| Lecture Location: | Room 155, Chem-Phys Bldg. |
| Lecturer: | Prof. Ganpathy Murthy |
| Office: | Room 387D, Chem-Phys Bldg. |
| Office Hours: | MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (sharp), and by appointment |
| Telephone: | 257-4729 |
| E-mail: | murthy@pa.uky.edu |
There are two different lectures (9AM for section number 008, and 11AM for the rest) which are logically separated. You must attend the lecture in which you are registered (in order to get credit for quizzes), and you must take the exams at your scheduled time (to get credit for them). Also, you must attend and hand in quizzes at the recitation section to which you have been assigned. Since there are several recitation sections which are held simultaneously, learn your recitation section number, your meeting time and place (see the SCHEDULE OF CLASSES) and your recitation instructor's name.
The laboratory PHY 241 is administered as a different course with a different instructor.
Course Description
Goals: To think analytically, and retain, organize and employ facts purposefully, critically and effectively. To strive to harness this way of thinking to help you understand, assess, appreciate and criticize modern science and technology.
PHY 231 is the first semester of a three semester sequence in introductory physics for science and engineering students. In PHY 231, students will study the subject of mechanics.
Please read this entire syllabus carefully, and refer to it often. If you have any question about the structure or administration of the course, you are likely to find the answer here.
Textbook
The textbook for the course is Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Volume 1, Fourth Edition, by Paul A. Tipler. There is an accompanying Solutions Manual for Students which is recommended; it contains solutions to selected problems which may be similar to some assigned problems. One of the most important strategies for successfully learning the material (and getting a good grade) is for you to read the corresponding sections of the text before you come to class, as lectures will be spent expanding on, rather than repeating, the textbook's contents.
Class Meetings
PHY 231 meets formally for four hours per week. You should expect to spend at least two hours studying physics outside of class for each hour you spend inside. The entire class will meet three hours per week (MWF 9 AM or 11 AM) in the lecture/demonstration hall CP 155. The lectures will roughly follow the textbook, but will augment, not reproduce, the reading assignments; I will assume that you have read the assignment before coming to class. Unless explicitly mentioned in class, students are responsible for both material assigned as reading (even if we do not ``cover it'' in class) and material presented in lecture. These lectures will be devoted to examining your current conceptions, demonstrating physical phenomena, describing quantitatively the characteristics of physical phenomena, and establishing relationships among them. These relationships are most easily expressed with calculus-based mathematics, which is why MA 114 is a concurrent requirement for the course. You are strongly encouraged to enroll concurrently in PHY 241, the companion laboratory course.
Lecture time will also be devoted to teaching problem solving skills needed to do the assigned homework. After each lecture class, and before the next, write out the answers to the textbook problems assigned for that day. For one hour each Tuesday, smaller groups of students will meet in a recitation class (see your SCHEDULE OF CLASSES), where some of the problems from the previous Wednesday, Friday, and Monday, will be discussed. Make sure that you take advantage of the opportunity to ask for help in recitation as well as in lecture, and be prepared to communicate your points of confusion to both the lecture and recitation instructors.
Our emphasis will be on an understanding of the underlying physics concepts as well as on problem-solving skills. In addition to being able to solve all of the assigned problems, you will also be expected to be able to apply the concepts involved in these problems to somewhat different situations. To do this successfully, the student is encouraged to focus on gaining an understanding of the physical concepts involved rather than merely learning to memorize formulas and plug in numbers. This may involve qualitative and sometimes creative answers to questions or problems. It will thus be good practice for the exams if you attempt to do additional problems from the textbook that have not been assigned as homework. It is strongly recommended that you try to do many of the (unassigned) textbook problems after each lecture. (Perhaps some of these will appear on the exams?)
Examinations and Grading
Your course grade will be determined as follows:
| In-class exams (2 x 100) | 200 |
| Final exam | 200 |
| Recitation grade | 100 |
| Lecture grade | 50 |
| Total | 550 |
Exams: There will be two fifty-minute exams and a two-hour final exam, roughly half of which will be devoted to the material covered after the last exam, the other half comprehensive. All exam dates are indicated on the ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE. Any student who cheats on an exam will receive a grade of E for the course, and may be subject to further disciplinary action by the university. Communication between students is absoluted forbidden during quizzes and exams. If you have a question, you should ask the instructor, who will be present.
If you miss a exam without a valid excuse, you will receive a zero for the exam. If you have a valid excuse (e.g. signed note from a physician or a university official), present it to your recitation instructor (not the lecturer) who may request further documentation. An excused absence always requires a written request. It must be provided to the recitation instructor at least one week in advance except for unexpected emergencies in the immediate family or for the student.
If you miss a single exam with an excused absence, you will be given either a make-up exam (which will not be less demanding than the exam missed), or a calculated replacement grade to restore the points lost on the missed exam. In the latter case, your grade for the missing exam will be calculated from your ranking on the other fifty-minute exam. If you miss the final examination or a fifty-minute exam, you may, upon request, get an I-grade only if you have a valid excuse and the average of your exam scores indicates a possibility of passing the course. You will have to complete the course at another time.
If you wish to submit a exam for re-grading, first make sure that you understand how to do the problem correctly (see the posted solutions, for example). Then, within a couple of days of receiving your exam back, provide an explanation of your request on a separate signed sheet of paper, and hand it to your recitation instructor who will forward it to the grader. Make no marks on the solution that you submit for re-grading, so that it can be compared with the photocopy on file. (Exams will be photocopied before they are returned.) Any appeals concerning grades for exams must be resolved within two weeks of receiving your exam back. At semester's end, do not appeal to your recitation instructor for a reconsideration of a score assigned weeks previously.
Homework & Recitation grade: Before each lecture, read the corresponding assignment and read/try the homework. (See the ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE.) After each lecture, do the corresponding homework before the next lecture. Before your Tuesday recitation, you should have attempted to solve all of the problems assigned the previous Wednesday, Friday and Monday. During the first half-hour or so of recitation, you will see solutions presented to as many if the problems labeled ``Presented'' as time permits; this will work best if you participate and make the process interactive. Homework will not be collected or graded. However, be prepared for a quiz based on one of the homework problems labeled ``Quiz''. A quiz will be given during the last 15 minutes of every recitation. At the end of recitation, hand in your solution to your recitation instructor, who will then grade it out of 10 points and return it to you at the beginning of the next recitation meeting. You must attend and take the quiz in the recitation section to which you are assigned by the registrar. Other recitation sections which meet at different times and/or in different rooms will be given different quizzes. After recitation, solutions to all of the homework problems will be posted. These solutions may be rather terse and are to be regarded as skeletons of complete solutions.
Missing a recitation quiz will be treated the same as missing an exam; that is, a valid excuse must be provided to the recitation instructor at least one week in advance except for unexpected emergencies in the immediate family or for the student. In any event, the recitation instructor must be notified before the next recitation meeting. Your three lowest quiz scores will be dropped when your total recitation grade is tallied; in essence you get three ``sick days''. This is very lenient, so don't abuse the goodwill of your recitation instructor by asking her or him for exceptions to this rule. Any appeals concerning grades for quizzes in recitation must be resolved within a week or so for the material in question. At the end of the semester, do not appeal to your recitation instructor for a reconsideration of scores assigned weeks previously.
Even though the homework is not graded, you should make every effort to attempt all of the assigned problems and carefully listen to the presented solutions because: they are excellent practice for problems which may appear on the exams, they may be similar to the problem chosen as the weekly recitation quiz, the posted solutions will often be quite terse, and you may actually learn something.
Lecture grade: Physics is not a spectator sport! You will make best use of the lectures if you attempt to become actively engaged. Ask questions about what you have read and make predictions about the outcomes of real or imagined experiments.
Often in lecture, we will go over several ``concept questions''; the purpose is to focus our attention on important concepts. We will discuss these questions first individually, then in informal groups formed in class, and then as a whole class.
In several lectures on a random basis, I will collect your written answer to one of these concept questions. On a separate unfolded, full-sized sheet of paper, write your name, your social security number, your recitation section number (e.g. 001), the date, and your (provisional) answer to the problem. Then discuss the problem with your neighbors and write down your revised answer. (If it changes, don't erase your first guess - you won't be graded on that, but it provides me with an indication of how you are learning.) You will be given 2 points for submitting an answer, and an additional 3 points if your (revised) answer is correct. After you hand in your paper, we will discuss the solution as a class. I will not return your paper (to save valuable lecture time) so keep a record of your answer and the correct answer.
During some lectures, marked Problem Session on your assignment sheet, a difficult or ambiguously phrased problem will be given. You will be asked to form groups of 3-4 students, and spend the 50 minutes solving the problem. Part of your lecture grade will be based on this assignment.
You may accumulate a maximum of 50 points over the semester.
University Studies
PHY 231 may be taken to fulfill part of the Natural Sciences Requirement in the UNIVERSITY STUDIES PROGRAM. A good scientist or engineer must possess knowledge of their discipline, and be able to communicate that knowledge effectively. The writing component of the University Studies will be satisfied through the clear, coherent, and orderly presentation of the physics principles involved in your solution to problems in quizzes and exams, using not only equations and numbers, but also words and diagrams! A solution is not complete when you write down the final numerical answer; you must demonstrate that the answer makes physical sense. Answers to essay-type questions must be given in complete sentences, but be concise. Such answers will enable graders to give partial credit for less than perfect answers.
Resources
PHY 231 is an intensive and demanding course. Consult often with your lecturer and recitation instructor. You are encouraged to ask both of them, or any of the other recitation instructors, questions during their posted office hours. (See the RECITATION SECTION page for a list of office hours.)