Course:SCIE001/Physics/Syllabus

Marking

According to the general grading scheme, 80% of the overall Science 1 marks are allocated for exams and assignments, to be divided equally between the four disciplines.

Here is how the Physics component of this part will be reckoned per term:

Homework, quizzes and in-class activities ........ 6
Midterm exam ................................................ 4
Final exam .................................................... 10
total Physics share (excluding Labs) ................ 20

Individual quizzes etc. will generally be given equal weight.

Textbook and References

‘‘Physics for Scientists & Engineers: A Strategic Approach with Modern Physics’’, Randall D. Knight (Addison Wesley)

Mastering Physics web-site
Various and assorted Handouts
Sites on the internet, suggested in class

Assignments

Assignments will generally be based on questions in the textbook, and come in three ﬂavours: (1) “real assignments”, which will be marked and count towards your grade; (2) “secret assignments”, which you are expected to do, but not hand in; and (3) “bonus assignments”, which are optional and will have a small (but positive) eﬀect on your grade. Assignments are posted on the Science 1 Physics web-site. Types (1) and (2) should be considered an essential part of the learning process, even although ﬂavour (2) are not marked for credit. Flavour (3) may be particularly helpful for students who are intending to take further physics courses. For all assignments students should ﬁrst attempt each problem independently before consulting classmates or instructors. Collaborative peer learning is encouraged, but anything to be handed in must be your own work.

Exams

The midterm and ﬁnal exams will be based on material drawn largely from the assigned questions, plus multiple choice questions of the sort covered in class or in the book. While the instructor reserves the right to ask anything, it should nevertheless be the case that if you have been working through the chapter material and assigned questions, then the exams will contain very few surprises.

Reading

The textbook is a very good one, and we will try to follow its outline. However, we are starting with chapter 20! After that we will go back to the beginning and work our way through about half the book in each semester, perhaps skipping some chapters. Additionally there may be parts of the course where supplementary material is covered, and then there will be hand-outs given. Note that the book contains a lot of words; this is because it has evolved to include expanded discussion on topics where some students are known to need extra help with the concepts. A good way to know if you have mastered the material is to use the “Workbook” which comes with the textbook.

Since we are following the book closely, it should be clear what to read to prepare for each Physics lecture. At every Physics lecture you will be expected to have studied this material; a large part of that lecture will be reserved for discussion of the assigned topics, particularly areas that some of the class found challenging or . . .

Quizzes

. . . if there appear to be no questions on the day’s home study material, there is the possibility of a quiz to give you a chance to show how well you have mastered it. These quizzes and other in-class activities will be marked and form the basis for part of the overall grade.

Tutorials

For tutorials the class is split into 3 groups (please stick with your assigned group!). Note that Physics tutorials are mandatory and will involve structured learning activities to complement the lectures.

Mastering Physics

The textbook comes with access to a set of additional resources called “Mastering Physics”, at www.masteringphysics.com. We will use this simply as a supplement to the textbook (i.e. we will not have a “course” there). This means you have access to on-line tutorials, including java applets illustrating many physical principles, and you have access to a full electronic version of the textbook (which weighs about the same as a laptop!).

Science One Physics

You are now at university, which is very diﬀerent from high school! All of the students in our class are smart, but getting good grades is going to get harder from now on. There’s no avoiding the fact that success at this level requires a great deal of eﬀort. First year physics is not easy – but if you work hard you will succeed (ask previous Science 1 students!). How does Science 1 Physics diﬀer from other ﬁrst year Physics courses? One diﬀerence is that we try to accelerate the development of your intellectual maturity – your recognition of the fact that “teach” is an intransitive verb and that learning is something you have to do. This may sound obvious, but it is a rare ﬁrst year student who has had much experience with taking responsibility for learning. We will help in any way we can, of course, but you may ﬁnd our “teaching style” unfamiliar at ﬁrst. Stick with it. You’ll be glad you did!

Another diﬀerence is obvious and somewhat trivial, but nonetheless profoundly important: since the teaching staﬀ of Science 1 attend each other’s lectures, we all know what is going on in the other subjects, whereas professors teaching “normal” Physics courses usually have no idea what is happening in their students’ Mathematics, Chemistry or Biology courses. Hence we will be able to foster the connections between topics in diﬀerent ﬁelds. And you are encouraged to discuss them.

Natural Philosophy

We are here to help you learn Physics, the discipline, not “about” Physics. On the other hand, until quite recently Physics was known oﬃcially as Natural Philosophy; moreover, modern Physics has drastically altered the ways we perceive the world we live in. So we will be dealing with important concepts, and will be reﬂecting on the philosophical implications of our new knowledge. Physicists like to say that what they study is the most “fundamental” of the sciences – what does this mean? How does physics thinking apply to related areas? And how is it diﬀerent?

We will try to lay out the possibilities (and limitations) of physics as a discipline:

to demonstrate how the understanding of underlying physical principles can help you comprehend both everyday phenomena and apply the same ideas to guess at the behaviour of quite unfamiliar systems;
to help you develop an awareness that through deeper physical understanding comes a deeper appreciation of the world around you;
to show how physics illuminates the global problems facing humanity, and oﬀers us direction;
to convince you (regardless of your eventual choice of ﬁeld) that physics is interesting and that it is vital to listen to what it can tell us;
and to raise awareness of the possibilities of physics as part of a career.

Outcomes

The intention is that when you pass this course you will:

be adequately prepared in physics for any second-year science course;
be able to attack problems which have a physical basis, even in new territory;
be aware of the physics underlying the computing and communications revolution;
and be suﬃciently familiar with physical processes that you can use them to make meaningful contributions to the public debate on environmental issues.

A knowledge of Physics is valuable for its predictive power – the tools of Physics allow us to build wonderful devices, to manipulate matter proﬁtably and to move wisely through our physical environment. An understanding of Physics requires integration of new paradigms and metaphors into one’s intellectual repertoire, to see through complexity to the simplicity and beauty beneath – your mind will be permanently altered by this experience.