Physics 9HB

This document is to make the information about the course easily
available. It can save time for you and for me. Please read it carefully
and remember that it is here for your use. If you send me an email
asking a factual question that is already answered here, that wastes
your time and mine, and I may get annoyed. Of course other questions and
especially questions about physics are encouraged.

Physics 9HB, winter 2003, TuTh 9:00-10:20am, 55 Roessler

http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/kiskis/courses/phy9hb-w03/phy9hb_hp.html

Instructor: Joe Kiskis, 443 Phy/Geo, jekiskis@ucdavis.edu    
Office hour: Tu 10:30-11am or whenever you find me in my office,
             or send me email to make an appointment.
Problem solving: Th 8-9pm 416 Phy/Geo

Lab and discussion section instructors: 
Zachary Hannan, hannan@physics.ucdavis.edu, Monday, 11-12, 154 Ro.
Danial Osborn, osborn@physics.ucdavis.edu,
  
Reader: Peter McCloud, plmccloud@ucdavis.edu, Monday, 2:10-3pm, 158 Ro.

Prerequisites: Physics 9HA or 9A, Math 21B    Corequisite: Math 21C

Texts: Six Ideas that Shaped Physics, units R and T, Moore
       
Subjects: Einstein's special relativity, statistical mechanics and 
thermodynamics, cosmology

Labs and discussion sections: You should be in a 9HB discussion/lab that
meets twice a week. Failure to pass the lab part of the discussion/labs
results in an automatic grade of F for the entire course. Attendence at
the discussion/lab meetings that are designated, in advance, by the TA
to be DISCUSION ONLY is optional. But I hope that you will find them to
be helpful and valuable enough that you will want to attend.

Structure: Reading, reading quizzes, lectures, problem sets, midterm,
final, labs, discussion sections.

For each lecture, there will be a reading assignment which you should
study BEFORE the lecture. (Check out the document "How to read
physics".) At the beginning of class, there will be a brief, closed book
quiz on the reading. Lectures will deal with conceptual questions and
problem solving. During the lecture, I will pose questions for you to
ponder, discuss with a neighbor, and answer by a show of hands. You are
encouraged to participate actively with questions and comments. I will
not be lecturing directly from the text. That would be a waste of your
time and implies that you are not capable of reading it yourselves. You
should consider the text to be your first and primary source. Class will
explore and reinforce your understanding and apply it to problems. In
class, we will not discuss all the topics in the reading, but we will
strive for a good understanding of the most important principles.

You are strongly DISCOURAGED from taking extensive notes in class. If
you attempt to record what happens in class without understanding it in
real time, it is unlikely that your notes will be useful to you later.
If you are thinking and participating in class, you probably will not be
able write very much. I think that it is much more important to think
and participate and ask questions. If there is anything in class that is
not in the reading and that you will need on an exam, I will tell you.
Class is an opportunity to build your understanding by engaging the
subject with me and your classmates.

There will be five to ten problem sets. Problem solving skills will be
emphasized in the discussion sections. You are encouraged to discuss the
problems with me, your TA, or your classmates. However, the solutions
that you hand in must be written by you alone and must be *your own
understanding* of the problem. You may achieve that understanding on
your own or by talking and working with others, but what goes on the
paper you turn in must include only the understanding that you have
reached and not what someone else has told you is correct. Including on
your paper information that you got from others but do not understand
yourself is a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct. Usually one or
two of the problems will be graded. You will receive points for turning
in solutions to all the problems, points for the correctness of the
problem or problems that are graded, and points for presentation. Yes,
good communication counts, and you can lose points for work that is
messy or difficult to read.

The examinations will include both problem solving and conceptual
questions. Students are sometimes surprised that the problems on physics
exams are not just like ones that they have already been assigned. This
is deliberate! The ability to solve a problem that you have already done
tests your memory. The ability to do a problem that you have not already
done tests your understanding of physical principles. To a physicist,
physics is not a large collection of facts and formulas. It is a small
number of general principles and laws that can be applied in many
different situations. There will be one midterm. The exact date will be
given later, but it will probably be around the middle of the quarter.
Closed book. One 3"x5" note card. There will be a final: 4:00pm-6:00pm, 
Thurs., 20 Mar. in 55 Roessler. Closed book. Two 3"x5" note cards. No
make-up exams. Do not make travel plans that conflict with the final.
This is the only time that the final will be given.
                                   
Grading:
         Reading Quizzes          15%
         Problem sets:            25%
         Midterm:                 30%
         Final:                   30%   
         Lab:                     see below

Lab grading: The possible grades for the lab are High Pass, Pass, Low
Pass, and Fail. Most students will receive a Pass. For outstanding work,
the grade will be High Pass, and for low quality but passing work, the
grade will be Low Pass. A Fail is most likely to result from poor lab
attendance. A Pass will have no effect on your grade for the course. A
High Pass will raise your grade in the course by one step from what it
otherwise would have been, e.g. B+ --> A-. (The exception is that an A
does not become an A+.) A Low Pass will move your course grade down by
one step (but not D- to F). Failing the lab results in failing the
course.

To get credit for your answers, you must show your work, and it is to
your advantage to make it neat, clear, and organized. Please keep in
mind that you are writing your solutions for someone else to
read---someone who is not a mind reader and who has limited time to try
to figure out your solution. If we cannot figure out what you have done,
we cannot give you any credit. Write up your solution after you have
figured out how to do it on scratch paper. Whenever possible, draw a
picture and label it with the relevant physical variables. List the
quantities that you are given with their values and the unknown
quantities that you are trying to find. Then state the most important
physical laws or principles that you are going to use to solve the
problem. If you turn in solutions on the exams and problem sets that are
difficult to read and that do not follow this structure, you will lose
points even it your answer is correct!

One week after graded papers are returned the grade becomes final. You
should have any errors corrected during that week. I will look at papers
only if you have spoken with the reader and failed to reach an
agreement. If you bring me a grading issue, I will review the grading on
the whole problem set or exam, and there may be problems that are not
the one you are interested in where I would be less generous than the
reader.

In the east wing of the first floor of the Physics/Geology building,
there is a glass case where various things relevant to this class will
be posted.

PHILOSOPHY: The course is structured to encourage you to actively engage
the physics. There is ample research which demonstrates that even in
good lectures, passive listeners absorb very little. There are also
results which show that the traditional physics course format of lecture
and problem solving is not very effective in building a good conceptual
understanding of physics, even among many of the students who are
proficient at problem solving. There is a difference between learning
procedures for solving various kinds of problems and understanding the
physics so that one can analyze a new problem. I can transmit some
information, but I cannot transmit knowledge or understanding. You must
actively struggle to construct your own understanding.  I encourage you
to actively engage the material in the text. I will try to be a useful
guide and help you over or around the rough spots.

COMPUTER STUFF: You will need a computer account. The main things that
you will need to be able to do for this course are handle email and use
a web browser such as Netscape. Also get a (free) copy of the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. I will use the PDF format for some of the class
documents. For information, go to IT-EXPRESS on the first floor of
Shields. Also, there is a nice set of software called Bovine Online,
which is sold (cheap) in the bookstore. There is an automated class
mailing list. You are on this if you are in the class and have a
computer account. This will be used for communication. To send email to
everyone in the class and to me, use the address phy9hb-w03@ucdavis.edu.
Messages to the class mailing list are archived at
https://listproc.ucdavis.edu/class-secure/200301/phy9hb-w03. If you want
to send something to me only, use the address jekiskis@ucdavis.edu.
Check your email daily. Documents for the class will be avialable on the
website for our class. The URL for our class home page is
http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/kiskis/courses/phy9hb-w03/phy9hb_hp.html.

Copyright Joe Kiskis 2003 All federal and state copyrights reserved for
all original material presented in this course through any medium
including lecture, print, and electronic.