Introduction

Welcome to Phys 211!

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Lecturer

Nick Conklin

Email: nbc109@psu.edu

Phone: 865-6107

Office: 212 Osmond

Hours: M & Th: 2:15-3:15pm (or by appointment)

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Teaching Assistants

M. Singh (recitation section 1) J. Qualls (recitation section 2) V. Taveras (lab) S.-C. Yoon (lab)

They will give you their office hours and contact info

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Course Website:

http://class.phys.psu.edu/p211su/SyllabusScheduleLecture notes and labsDiscussion forumGrades

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Text

Fundamentals of Physics; Halliday, Resnik and Walker (5th or 6th edition). We will cover Chapters 1-14 and 16-17

Lab manual May purchase at bookstore or downloaded from

http://class.phys.psu.edu/211labs/labManual.pdf

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Lectures

Twice a weekM Th 12:45-2:00 (119 Osmond)

Will introduce concepts and ideas My notes will be available on the course

website prior to class. I recommend you print them in advance and “flush them out” in class

Still need to read the book!

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Recitation

Meets twice a week (check your schedule for time and place)

You must register for a recitation section You may only attend the section for which

you are registered Will build problem solving skills

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Lab

Wed 12:45-03:35 (312 Osmond) Bring a copy of the lab with you (either

from the course website, or a lab manual purchased from the bookstore)

It helps to read through the lab before class

Physics is an experimental science!

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Homework

We will be using a web based homework system called WebAssign

http://webassign.net/psu/student.html You will need to purchase access (either

on-line or in the bookstore) First assignment due: Wed, June 23 @

5pm

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Exams

2 midterms and a finalMidterm 1: Tues, July 6Midterm 2: Tues, July 27Final: University Assigned

These will be graded by hand, so you will receive partial credit for your work

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Grading Your grade will be assigned based on the

following components:

Final Exam 30 %

Midterm 1 20%

Midterm 2 20 %

Homework 10%

Lab 7%

Pre/post lab 8%

Recitation 5%

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Grade Cutoffs

A <=100%

A- < 93%

B+ < 90%

B < 87%

B- < 83%

C+ < 80%

C < 77%

D < 70%

F < 60%

These boundaries may be lowered if necessary, but they will never be raised

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Absences

If you must miss a lab or other activity due to illness, emergency, or an approved PSU activity, follow the policy on the course web site under ‘Excuses’

Contact your TA promptly

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Caution

We will be going very fast. If you have trouble, get help right away from:MyselfYour TAThe course website

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So why should you study physics?

Describes how the world works

Problem solving skills

Physics is phun!

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This week:

Tues: Recitation Look at problems 1.5, 1.10, 1.11, 1.18, 1.25

Wed: Lab Th: Lecture Fri: Recitation

Look at problems 2.5, 2.10, 2.13, 2.23

Chapter 1

Measurement

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International System (SI) UnitsBase Units:

Length Meter (m)

Time Second (s)

Mass Kilogram (kg) NOTE: pounds are not a unit of mass

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SI Units (cont.)Derived Units

Velocity: m/s Accleration: m/s2

Force: kg m/s2 [N] Momentum: kg m/s Energy: kg m2/s2 [J] Etc…

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Units (cont.)

Useful way of checking your answer

Common thing to screw up (ask NASA)!

If you have no idea how to solve a problem, try dimensional analysis!

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Changing Units

2.0 min = ? sec

5.0 km/hr = ? m/s

sec120min1

sec60min2

s

m8.2

km1

m1000

sec60

min1

min60

hr1

hr

km10

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Common Unit Conversions

1 m =1.09 yd 1 in = 2.54 cm 1 mi = 1.61 km 1 light-yr = 9.45*1015 m 1 day = 86,400 s 1 yr = 3.16*107 s

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Scientific Notation

Should be review, but… 102 = 100 10-2 = 0.01

So then 1.234 x 103 = 1234

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Common Prefixes

mega (M) = 106

killo (k) = 103

centi (c) = 10-2

milli (m) = 10-3

1 MB = 1,000,000 Bytes

1 km = 1000 m

100 cm = 1 m

1000 mm = 1 m

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Topics not covered in HRW (but should be)

Difference between accuracy and precision:Accuracy: closeness to true value

= 3.14Precision: number of digits to which answer is

specified = 3.14159265358979323846264 …

One does not imply the other!

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Accuracy and Precision (cont)

Can be very precise and very inaccurate Hubble mirror

Manufactured to very high precision, but quite wrong

Photo from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/712418.stm

Before and after the installation of corrective optics

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Significant Figures

Shouldn’t give a misleadingly precise answerOnly report answer to precision of least

precisely known quantity Example:

5.000 / 3.0 = 1.7, not 1.6666666666667 Won’t be enforced in this class, but you’ll

probably encounter it later

Chapter 2

Straight Line Motion

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Kinematics

Webster’s: A branch of dynamics that deals with aspects of motion apart from considerations of mass and force

This chapter only deals with 1-D motion Treat every object like a particle

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Position An object’s location is measured with

respect to an origin

Must define a positive and negative direction

Position is a function of time: x(t)

x = 0 x1 = 5

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Displacement

x = x(t2) – x(t1) = x2 – x1

Displacement is a vectorDirection and magnitude

0 x1 = 5x2 = -3

A change in position is called a displacement

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Average Velocity

Rate of change in position over time t

12

12

tt

xx

t

xvavg

Velocity is also a vector Speed is a scalar (magnitude only)

tsavg

distance total

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Example:

A flea is sitting on your ruler. You see it run from the 15 cm mark to the 10 cm mark in 2.5 seconds. What is it’s displacement and velocity?

x = -5.0 cm = -0.05 m vavg = 2.0 cm/s = -0.02 m/s