Great Ideas of Physics
What Every Citizen Needs to Know
Who should take this course?
Welcome to Physics 110 G, a New Mexico core course. This course addresses conceptual physics and is qualitative rather than quantitative. You will learn materials that are not trivial physics. The physics you learned from this course will be useful for you to make “correct” decisions on many important issues that are facing the world (such as the global warming). After every lecture, you should walk away feeling that what was just covered is important for you.
We will start by learning about the mechanic universe. These are important for understanding how nature works. Energy, Waves and Electricity and Magnetism are next topics. You will learn how engine and refrigerator works and how the atomic bomb is made. You shall learn some aspects of the special relativity, and modern physics. You will also be exposed to post-modern physics and the latest on cosmology.
A quick way to get a sense of this course is to browse through one of the three posted chapters of the textbook: Energy, Atoms, Radioactivity, or Waves and UFOs. You can purchase the textbook at a substantial discount price of $48.87 including shipping (instead of the list price of $57.29), if you order online directly from the book website at Thomson. Remember to enter the promo code ICHP0614 at the site checkout. It is also available at Amazon at an even higher price of $63.95 plus shipping. The book is also available at the campus bookstore at an even higher price (but with no shipping) of $66.75.
Not sure if you should take “Great Ideas of Physics”? Look at some of the old exams. Would you like to be able to answer these questions? After taking this class, the average student got 75-90% of the questions correct. Imagine yourself, one semester from now, feeling comfortable and competent with this material! Don't avoid this class because you are afraid of math. Very little math is required (see below) but I have never had a student complain that the math was too difficult.
Please note that if you sign up for this class, attendance at the lectures is REQUIRED. So please don't sign up unless you intend to get there every Tu and Th at 10:20 am. If you do make it on time, I promise to make it worth your while. My goal is for this to be the best course you have ever taken. If there are times when you can't make the lecture (you are off competing on a team), then you may be excused provided that you follow the following procedure prior to missing the class:
Lecture absence excuses. To be excused, send a carefully formatted email to me prior to the missed lecture. The 'subject' MUST be in the following format: Last name, first name, day of month to be excused and month, and name of TA. So, for example, the subject might look something like this:
Last Name, First Name, 11 March, 2008, TA name
The text of your email excuse should be your reason for missing lecture. I could be due to illness, or a need to pick up a friend at the airport. Don't be creative; be honest. If there was some reason that you could not send the email prior to the lecture, then send it afterwards with an explanation for the lateness. My email address is jni@nmsu.edu.
Prerequisites
No prior physics is required. In fact, even if you had no physics in High School, you will not be at a disadvantage. Moreover, even if you are a physics major, you will find that most of the material is new. Physics majors spend so much time learning the math and do abstract calculations that they often do not get to the important results. This course is also open for physics majors, in fact, it is an excellent supplement for other physics courses.
A fundamental requirement is that you must come to lectures. Absence will be excused if email is sent to me before the missed lecture, and if it contains a reasonable excuse (e.g. you were in a car accident, you have to be away to compete in a sporting event, or your boy/girl friend had to be picked up at the airport). Don't make up excuses; if you do, and I find out, you will get an F in the course.
The course does use some math. But I have never had a student complain that the math was too hard. I expect everyone to be able to use calculator notation, the symbols used on calculators when the numbers are large or small. So, for example, one billion is 1E9. That means 1 followed by 9 zeros. (The 'E' stands for 'exponent', and really means '10 to the power of'.) Likewise, one billionth is written as 1E-9. This is equivalent to what is called 'scientific notation.' There will be a discussion of such notation in the discussion/lab sections in the first week.
In addition, you need to be able to find square roots. That means that for homework and exams you probably should have a calculator that will do this. Quick review: take the square root, multiply it by itself, and you'll get the number. Check your knowledge by verifying the following examples. If you have trouble, come to the first discussion section with questions and requests for review.
Examples of Math Required
(will be reviewed in discussion sections)
sqrt(81) = 9
sqrt(2) = 1.414 (approximately)
sqrt(1E40) = 1E20
sqrt(2E40) = 1.414E20 (approximately)
sqrt(2E-40) = 1.414E-20 (approximately)
2E5 x 3E9 = 6E14 (i.e.numbers in front multiply; exponents add)
6E5/2E9 = 3E-4
Legal
I have been asked to provide the following information to students as part of the syllabus. General university policies are found in the NMSU Undergraduate Catalog and on the NMSU web site.
Academic Integrity: Cheating will not be tolerated. When taking exams, eyes must remain on your own exam, with your work covered. If there is a suspicion of copying, you, or someone around you will be asked to move, as a first warning. After the second incident, you will be asked to leave. Any evidence of cheating on the exams themselves will lead to an automatic F in the class with possible follow-up discipline. Please refer to the student code of conduct for information regarding appeals processes etc.
Students with Disabilities: If you have, or believe you have, a disability and would benefit from accommodations you may wish to self-identify by providing documentation to the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office, Garcia Annex (646-6840, TTY 646-1918). If you are already registered with the SSD and need accommodations, please provide your "Accommodation Memo" from the SSD within the first 2 weeks of class. If you have a condition that may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or that may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss this in confidence with the instructor and/or the Coordinator for SSD. Feel free to call Ms. Elva G. Telles, EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director, 646-3333 with any question about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical info will be held in strict confidence.
Incompletes ("I" grades): Given for passable work that could not be completed due to circumstances beyond the student's control (e.g., severe illness, death in the immediate family). These circumstances must have developed after the last day to withdraw from the course. Requests for "I" grades should be made to the instructor, but must be approved by the Department Head and the College Dean.
Required Text
The required text for the course is "Physics for future Presidents." You can buy it: Online from the publisher for discounted price of $48.87 if you remember to enter the promo code ICHP0614 at the site checkout. Shipping is free! Online from Amazon at the substantially higher price of $63.95 plus shipping. NMSU Bookstore at an even higher price of $66.75 (but no shipping). The publisher has given me permission to put four chapters online. Here they are, Chapter 1: Energy, Chapter 2: Atoms, Chapter 4. Radioactivity, Chapter 7. Waves and UFOs.
Important Dates
First HW (due January 24, 2008) for all students
We have a lot of material to cover, so we will get off to a running start. There are two HW requirements due for the first week -- but if you enrolled late, then these are still due as soon as you are in the class.
- is a reading assignment (read Chapter 1 in your text. I've put this chapter online, in case you don't yet have the printed version: it is available in both html and pdf formats.
- is to send me information via email. If you do this correctly, and on time (by Friday evening of the first week of classes, or within one week of your enrollment, if you enroll late) then you will be granted one quiz point. I will be receiving a lot of this mail, so you will not be granted credit unless you do it in the following way:
In the subject line of your email put your LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, your student ID number, and then the words Physics 110G Bio. So the subject line should look like this,
Martin, Michael, 800032425, my Physics 110G Bio
In the body of the email itself, copy the following list of questions and put in your answers after each one. Be sure to include the first line, 'Physics 110 G bio' so that my email program will sort it properly:
Physics 110 G bio Spring 2008- Full name (first, middle initial, and last)
- NMSU SID
- Nickname (what do you like people to call you? Maybe just your first name.)
- Secret name, for posted grades (not too long: 10 character limit!)
- Email address:
- Telephone (where do I call if you are late for the final exam? I've actually done this.)
- Year (Freshman? Senior?)
- Major (or best guess)
- Enrolled in physics or other areas? (Y/N)
- Most advanced physics you have studied (if any), e.g. 'HS physics'
- Physics subject you are most interested in learning about in this course.
- Why are you taking this course?
- Tell me about yourself: What do you do when not studying? Do you play a musical instrument? Like any sports? Play on a team? Join any clubs? Volunteer? Ambitions? Anything about yourself you are willing to share. Don't be shy.
Then send the email (make sure the subject header is correct first) to: jni@nmsu.edu
Lecture Schedule
Physics 110 G – Spring 2008 Great Ideas of Physics 10:20-11:35 Tu and Th GN 229
| Lecture | Date | Lecture Topic | Reading | Assignment Due |
| 1 | 17 Jan | Introduction, Power of 10 | ||
| 2 | 22 Jan | Energy and Power | Chapter 1 | |
| 3 | 24 Jan | Energy and Power | Chapter 1 | Personal Info |
| 4 | 29 Jan | Atoms and Heat | Chapter 2 | |
| 5 | 31 Jan | Atoms and Heat | Chapter 2 | Newspaper HW |
| 6 | 5 Feb | Gravity and Satellite | Chapter 3 | |
| 7 | 7 Feb | Gravity and Satellite | Chapter 3 | |
| 8 | 12 Feb | Radioactivity | Chapter 4 | |
| 9 | 14 Feb | Radioactivity | Chapter 4 | Newspaper HW |
| 10 | 19 Feb | Reviw | ||
| 11 | 21 Feb | Exam 1 | ||
| 12 | 26 Feb | Nukes | Chapter 5 | |
| 13 | 28 Feb | Nukes | Chapter 5 | |
| 14 | 4 Mar | Electricity and Magnetism | Chapter 6 | |
| 15 | 6 Mar | Electricity and Magnetism | Chapter 6 | Newspaper HW |
| 16 | 11 Mar | Waves | Chapter 7 | |
| 17 | 13 Mar | Waves | Chapter 7 | |
| 18 | 18 Mar | Light | Chapter 8 | |
| 19 | 20 Mar | Light | Chapter 8 | Newspaper HW |
| Spring Break – March 24-28 | ||||
| 20 | 1 Apr | Review | ||
| 21 | 3 Apr | Exam II | ||
| 22 | 8 Apr | Invisible Light | Chapter 9 | |
| 23 | 10 Apr | Invisible Light | Chapter 9 | |
| 24 | 15 Apr | Quantum | Chapter 10 | |
| 25 | 17 Apr | Quantum | Chapter 10 | Newspaper HW |
| 26 | 22 Apr | Relativity | Chapter 11 | |
| 27 | 24 Apr | Relativity | Chapter 11 | |
| 28 | 29 Apr | Universe | Chapter 12 | |
| 29 | 1 May | Comprehensive Review | ||
Final exam – May 8 Thursday, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Final grade due – May 13
Lab Schedule
In the laboratory, students work in groups of 2-3 and are supervised by a faculty member and a teach assistant. The TAs are graduate students and are in charge of approximately 20 students. The faculty and TAs are eager to give you as much personal help as possible, when in doubt please ask for assistance. There is also a technical coordinator, Chris Pennise (207 Gardiner Hall) in charge of all equipment.
Purpose: The purpose of this Physics laboratory is to illustrate the physical principles, discussed in the Physics course, and to gain skill in asking and answering scientific questions and in using scientific reasoning.
Materials: We will provide you with any printed lab materials that you will need. You must come to class prepared to write. Bring a notebook with you.
Course grade: Your lab grade accounts for 20% of the overall grade for the course. Your grade for the lab component of the course will be based on: attendance, taken at the beginning of lab (20%); in class work and participation (40%); homework (40%).
Participation: Students are responsible for attending regular laboratory sessions. Often the apparatus used in the laboratory is available only during the week when the experiment is scheduled. If you are sick or miss a laboratory due to unexpected circumstances, you can arrange with your TA to attend another section during the same week or do one “make-up laboratory” during the last week of school. TA will give short quizzes. There are no “make-up” quizzes. As part of your lab grade, the in class materials will be turned in and graded for thoroughness. These materials will be turned in at the beginning of lab on the following session. The TAs follow a prescribed marking scheme and every effort is made to be as fair as possible.
Homework: All labs will require homework based on the lab and will be graded for correctness and content. These materials are to be turned in at the beginning of lab on the following session. Late homework will be accepted up to two days late with a reasonable excuse.
References: A few noteworthy references which are indicted on your lab materials –
- Hewitt, Practicing Physics, Conceptual Physics, and Conceptual Physics, 9th ed., Addison-Wesley, 2002.
- PBI – McDermott, et al, Physics by Inquiry, Vol. 1, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1996.
Students with disabilities: If you have or believe you have a disability, you may wish to self-identify. You can do so by providing documentation to the Office for Services for Students with Disabilities, located at Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840). Appropriate accommodations may then be provided for you.
If you have a condition which may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss this in confidence with the instructor and/or the director of Disabled Student Programs. If you have general questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), call 646-3333.
Tentative schedule of topics: 10 labs and two discussion sessions.
| Lab | Day | Topic |
| 1 | January 21, 22, 23 | No Class |
| 2 | January 28, 29, 30 | Math and Measurements |
| 3 | February 4, 5, 6 | Thermal Energy |
| 4 | February 11, 12, 13 | Gravity and Free Fall |
| 5 | February 18, 19, 20 | Half Life |
| 6 | February 25, 26, 27 | Discussion of Exam 1 |
| 7 | March 3, 4, 5 | Electric Charge |
| 8 | March 10, 11, 12 | Magnetism |
| 9 | March 17, 18, 19 | Wave |
| March 24, 25, 26 | Spring Break | |
| 10 | March 31, April 1, 2 | Light and Optics |
| 11 | April 7, 8, 9 | Discussion of Exam 2 |
| 12 | April 14, 15, 16 | Nothing Scheduled |
| 13 | April 21, 22, 23 | Measurements of e/m for an Electron |
| 14 | April 28, 29, 30 | Review |
Weekly Homework
(starting Thursday January 24, 2008)
The HW and reading is given in the posted schedule. You will read the entire textbook. Typically, we will cover one chapter each week. Reading is due by Thursday lecture. You are NOT required to answer the questions at the ends of the chapters. Those are only to test your knowledge, and are for your own private use. Most of them were taken from previous quizzes or exams.
Email Homework to TA. About every other week you are expected to find and read an article on physics or technology from a newspaper or magazine (example: New York Times). By Tuesday evening (by 11:59 pm) you will submit a one to three paragraph essay to your TA (Joe Peterson) via email. Write your essay in the body of your email; do not attach an external file (such as a Word document). The 'subject' of your email should be in the following format:
Last name, First name, HW, day month (that HW is due)
e.g. Matin, Michael, HW2, 31, January 2008
Remember to email it to your TA (Lab instructor), not to Ni!
The article could be a news story (the Science Times section of the New York Times is published every Tuesday), or a magazine story (e.g. from Scientific American, Science News, Popular Science, Discover, or some similar magazine).
Your homework grade will be 0 (if you didn't hand it in), 1 (if you did a poor job), 2 (if you did a good job), or 3 if you did an exceptionally good job (only for the best two or three emails for that week). I plan to post the best submission every now and then so that others can see what we like. Note: you do NOT have to understand the article you read, as long as you can clearly state what aspects of the article you did not understand! Try to write something that other students will find interesting.
Note: DO NOT send the HW to my email address, or it will be lost. Send it to the HW address of your TA, given in the TA contact information (to be posted).
For each homework submission email, do the following (or you will lose points):
- Put your name in subject line of your email (Last, First) and the due date (e.g. 4 September).
Example: James, Scarlet, 14 February - Include citation or link to article (Which newspaper? Page number? Who wrote it?)
- No attachments allowed. Simply email text to your TA. I suggest that you write your summary in a word processor and spell check it, and then cut and paste into an email.
- 300 or 350 words is about right. Use about 1/2 - 3/4 of the HW to summarize the article, and the rest to draw connections to class or ask relevant questions.
Half of the homework grade will be based on the quality of the writing. Imagine that you are briefing the New Mexico Governor on an issue that you consider important. Your essay should be a pleasure to read! You will lose credit if you have more than one misspelling, or have any error in grammar (run-on sentence etc.). If English is not your primary language, please state your primary language at the beginning of the email.
Late homework is usually not accepted, unless there is an extraordinary excuse. The fact that you had an exam the next day, or a huge project, is not extraordinary. You can always prepare your homework a week or two in advance, but please don't submit it more than a few days in advance of the due day.
Exams and Grades
Exams. We will have two midterm exams and a final exam. Each exam will have an essay question and a series of multiple-choice or otherwise short questions.
The first midterm exam is scheduled for Thursday February 21, 2008, in class (10:20 am). If you cannot be present at that time, contact me immediately. The exam will consist of two parts: 20 short questions and an essay question. For sample exams, see the old exams from previous semesters. To see how the GSI will grade the essays, look at essay guidelines. To see some essays that scored a perfect score in past semesters, see explosions and nukes.
The second midterm exam is tentatively scheduled for Thursday April 3. It will be in class.
The final exam is scheduled for 10:30 am (!!) on Thursday May 8. If you cannot be present at that time, contact me immediately. If you have other exams scheduled on this day, consider dropping that class; I will not give you the final exam either early or late. The exam will consist of two parts: approximately 40 short questions and one essay questions. It will be like two midterm exams. For sample exams, see the old exams from previous semesters.
Grades. Your final grade will be based on the following breakdown:
- quizzes: 10%
- 2 midterm exams: 15% each
- final exam: 30%
- homework: 10%
- laboratory reports: 20%
The grade distribution will be approximately the following: ~30% of the students will earn an A, 50-60% a B, and 10-20% a C or below. This is the same distribution that is used for other General Education course. Beware: it is easier to earn a C than you might think. Every semester I have students who got a C, and write me saying that now they can't register in their chosen major, or they will lose their scholarship, and they seek my help. All I can do is cry with them. The easiest way to get a C is to miss a few quizzes or forget to hand in a few homeworks. For permission to hand in your HW late (or to do one that you missed) you must seek permission from your TA. For exam issues, I (Ni) am the only person to contact.
Cheating. Two years ago I flunked two students who were talking to each other on the final exam. (They said that they were only discussing how to spell a word.) I consider that very light punishment. In the future, I am determined not to be so lenient.
Old Exams
Contact Ni
My email address: jni@nmsu.edu
My office hours:
- Wednesday 10-11 am (or by appointment), in 358 Gardiner Hall.
- Other days: email or telephone (646-1920) to arrange.
- Afternoons: I am often available afternoons (after ~2 pm) at my office.
Telephone or email to arrange a time to meet.
My personal and research web site is http://geophysics.nmsu.edu/drni.html
Contact TA
TA information. You are welcome to visit the office hours of any TA. The office hour of Joe Peterson is Friday afternoon between 2 and 4 pm. His email address is petersjo@nmsu.edu. Jia Chen Hua will post his office hour at a later time and his email address is jchua@nmsu.edu. Their office is Room 208 Gardiner Hall.
There are the 3 laboratory/discussion sections.
| M1A | M 2:30-5 | GN 104 | Joe Peterson |
| M1B | Tu 2:30-5 | GN 104 | Jia Chen Hua |
| M1C | W 2:30-5 | GN 104 | Joe Peterson |
Office hours. Visit any GSI. Get to know them all! We have spread out office hours so that they don't conflict with the lab/discussion sections, and we emphasize early week since midterm exams are on Thursdays.