Physics 1403-001 (General Physics I), Summer II, 2012
Last Update, 8/20/2012
This course is over! Sorry, but I don't know when I will teach it again!
Class Meets 8:00-9:50AM, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday, Science Room 10
Course Syllabus. Learning Outcomes. Lab Syllabus. Summer, 2012 TTU Academic Calendar. Final Exam Schedule.
Announcements  Lectures  Exams   Quizzes  Reading Quizzes    
HOMEWORK is on Mastering Physics. Access & registration instructions are Here. A document on this is Here.
You MUST be enrolled concurrently in Physics 1403 Lab. Exceptions??
See the Department of Physics office (Science Room 101, 742-3767)! Lab Syllabus.
Instructor & Contact Information
Dr. Charles W. Myles, Professor of Physics
Office: Science Room 18. Phone: 742-3768. Office Hours: Right after class + 2-3pm M-F, & by appointment.  
E-mail: Charley.Myles@ttu.edu. An email distribution list will be developed. It is vital that I have your correct email address, that you tell me if it changes, & that you check your email DAILY!! Here is an important email announcement!!

Textbook
Physics: Principles with Applications, by D.C. Giancoli (Addison-Wesley). ISBN-10: 0321569830, ISBN-13: 9780321569837.
The 6th Edition is REQUIRED!! The textbook Website contains helpful items: Outlines of chapters, Extra Problems, Help resources, & discussions of "What is Physics Good For?" A Google search, here, finds 132,000+ websites about this book!
I URGE YOU to take advantage of these numerous resources!
Note: The text is available from bookstores & on-line. It comes in hardbound or paperback & in 1 or 2 volumes. New & used versions are available. Publisher's Price =  $181.80!  An on-line search finds a wide range of prices (I found prices from $65-$256!!).
I urge you to shop around for this book & to find the best price for you.
Given the book cost, wouldn't it be worthwhile to READ IT??? 

Course Topics, Objective & Level; Math Pre-Requisites
Topics: From Chapters 1-12 of the text. Detailed coverage will be announced as we go.
Level: The course is at the standard introductory physics level.
Objective: The course is a survey of 1st semester Physics. It is Algebra - Trigonometry based physics!! See Course Objectives. The pace of the material is necessarily very fast. (Some colleagues call this "firehose Physics" because it goes so fast that learning something is analogous to drinking out of a firehose!)

Math Pre-Requisites: The math necessary for this course is Algebra & Trigonometry (or Pre-Calculus). This ISN'T a math course! It's not my job to teach you math. There simply isn't time to do so! I must assume that you know it! The major problems that students have with this course are the fast pace & the math. The Syllabus has course details, discussions of Exams, Quizzes, Homework, & the grading scheme. PLEASE READ IT!

Laboratory Co-Requisite
You MUST be enrolled concurrently in Physics 1403 Lab. Exceptions?? See the Physics office (Sc. Rm. 101, 742-3767)!  Lab Syllabus.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES  
Attend as many classes as possible, come to class prepared, do the homework,
READ the material BEFORE I lecture over it, & keep up as we go along!

Attendance: I don't take roll & I have no specific attendance policy. However, isn't it obvious that (unless you're a genius!) class attendance is REQUIRED to get a good grade? (or to LEARN SOMETHING!)? There's a correlation between class attendance & grades. Skipping also means that you are WASTING the tuition & fees that you (or your parents) paid! With tuition & fees for a full-time (Texas) student, each class meeting costs many $$$$. Each time you skip, you are throwing away many $$$$$. After a while this adds up! My lectures may not be entertaining or brilliant, but I do expose you to the material.
NOTE: The weekend doesn't start Friday, which is a CLASS DAY!!

WHERE TO GO FOR HELP?! 
Here is a Help Resources document with links to Physics Help Webpages. A useful Document: "How to Succeed in Physics by Really Trying"! One hour of each lab meeting is devoted to problem solving. Suppplemental Instruction (SI) sessions will be arranged. Details will be announced soon. Numerous help resources are available! Please take advantage of them! Hints: This course is difficult & very fast paced! If you are typical, to get a good grade, you should spend at least 2 to 3 hours per week outside of class studying this course for every hour in class!!
Announcements & Calendar Items are on the Announcements Page, linked below. Also below are links to pages where Lectures, Old Exams  & Old Quizzes are posted. 

Do you want to know more about Dr. Myles (education, experience, research, personal, etc.)? See his Homepage & Research Page. Are you curious about Physics? Go to Physics Central. For a more advanced level, go to Focus News. To see that Physics can be Fun, click Here.
Announcements & Calendar Items
Announcement Page:  Has announcements & calendar items. It is usually updated shortly after each class.
Please check it at least 2 or 3 times a week!
Lectures & Exams
COPYRIGHT: Lectures & Exams are copyrighted & owned by Charles W. Myles! 
No reproduction or use of them other than by students in this course  is allowed!

Lecture Page: Has Lectures (Power Point). A good strategy is to download Lectures BEFORE I cover the material in class. You can print them, several slides per page. (A link above explains this.) Rather than try to take notes on everything in class, you can follow along on the printed Lectures, making extra notes.

Exams Page: Has old exams & solutions. You are strongly encouraged to form study groups to study for exams together! This is how professionals work in "real life"!! Try to solve the old Exams BEFORE looking at the solutions. You CAN'T LEARN PHYSICS by copying solutions!!  The dates will be announced well in advance. They'll be when we've covered an appropriate amount of material. 
The FINAL EXAM is scheduled by TTU for 11:00am - 1:30pm, Thurs., Aug. 9. (Location to be announced). COMPREHENSIVE!!
Homework
On-Line Homework is assigned & graded through Mastering Physics. The homework comes (mostly) from end of chapter problems in our text. Solving homework problems is the most effective means of learning physics, which is impossible otherwise! Once you register on Mastering Physics, you’ll be able to see & work on the assignments. I'll ATTEMPT to post assignments about the same time as we start a chapter. They'll typically be due at 11:30pm about a week later. There will be several homework sets (+ quizzes, see below!).   Pay attention to instructions on Mastering Physics about how homework is scored. You may be able to find homework solutions elsewhere. If so, try to solve problems first without looking at solutions! Copying solutions will not teach you physics! 

Instructions for accessing Mastering Physics & registering for it are Here. A document on this is Here. Instructions should also be in the Student Access Kit. If you didn’t get a Student Access Kit with your book, please purchase one ASAP at Mastering Physics!!
Our Course ID is: MPMYLES31790
Note: Mastering Physics isn't at TTU & you should give yourself plenty of time before the deadline for submitting answers. Sometimes the network may be slow or down. Mastering Physics is fairly new to me also. Thank you for understanding this!
 
Quizzes
COPYRIGHT: Quizzes are copyrighted & owned by C.W. Myles! No reproduction or use of them other than by students in this course is allowed!
Quizzes Page: Has old quizzes & solutions. Reading Quizzes Page: Has old reading quizzes & solutions. To try to prevent the large attendance decreases seen in previous semesters, especially on Fridays, a short (~10 min.) Quiz will be given EACH FRIDAY, with simple questions about what recently happened in class and/or with simple problems similar to those in the Homework.
These are averaged with the Homework. The Quiz average counts equivalently to 1 Homework assignment. So, the quiz grade counts sn extremely small amount in your grade. See the Course Syllabus. Note: There will be NO make-up quizzes for any reason!!
ATTENTION: Comments about the Friday Quizzes
Since I changed to on-line homework a few years ago, Quizzes now are shorter than those from earlier years. They also have questions similar to the past Reading Quizzes. See links above. Quizzes will be similar to those from Fall, 2008 & after.  A good strategy is to try to solve the old quizzes BEFORE looking at the solutions. You CAN'T LEARN PHYSICS by copying solutions! New quizzes & solutions will be posted after the quiz. The quizzes are composed uniquely for this semester!  You are strongly encouraged to form groups to work on homework & study for quizzes together! This is how most professionals work in "real life"! Studying old quizzes will do you the most good if you try the problems BEFORE looking at solutions. Copying solutions WON'T teach you physics!!!!
Some Miscellaneous Course-Related Information is Here.
Items covered: Attendance, Study Groups, Labs, Email List, My Teaching Philosophy, Textbook
Tips on Downloading & Printing Course Related Files, Fonts in Course Related Files  
Miscellaneous Topics
1. Dr. Myles' Homepage  & Research Page. A page discussing Dr. Myles' Future Teaching is Here.

2. Physics News:Physics Central (for the public).  Focus News (advanced level) from the APS. Physics Fun!

3. Check out the Top 10 most influential people of the last 1000 years! (Link borrowed from Dr. Tom Gibson!) .

4. In this course, we talk about the view of the physical world developed first by Galileo Galilei & later put into precise mathematical form by Sir Isaac Newton. The lives of both are interesting (to me) from a historical viewpoint as well as from a scientific viewpoint. The following two documents give brief illustrations of what I mean. Galileo Galilei document. Sir Isaac Newton document. A "Google" search on Galileo gives 2,110,000 hits. Here is an interesting one. A "Google" search on Newton gives 1,840,000 hits. Here is a good one.
WY Physics Logo The WORLD YEAR OF PHYSICS 2005 marked 100 years since Albert Einstein published 3 pioneering papers (Relativity, Brownian Motion, Photoelectric Effect), which changed physics forever & are considered the beginning of "modern" physics! The United Nations, the US Congress, & the governments & scientific societies of many countries endorsed it. For more information, click the image on the left.

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