Physics
211: Intermediate Physics
Fall 2012 Syllabus
MWF 11:00—11:50
Lab: TR 1:10—4:00
Instructor
Dr. Bret E. Crawford, Masters Hall, Rm. 105,
x6054,
email:
bcrawfor
Required
Course Materials
·
Six Ideas that Shaped Physics,
Unit E: Electric and Magnetic Fields are Unified, Draft 3/e, by
T. A. Moore (Principal text, denoted “E” in course schedule)
·
An Introduction to Error
Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurement, by John R. Taylor
·
A pocket calculator with
trigonometric functions, scientific notation, and exponential functions
·
A non-spiral notebook for lab
(e.g., National model 43-475)
· Green and Purple pens for homework correction
Office
hours
Course
Overview
In Intermediate Physics we explore electricity and magnetism as well as classic experiments from what is usually called modern physics. The linking of electricity and magnetism was the last great advance of classical physics at the end of the 19th century and helped usher in the era of relativity and quantum mechanics. The understanding of these forces transformed technology and much of everyday life – from the telegraph to radio and television to high-speed wireless communication. Our appetite for electro-magnetic energy and its uses seems limitless.
From a physicist’s perspective, electricity and magnetism is of crucial importance to most of the natural world. Of the four fundamental forces of nature, electro-magnetism underlies the greatest variety of human experiences. The strong and weak forces operate a subatomic scales, far from human view, and gravity plays its biggest role at galactic scales, ordering the cosmos. But electromagnetism is responsible for the structure of the atom and thus chemistry. Every time we taste, smell, or touch we’re interacting with electromagnetism. If not for electromagnetic forces binding the atoms of the earth and of our bodies, we would be shredded apart by Earth’s gravity and pulled piece by piece through the iron and nickel of its core!
In this course we will cover the basics of static and dynamic electric and magnetic forces. We will then see how the two forces are joined in electro-magnetic waves as expressed by Maxwell’s equations.
This course will also serve as a vehicle for improving your knowledge of the role of experimentation in physics. In addition to weekly laboratories, we will spend the first week or so studying the role of uncertainty in physical measurement, how to describe it, quantify it, and reduce it.
There are a number of skills you will refine during the semester: facility applying sophisticated mathematics to physical situations (EM theory), problem solving (homework, exams, lab), hands-on knowledge of several standard laboratory devices (lab), working knowledge of some details of the experimental method (systematic data taking, quantitative error analysis), working knowledge of several classic modern physics experiments (lab), scientific writing (informal and formal lab reports), and oral communication (class and lab discussions).
Course
Components and Grading
In the lecture we will discuss concepts introduced in the text and laboratory. You are expected to do the reading before attending lecture.
The “lecture” will consist mostly of in-class exercises, discussions, and short lectures. You should be prepared to be actively involved when you come to class. Physics education research has shown that the more active students are in class, the better the material is retained. Thomas Moore’s series The Six Ideas that Shaped Physics and the teaching techniques he advocates derive from widely accepted teaching practices. The books will form the core of the course, with the class period serving as an opportunity for you to test your grasp of the reading and work toward a keener understanding of the more difficult material. You should introduce yourself to the material and work out self-test exercises imbedded in the text at home. Come to class ready to test your understanding and actively work with the material. Think of the lecture as a music rehearsal or a sports practice; you do not get much better by just sitting there and watching.
The laboratory is scheduled for
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Many of
the laboratories, especially at the beginning of the semester will only require
about three hours. We will use the
Thursday session to work on Rich-Context problems (see discussion below).
You are required to keep a
laboratory notebook. This notebook will
be handed in and graded on a 0—5 point scale for completeness, data
quality/care, correctness, graphs/tables, and neatness/writing. Before the next lab session you will complete
a 3-question written exit quiz on Moodle. The grade for
this lab will be out of these 8 points.
Having a thorough, clear, well-documented lab notebook will be
invaluable to answering the written exit quiz.
You will be asked to rotate to a new partner each week.
Four of the semester’s laboratory
exercises will be a bit more involved. These
project labs (magnetic force and torque,
measuring the e/m ratio, magnetic
field of a solenoid, speed of light) will likely require two days. You will write up the first of these labs as
a formal laboratory report.
Since the laboratory constitutes
20% of your final grade, laboratory attendance is mandatory. (It’s also really helps you understand the
material – another iron-clad finding from physics education research!). The attendance implications for your grade
are as follows: 1 missed lab = grade of 0% for that lab; 2 missed labs = grade
of 0% for the lab portion of the course grade (ouch!); 3 missed labs = failure
in the course. This scheme applies to
the actual laboratory exercises and does not apply to the times when we use the
laboratory to work Rich-Context problems.
·
Homework
Working homework problems gives
you a valuable opportunity to apply your knowledge. Often it is not until you
struggle with a homework problem that you realize what it is that you do and do
not understand. This is why it is important that you do the hard work of
thinking through the problems. Discussing the problems with your colleagues is
allowed, even encouraged, as long as after your consultation, you finish working
and writing up the problems yourself. In
order to continue taking ownership of your learning, it is a REALLY good idea
to think through the problems BY YOURSELF before
discussing them with colleagues. I look
at homework as the opportunity to practice, and this practice comes in two
types: drill – where you practice the
more routine skills, like a musician working on scales or an athlete practicing
footwork; and applying skills to new
problems. As the drill on mathematical
techniques, facility with relevant equations, etc. helps cement your ability to
readily apply your skills you should be ready to tackle more challenging
problems. The idea is to practice,
practice, practice – drilling skills and applying them
to more and more complex problems – much like a musician or athlete.
Homework assignments will be due
at the beginning of class each Monday (see schedule for exceptions). The grade for each problem will be based on
the following scale: Correct = 2pts,
incorrect but attempted = 1pt, not attempted = 0pts. After receiving the solutions, all
corrected/reworked problems will be given 50% back (e.g., “attempted but
incorrect” will get 0.5 pts back, “not attempted” will be given 1 pt back.). When correcting “initially incorrect”
problems, it is important to identify what went wrong initially.
Each homework
set will contain problems of different difficulty levels. At least one problem per week will come from
the “Rich-Context” group of problems in the text. You are strongly encouraged to work in groups
on these problems. The only requirement
is that you list the members of the group.
Several of the Thursday-afternoon sessions will be devoted to working
these problems (denoted Problem Session on the Schedule).
·
Exams
In addition to a final exam,
there will be four exams during the semester.
The exams will be held during one of the laboratory sessions, so that
you have ample time to complete them.
The final exam will be cumulative
and may include material from homework, the lectures, the book and the lab.
·
Colloquia
About every few weeks the
department holds a colloquium on a current topic in physics. As advanced physics students we hope you will
find these presentations interesting and reinforcing of the concepts you are
learning. In addition to their intrinsic
value, you can earn bonus points for attending.
For each colloquium you attend you will be awarded a bonus point to your
overall laboratory grade, increasing the maximum 110 points (11 labs * 10
points/lab) by one point. The total
number of points will be divided by 110, so attending all 6 colloquia would
increase your lab average by about 5%, though the maximum grade will remain
100%.
·
Grading
|
Class
Participation |
8% |
|
Formal
Laboratory Report |
8% |
|
Homework |
10% |
|
Laboratory |
20% |
|
Exams (9%
each) |
36% |
|
Final Exam |
18% |
Honor
Code
As
in all of your courses, you are bound by the honor code. Consultation with peers is allowed while
working homework problems as long as what you turn in is the product of your
own work. Just copying your friend’s work not only violates the honor code but
is also a waste of your time. The point
of homework is to practice solving problems in the same way that a pianist
practices her scales. In lab you will
work closely with others, discussing the concepts and procedures, and sharing
data and computer graphs with your partner(s).
This is to be expected. However,
any discussion, explanations, or answers to questions must be your own. Though you will share graphs and tables, what
you write in your lab notebook and in your formal lab report must be your own
words. The data and analysis presented
in the laboratory notebook must be the result of measurements and analysis done
by you and your partner in the laboratory.
You are not allowed to discuss or share work with your neighbors during
exams or post-lab quizzes
During exams you will be asked to put all book-bags, cell phones
and the like at the front of the room.
Special
Considerations
Any student
with physical or learning disabilities that requires special attention in lab
or on exams is encouraged to discuss their needs with the instructor.
Fall
2012 Course Schedule -- Physics 211:
Intermediate Physics
|
Wk |
Date |
Topic |
Reading |
Laboratory |
Homework |
|
1 |
8/27 |
Introduction
to Course, Measurement |
T1-T2 |
BEMA
PreTest Problem
Session |
#1: T2: 2.2,
2.4, 2.22, 2.26, T3: 3.2, 3.10, 3.13, 3.17, 3.22, 3.28 |
|
8/29 |
Error
Propagation |
T2,
T3 |
|||
|
8/31 |
Error
Propagation, Statistics |
T3,
T4 |
|||
|
2 |
9/3 |
Charge
and Coulomb’s Law |
E1:
1-5 |
L1:
Error Analysis Problem
Session |
#2: T3:
3.46, T4: 4.9, 4.16 E1: B3,B6, S7, S9, S10,R1 |
|
9/5 |
Conductors
and insulators |
E1:
6-7 |
|||
|
9/7 |
Fields
and their superposition |
E2:
1-4 |
|||
|
3 |
9/10 |
Dipole
Field and polarization |
E2:
5-7 |
L2:
O’scope/speed of sound Exam 1 (T1-T4)
|
#3: E2:
B3,B7,S1,S3,S4 S7,R1 E3: B1, B3, B5 |
|
9/12 |
Symmetry
and Charge Distributions |
E3:
1-3 |
|||
|
9/14 |
Circular
and Parallel Plates |
E3:
4-7 |
|||
|
4 |
9/17 |
Buffer day |
|
L3:
Field Vectors & Equipotentials Problem
Session |
#4: E3: B6,S2,S4,S9, R2 E4: B3,B8,B11, S4,S9 |
|
9/19 |
Electric
Potential, E from F |
E4:
1-3 |
|||
|
9/21 |
Capacitance |
E4:
4-7 |
|||
|
5 |
9/24 |
Current
and resistance |
E5:
1-4 |
L4:
Ohm’s Law Exam
2 (E1-E4) |
#5: E5:
B5,B7,B11,S4, S9, 8 hrs of sleep E6: B3,B5,B10 |
|
9/26 |
Power
and capacitor circuit |
E5:
5-7 |
|||
|
9/28 |
Series
circuits |
E6:
1-3 |
|||
|
6 |
10/1 |
Parallel
circuits and safety |
E6:
4-7 |
L5:
Cap Decay Problem
Session |
#6: E6:
S2,S6,S9,R3 E7: B1,B4,B7,S2, S5 |
|
10/3 |
Magnetism’s
field and force |
E7:
1-3 |
|||
|
10/5 |
Magnetic
force examples |
E7:
4-7 |
|||
|
7 |
10/8 |
READING
DAYS |
|
No
Tues Lab Problem
Session |
#7: E7: R1 E8: B2,B6,S1,S3,S6, S9, S10 |
|
10/10 |
Magnetic
Force on currents |
E8:
1-3 |
|||
|
10/12 |
Current
from moving wires |
E8:
4-6 |
|||
|
8 |
10/15 |
Magnetic
Fields from currents |
E9:
1-3 |
L6:
Parallel Circuits Exam
3 (E5-E8) |
#8: E9: B2,B5,S2, S3, S5, Handout |
|
10/17 |
Current
Loops |
E9:
4-7 |
|||
|
10/19 |
Divergence |
E10:
1-3 |
|||
|
9 |
10/22 |
Differential
Form of Gauss’s Law |
E10:
4-7 |
Project
Labs (L7-10) Project
Labs |
#9: E10:
B2,B5, S2 E11: B3,B7,S3, S5,R2 |
|
10/24 |
Curl |
E11:
1-3 |
|||
|
10/26 |
Differential Form of Ampere’s Law |
E11:
4-6 |
|||
|
10 |
10/29 |
Integral
Form of Gauss’s Law |
E12:
1-3 |
Project
Labs (L7-10) Project
Labs |
#10: E12: B1,B5,S1, S2, S9,S10,R2 |
|
10/31 |
(!Boo!) Integral
Form of Ampere’s Law |
E12:
4-7 |
|||
|
11/2 |
Buffer Day |
|
|||
|
11 |
11/5 |
Relativity
and Maxwell’s Equations |
E13:
1-3 |
Project
Labs (L7-10) Project
Labs |
#11: E13:
B1,B2,S1, S2, R2, 8 hrs of sleep |
|
11/7 |
Faraday’s
Law |
E13:
4 |
|||
|
11/9 |
Maxwell’s
Equations |
E13:
5-6 |
|||
|
12 |
11/12 |
Mag.
Flux, induced EMF and Lenz’s Law Formal Lab Rough Draft Due |
E14:
1-2 |
Project
Labs (L7-10) Project
Labs |
#12: E14:
B1,B4,B7, S1,S3,S5,S6, R1 |
|
11/14 |
Inductance |
E14:
3-4 |
|||
|
11/16 |
Transformers |
E14:
5-6 |
|||
|
13 |
11/19 |
Introduction
to Waves |
E15:
1-5 |
Project
Lab Wrap Up Thanksgiving |
#13: E15: B1,B2,B7,S1 |
|
11/21 |
No
Class – Thanksgiving |
|
|||
|
11/23 |
No
Class – Thanksgiving |
|
|||
|
14 |
11/26 |
Wave
Properties and Propagation, Sound |
E15 |
L11:
Induction/Audio Speakers Exam
4 (E9-E14) |
#14: E15:S2,
S3, S5, R1 E16: B3,B6 |
|
11/28 |
Wave
Interference, Refraction |
E15 |
|||
|
11/30 |
Electromagnetic
Waves |
E16:
1 |
|||
|
15 |
12/3 |
Electromagnetic
Waves |
E16:
2-6 |
Faraday
Discussion Review |
#15: E16: S1,S3,S6, S9, S10, 8 hrs of sleep |
|
12/5 |
BEMA
Post Test / Course Evals |
|
|||
|
12/7 |
Semester
Review |
|
|||
|
16 |
12/12 |
Wednesday,
Formal Lab Reports Due |
by
4pm |
|
|
|
12/14 |
Friday,
Cumulative Final Exam |
1:30–4:30 |
|
|