Physics 202, Spring 2008
| Instructor; | Jeffrey R. Schmidt |
| Office; | 319GNQ, jeff@rustam.uwp.edu |
Grading
The course is graded on the basis of a 1000 point scale subdivided as follows
| Component | Point value |
| |
| Lab | 100 |
| Homework* and quiz** | 100 |
| Exam I | 200 |
| Exam II | 200 |
| Exam III | 200 |
| Final exam | 200 |
Lab is mandatory. You may miss one lab, but fail the course if you miss two and do not make one up.
Attendance**
Regard attendance as mandatory. It will be taken randomly by administering a five-minute quiz** during the first five minutes of lecture.
A reason that students give for not attending is "I have fallen behind" or "I don't understand the current topic", or something to that effect. Not attending under such circumstances is precisely the opposite of what one should do, and is a guarantee that the problem will get worse. Don't let yourself fall into this trap.
If your attendance is poor, you should not expect to be successful in the course, and the syllabus and grading scale no longer apply to you. Please don't put yourself in such a position.
Homework*
All work that contributes to a course grade is based on problem solving and understanding of basic principles, not memorization of isolated or disconnected facts. You must put in time on the homework, minimally an hour per day outside of the course. If you can't/won't do this, there will be limitations on how well you can do grade-wise, and your expectations should be adjusted accordingly. I assume that students take courses in order to attain understanding and mastery of the subject. In physics or any other mathematical discipline this requires time and practice. That is the purpose of the homework.
If things do not go as well as you had hoped, and you make an appointment with me to discuss your problems, the first thing that I will ask of you is to produce all of your work on the homework. If you have little or none, then that answers the question of why things are not going well.
Homework will be collected and inspected once per week, and a good/acceptable/poor grade assigned to it. This grade will count towards the course grade, 100 points out of 1000.
Exams
Exams are given in lab, so that time will not be (or should not be) a deciding factor. You will be limited by your knowledge and preparation, not on your ability to work quickly. Exams are comprehensive, it is critically important to look at practice exams and take them very seriously. These can be downloaded from the course web-site. All exams are weighted equally. The final exam will consist of problems taken from the three main exams, with numbers or symbols changed to thwart memorization. This puts the burden entirely on the student, there is no excuse to miss a problem twice, especially when (the second time through) you know what's coming.
Exam questions will be taken from the examples in the lecture notes, and from the homework. This means that you have in your possession, from the first day of class, all exam questions.
Make-up exams are not given under any circumstances. If you know that you will miss an exam, you must let me know at least a week in advance, and take an early exam.
Grading scale
The lab manual and all supplemental materials are free downloads and are available from links on this web-site.
| Grade earned | Point range |
| |
| A | 900-1000 |
| B | 800-899 |
| C | 650-799 |
| D | 500-649 |
| F | 0-499 |
Lab and Exam Schedule
| Week of... | Lab | Exam |
| | |
| Jan. 21-25 | No Lab | |
| | |
| Jan. 28-Feb. 1 | Waves on a string | |
| | |
| Feb. 4-8 | Speed of sound | |
| | |
| Feb. 11-15 | Electric field mapping | |
| | |
| Feb. 18-22 | | Exam I |
| | |
| Feb. 25-29 | Linear circuits | |
| | |
| Mar. 3-7 | Oscilloscope and RC decay | |
| | |
| Mar. 10-14 | e/m for electron | |
| | |
| Mar. 17-21 | Spring Break | |
| | |
| Mar. 24-28 | Faraday's law | |
| | |
| Mar. 31-Ap. 4 | | Exam II |
| | |
| Ap. 7-11 | Behavior of AC circuits, AC Filters | |
| | |
| Ap. 14-18 | Snels's law | |
| | |
| Ap. 21-25 | Lenses and mirrors | |
| | |
| Ap. 28-May 2 | Interference and diffraction | |
| | |
| May 4-9 | | Exam III |
| | |
Note that the lab schedule is subject to change, and which labs are to be performed any given week will depend on the pace of the course. The pace is difficult to predict, so please check the schedule periodically for updates.
I reserve the right to make modifications to this syllabus at any time in response to changing conditions in the course.