Greetings and welcome to the home page for Physics 121: Classical and Modern Physics I
Taught by Dr. Don Smith The syllabus contains lots of information about the course and my expectations for it. Please read it carefully.
Homework Assignments
Homework assignments will be posted to the Moodle Course Web Page at
least a week beforehand, so you have time to work on them. Make sure
to check this page often. Homework problems will come in two types: (1) short answer questions, in which you will give (and explain) an answer to a question, and (2) analysis problems, in which you will derive a formula or calculate a number. Your answers to the questions should be in clear, correct english. Your solutions for analysis problems must contain at least four parts for each problem:
Homework solutions must be clear and legible. If you cannot write clearly by hand, you may use LaTeX to typeset electronic copies of your homework. No other electronic homework format will be accepted.
Laboratory Experiments Tuesday afternoons from 2:30 to 3:45 pm will comprise our laboratory time. In this time, we will explore hands-on applications of some of the physics concepts we've been talking about. You will perform at least ten experiments during this semester. In the first part of the time, we will go over as a group the concepts involved in the lab and construct a model for the phenomenon that you will test. You can then stay and complete the lab in the second part of the lab time, or you may come in at your convenience to work on the experiment. Due to thefts last year from the physics lab, we can no longer both offer you top-of-the line equipment and leave the door open for you to use the lab at any time. Hopefully we will have a working solution by the time class starts. If you are using the labs during times other than the scheduled hours, you must abide by the following rules:
Lab writeups must be submitted as a LaTeX-generated PDF file through the course Moodle site. If you are having trouble getting your PDF file to format, please consult with me in advance! We will go over the LaTeX format in class, and template files will be provided. There is no need to print out paper copies of these files -- save trees! Your file should be named with your name and the lab number, like: DASmith_Lab5.pdf. Please read Rex Adelberger's file on the proper style of a lab write-up. You should also read this file describing the standards for writing physics reports. Please read these carefully! As a default, write-ups for the lab will be due before the start of the next lab. An optional rewrite may be submitted no later than five days after the write-up is returned to you (via email). Rewrites are always due before 5 pm. The grade on the rewrite replaces the original grade. See the table below for the official due dates. These dates may slip, as the semester progresses. After the due date, no submission will be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made. The list of labs is tentative and subject to change without notice.
LaTeX LaTeX is a type-setting program that is often used for scientific publications. It was developed by a math professor who got frustrated with trying to create equations in Microsoft Word and wanted a better way to do it. It has since grown into an incredibly powerful publishing tool that is used by most professional journals. In this class, we'll only scratch the surface of its capabilities, but your experience here will provide a useful skill if you continue in science. LaTeX bypasses the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that programs like Word present to the user. You write a text document that has embedded commands in it. These commands tell the typesetting program how to shape the look of the final document. If you have ever written an HTML web page, or even seen the source code for a page (feel free to look at the source code for this page as an example), you will be familiar with the idea. As you work with LaTeX, you may want to install a copy on your own home computer, so you don't have to come in to the lab all the time. If you have a linux computer, it usually comes installed as part of the standard package. For a Mac, the software we use here is TeXShop. If you are unfortunate enough to have to work with Windows, you can get the basic LaTeX distribution here, and then install a GUI wrapper program that you can get here. LaTeX usually confronts you with a steep learning curve (I guarantee you that you will want to destroy your computer on occasion because of it), but once you get the hang of it, particularly once you start writing longer and more complex documents, you'll never want to use anything else. Here are some introductory documents to help you get ready to use LaTeX: You can find many more through judicious googling.Useful Links Table of Scales in the Universe A discussion on how to propogate uncertainties A sample MatLab program to perform a Lorentz transformation. I've taken out some of the guts of the program to allow you the practice of writing your own. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
