General
- Welcome to PHYS 122B, the second of a three-quarter sequence of introductory physics courses for physics and engineering majors. You should find this course challenging and stimulating, and I hope that you also find it interesting and enjoyable. Have a great quarter!
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The course consists of lecture, tutorial, and laboratory components. Each component provides a different way of learning the material.
The three elements are carefully coordinated, but are not necessarily synchronized. NOTE: Concurrent enrollment in 122 Lab is mandatory.
Please direct any questions on the tutorial or laboratory components to
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Tutorial Instructor: Prof. Peter Shaffer
Email: shaffer@phys.washington.edu
Office: PAB C218
Phone: 206-543-6705
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PHYS 122 Lab Instructor: Prof. Hamish Robertson
Email: rghr@phys.washington.edu
Office: PAB B476
Phone: 206-616-2745
website: http://faculty.washington.edu/rghr/course2.htm
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Tutorial Instructor: Prof. Peter Shaffer
- Administrative support:
- Administrative Web Site (Links to other 12x sites, exam statistics, TA contacts, etc.)
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Program Assistant: If you need assistance with registration, have questions about grades or Lab and Tutorial policies, please contact
Susan Hong
susanh82@phys.washington.edu
PAB C136
543-4982 -
Undergradiate advisor: If you wish to talk with an academic counselor about becoming a physics major or minor, or have general questions about the physics program, please contact
Margot Nims
margot@phys.washington.edu
PAB C139
543-2772
- Never let anything go by if you do not understand. Generally, ask questions immediately. If it is inconvenient to interrupt, make a quick note to yourself and inquire later.
- Note that MATH 125 (Calculus II) is a prerequisite/corequisite for this class. It is the opinion of many instructors that students who have already completed MATH 125 are at a considerable advantage in PHYS 122. Hence, although it is possible to take the PHYS 121-3 and MATH 124-6 as simple corequisites (i.e. P121 with M124, etc.), students who have no prior experience with either calculus or physics should seriously consider getting 'one quarter ahead' in the MATH 124-6 sequence with respect to the PHYS 121-3 sequence.
- Be aware that many technical majors have a minimum grade requirement for a core of lower-division technical classes including the PHYS 121-2-3 sequence. Therefore, each student is strongly urged to discuss departmental entry requirements with their undergraduate or departmental advisors, and plan their course loads accordingly.
Course Texts
- Tipler, "Physics for Scientists and Engineers", special UW edition volumes 1 and 2, or entire standard 6th edition
- McDermott and Shaffer "Tutorials in Introductory Physics"
- PHYS 122 Lab Manual.
Schedule
- Lecture schedule: MWF 11:30-12:20 in lecture hall A118 of the Physics and Astronomy Building auditorium wing.
- The following is a tentative weekly course schedule. This will be followed as closely as possible, and changes will be announced as necessary.
Week Date Lecture Topic Text reading Tutorial Lab 1 24-Sep Static Fluids 13-1 to 13-3 No tutorial 1st week No lab 1st week 26-Sep Moving Fluids 13-4 2 29-Sep Temperature 17-1 to 17-3 Pressure Buoyancy 1-Oct Kinetic Theory of Gases 17-4 3-Oct Phase Changes & Calorimetry 18-1 to 18-2 3 6-Oct 1st Law & Work By/On a Gas 18-3 to 18-5 Ideal Gas Law Heat Capacity 8-Oct Gas Cycles & Heat Capacities 18-6, 18-8 to 18-9 10-Oct Heat Engines & Refrigerators 19-1 to 19-4 4 13-Oct EXAM 1 1st Law of Thermo Ideal Gas Law 15-Oct 2nd Law & Entropy 19-5 to 19-7 17-Oct Charge & Coulomb's Law 21-1 to 21-3 5 20-Oct Electric Field Vectors & Lines 21-4 to 21-5 Charge Electrostatics 22-Oct Action of E on charges 21-6 24-Oct E for Continuous Chg Distrib. 22-1 6 27-Oct Flux & Gauss's Law 22-2 to 22-3 E-Field & Flux Electric Fields 29-Oct Gauss's Law Applied 22-4 to 22-6 31-Oct Review 7 3-Nov EXAM 2 Gauss' Law DC Circuits I 5-Nov Electric Potential 23-1 to 23-3 7-Nov V for Chg. Distrib. & Equipotentials 23-4 to 23-5 8 10-Nov Potl. Energy & Capacitance 23-6, 24-1 to 24-2 No tutorial (Tue.) No lab. (Tue.) 12-Nov Dielectrics & Combined Caps 24-3 to 24-5 Circuits II (Wed., Thur.) DC Circuits II (Wed., Thur.) 14-Nov Current, Voltage, Resistance, & Energy 25-1 to 25-3 9 17-Nov Resistors, & Kirchoff 25-4 to 25-5 Circuits II (Tue.) DC Circuits II (Tue.) 19-Nov RC Circuits 25-6 Circuits III (Wed., Thur.) RC Circuits (Wed., Thur.) 21-Nov Magnetic Fields & Forces 26-1 to 26-2 10 24-Nov EXAM 3 Circuits III (Tue.) RC Circuits (Tue.) 26-Nov Charges & Currents in B Fields 26-3 to 26-4 No tutorial (Wed., Thur.) No lab. (Wed., Thur.) 28-Nov HOLIDAY 11 1-Dec Biot Savart Law 27-1 to 27-2 Mag. Interactions Make-up labs 3-Dec Gauss' Law for B & Ampere's Law 27-3 to 27-4 5-Dec Review 10-Dec FINAL EXAM
2:30pm to 4:20pm, PAB A118
Grading Policy
- Concurrent enrollment in PHYS 122 lecture, tutorial and lab
is mandatory. Students will receive a combined grade for lecture, tutorial and
lab. The final course grade is based on the following grade weighting
Midterm exams (best 2 of 3) 40% Final exam 25% Lab section 15% Tutorial section 10% Lecture homework 10%
- The individual exams and sections will be combined based on the z-score [(your score - class average) / (std deviation)]. Your lowest midterm score (relative to the mean) will be dropped.
- I will adjust individual final grades by no more than 0.1 grade points (about 2.5 % out of 4.0 possible) based on records from lecture exercises.
- Note that there will be no make-up exams in PHYS 122B. Students with outside professional, service, or career commitments (i.e. military service, ROTC, professional conference presentation, NCAA sports, etc.) conflicting exactly with the exam dates must contact the instructor early in the quarter to establish alternate examination procedures. Students who miss an exam without making prior arrangements with the lecture instructor will drop that exam score.
- Exam Re-grades: If you believe that the points on the examination were incorrectly totaled or if there is a gross error in the grading, you may return an exam for regrading. To do so, you must resubmit the examination no later than at the beginning of the lecture following the one in which the exams are returned. You must write a brief note on the front page or attached to the front page of the exam explaining the possible error in the grading. Do not make *any* changes or marks on the other pages of the examination. Portions of each examination are scanned or photocopied. You should be aware that any request for a regrade may result in a regrading of the entire exam. Therefore your total score may increase or decrease.
- Lab and tutorial grading policies will be explained in your lab and tutorial section. Completion of most of the lab and tutorial work is required in order to pass the course. If you complete fewer than six labs during the quarter, and do not make up the work, your grade for the entire course will be 0.0! Even completing seven or six of the eight labs will reduce your grade significantly (about 0.6 or 1.2 grade points, respectively). Do not skip these important activities!
- Your responsibilty: Check your grades on the Tycho system every week or two and report any problems to both the lecture instructor and the relevant TAs (and/or lab/tutorial faculty) immediately. Lab, tutorial and exam grades should be recorded for your review within one week from the date that papers are submitted for grading.
Homework
- Lecture Homework will be assigned and collected weekly through the Tycho system. The homework will be due midnight each Friday. Homework completed after the due date, but before midnight the following day will receive 70% of the score. The first homework is due Friday Oct. 3rd. No homework will be assigned in the last week of the quarter.
- Tutorial homework will be assigned and collected in each tutorial section. There will also be weekly tutorial pretests.
Class Quizzes
- I will ask around two questions per lecture where you can respond using an TX3100 RF tranciever (Clicker), which are available from the University Bookstore. Apparently, the infrared system that was used in previous years will still work this quarter.
- I will adjust individual final grades by no more than 0.1 grade points based on responses to these questions. Half of those extra grades will come from attempting to answer, and the other half will come from having the correct answer.
- Clicker questions asked to date
Getting help
- Study Center:
- Students are encouraged to gather and work cooperatively in small groups in the Physics Study Center located in room AM018 of PAB.
- To reach the Physics Study Center, go down the stairs that circle behind the Foucault pendulum and proceed toward the end of the hall.
- Teaching assistants will be available for consultation during many portions of the day if your study group needs assistance, but staffing levels will not support much individual attention.
- The Study Center is staffed from approximately 9:30am to 4:30pm on weekdays. A schedule of who is staffing the physics study center can be found here Study Center Hours.
- Office hours:
- You are strongly encouraged to visit me regularly during office hours, which I will hold in the study center at a time to be announced.
- You can also visit me by appointment in my office (PAB B472).
- I will attempt to answer questions by email in a timely manner.
- Discussion forum:
- There will be a discussion board for PHYS122A and PHYS122B.
- You are encouraged to ask your fellow students for help with homework, or to organize study groups, etc.
Exams
- If you would like a regrade please complete this form and return it to Susan Hong in the physics and astronomy building room C136.
- Midterm 1
- Covers material up to the lecture on Wednesday, October 8.
- There will be the following sections:
- multiple choice, based on lecture material, worth 55 points
- long answer, based on lecture material, worth 25 points
- long answer, based on tutorial material, worth 20 points
- You are allowed one 8.5”x11” piece of paper with formulas of your choosing on the front and back.
- Bring a "bubble sheet" or scantron form. You can buy this in a variety of places around the campus - even in the h-bar.
- Practice
- Practice solutions
- Midterm 1 solutions
Total distribution
Question I distribution
Question II distribution
Question III distribution
- Midterm 2
- Covers material from the lecture on October 10 up to and including the lecture on October 29.
- There will be the following sections:
- multiple choice, based on lecture material, worth 55 points
- long answer, based on lab material, worth 25 points
- long answer, based on tutorial material, worth 20 points
- You are allowed one 8.5”x11” piece of paper with formulas of your choosing on the front and back.
- Bring a "bubble sheet" or scantron form. You can buy this in a variety of places around the campus - even in the h-bar.
- Practice
- Practice solutions
- Midterm 2 solutions
Total distribution
Question I distribution
Question II distribution
Question III distribution
- Midterm 3
- Covers material from the lecture on November 5 up to and including the lecture on November 19.
- There will be the following sections:
- multiple choice, based on lecture material, worth 55 points
- long answer, based on lecture material, worth 25 points
- long answer, based on tutorial material, worth 20 points
- You are allowed one 8.5”x11” piece of paper with formulas of your choosing on the front and back.
- Bring a "bubble sheet" or scantron form. You can buy this in a variety of places around the campus - even in the h-bar.
- Practice
- Practice solutions