This is the syllabus for Physics 20, Fall 2011, at:
It will be updated steadily as the course goes on, so please visit here frequently.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
§ The Physics Department is very interested in the experience of the
students who plan to major in Physics. Please help us improve this
experience by taking a few minutes to
fill out this survey.
The password has been sent to you by email, and will also be announced in lecture.
§ The Final Exam will take place in lecture on Monday Dec 5, 8-11am;
it will be similar to the midterm except longer, and will cover the entire
quarter.
You can check your midterm and homework scores online.
§ More help with the course: The Physics Deptartment has now organized meetings with PSR fellows,
where you can get extra help from undergraduate peers.
The sessions will be Wed, Thu and Sun, 6-8pm. Wed and Thu meetings
are in the
Physics Study Room (1019 Broida)
and the Sunday meetings in 1640 Broida (or maybe 1610 Broida, stay tuned).
§ The Society of Physics Students at UCSB
welcomes new members.
Professor: Douglas Eardley. Office hours are 1:30-2:30pm Friday, Room 2329 KITP (Kohn Hall), or by appointment. Many questions can be handled by email: My email address is <doug@kitp.ucsb.edu> (always put "Phys 20" in the Subject) and my campus phone is 893-2280.
Lectures are held Mon-Wed-Fri 10:00-10:50 in Room
1640 Broida Hall. The first lecture is Friday, Sep 22, and
the last lecture is Friday, Dec 2.
Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in Mathematics 3A.
Topics:Classical mechanics, kinematics, vectors, Newton's laws,
work and energy, conservation laws.
A Section is a required part of the course; register for one of these:
Book: Introduction to Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow, ISBN 9780070350489, We will cover the first 5 chapters of the text this quarter. The book is currently available in the UCSB bookstore.
and a copy has been placed on reserve at the Main Library. (You could also try Amazon.com, but their secondary booksellers are of variable swiftness and reliability, so be careful.)
Kleppner and Kolenkow is a challenging textbook, and assumes that you have or are rapidly developing good ability in calculus. For those who want to turbocharge or refresh their calculus, Kleppner and Ramsey, Quick Calculus is a good optional resource.
The course TA is Ramsey Majzoub <ramsey@physics.ucsb.edu>. His office hours are Monday 4-5pm, Friday 2-4pm in the Physics Study Room (1019 Broida). Other TAs are ready to help you there anytime 8am-4:30pm weekdays; To see a particular TA consult the schedule of office hours.
More help: The Physics Deptartment has now organized meetings with PSR fellows, where you can get extra help from undergraduate peers. The sessions will be Wed, Thu and Sun 6-8pm, starting this week. The Wed and Thu meetings are in the Physics Study Room (1019 Broida) and the Sunday meetings in 1640 Broida (or maybe 1610 Broida, stay tuned).
Grading will be approximately like this: Homework 45%, midterm exam 15%, final exam 40%.
Exams: The Midterm Exam took place in lecture on Mon Oct 31. It covered Sects. 1.1-1.8 (pag 1-27) and Sects. 2.1-2.4 (pag 52-75) of the book. The class as a whole did well: average was 23.4/30 or 78%. Tests were returned in lecture, and here are the solutions.
Homework will be due 5pm Mondays. Turn it in into the Phys 20 box on the 2nd floor of Broida Hall, directly in front of the elevators. (It's labeled with the names of the professor and TA.) Homework will be returned in Section.
| Week of | Reading | Topics | Homework |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 23 | Chapter 1, pages 1-6 | Course details, vectors | |
| Sep 26-30 | Chapter 1, pages 7-19 Please view this online lecture about vectors. |
Vectors, motion | Set 1, Solutions due 5pm Mon Oct 3 |
| Oct 3-7 | Chapter 1, pages 7-19 continued See also constant acceleration formulas |
Motion | Set 2, Solutions due 5pm Mon Oct 10 |
Oct 10-14 | Chapter 1, Sect. 1.7, pages 19-27 See also vector constant acceleration |
Motion in 2d | Set 3, Solutions due 5pm Mon Oct 17 |
| Oct 17-21 | Chapter 2, Sect. 2.1-2.4, pages 52-75 See also Newton's Laws and wikipedia |
Laws of Motion Correction to lecture Fri: The very last equation should have been F1=(m1+m2)g sinθ. |
Set 4, Solutions due 5pm Mon Oct 24. Hints on probs 3,6 |
| Oct 24-28 | Chapter 1, Sect. 1.9, pages 27-38 | Circular motion | No homework this week |
| Oct 31- Nov 4 |
Midterm Mon Oct 31 Chapter 2, Sects. 2.4-2.5, pages 75-95 |
Circular motion, friction | Set 5, Solutions due 5pm Mon Nov 7 |
| Nov 7-11 | Chapter 2, Sects. 2.5, pages 80-86, 97-103 See also Gravity and wikipedia |
Gravity; Simple harmonic motion | Set 6, Solutions due 5pm Mon Nov 14. Hint on prob 3 |
| Nov 14-18 | Chapter 3, pages 112-145 | Momentum; see also Momentum and view video of center-of-mass motion |
Set 7, Solutions due 5pm Mon Nov 21. |
| Nov 21-23 | Chap. 3, pp.112-145, Chap. 4, pp.152-158. Please view this video, this video, and this video about momentum. |
Momentum; Work. Correction to lecture Wed:
The very last equation should have been v1' = v1(m-M)/(m+M) |
Set 8 due 5pm Wed Nov 30. |
| Nov 28- Dec 2 |
Chapter 4, pages 152-173; see also Work and Energy |
Work; Energy. Correction to lecture Mon:
The escape velocity from Earth is 11.2 km/s. |
Set 8 was the last one. |
Conduct of the course: Please read the assigned parts of the book before lecture; the lectures will explain the material and provide examples, but may not cover all the details in the book.
The heart of this course is the working of problems. Much of the discussion sections will consist of doing problems. Weekly problem sets will be due Mondays, to be turned in to the Physics 20 box in the 2nd floor lobby of Broida Hall, by 5pm. The problems are generally not the type of problems that you can get done in a few minutes--some may take a few hours, so start early, and utilize the TAs. You are also encouraged to work together to figure out how to do problems, but, you must write up your own solutions independently.
Write up your solutions carefully and neatly. Generally, show your work!-- where does the answer come from? Make a clear diagram, introduce algebraic variables for unknowns, and solve for answers symbolically. Plug in numbers at the end, and, do some cross checking as well as consideration of limiting cases (like, what if each mass in the problem becomes very large or very small?). Calculations must be done, so you must have a scientific calculator (with trig, exponential, etc).
DME 11/28/11