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Physics 115 A, Spring, 2014

GENERAL PHYSICS: ELECTROMAGNETISM AND OSCILLATORY MOTION

General Information

  • Prerequisites: PHYS 114;  working knowledge of high school algebra and basic trigonometry.
  • Textbook: James Walker, Physics, 4th Ed., Prentice Hall; paperback volume 2 (custom edition for UW), or the entire hardback text, available at U. Bookstore.
  • Lectures: students will be responsible for all material covered in lectures. Please ask questions in class, or email your question to the class mail address, phy115a@u.washington.edu.  Slides shown in lectures will be posted within a day or 2 after class, for your reference.
  • Concurrent enrollment in lab course, PHYS 118, is not mandatory, but recommended. Please note PHYS118 is a separate course; if you have questions, you must contact the instructor, Prof. Robert Van Dyck. 
  • Webassign access is required for homework and grade communication.
  • Clickers required for pop quizzes: H-ITT RF (not infrared!) transmitter, available at U. Bookstore. Please see Clicker Type for pictures and instructions. They will be used during each class, starting Thursday April 4. Bring your clicker every day! YOU are responsible for knowing how to use your clicker - we will have a practice quiz in class. If you have trouble operating your clicker, please ask students sitting nearby for help. Please don't ask me to hand-enter your answer if you are unable to enter your response electronically.
  • Quizzes: Only the best 10 scores will be used, so you can miss several quizzes without loss - therefore, no makeup quizzes! The quiz questions will be very easy if you have been paying attention in class.
  • Homework: Lecture homework on WebAssign will be assigned each week.  Please check the class calendar for due dates. It will normally be due at 11:59 PM on Wednesdays. Each student will have the same assignment to complete online, but the numerical values supplied to each student will differ.
    WebAssign cuts off according to the due date schedule; WebAssign will relentlessly refuse to accept your entries after the specified closing time! Computers are available for your use in the Physics Study Center, from 8:30am-5:20pm on weekdays and at various other locations around campus.
    You are very strongly advised to work out at least 10 additional problems in each chapter. The homework assignments are very minimal, and experience shows that students who spend time on homework problems get better scores on exams. Also, some exam questions may be very similar to end-of-chapter problems...
  • Midterm Exams: there will be 3 midterm exams. Please see the course calendar for dates and material covered. Your lowest midterm score will be dropped, so you can miss one midterm without loss. Therefore, you need not (and should not) notify me in any way if you have to miss one midterm. However, please do not ask for permission to miss more than one! Closed-book, but you will be given a formula page with the exam.
    Each midterm will emphasize recent material, but may include questions dealing with topics from earlier in the course. The exams will include both multiple choice and long-answer questions. Calculators are permitted. Cell phones, laptop computers, pad computers are not permitted, and the use of the text-storage capability now available on many calculators is also not permitted. The Physics Department reserves the right to ask for valid identification from any student during examinations.
  • Final exam will be on Monday, June 9, 2014, at 2:30 pm. Plan your summer departure after this required exam. If you miss the final exam you will get an I (Incomplete) grade for the class, and will have to make it up by taking the final exam of fall term's 115 class.
    The final exam will be comprehensive, covering material from the entire course. It will be entirely multiple choice in format. The same rules apply as for Midterm exams.
    To minimize the need for memorization, the final exam will include a page listing all of the major equations from the relevant portions of the textbook.
    Of course you may not communicate with anyone in or out of the room during an exam, or use any electronic device for communication. Please recognize that any variety of cheating is a serious academic offense, with penalties up to and including expulsion from UW, and since we have seen them all before, you are unlikely to succeed. 
  • Grading Policy: The final course grade will include:
    1.     midterm exam score (best 2 of 3)     40% of the course grade,
    2.     the final exam score     30%,
    3.     WebAssign homework scores     15%,
    4.     Best 10 lecture clicker quiz scores     15%.
    Your lowest midterm exam score will be dropped and your best two midterms are your "midterm exam score".
    For each of the components we obtain a "Z-score", defined as Z=(your score - class average)/(class standard deviation). This preserves your rank in class for each item, while giving all items a common average.
  • Study center: please make use of the Physics Study Center, located in room AM008, on the mezzanine level of the A wing of the Physics Astronomy building. The room is open at all times the building is open, 8am to 7pm weekdays. TAs and faculty will be on hand to answer your questions most of the time betwen 9:30 am and 4:30 pm weekdays. You are encouraged to study with fellow students to learn more! (Of course,  homework submissions must be your own work.)
  • Common courtesy: Civil behavior is required in class. The basic rule is, do not get in the way of other students who want to pay attention. Cell phones must be turned off while in class. If you want to chat with another student, or play games or watch videos on a laptop, please leave the room.


Send mail to class email: phy115a@u.washington.edu
Last modified: 3/26/14