session scheduled for Exam 4: Thursday 7-9 pm, room C215 ESC
  • 27 Oct 08 - Special evening exam review session planned for Thursday 7-9 pm, room C215 ESC. (Session to be led by two Tutorial lab TAs.)
  • 23 Oct 08 - As a result of the mid-semester voting, my Friday office hours will be converted to a problem solving session, to be held in 455 MARB
  • 21 Oct 08 - Here's the mid-semester survey data
  • 14 Oct 08 - Dr Colton's Friday office hours changed to 3-4 pm (they had been 4-5 pm)
  • 8 Oct 08 - I fixed some errors in sample exam 2
  • 2 Oct 08 - 8 students still aren't getting credit for clicker quizzes.
  • 2 Oct 08 - Last year's exam 2 (and solutions) posted below.
  • 25 Sep 08 - By the way, 8 students still aren't getting credit for their clicker quizzes. Make sure you're not one of the 8!
  • 25 Sep 08 - All Friday homework due-dates now moved to Saturday! The only exception is that all late homework, as well as the retries for HW22, continues to be due on Fri Dec 19.
  • 23 Sep 08 - As a reminder, turn in your free body diagrams for HW 5 and beyond in the boxes labeled "105 Colton" near N357 ESC
  • 23 Sep 08 - Exam 1 solutions posted to website, see down near the bottom
  • 18 Sep 08 - Cool videos (and a still shot) of the ping pong ball demo posted below
  • 17 Sep 08 - TA's email address added to top of page
  • 17 Sep 08 - Link to private tutors Google group added below. Several tutors now available!
  • 15 Sep 08 - HW 2 and HW 3 solutions also posted. They are in the glass cases near N361 ESC.
  • 12 Sep 08 - Various demo videos posted below
  • 11 Sep 08 - Last year's Exam 1 posted below
  • 11 Sep 08 - HW 1 solutions posted in hallway of Eyring building (outside of Tutorial Lab)
  • 11 Sep 08 - Problem Solving Help Session permanently scheduled for room 455 MARB (M 1-2 pm)

Textbook

The textbook for the class is College Physics, by Serway & Faughn (5th, 6th, 7th editions) or by Serway & Vuille (8th edition). Only volume 1 is needed for Physics 105; but volume 2 is used in Physics 106, so if you’re planning to take that course too it may be cheaper to get a book with both volumes combined. Feel free to obtain an inexpensive used copy.

Syllabus and Course Packet

  • Physics 105 syllabus - Fall 08.pdf The syllabus will be available in the bookstore for purchase ($2.30). Or, if you prefer you can print out your own copy. Or just use this electronic version.
     → 21 Aug 08 - Mistake discovered! The earlier version of the syllabus (the one the bookstore has) says on pg 2 that classes are MWF. Don't believe it! Classes are T Th, as you expected when you signed up for this class. (Sorry about that.)
    → 2 Sep 08 Colton office hours changed due to a conflict on Wednesday. The office hours are now Wed 3-4 pm and Fri 4-5 pm.

Warm-Up Exercises

Class Notes

Videos of Demos

Here are videos of nearly all the demos I will do/have done in Physics 105, with approximate class periods. (Note that I replaced/supplemented many of the original videos from Fall 2008 with videos recorded in subsequent years.)

Discussion Forum (Google Groups)

This year's exam solutions

Old Exams

  • Old 105 final.doc - This is the final exam from last year, without reformatting. Read the introductory note highlighted in yellow. Your final will be a bit different (mostly due to the "no calculators" rule), but this will still provide a good gauge of where you're at relative to where you need to be.
  • Old 105 final - solutions.doc - Work out the bare exam before looking at the solutions!
  • Old 105 exam 4.doc. This is exam 4 from last year, reformatted slightly. FYI the average was a 63. I'll try to make this year's exam a little easier.
  • Old 105 exam 4 - solutions. doc. Work out the bare exam before looking at the solutions!
  • Old 105 exam 3.doc. This is exam 3 from last year, reformatted slightly. Note: I will try to make this year's exam 3 a little easier than last year's.
  • Old 105 exam 3 - solutions. doc. As always, please work out the bare exam before looking at the solutions.
  • Old 105 exam 2.doc. This is the exam I gave last year, reformatted slightly. Note: I will try to make this year's exam 2 just a little easier than last year's. Another note: problem 21 is not something that I emphasized at all this year. Note: an earlier version had some minor problems with answer ranges and the like, mainly because I didn't do answer ranges the same way last year. Also, problems 18-20 had some more serious errors. Hopefully all problems now fixed.
  • Old 105 exam 2 - solutions. doc. As before, I strongly encourage you to work out the bare exam first on your own, and only then download these solutions to see how you did.
  • Old 105 exam 1.doc. This is the exam I gave last year, just reformatted a little to make it match the format I plan to use this year. WARNING: this exam had a higher average score than I like, so I will probably make the exam this year a little bit harder.
  • Old 105 exam 1 - solutions.doc. I strongly encourage you to work out the bare exam first, on your own, and only then download these solutions to see how you did.

The old "If you are new" section (for historical interest?)

  • If you have added the class late, you've got some catching up to do! Proceed as follows:
    → Get a "class ID number" using the link below. You will use the CID in all your assignments.
    → Read the syllabus, available either below (pdf file) or from the bookstore. Also, the HW problems are found in the syllabus.
    → Get a copy of the textbook (see textbook info, below). If you can't get one soon, use one of the copies available in the Tutorial Lab (see Tutorial Lab info below).
    → Do the past reading assignments as marked on pg 1 of the syllabus, and in the future, do the reading assignments for each lecture.
    → For each (future) lecture, answer the warm-up quiz for the lecture (see below). Those quizzes are due by 8 am the day of the lecture.
    → Get an "i-clicker" at the bookstore if you don't already have one. Bring your clicker to each class.
    → Register your clicker (see below) so that you get credit for in-class clicker quizzes.
    → Get your individualized homework data numbers which you will plug into the HW problems in your syllabus, using the link below.
    → Start working HW problems! You can get credit for late assignments, so work the HW sets you have missed, in addition to the ones coming up. Read much more about our online HW system, in the syllabus.
    → Submit your HW answers via the online system using the link below. Again, read how to do this in the HW section of the syllabus. Learn how to re-submit any problems that you get wrong. Talk to other students to figure this out, if necessary. HW sets are due Wednesdays and Fridays.

Supplementary Material

Current Topics in Physics