PHYSICS 115: CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS III

PHYSICS 115: CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS III
Spring 2012

Instructor: Prof. Michael S. Vogeley
Department of Physics
Office: Disque 811
Email: vogeley@drexel.edu
Phone: (215)895-2710
Office hours: TBA

Teaching Assistant: Austen Groener
Office: Disque 808
Email: amg338@drexel.edu
Phone: (215)895-2732
Office hours: Monday 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Announcements
Course Meetings
Syllabus
Course Outline
Textbook and Reading Assignments
Grading
Course Rules of Conduct
Homework
Homework Solutions
Exams
Course Schedule

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Welcome to the home page of Contemporary Physics III. This is your resource page for information about the course, including homework assignments, exams, and solutions. This web page is also the syllabus for the course. To save paper, I will not usually print and distribute copies of documents in class. You may read them on the web or your computer and print out if you need. TA Austen Groener has his own very useful website up for this course. Click on his name above for the link.

Course Meetings

Lectures will be given on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10:00-10:50 a.m. in Randell 329. Please be on time.

Recitations will be on Wednesday 2:00-3:50 p.m. in the physics computer lab, Disque 704.

Syllabus

This web page is the syllabus. Please print this out and save it and/or bookmark this website for the future (no printed copies will be distributed). If you're reading a printed copy, and don't remember the URL, you can find the web page at http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~vogeley/Phys115. You should check the web page frequently for updates.

Course Outline


In this final, and most fun of all, part of Contemporary Physics, we'll delve into further properties of electricity and magnetism. Topics include
  1. Magnetic Fields
  2. Electric Circuits
  3. Magnetic force (including the Hall Effect)
  4. Patterns of EM fields (focus on Gauss's Law)
  5. Faraday's Law
  6. Electromagnetic Radiation (yeah!)
  7. Waves and Particles (EM waves are also particles!)

Textbook and Reading Assignments

Chabay and Sherwood, Matter & Interactions II, 3rd Ed. In Physics 115, we will cover chapters 18-25.

See the course schedule below for the reading assignments. You should do the reading before class so that you are prepared to ask questions about material that you did not understand.

Grading

Grades will be based on the following weighting of different components of the course:
Homework: 30% (2/3 written problem sets and 1/3 computer assignments)
Midterm: 25%
Final Exam: 35%
Class Participation: 10% (Woody Allen said "90% of life is just showing up." In this class you get somewhat less.)

Course Rules of Conduct

Most of this is common sense, but some folks need a gentle reminder.

Electronic distractions: Silence your cell phone or leave it home. Only phone calls (to me) from the Nobel Prize committee will be tolerated. Laptop computers may be used only for taking notes. Web surfing, texting, reading/sending email is prohibited during class. I will ask you to leave the class if you violate this rule.

Food, no. Coffee, yes. Maybe small snacks are also OK, but nothing that will tempt me to steal it (triathletes are always hungry!).

Plagiarism: Use your own very large brain (you're a physicist!) and don't even think about cheating. The usual University rules apply. Also see homework rules below.

Homework: Problem Sets and Computer Assignments


Problem sets will be due at the beginning of class on each Friday (except the first week and week 6 of the midterm). Solutions will be available on the web page on that same day, so late homework will not be accepted. The lowest homework will be dropped (so you're covered for one and only one hungry dog incident or late homework if that's how you want to use it). Please neatly and accurately write up your solutions to these problems.

The computer assignments will be given in recitation, will count as one-third of your total homework grade, and are due at recitation on the Wednesday in weeks 3, 5, 7, and 9 (see schedule below)

You may discuss the homework with your classmates, but you and you alone are responsible for the work that you turn in. Please write up your own solutions to the problems and computer assignments. Breaches of this policy will result in homework scores being divided by the number of ``participants.'' Second offenses may result in failure (of the class).

Use of solutions to these problems from previous years or any other source without reference constitutes plagiarism. You must attribute (by giving the correct reference) any significant help that you receive from outside sources.

Problem Set Solutions


Solutions will be posted here on the afternoon of the day that they are due.

Exams


The midterm will be given during recitation in Week 6 (on Wednesday, May 9). If we keep to the schedule, it will cover chapters 18 through 21.

The final exam will be during exam week, on Wednesday, June 13 at 8:00-10:00 a.m. in PISB 104. The final will include material from the entire course, with more weight given to the second half (roughly 30% first half, 70% second half).

Course Schedule

Please note the following schedule of readings and assignments. Dates are for lectures. This schedule may be revised, so you should recheck this web page. Notation of "HW#" indicates that a homework is due that Friday at the start of class. Exact due dates for the homework will be announced in class. You should do the indicated reading before class.

Week Class Dates Reading Homework Exams
1 April 2, 4, 6 ch. 18
2 April 9, 11, 13 ch. 19 HW1 due
3 April 16, 18, 20 ch. 20 HW2 due, Program 1 due
4 April 23, 25, 27 ch. 21 HW3 due
5 April 30, May 2, 4 review chs. 18-21 HW4 due, Program 2 due
6 May 7, 9, 11 ch. 22 Midterm in recitation 5/9
7 May 14, 16, 18 ch. 23 HW5 due, Program 3 due
8 May 21, 23, 25 ch. 24 HW6 due
9 May 30, June 1 (no class 5/28) ch. 25 HW7 due, Program 4 due
10 June 4, 6, 8 review chs. 22-25 HW8 due
11 No Class Final Exam, TBA

Last update: June 1, 2012