Physics 101: Physics for Scientists and Engineers I, Spring 2017 Lecture/Lab M/W 12:45-5:20pm (Section 0591)

Center for the Sciences 92033

Instructor: Adrian Soldatenko

Office: Center for the Sciences 91069 Phone: x4368

Office Hours: M/W 10:20am-12:30pm, T/R 12:50-1:30pm, and by appointment

Email: soldata@piercecollege.edu Class Web Site (Canvas): https://ilearn.laccd.edu

Required Texts and Supplements: Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman, University Physics, 14th

ed. (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0321982582 Lillian C. McDermott and Peter S. Schaffer, Tutorials in

Introductory Physics and Homework Package, 2nd ed., ISBN: 0321823982

Physics 101 Lab Manual: David R. Sokoloff, Ronald K. Thornton,

and Priscilla Laws’ RealTime Physics: Active Learning Laboratories (as modified by Pierce College faculty)

Mastering Physics: http://www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com

Scientific Calculator (it is your responsibility to know how to use it properly)

Course Description: This course begins a sequence of three calculus-based physics

courses. Physics 101 considers the fundamental principles and applications of classical mechanics, gravitation, periodic motion, and

fluid mechanics at the beginning calculus level of mathematical sophistication. The lecture and laboratory form a single integrated

course. The laboratory includes both quantitative and qualitative experiments, tutorials, and conceptual activities which permit students

to verify, illustrate, and deduce various laws of physics.

Student Learning Outcomes: Student demonstrates an understanding of the scientific method

and applies it to the description and explanation of motion and interactions in the following ways:

1. Use algebra, calculus, and vector analysis to solve quantitative problems in a variety of contexts, including both everyday

situations and science/engineering applications, by applying

Newton’s laws of motion and conservation laws (energy, linear

and angular momentum). 2. Reason conceptually using classical dynamics and conservation

laws to make qualitative predictions, explain real-world phenomena, and draw and interpret graphs and diagrams.

Prerequisites:

Calculus I (Math 261) with a grade of “C” or better.

Corequisites:

Calculus II (Math 262).

Important Dates: Class Starts: Monday, February 6

Last Day to Add: Thursday, February 16 Last Day to Drop without Incurring Fees and without a “W”:

Monday, February 20 President’s Day: Monday, February 20

EXAM I: Wednesday, March 8 (Week 5)

EXAM II: Wednesday, March 29 (Week 8) Spring Break: April 1-7

EXAM III: Wednesday, April 26 (Week 11) Last Day to Drop with a “W”: Sunday, May 7

EXAM IV: Monday, May 15 (Week 14) Last Day of Class: Wednesday, May 24

FINAL: Wednesday, May 31 (12:30pm – 2:30pm) Grading:

You can find your scores for individual assignments posted on the Canvas site after they have been graded. There is NO EXTRA

CREDIT, so make sure you understand how your grade is determined! No assignment turned in after the final exam will count for credit.

Homework (10%): Homework is your opportunity to practice the material you have learned and to ensure that you are ready for the

exams. The questions will be similar to those in the textbook and

involve both, work that is written and submitted in class, AND work that is done online and submitted through Mastering Physics. Written

HW is due by the end of the first class break and online HW is due 30 minutes BEFORE class; late written HW will be reduced by 20% of its

maximal value for each class day it is late, late online HW will not be accepted. Please write your name, and student ID number (SID) on

the first page of your HW. Make sure you space out and show all your work, number each problem, box your final answer, and

staple all the pages together. DO NOT COPY any classmates HW, although you should feel free to work together and share ideas,

outright copying will be dealt with according to college policy (see below) and will not help you pass this class. Select problems will be

graded from each assignment with scores based on correctness,

organization, and application of the ideas taught in class. Solutions must be complete and show that there is mastery of the material, one

word or single number answers, even if correct, will earn scores below passing. At the end of the semester the lowest homework score will be

dropped when calculating final grades. Participation (5%): Your presence and participation in class is

vital to your success. If you know you will be missing class on any given date let me know in writing, WHEN AND WHY, by the last day

to add (February 16), if there is an emergency email me ASAP. After two or more days of unexcused absences, you may be excluded

from the class. However, if you stop attending class, it is your responsibility to drop the class at the Pierce College Office of

Admissions and Records. Do not depend on me to exclude you. Otherwise, you will probably receive a grade of F in the course.

Each day of class you will be awarded points for contributing to

discussions and/or participating in interactive lecture demonstrations. Full credit will be awarded to all students that participate, being

absent, leaving early during an activity, missing an in-class activity, or not participating will earn you a zero for that day.

Reading Quizzes (5%): Keeping up with the readings will help you connect with the lectures, labs, and class activities. The quizzes

will primarily be based directly on the reading assignments, however occasionally the questions will be designed by me. Your answers are

to be submitted on Mastering Physics, where they will be graded primarily on effort. These quizzes will be due 30 minutes BEFORE

class, late work will NOT be accepted. At the end of the semester your lowest reading quiz will be dropped.

Laboratory (17%): Labs give you a chance to build physical intuition for the concepts taught in class. Each lab is broken up into

four parts: the pre-lab, the experiment, the lab report and the lab

homework assignment. Pre-labs must be completed BEFORE class, late pre-lab assignments will NOT be accepted, since they are

intended as a way of familiarizing you with the coming lab. The details of each lab will vary, but typically involve a set of experiments that

test the concepts taught in class and require the students to answer questions, and take data. Lab reports, which involve the analysis of

the data taken, will be written up by each student during the course of the lab and turned in at the END of the lab period. Lab report grades

will be given for each GROUP by evaluating a random report from a single group member. Students that leave lab early will not receive

full participation credit for that lab assignment. Lab homework is due the following class meeting and is submitted individually by each

student. Late lab homework will be treated in the same manner as

late homework. Make-up labs are NOT possible. At the end of the

semester the lowest lab grade will be dropped. In-Class Problems/Tutorials (12%): Working out problems

during class gives the instructor the chance to observe students’ approaches to problems and provide immediate feedback. Both in-

class problems and tutorials involve students working in groups, similar to lab exercises. In-class problems will generally involve more

quantitative work, each student will submit a response, but only one random response per group will be graded, with grades determined by

participation, effort, and correctness. Tutorials will have three parts, the first will be done BEFORE class and is called a pre-test, and the

second part is done in class. Both these parts will have a score determined by participation and effort, while the third part will be a

homework assignment which will be turned in the following class meeting. Late tutorial homework will be treated in the same manner

as late homework. At the end of the semester the lowest score from

EITHER your in-class problems or your tutorials will be dropped. Exams (36%): There will be four exams over the course of the

semester. All exams are closed book, however you will be allowed a small sheet of hand written notes on each exam and the use of a

scientific calculator. The tests will cover ALL material covered in class and in the text up to the date of the exam. Make-up exams will

generally NOT be possible and missing any exam, without prior approval of the instructor, will equate to a zero. In the unusual event

of an excused test absence, the average of your other exams will be used in its' place. The lowest exam score will be dropped when

calculating final grades. Cheating on exams is unacceptable and will be dealt with according to college policy (see below).

Final (15%): The final covers all the material of the course and CANNOT be dropped.

Final class grades will be calculated using a straight scale: 90%-

100% A, 80%-89% B, 70%-79% C, 60%-69% D, anything lower F. Grade complaints, questions about grading, and grade corrections

should be brought to the instructor as soon as possible. Students are expected to have full awareness of their standing in the class by

looking at the course page on Canvas. Special Services:

If you feel you require accommodations for disabilities please contact special services as early as possible,

http://www.piercecollege.edu/offices/special_services/. Academic Integrity:

Cheating of any kind will not be tolerated. All work presented by the students should be in their own words. Collaborating is OK,

copying is not! Students caught copying on any assignment will be

given a zero on that assignment, this also includes the student that

allowed their work to be copied. Repeated incidents will lead to disciplinary action by as determined by the Vice President of Student

Services. Cheating on an exam will earn a student a zero on that exam and further disciplinary action as determined by the Vice

President of Student Services. For the campus policy please see the Pierce College Catalog:

http://info.piercecollege.edu/info/conduct/academicINtegrityPOlicy.pdf

Class Schedule: Week 1

Monday, February 6 Lecture 1: Intro., Units, Measures, and Vectors

ILD 1: Vectors Reading: Ch.1 Sec. 1.1-1.7

Wednesday, February 8

Lecture 2: Vector Multiplication Tutorial 1: Velocity

Diagnostic Test Reading: Ch.1 Sec. 1.8-1.10

DUE: Reading Quiz 0 and 1, Pre-Test 1 Week 2

Monday, February 13 Lecture 3: One-Dimensional Motion

Reading: Ch.2 DUE: Reading Quiz 2, Tutorial Homework 1

Wednesday, February 15 Tutorial 2: Representations of Motion

Lab 1: RTP 1.1 – Introduction to Motion DUE: Pre-Test 2, Pre-Lab 1, Homework 1

Week 3

Monday, February 20 NO CLASS

Wednesday, February 22 Lecture 4: Two and Three-Dimensional Motion

ILD 2: Projectile Motion Tutorial 3: Acceleration in One-Dimension

Reading: Ch.3 DUE: Pre-Test 3, Reading Quiz 3, Tutorial Homework 2,

Lab Homework 1 Week 4

Monday, February 27 Tutorial 4: Motion in Two-Dimensions

Lab 2: RTP 1.2 – Changing Motion

DUE: Pre-Test 4, Pre-Lab 2, Homework 2,

Tutorial Homework 3 Wednesday, March 1

Tutorial 5: Relative Motion Lab 3: RTP 1.10 – Projectile Motion

DUE: Pre-Test 5, Pre-Lab 3, Tutorial Homework 4, Lab Homework 2

Week 5 Monday, March 6

Lecture 5: Newton’s Laws Tutorial 6: Forces

Reading: Ch.4 DUE: Pre-Test 6, Reading Quiz 4, Homework 3,

Tutorial Homework 5, Lab Homework 3 Wednesday, March 8

EXAM I: Ch.1-3, Lab 1-3, Tutorial 1-5

Lab 4: RTP 1.3 – Force and Motion DUE: Pre-Lab 4, Tutorial Homework 6

Week 6 Monday, March 13

Lecture 6: Applications of Newton’s Laws Lab 5: RTP 1.4 – Combining Forces

DUE: Pre-Lab 5, Homework 4, Lab Homework 4 Wednesday, March 15

Tutorial 7: Newton’s 2nd and 3rd Laws Lab 6: RTP 1.5 – Force, Mass, and Acceleration

Reading: Ch.5 DUE: Pre-Test 7, Reading Quiz 5, Pre-Lab 6,

Lab Homework 5 Week 7

Monday, March 20

Tutorial 8: Tension Lab 7: RTP 1.7 – Passive Forces

DUE: Pre-Test 8, Pre-Lab 7, Lab Homework 6, Tutorial Homework 7

Wednesday, March 22 Lecture 7: Work and Kinetic Energy

Lecture 8: Potential Energy and Conservation of Energy Tutorial 9: Work and Changes in Kinetic Energy

Reading: Ch.6, Ch.7 Sec. 7.1-7.3 DUE: Pre-Test 9, Reading Quiz 6 and 7a, Homework 5,

Tutorial Homework 8, Lab Homework 7 Week 8

Monday, March 27

Tutorial 10: Conservation of Energy

Lab 8: RTP 1.11 – Work and Energy DUE: Pre-Test 10, Pre-Lab 8,

Tutorial Homework 9 Wednesday, March 29

EXAM II: Ch. 4-5, Lab 4-7, Tutorial 6-8 Lab 9: RTP 1.12 – Conservation of Energy

DUE: Pre-Lab 9, Lab Homework 8, Tutorial Homework 10 Spring Break

Monday, April 3 NO CLASS

Wednesday, April 5 NO CLASS

Week 9 Monday, April 10

Interactive Lecture Demonstrations 3: Cart on a Track

Lab 10: RTP 1.8 – 1-D Collisions DUE: Pre-Lab 10, Homework 6, Lab Homework 9

Wednesday, April 12 Lecture 9: Force and Potential Energy

Lecture 10: Momentum and Collisions Tutorial 11: Conservation of Momentum in One-Dimension

Reading: Ch.7 Sec. 7.4-7.5, Ch.8 DUE: Pre-Test 11, Reading Quiz 7b and 8,

Lab Homework 10 Week 10

Monday, April 17 Tutorial 12: Conservation of Momentum in 2D

Lab 11: RTP 1.9 – Momentum Conservation DUE: Pre-Test 12, Pre-Lab 11, Homework 7,

Tutorial Homework 11

Wednesday, April 19 Lecture 11: Rotation of Rigid Bodies

Tutorial 13: Changes in Energy and Momentum Reading: Ch.9

DUE: Pre-Test 13, Reading Quiz 9, Tutorial Homework 12, Lab Homework 11

Week 11 Monday, April 24

Lecture 12: Dynamics of Rotational Motion Tutorial 14: Rotational Motion

Reading: Ch.10 DUE: Pre-Test 14, Reading Quiz 10, Homework 8,

Tutorial Homework 13

Wednesday, April 26

EXAM III: Ch. 6-8, Lab 8-11, Tutorial 9-13 Tutorial 15: Dynamics of Rigid Bodies

DUE: Pre-Test 15, Tutorial Homework 14 Week 12

Monday, May 1 Lecture 13: Equilibrium and Elasticity

Tutorial 16: Conservation of Angular Momentum Reading: Ch.11

DUE: Pre-Test 16, Reading Quiz 11, Homework 9, Tutorial Homework 15

Wednesday, May 3 Tutorial 17: Equilibrium of a Rigid Body

Lab 12: Moment of Inertia DUE: Pre-Test 17, Pre-Lab 12, Tutorial Homework 16

Week 13

Monday, May 8 Lecture 14: Fluids

Interactive Lecture Demonstrations 4: Fluid Statics Tutorial 18: Pressure in a Liquid

Reading: Ch.12 Sec. 12.1-12.3 DUE: Pre-Test 18, Reading Quiz 12a, Homework 10,

Tutorial Homework 17, Lab Homework 12 Wednesday, May 10

Lecture 15: Fluid Flow and Gravitation Tutorial 19: Buoyancy

Reading: Ch.12 Sec. 12.4-12.6 DUE: Pre-Test 19, Reading Quiz 12b, Homework 11,

Tutorial Homework 18 Week 14

Monday, May 15

EXAM IV: Ch. 9-11, Lab 12, Tutorial 14-17 Lab 13: Buoyancy

Reading: Ch.13 Sec. 13.1-13.3 DUE: Pre-Lab 13, Reading Quiz 13a,

Tutorial Homework 19 Wednesday, May 17

Lecture 16: Kepler’s Laws and Dark Matter Lecture 17: Simple Harmonic Motion

Tutorial 20: Simple Harmonic Motion Reading: Ch.13 Sec. 13.4-13.8, Ch.14 Sec. 14.1-14.3

DUE: Pre-Test 20, Reading Quiz 13b and 14a, Homework 12, Lab Homework 13

Week 15

Monday, May 22

Lab 14: The Simple Pendulum Lecture 18: The Pendulum

Reading: Ch.14 Sec 14.4-14.8 DUE: Pre-Lab 14, Reading Quiz 14b,

Tutorial Homework 20 Wednesday, May 24

Lecture 19: Damped and Driven Harmonic Motion DUE: Homework 13, Lab Homework 14

Finals Week Wednesday, May 31

FINAL EXAM 12:30pm – 2:30pm DUE: Homework 14

Disclaimer: Syllabus and schedule are subject to change. Please feel free to

contact me with questions or comments.

Accessing Canvas and Mastering Physics

Canvas Instructions for Physics 101

We will be using the online program Canvas, which Pierce College supports, to organize class resources for your reference. (Canvas is

free of charge and available to all enrolled students.)

You can get to the Canvas

homepage by going to https://ilearn.laccd.edu;

alternatively, you can go to www.piercecollege.edu, select

“Student Services” from the menu on the left, and choose

“PierceOnline” from the list on the right just below “Academic

Services”. The “Canvas Login”

button will be on the left on the following page. For technical

help with Canvas, send email to onlinehelp@piercecollege.edu.

Once on the site, you may log in by entering your student ID number

(9-digit number beginning with 88) as your username, and your password is 88 +month +day you were born. For example if your

birthday were January 1, then your password would be 880101.

Students who are officially enrolled in Physics 101 will automatically be

added to the roster for the class on Canvas. If you have not yet enrolled, you will not be able to access the Canvas materials.

Therefore, if you are adding the class, it is important that you turn in your add card as soon as possible. If you are having trouble adding,

please discuss your situation with me.

After you’ve enrolled, you should always see Physics 101 on your

“dashboard” whenever you log in. Clicking on the name of the class

will take you to the course page on Canvas, which will show links to class materials, including the syllabus, handouts, and copies of the

slides and Smart Board notes used in lectures.

Mastering Physics Instructions for Physics 101

Online problems for this class will be done on Mastering Physics, a platform developed by the publishers of our textbook. Mastering

Physics provides you with quick, automatic feedback, occasional hints, and (after the due date) answers.

Go to www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com.

The first time you go to the site,

click on the button labeled “Student” below the heading

“Register.” A message will remind you that you will need

either an access code or a credit card to purchase access, as well

as a course ID. Click “OK! Register now” to continue. You

will next be asked to enter the

course ID for our class, which is:

Soldatenko32527

The next step is to set up an account. If you’ve already created a

Pearson account for another class (for example, if you have used Mastering Chemistry), you may sign in with the same username and

password. Otherwise, click “Create” to make a new account; you will be asked to enter an email address and to choose a username and

password for yourself. Once you have signed in to your account, you will be prompted either to enter an access code or to purchase access.

If you bought a new textbook at the Pierce bookstore, you have a free access code, which should be printed on a cardboard insert inside the

cover of the textbook; click “Access” to enter it. Otherwise, there are two options for purchase: for $113, you get Mastering Physics access

plus the electronic version of the textbook (ebook); for $69.50, you get Mastering Physics access only. (Note: the text on the screen will

refer to an edition of the text for Cal State LA - that’s the same version

we will be using.)

Once you have enrolled in the course, you will see the course home page when you log in; this will list the assignments that are available,

and sometimes announcements from me.

How to Succeed in a Physics Class

Set aside plenty of time for studying. The first order of business

when taking any class should be to make sure you will have the time to attend each and every class meeting. Look over the class schedule

and make sure you have not scheduled anything to coincide with class times, if there are one or two overlaps you should immediately talk to

your instructor about them, do not wait until the last minute! If there are more overlaps that cannot be rescheduled you should seriously

consider if now is the best time to take the class.

Next, you want to spend time doing some time management. There is no firm rule dictating how much time students should spend studying

for a given class, but one common rule of thumb is that for each hour of time in lecture, students should spend two to three hours of time,

depending on the course difficulty, studying (this includes time spent

reading and working on homework). Physics 101 meets about 9 hours a week and not all of that time is spent in lecture, since we also have

labs and tutorials, thus I suggest students spend roughly 15-20 hours a week outside of class studying. It is incumbent upon you to decide

how divide this time up over the course of a week, but based on experience with previous students, it is best to break that time up over

the entire week and avoid attempting to binge study (e.g. spend three or more hours on any given day just on physics). Obviously study

habits vary and what works for one individual does not necessarily work for another and part of your education will involve discovering

what works best for you.

Start your work early. Stay ahead of the lectures. Spend time doing readings before class, as a student you should not expect to

understand everything the first time you read it, make a list of

questions you think of as you read. Do not fixate too long on things that completely confuse you, set them aside for study after you attend

lecture, but have questions ready for the coming lecture that can help you clear up your confusion. Some of my best students in previous

semesters have been those that are the most organized and know how to use their time efficiently.

Attempt to do your homework as early as possible, even if it means

trying to figure things out before they have been discussed in lecture. When you come across especially challenging questions don’t focus too

much time on them until you have had a chance to attempt the rest. An advantage to starting early is that you can see the types of

questions that appear in the homework and compare them to those in

class to look for similarities. Starting early also will give you a chance

to ask questions and look for help early, help might not be as easy to find if you wait to the last minute. Another advantage to starting the

homework early is that you give yourself a chance to think about the challenging problems over a longer time span, attempting to solve

difficult problems under tight time constraints only makes them appear much more challenging.

Prepare for laboratory work in advance as well. Pre-lab assignments

are there to help you think about what you will be doing in lab. Students who spend time on the pre-lab assignment well in advance of

lab will generally find the lab easier to comprehend and will get much more out of the experience.

Ask questions and seek out help. Staying on top of your work

gives you the added advantage of looking for help. Your first stop

should always be your textbook and lecture notes, but if these fail to help you need to be aware that there are other places to turn. Talk to

your fellow students, build a group of friends from the class that you feel comfortable talking to, a good first step will be making friends

with your lab partners or other students you talk to regularly in class. While you shouldn’t ask them for their answers (copying will earn you

and the person you copied from a zero in addition to possibly appearing on your college records) you should feel free to discuss

problems with your peers, this is an important skill to have beyond your physics class. A good first step is to be open about the difficulties

you are having with respect to a given problem, let them know what you have attempted and see what advice they give you. You should

also feel comfortable going to your instructor for help, I want you to learn! Go to office hours, email me questions, and ask me questions

during class (this applies to any class you take at Pierce and beyond,

talk to your professors). Outside of the sources immediately available to you with the class, you should be aware that the college has

tutoring services available through the tutoring center, http://www.piercecollege.edu/departments/academic_success/tutoring

.asp. Make an appointment and seek the help you need. Keep in mind that everybody has a different way of presenting information and

everybody has a different way of absorbing information, learning who talk to talk to and how to ask for help is another skill you will learn in

the course of your college education.

Work through all of your assignments. You cannot expect to succeed in any class if you do not do the work. Turning in incomplete

assignments, or simply avoiding doing your work is the easiest way to

keep yourself from succeeding. Depending on your peers to riddle out

questions or to do the lab work is another way to limit your ability to succeed. Simply put you cannot hope to be lazy and earn a high

grade in the class. Doing homework translates to preparing for exams, if you ever sacrifice a homework assignment so that you can

spend time studying for an exam you are doing it wrong! When you seek out help, make sure you can translate what you have learned into

your own words, if you simply regurgitate what was explained to you, then you haven’t actually learned anything. It’s important that you do

all the work whether or not you think you have done it correctly.

Answer questions completely. Success in the classroom also involves you doing well on your assignments. While the above will

certainly help you prepare and organize for class it will not guarantee you the best possible grade. You must also be able to convince your

professor that you have actually learned something! In your physics

class this will involve you being able to answer a question completely. There are two types of questions you will come across over the course

of the semester, those which are qualitative and those that are quantitative (of course there will also be those that involve both!).

Qualitative questions are also sometimes referred to as conceptual

questions, they involve you giving a response in words. While this is not strictly speaking an English class, success in science is not limited

to the mathematical, a scientist must also be capable of translating their understanding into words. When qualitative questions appear

you need to be ready to give answers that are succinct as well as complete, one word answers or fragment sentences will never earn

you full credit as a response. Poor grammar or sloppy writing will not help much either. If you feel uncomfortable with your writing or doubt

your ability to answer questions in writing you will have plenty of

opportunities to practice this skill over the course of the semester.

Quantitative questions will sometimes also be referred to simply as problems, these are more similar to word problems you might have

seen in math class. Though, while similar to math problems, there are some distinctions you should keep in mind. Unlike math problems,

almost all physics problems (certainly all you see in this class) will involve something physical, that is to say a process which involves

potentially real bodies interacting according to the principles of physics. This means you should be able to model them in some way

that makes sense according to your experience with nature. It is your ability to convey this model to your professor that will make your

answers understandable and earn you maximal credit for your work.

Answers that are just numbers without units will be the most common

way to fail to earn full credit. Other examples of incomplete solutions are: strings of calculations without explanations or clear organization,

messy work that is unreadable, answers without appropriate drawings, figures, or plots, undefined constants/unknowns, solutions without

proper significant figures, and skipping steps.

Be patient. Keep in mind that you are a student and you are in the class to learn something new. You must be willing to accept that

somethings will take time to learn and involve a certain amount of effort on your part to master. Taking the time to reason things out

without jumping to conclusions is essential to being a good scientist. Avoid getting frustrated by setting aside the time you need to study,

get ahead with your work, seek out help when you are lost, and make sure you have made a convincing argument when answering

questions.

Grading Rubrics

Homework, Exam, and In-Class Problems. Each written problem

or question is graded on a scale of 0-5. This is a rough set of guidelines as to what each score means:

5: All parts of the question have been answered; the answers are correct, including significant figures; the method used makes sense

and is clearly explained; work is shown for any calculations; diagrams are drawn if needed; units are included where appropriate. (Note: half

a point may be deducted for very minor errors or omissions. Scores will be rounded to the nearest integer after totaling all questions.)

4: All parts of the question have been answered; the write-up shows a correct grasp of the basic ideas of the problem, but some

mathematical or conceptual errors have been made; OR the answers are correct, but the write-up is unclear, missing some explanations,

calculations, diagrams, or units, or has incorrect sig figs.

3: All parts of the question have been answered, and properly written up, but the method or reasoning used is incorrect; OR the answers are

correct, but there are substantial problems with the write-up; OR the problem is incomplete, but more than half of it has been done

correctly. For conceptual questions, a score of 3 will be given if the answer is wrong, but the question has been thoughtfully answered

with complete sentences.

2: An answer is given, but the method or reasoning used is incorrect,

and the write-up is also lacking in explanations, units, etc.; OR the problem is incomplete, with less than half of it done correctly.

1: There is some attempt to start the problem, with some relevant ideas or equations written down or diagrams drawn, but no answer is

presented; OR there is only a number or a one-word answer, which is correct, but with no explanation offered or work shown.

0: Nothing relevant has been written; OR an incorrect number or one-

word answer is given, with no explanation; OR the answer appears to have been copied from another student, a solution manual, etc.

Mastering Physics Homework. The program will automatically grade your work — except for essay questions, which I will look at and

grade after the due date. Online problems will have varying point values (usually from 1-5 points per problem), depending on their

length and difficulty. A correct answer for a problem, or problem part, gets you full credit; an incorrect answer gets you no credit. When you

submit an answer, Mastering Physics will tell you whether it is correct; if not, you may try again. You have 6 chances to submit an answer to

a given problem. However, for each wrong answer you submit, there

will be a deduction in your score. For most types of problems, the deduction is 3% per wrong answer; for multiple-choice questions, the

deduction is (100%)/(# of choices-1). (For example, if there are five answer choices, you’ll receive a 25% deduction for each wrong

submission. If there are only two answer choices (for example, true/false), you must get the answer right the first time in order to

receive any credit.) Therefore, it is to your advantage to think carefully about each problem and try to figure out what you did wrong,

rather than simply guessing. You may decide to “give up” and request the correct answer, but in this case you will receive no credit for the

problem or problem part; don’t do this unless you absolutely have to! If a problem provides hints, there will be a small (2%) bonus for

solving the problem without opening the hints. If you feel that your score has been reduced unfairly (for example, if you had the right

answer but made a typo or used the wrong notation), contact me, and

I’ll adjust your score if I agree. Mastering Physics does not award partial credit for incomplete problems. To receive any credit for a

problem from the computer program, you must either get the correct answer or click “request answer” for all parts. In addition, you may

turn in your written work on online problems for increased partial credit. In order to receive any credit from me, your work must be

neat and well-organized, with calculations shown and reasoning explained.

Note: many students find Mastering Physics frustrating at first,

because of the immediate feedback for wrong answers. I definitely empathize... but this type of frustration can actually be productive, if

you don’t immediately give up. If you’re stuck on a problem, it can help just to stop and come back to it later; sometimes you will have an

insight while you’re relaxed and thinking of something else. Leave

yourself plenty of time for the online homework, and again, don’t hesitate to ask for help!

Labs. Throughout each lab, you will be asked to make predictions and

answer questions; these will be highlighted in bold so you can find them easily as you page through the lab manual. You should make

the predictions as you go along, before each experiment. (Making an incorrect prediction will not hurt your grade. Making an obviously fake

“post-diction” will hurt your grade.)

Many lab questions will ask you to compare two measured quantities.

Be quantitative and precise; always give the percent difference

between the two and discuss what it means. See the separate

handout on lab write-ups for more information.

The tutorials and tutorial homework will also occasionally ask for

predictions, and will always, always require you to explain your reasoning. As with the homework, write in full sentences, and make

sure your answers are clear and detailed. Your grade will depend much more on the quality of your explanations than on the correctness

of individual answers. Answers should be based on 1) the laws of physics; 2) information given in the problem, and 3) logical deduction.

Go step by step: often, earlier questions on a tutorial can be used to help answer later ones. Avoid doing algebra in tutorials, unless you are

specifically asked to use it.

In some cases, your group may run out of time and not get through all

the activities. If you think you won’t have time to finish, don’t panic; stay focused and do as much as you can. Do NOT call me over

simply to ask “What if we don’t finish?” This just wastes time and

distracts you from the material you’re trying to learn. If the entire class is unable to finish in the time available, I will not penalize anyone

for this in grading. However, a group may lose points if it finished significantly less than other groups without a good reason. In any

case, you will still be expected to finish all of the lab/tutorial homework, even if it refers to parts of the lab/tutorial you didn’t

complete.

Not infrequently, students’ experiments in lab seem to give different

results than those predicted by the theory they learned in lecture. If this happens to you, do not fudge your answers to the questions; don’t

claim you got the “right” results when you clearly didn’t. Instead, first spend some time trying to figure out what went wrong; ask the

instructor or lab tech for help if necessary. Did you misinterpret the theory? Is there something wrong with your equipment or setup? If

you can’t find the problem, answer the questions honestly. Explain

how your result was different from what was expected, and speculate on possible sources of error.