PES 112       Spring 2003

       Course

General Physics II

       Information

Professor/office hours

course syllabus

textbook

grading standards

Reviews for Exams

calendar

Course web links

other physics links



Course Syllabus and Information

This course examines introductory electricity and magnetism at a calculus-based level.

Tentative schedule (subject to revision)

  • I. Electric Forces, Fields and Potentials (Ch. 23 - 25)
    • January 22 - February 17
      • Charges and Electric Fields
        • Forces and Fields from Coulomb's Law
        • Forces and Fields from Gauss's Law
      • Electric Potential
  • II. Applied Electronics (Ch. 26 - 28)
    • February 19 - March 17
      • Capacitance
      • Current and Resistance
      • DC circuits and Kirchoff's Rules
  • III. Magnetic Forces and Fields (Ch. 29, 30)
    • March 14 - April 9
      • Magnetic Forces and Fields
      • Origins of Magnetic Fields
  • IV. Electricity and Magnetism - Induction (Ch. 31, 32)
    • April 11 - April 28
      • Faraday's Law and Lenz's Law
      • Inductances
  • V. Other topics (Ch. 33, 34)
    • April 30 - May 9
      • AC circuits
      • Electromagnetic Waves

Calculators: Each student is expected to have a scientific hand-held calculator capable of doing trig functions, ln(x), etc. The calculators will be necessary for solving homework and for doing problems on exams.

Math background: Each student is assumed to have had (and to remember some of) Calculus I, algebra, trigonometry, and geometry. You should at least be taking Calculus II.

Study hints: Read the assigned text pages before coming to class. This will help familiarize you with the basic ideas and terms to be discussed in the lecture. If you do not understand something after reading and the lecture, ask questions. Questions are welcome during the lecture or during my office hours. Work all of the homework problems and , if possible, look at a few other problems. Experience solving problems will help a lot on exams.

Attendance: Attendance at lectures is not required, but may be very helpful. The book contains a very large amount of material. I tend to test on the things which I emphasize in lecture.If you do attend, please respect your fellow students and avoid unnecessary talking during the lecture.


Books

Text: "Physics for Scientists and Engineers",

R. A. Serway and R. J. Beichner, 5th edition

We will cover most of Chapters 23 - 34 in the text. Most of the rest of the book is covered in PES 111 and 213.


Grading

The course grade will be determined approximately as follows:

Midterm Exam 1

Ch. 23 - 25

approx. Feb. 17

16%

Midterm Exam 2

Ch. 26 - 28

approx. March 17

16%

Midterm Exam 3

Ch. 29 - 31

approx. April 21

16%

on-line preclass questions

best 10 of 12

approx. weekly

7%

Problem Sets

approx. weekly

20%

Final Exam

Ch. 17 + comprehensive

exactly May 15

25%

 Reviews for Exams

Exams: The exams will usually consist of two parts. The first part will be multiple choice or short answer questions which will test you on the concepts of physics. The section part will consist of problems which will test your ability to set up problems and do mathematical calculations.

Make-up exams: Normally make-up exams will not be given. If you miss an exam with a good excuse, I will average your other exam scores to replace it.

Problems Sets: I will typically assign 6-8 problems per week. You should do them all. I will choose three of them to grade each week. Each problem will be graded on a three point scale:

  • 0 points = pretty much completely wrong
  • 1 point = reasonable effort
  • 2 points = OK but some errors
  • 3 points = perfect

PLEASE BE NEAT. I will take off points if I can not read what you have done.

You must SHOW ALL WORK in your solutions. Just writing down the answer is not good enough.

Before you turn in your homework, please staple the pages together in order and neatly print your name, "PES 112-03" and the Problem Set assignment number on the top of the front page.

On-line preclass questions: Approximately weekly, questions will be posted on the web site linked from our class home page. Typically these assignments will be posted on Thursdays and will be due by 7:00 am on the following Monday. These assignments will consist of three questions which will ask you to think about material that we will be covering the following week in class. The questions will help me to identify areas of confusion and topics that are well understood. This will help shape my lectures for the week. Grading of these will be very simple:

  • 1 point = attempted only one question
  • 2 points = attempted two questions
  • 3 points = attempted all three questions
  • 4 points = attempted all three questions and two of the three are correct
  • 5 points = attempted all three questions and all three are correct


Students are also accountable for the "General Information" section of the current "Schedule of Courses" which discusses the Honor Code, student rights and responsibilities, and other issues.


Reasonable accommodation: Students with a disability who require accommodations must provide a letter of accommodation from Student Support Services (MH 132, x3065) within the first two weeks of the semester or as soon as possible.


All information on this page is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class.