Physics 123B Midterm 1 Information

Where:

• All students in PAB A102
• Check WebAssign or Tycho for your seat assignment closer to the time of the exam.
  

When:

• Friday, January 25  10:30-11:20 am
  

Coverage:

• Lecture/Text material: Chapters 14 and 20.1-6 (not 20.7, and only qualitatively for 20.5), 21.1-4
  
• Tutorials 1. Superposition and reflection, Reflection and transmission
  
• Lab 1. Simple Pendulum
  
• Homework:  First 2 WebAssign Assignments, First two Tutorial Assignments, review problems listed on syllabus through Jan 18.
  

Important Lecture Concepts:

• Chapter 14:  Oscillations
• parameters of harmonic motion:  frequency, phase, period, angular frequency, amplitude, equlibrium position
• relationship of mass-on-spring frequency to spring constant and mass; relationship of pendulum frequency to gravitational acceleration and pendulum length.
  
• energy:  kinetic and potential energy balance and transfer, concept of damping
  
• resonance:  concept of resonance, but not the explicit equations for amplitude and phase.
• Chapter 20:  Traveling Waves
  
• parameters describing wave:  wavelength, period, wave vector, frequency, angular frequency, amplitude, phase, position, displacement, velocity
• relationship of wave velocity to materials parameters (you need not know how to derive them)
• difference between wave velocity and velocity of individual particles involved in the wave
  
• energy transport
• Chapter 21:  Superposition
• Principle of superposition
• How to add pulses.  Includes the reflection ideas from tutorial.
• Standing waves on strings
  

Format:

• Total of 100 points, distributed as:
• 50 - 55 points multiple choice (2 problems with multiple sections)
• 20 - 30 point short answer lecture question
• 20 - 25 points short answer tutorial question

You Must Bring:

Scan-Tron Form for Multiple-choice part of exam

Dark Pencil or Pen that marks scan-tron form so that it can easily be read by an optical scanner.

You May Bring:

• Calculator
• one 8.5x11 page of notes (both sides)
You will be expected to know (or have on your notes) basic formulas for both oscillations and waves and the appropriate trigonometry or geometry. You should also know the important constants.

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

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

Old Exams:

See GoPost for copies of old exams.  It is Prof. Olmstead's policy NOT to post solutions to old exams.  Please work through them on your own and come to the Study Center with questions.

Advice on Exam Preparation:

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 Prof. Olmstead (or any of the other instructors at the Study Center) during my office hours about any questions that you can't answer.  Keep track of the formulas you are using, and use that to prepare your notes page.  Make sure you understand how to do all the WebAssign, review, 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.  Also, a good night's sleep is the best preparation.