Physics 105 - Fall 2013

Welcome to Physics 105!

Fall 2013

Instructor: John S. Colton
 Email: Directory Page
Office hours: T Thu 2 - 3 pm, in the Tutorial Lab N304 ESC.
 Office: N335 ESC, available by appointment
 
 T.A./grader: Shaun Livingston
 TA's email address: shauntheta@gmail.com
TA's office hours: appointments available as needed

Announcements

  • 10 Jun 2013 - Syllabus posted, website fleshed out a bit more.
  • 7 May 2013 - Website set up, pretty barebones for now. As I add things to the website, I may post announcements here in this section.

Textbook

The textbook for the class is College Physics, by Serway & Faughn (5th, 6th, 7th editions) or by Serway & Vuille (8th, 9th editions). 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 2013.pdf - The syllabus will also be available in the bookstore for purchase (for about $2). Or, if you prefer you can print out your own copy from this pdf file.

Max: Homework, Warm-Up Exercises, Clicker Registration, CID number, and Grades

  • Link to Max: //max.byu.edu. Homework, warm-up exercises, clicker registration, finding your student "Class ID" number (CID), and grade checking are all handled through the Max website.
  • Clickers should be registered at the start of the semester.
  • Warmups must be completed by 15 minutes before class.
  • Homework must be completed prior to 11:59 pm the due-date.
  • Use your CID instead of your name on all work that you turn in via the homework boxes (i.e. extra credit papers and free body diagrams).
  • Grades can be checked at any time throughout the semester. If you detect any errors in your grade, please let me know.
  • If you want to calculate your grades for various scenarios, you can download this excel spreadsheet: grade calculation worksheet. Just change the numbers in yellow according to what you think you'll get in the various categories and it will calculate your final grade.

Prayer Sign-up

  • Please sign up on this google doc if you are interested/willing to offer a prayer in class: link removed

Warmups/Reading Assignments

Class Discussion Forum

  • We will use the "Digital Dialog" feature of Learning Suite as a class discussion forum. (Not available until after add/drop deadline of Sep 16.)

Lecture Notes

Videos of Demos

Here are videos of nearly all the demos I will do/have done in Physics 105. Most if not all were recorded in previous years.

Tutorial Lab Info

  • Main tutorial lab site (includes a map)

Old Exams

I strongly recommend working through the old exams entirely on your own before looking at the solutions. Pre-curve averages are listed for the multiple choice parts of the exams. No guarantees as to whether this year's exams will be the same difficulty, easier, or harder than past exams. Also note that on some past exams I allowed students to bring a note card whereas on others I supplied a formula sheet. Finally, the coverage per exam may have been different from year to year, so (for example) the Fall 2007 Exam 1 may contain material that won't be tested on your exam 1.

This year's exams

Here are my solutions to this year's exams:

Here are the blank exams:

TA Notes

Here are some notes from Shaun from his exam reviews.

How to get started

  • You need to do the following things as soon as the semester begins. (If you have added the class late, it's even more important to do them ASAP.)
    → Find your "class ID number" via the Max website. You will use the CID as your personal identifier for all your turned-in assignments.
    → Read the syllabus, available either as a downloadable pdf file or from the bookstore.
    → Get a copy of the textbook (see textbook info, elsewhere on this web page). If you can't get one soon, you can use one of the copies available in the Tutorial Lab (see Tutorial Lab info elsewhere on this web page).
    → Do the reading assignments for each upcoming lecture as given on the Warm-up assignments on Max; if joining late, do the past reading assignments.
    → For each upcoming lecture, answer the Warm-up quiz for the lecture via Max. Those quizzes are due 15 minutes before lecture.
    → Get an "i-clicker" at the bookstore if you don't already have one. Bring your clicker to each class.
    → Register your clicker on Max so that you get credit for participating in the in-class clicker quizzes.
    → Start working HW problems! They are found on Max. The first assignment is due Thurs, Sept 5. You can get credit for late assignments, so work the HW sets you miss/have missed, in addition to the ones coming up.
    → Submit your HW answers via Max. Learn how to get partial credit by re-submitting the problems you get wrong.
    → Visit Learning Suite to use the class discussion forum (Digital Dialog) (only available after Sept 16).

Supplementary Material

Current Topics in Physics