Lecture hours : Tuesday, Thursday 11:00 - 11:50

Lecture place : CP 155

Home page : http://www.uky.edu/~kwng/phy201.htm

List server : phy201@lsv.uky.edu

Lecturer : Kwok-Wai Ng

Office : CP 385

Phone : 257-1782

e-mail : kwng@pop.uky.edu

Office hours : Monday 9:00-10:00

Thursday 4:00-5:00

This syllabus is written for odd section (002, 004, 006, 008) students only. Students from even sections should attend the appropriate lectures at other times.

In the lecture we will explain the physical principles and related concepts with the aids of demonstrations and examples. We will emphasize on the basic understanding of several important principles and their relationships with daily life experiences. It is essential for you to attend every lecture in order to keep up with the pace of the course.

2.    Course Description

PHY 201/211 is the first part of the non-calculus base general physics course. It covers mostly classical mechanics, which is fundamental to the second part of this course PHY 203/213. (In PHY203/213 you will study electricity and magnetism, optics, and a small amount of modern physics.) PHY 201 is a 4 credit hour course, while PHY 211 has one more credit hour because of the laboratory component.

The only required textbook of this course is Physics - Principles with Applications by Douglas C. Giancoli, fifth edition. The publisher is Prentice Hall. You can find the schedule in section 10 of this syllabus. Reading the text materials before coming to lecture will help you follow the class better. PHY211 students also need a manual and a supplementary package for the laboratory class, see section 5 below.

This class will cover the first twelve chapters (except chapter 10) of the textbook and most of the topics are related to mechanics. Mechanics is the study of motion of material bodies. We can find motion everywhere, from everyday experiences to celestial objects in the universe. Do you ever wonder: (i) Why an airplane can fly? (ii) Why people do not fall when the roller coaster is turned upside down at the highest point of the loop? (iii) Why racing tracks bank with a slope? (iv) Why you feel heavier as the elevator ascends? (v) Why a figure skater rotates faster as arms are pulled inward? (vi) Why planets move around the sun in circular orbits? ….All of these can be explained by mechanics. This makes mechanics interesting, and fun to learn. Mechanics is also one of the most elegant subjects in physical sciences. In the last few hundred years, physicists have observed, measured, and studied all different types of motion. The complexity of motion is summarized in a few common principles. We will study these principles carefully in this class. The following chart organizes the topics we will go through:

3.     Why study physics?

We feel the needs for students to learn a little bit of physics as part of the university education. The following are some reasons I can think about:

    (i)    Physics let us have a better understanding on different phenomena and processes that we encounter every day. This will make our lives more colorful and enjoyable. Examples: Why the sky is blue? Why there is rainbow?

    (ii)    Living in this modern world, there are social issues caused by technology advancement. Basic knowledge in physics is essential for us to understand and develop our own opinion on these issues. Examples: Do power lines have adverse effects on your health?

    (iii)    Learning physics helps us think scientifically. Analytical reasoning is becoming more and more important in many other professions. Furthermore, a little bit knowledge in physics is bound to be useful for you future career, since physics is such a broad subject. Examples: More and more physicists are working in medical sciences, and even financial areas.

    (iv)    Physics is part of the culture. This subject has documented how people viewed their position in the universe in the last few hundred years.

4.     Recitation

All students are required to attend two hours of recitation every week:

5.     Laboratory

Only PHY 211 students need to attend the laboratory sections:

6.     Grading Policy

We do care about how much students learn from this class. Students will be evaluated according to their performance:

If you miss a test with a valid excuse, you will receive a score based on the average of your other two tests. If you miss two or more tests, or the final examination, you will receive an incomplete (I) grade and you have to complete the tests or final examination in the next semester. You have to consult your recitation instructor on the policy of excused absence in recitation classes and missing homework. For the laboratory work, you have to make up the experiment after the excused absence. You will receive a zero for your laboratory component if you do not complete all experiments by the end of the semester.

Examples of excusable absences are (University Senate rule 5.2.4.2): (i) Illness of the student or serious illness of a member of the student's immediate family. Written verification required. (ii) The death of a member of the student's immediate family. Written verification required. (iii) Trips for members of student organizations sponsored by an academic unit, trips for University classes, and trips for participation in intercollegiate athletic events. When feasible, the student must notify the instructor prior to the occurrence of such absences, but in no case shall such notification occur more than one week after the absence. (iv) Major Religious Holidays. Students are responsible for notifying the instructor in writing of anticipated absences due to their observance of such holidays no later than the last day for adding a class.

You are not allowed to consult any text book, reference book, class notes, or any other written materials during the tests and the final examination. You have to provide your own calculator, but you cannot use any program stored in the memory of the calculator. To encourage you to solve problems from the most basic formulae, a formula and physical constant sheet is provided. This formula sheet is the same for every test and examination, and given in section 11 of this syllabus. For you own benefit, you should try to solve homework problems based on the equations listed in this formula sheet. If you find any unlisted equation useful, it is your responsibility to memorize the equation. To encourage students try hard to work on problems with their own effort, at least one problem in every test (and two problems in the final examination) will be chosen from the homework assignments. However, the numbers used in the problem will be different and it is of no use to recite any homework solution.

Though we encourage discussion among students, but they are expected to perform independent work. Copying homework and laboratory reports are considered as plagiarism. Cheating and plagiarism are very serious academic offenses. Violators are subjected to punishment in accordance to University Senate rules section 6.3 and 6.4, http://www.uky.edu/Regulations.

7.     Prerequisite

The first requirement is your sincerity and seriousness in learning this new knowledge. You do not need any previous course work on physics. We assume you have the basic mathematics skills at MA 109 (algebra) and MA 112 (trigonometry) level.

You will do well if you know the following:

    (i)    Basic arithmetic operations.

            Examples: (3+4) x 4 = ?
            3 + 4 x 4 = ?

    (ii)    Conversion between scientific notation and decimal.

            Examples: 10^-4 = ? (in decimal)
            12345 = 1.2345 x 10^?

    (iii)    Powers.

            Examples: a^x a ^y = a^?
            a^x a ^y = a^?

    (iv)    Solving simple equations.
            Example: , find x.

    (v)    Solving quadratic equations.

            Example: x² + 7x = 2 , find x.
 
    (vi)    Solving simultaneous equations.

            Example:  , find x and y.

    (vii)    Solve problems by the use of equations.
Example: A group of dogs and ducks have 20 heads and 46 legs. How many dogs and ducks are there?

    (viii)    Calculate simple geometric quantities.

            Examples: How to calculate the area enclosed by a circle? How to calculate the circumference of the circle? How to calculate the volume of a sphere?

    (ix)    Use of radians to measure angle.

            Examples: 2.3 radians = ? degrees

                            45^o = ? radians

    (x)    Trigonometry.

            Examples: 1. What is the length of the hypotenuse? What is the angle ?

                            2. What are the lengths of the adjacent side and opposite side to ?

8.     How to do well in this course?

    (i)    Spend time and effort on the course work. Course work means attending classes, doing homework, preparing laboratory reports, reading text materials, and thinking physics. PHY 201 students should expect to spend at least 10 hours a week (besides attending classes) to complete the homework assignment and review the lesson. PHY 211 students need two more hours to prepare the laboratory report.

    (ii)    Take an active role in the learning process. Ask question yourself and try to find out the answer. Do more than what you are asked to do. Talk with your recitation instructor, laboratory instructor, and lecturer if you find something that is difficult to understand.

    (iii)    When you read the textbook, you need to pick up the main points and keep them deep in your mind. It will take a lot of thinking to comprehend these materials. Solving problems and discussion with friends will help to ease this process.

    (iv)    When solving problems, do not just plug numbers into any equation you can find in the textbook until you get the right answer. Make sure you understand how the problem is solved. Use only equations that are directly related to the principles involved. Write down your solution step by step clearly. How much you understand is often reflected in the tidiness of your presentation.

    (v)    Use the resources:

            a.    Instructors: Feel free to talk with any instructor of this course if you have physics problems. All instructors have office hours, or you can find them by appointment. If you do not want to talk with them directly, you can also send e-mail to them.

            b.    Help desk: There are teaching assistants on duty to answer general physics questions. The physics help desk is inside the microcomputer laboratory (Chemistry-Physics building).

            c.    List server: all students are asked to join the discussion group of this class. If you do not have an e-mail account, you can get one free from the university. To subscribe the list send e-mail to listserv@lsv.uky.edu with no subject and only the following in the body of the message: subscribe phy201 "your first name" "your last name". Make sure you turn off signature. You may later receive a confirmation request from the server. Confirm with an "ok" by following the instructions given in that message. You are then officially a subscriber of the discussion list. You can send (and receive) mail to phy201@lsv.uky.edu to broadcast your message to other classmates. Through the list server, you can discuss physics problem with other classmates. I will also use the list to make announcement about the class.

            d.    Home page (http://www.uky.edu/~kwng/phy201.htm): You can access the home page of this course at any time you want. You can find any related course materials (home work solutions, old examination problems, etc.) in this page.

            e.    Chemistry-Physics Library: You can find course materials (home work solutions, past examinations etc.) on reserve in the Chemistry-Physics library, but these materials will not be updated as frequent as the course homepage. You can also find other textbooks similar to the one we are using in the library. These books are good sources if you want to find more problems to solve.

            f.    Microcomputer Laboratory: You can access the world wide web and your e-mail account through the computers in the microcomputer laboratory. Many useful software programs on physics, mathematics, graph plotting, word processing, spread sheet, etc. are available for students to use.
 

9.     University Studies Program

Both PHY 201 and PHY 211 can be taken to fulfill part of the natural sciences requirement in the University Studies Program. The writing component of the University Studies will be satisfied through the clear description of the physics principles involved in solving a problem. Thoughtful writings are also requires in preparing laboratory reports and homework. You can obtain further information from the following home page: http://www.uky.edu/Registrar/bull9596/bullusp.html

10.     Schedule

Date	Cover materials	Descriptions	Homework due by next recitation
Jan 14. Th	1-4, 1-5	Measurements. Units.	P. 1-2, 1-3, 1-12, 1-13, 1-15
Jan 19. Tu	2-1 to 2-3	Distance and speed. Displacement and velocity. Average and instantaneous velocity	Q 2-1, 2-2, 2-3.  P 2-2, 2-5, 2-8, 2-11
Jan 21. Th	2-4, 2-5, 2-8	Acceleration. Uniform acceleration. Graphical analysis of linear motion.	Q 2-6   P 2-14, 2-19, 2-24, 2-26, 2-52, 2-53
Jan 26. Tu	2-7	Falling bodies	Q 2-15   P 2-35, 2-38, 2-44, 2-46, 2-49
Jan 28. Th	TEST I	Chapter 1 and chapter 2
Feb 2. Tu	3-1 to 3-4	Vectors and two dimensional motion	P3-1,3-4,3-9,3-13
Feb 4. Th	3-5, 3-6	Projectile motion	Q3-11   P3-19, 3-21, 3-22, 3-26, 3-32
Feb 9. Tu		More examples on projectile motion	P3-30, 3-33, 3-35, 3-36, 3-38
Feb 11. Th	4-1 to 4-4	Newton's first and second law.   Mass and force.	Q4-3, 4-4, 4-5   P4-4, 4-8,4-10,4-21
Feb 16. Tu	4-5 , 4-6	Newton's third law.   Weight and normal force.	Q4-11, 4-14   P4-5, 4-6, 4-13,4-18
Feb 18. Th	4-7	Solving problems with Newton's law of motion.	P4-28, 4-29,4-30,4-34,4-35
Feb 23. Tu	4-8	More problems on Newton's law of motion	P4-39, 4-44, 4-52, 4-54 (part a only), 4-59
Feb 25. Th	TEST II	Chapter 3 and chapter 4
Mar 2. Tu	7-1 to 7-3	Momentum and its conservation   Impulse	Q7-1   P7-6,7-7,7-9, 7-14,7-17
Mar 4. Th	7-4 to 7-5   7-6, 7-8	Elastic and inelastic collisions,   center of mass	Q7-14   P 7-24, 7-26, 7-28,7-30,7-48
Mar 9. Tu	6-1, 6-3	Work done and kinetic energy	Q6-2, Q6-8   P6-1, 6-7, 6-10, 6-19,6-25
Mar 11. Th	6-4, 6-5	Potential energy and conservative force	P6-29, 6-30,6-32, 6-34

 

Mar 16. Tu		Spring break. No class
Mar 18. Th		Spring break. No class
Mar 23. Tu	6-6 to 6-8	Conservation of energy	Q6-18   P6-36, 6-39, 6-40, 6-43, 6-44
Mar 25. Th	6-9 to 6-10	Dissipative force and power	Q6-19   P6-51, 6-53, 6-55, 6-58, 6-65
Mar 30. Tu	5-1 to 5-4	Kinematics and dynamics of circular motion	P5-2, 5-8, 5-9, 5-12, 5-18
Apr 1. Th	5-6 to 5-9	Newton's law of gravitation.  Planetary motions.	Q5-16   P5-25, 5-32, 5-39, 5-44, 5-49
Apr 6. Tu	11-1 to 11-3	Simple harmonic motion	Q11-2   P11-4, 11-16, 11-17, 11-20, 11-23,
Apr 8. Th	11-4 to 11-6	More on simple harmonic motion	Q11-8   P11-11, 11-26, 11-27, 11-31, 11-33
Apr 13. Tu	TEST III	Chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7
Apr 15. Th	8-1 to 8-3	Kinematics of rotational motion	P8-6, 8-16, 8-22, 8-24,8-27
Apr 20. Tu	8-4 to 8-6 and 9-1 to 9-2	Dynamics of rotational motion and conditions for static equilibrium	Q8-5,8-6  P8-30, 8-38, 8-45, 9-13, 9-23
Apr 22. Th	8-7, 8-8	Rotational kinetic energy and angular momentum	Q8-11, 8-16   P8-50,8-53, 8-54,8-60, 8-65
Apr 27. Tu	11-7 to 11-8 and 12-1 and 22-5	Wave motion	Q11-15, 11-16   P11-34, 11-36, 11-39, 11-42, 22-18
Apr 29. Th	11-12 and 12-5	Standing waves	Q11-25, 12-6   P11-55,11-60, 11-61, 12-31, 12-75
May 8. F		FINAL EXAMINATION	May 4 (T) 8:00-10:00    CP 155

Note

There are questions and problems at the end of each chapter in the text. In the above schedule, Q stands for questions and P denotes problems. For example, P5-7

means problem 7 of chapter 5.

11.     Formula sheet

I. Physical constants:

g = 9.8 m/s² (on Earth's surface) G= 6.67 10^-11 Nm²/kg²

II. Kinematics equations

III. Dynamics equations

IV. Momentum

V. Work and energy

VI. Circular motion

VII. Newton's Law of Gravitation

VIII. Simple harmonic motion

IX. Rotational motion

X. Waves