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There is NO textbook for this course.
This course has never been taught before; I hope you're all ready to break new ground. Our plan is to learn about the physics manifest in your everyday experiences. This will be a hands-on process. We will discover, or at least verify, just about everything ourselves, generally with low-tech experiments and observations. If we're successful, you'll look at the world around you in a different way after this course.
This is a 100-level course with no prerequisites. If you are coming in with little or no science and math background, don’t be alarmed. We will go over the mathematical content as slowly and thoroughly as is needed. However, do acquire a calculator that can handle trig functions and logarithms.
Where this course falls on the continuum between fairly pleasant and really
great is going to depend quite a lot on what the students bring to it. So please
be ready to do your part.
Course mechanics
Meeting times: We will meet Tuesday through Friday mornings at 9 am in Olin 263, and we will generally reconvene in the afternoon, mostly to allow you to complete the experiments. After the first day we will not meet on Monday mornings, to avoid a conflict with the over-50 drop-in hockey game Monday mornings at Sertich.
Labs: The experiments are the essence of the course. You are required to complete all of them successfully. Although you will work in groups of 2 or 3, you must each individually understand, and record, and graph, and write up the work. Sometimes your writeups will be collected and graded.
Homework: Our experience in the physics department is that not doing the
homework assignments is usually fatal. Some of the assignments will be collected
and even graded; you will be told when this is the case. There are some answers in the back of the book. Assignments are listed here.
Tests: There will be tests and quizzes during the block and then a comprehensive
final on the last Friday morning of the block. Often the tests are open-note. Look for previews and solutions here.
Your grade: Will depend mostly on just about everything, in proportions that we'll decide as we go along. All grades are on a curve.
Office hours: I am usually in my office
till about 6 pm. I rarely have anything better to do than to talk to students
so don’t hesitate to stop by. At noontimes, I hope to be at the ice rink. You’re welcome to put on
a pair of skates and discuss physics, or anything else, at that time.
I’m hoping we all have a good time in here. ----- Stephanie