Physics 123B Final Exam Information

Where:

• All students in PAB A102.
• Check Tycho for Seat Assignments
  

When:

• Monday March 17.   8:30-10:20 am

Coverage:

The final exam is COMPREHENSIVE, meaning it officially covers everything presented this quarter in lecture, laboratory, homework, reading, or tutorial. 

Material covered on the midterms is summarized on the Midterm 1 Info, Midterm 2 Info and Midterm 3 Info pages.

Material that didn't fit on the midterms is likely to find its way onto the final exam, so expect topics from the first 8 weeks that didn't show up on the midterms.

Roughly 1/3 of the exam will cover material since the last midterm:

• Lecture/Text material: Chapters 24, 37, 38.
  
• Tutorials 8-10.  Light and Shadow, Geometric vs Physical Optics, Wave Properties of Matter
  
• Lab 8:  Spectroscopy
• Homework:  Webassign 9.  Supplemental HW through March 13;  Tutorial 8,9.

Important Lecture Concepts:

• Chapter 24: Modern Optics and Matter Waves
  
• EM radiation as both particles (photons) and waves (not xray diffraction details)
• matter waves and their interference and diffraction effects
  
• quantization in a box
• Chapter 37:  End of Classical Physics
  
• measuring e/m for electron
• quantized energy levels
  
• Atomic spectra
• nuclear spectra are not covered
  
• Chapter 38:  Quantization
• Photoelectric effect
• Photons
• Absorption and emission
• particle confinement and energy quantization
  
• Bohr atom
• Atomic Spectra

Format:

• Total of 150 points, distributed approximately as:
• 50-60 points multiple choice lecture questions (2 contexts)
• 25-30 points multiple choice lab question
  
• 20-25 points multiple choice tutorial question
• 25-30 point short answer lecture question
• 20-25 point short answer tutorial question

You Must Bring:

Scan-Tron Form for Multiple-choice part of exam

Dark Pencil that marks scan-tron form so that it can easily be read by a a resistive scanner.

You May Bring:

• Calculator
• Ruler or straight edge
• one 8.5x11 page of notes (both sides)
You will be expected to know (or have on your notes) basic formulas and the appropriate trigonometry or geometry. You should also know the important constants.  You should rewrite the information from previous exams onto a single page so that you are not flipping through pages during the exam.  This process also helps you review.

You May NOT Bring (or at least they must be turned off and not taken out of your backpack):

• Wireless devices, including laptops, blackberries, cell phones, etc.
  

Old Exams:

Please see main exam info page for old exams.  It is my policy NOT to post solutions to old exams.  If you want to check your solutions, come to the Study Center and ask questions. 

Review on your own.  I reccomend making a list of questions about the points you don't understand, discussing it with your classmates, and asking me (or any of the other instructors at the Study Center) during my office hours about any questions that you can't answer.  Make sure you understand how to do all the WebAssign, supplemental, and tutorial problems, as well as understanding the material covered in the text, lecture, tutorial, and lab.  Work through additional problems from the book or practice exams.  Finally, your goal in this class should be to understand the physics, not to get a good grade on the exam.  I know it's hard to believe, but you will actually do better on the exam if you approach it with the goal of understanding physics.

If you had problems on the midterms, it may mean you need to change your study approach.  Practice doing old homework problems (WebAssign, supplemental, and tutorial) with the book closed.  It shouldn't take more than a few minutes/problem if you really understand it.  Practice setting up problems by looking through the end-of-book questions and problems.   Think in advance about how you might explain your reasoning in one or two sentences.  Get a good-night's sleep on Sunday, and eat a healthy breakfast before the exam on Monday.

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