Main Course Page

What's New:

• 5/15/06:  The raw scores & grades are on WebAssign.  The score on the final is also available from MyBama.  Average on the final was 21.4.   Scales on the final exam and the overall course grade are as follows:
  

  Letter grade	A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-
  Final exam: min. raw score	30.6	29.1	27.5	25.9	24.4	22.8	21.3	19.7	18.2	16.6	15.1	13.5
  Course grade:min total score	88.4	84	79.65	75.3	70.9	66.6	62.2	57.8	53.5	49.1	44.7	40.4

  
  The solutions are posted on this web site.  The average on the final was pretty high (21.4/36) but that may be because most of the problems were plugins.  I was surprised at how many people could compute the wave speed in the hanging cable (you had to realize that the tension at the top is the weight of the cable).  Though it seems like a small step from that to realizing that the speed must decrease as you go down the cable (since the amount of cable creating the tension decreases), relatively few people got that right.
  
• 5/3/06: I've posted a sample final exam with scanned solutions. I've updated the official list of formulas you should know to include Chapter 13 and 14. However, the sample exam has a list of selected formulas (smaller than the official one, but better than nothing) -- I will include the same list on our final exam next Thursday (May 11, 11:30-2:00, room 200 Gallalee). You are responsible for knowing the formulas on the official list that are not on this smaller list. I've put a dummy assignment from Chapter 14 on WebAssign in case you want to try a few problems from that chapter, but it will not count in the grade. The final exam will be proctored by Igor Ostrovskiy. I will be around (in my Bevill office) the rest of this week, and off-and-on Saturday and Sunday -- call or email to see if I'm in.
• 4/30/06: The exercise tomorrow (formerly called "sound ideas") has changed (new name: "Sound of Music").  Homework for Chapter 12 is due tomorrow (Monday).  Homework for 13 is due Friday.
  
• 4/25/06: There was originally no exercise planned for tomorrow, but I will add one, which you should print out.  The homework for Chapter 12 has been extended until Monday so you will have almost a week to work on it.  Homework for 13 is still due next Friday (last day of classes, May 5).
  
• 4/23/06: The lab writeup for tomorrow has CHANGED so you should re-print it if you've printed it already.
• 4/21/06: In-class (lab) and quiz grades through 4/14 are on WebAssign, with an estimate of the grading scale.  I jumped from dropping the lowest 1 lab and quiz to dropping the lowest 2 of each, so it may be slightly optimistic, but it's close.  If you've been following your average, please check it -- I want to find out about any glitches in computing averages now, not after the final exam.
  
• 4/19/06: Solutions to exam 3 are posted. Homework 11 is due next Monday the 24^th. Homework 12 is due next Friday (April 28) Monday (May 1). Homework 13 is due Friday of dead week (May 5).
• 4/14/06: Results of today's exam are available via mybama.ua.edu | academics | testing services | student exam results.  I will also upload them to WebAssign.  Average was about 50%, tentative scale is:

  Letter grade	A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-
  Bottom of raw score range	16.9	15.9	15	14.1	13.1	12.2	11.2	10.3	9.33	8.39	7.44	6.5

  The latest lab and quiz grades are not there yet, though.  I will go over the exam Monday. 
• 4/7/06: Sample 3rd exam and solutions are on the exams directory.
  
• 4/5/06: Homework #9 and 10 are on WebAssign, due next Monday and Wednesday respectively (April 10 and 12, 11PM).  The last hour exam is on Friday, April 14.  It will cover from Chapter 7 through section 11.4, i.e. through calorimetry and latent heat, but not heat transfer mechanisms (Sec. 11.5) which we will cover Wednesday.  We may also do a little review Wednesday.
  
• 3/29/06: Homework #8 is due tomorrow. There are some clarifications in the Instructions on WebAssign -- namely, in number 5, problem 8.42, it doesn't say what the shape of the flywheel is. They intend for you to assume a disk. Also, "the flywheel would have to be brought back up to speed" means "the flywheel would stop". Also, there will be a quiz Friday. I will check with Igor to be sure, but I assume it is on Chapter 8.
• 3/27/06: Check the hints link (above).  In particular, a couple of people have noticed that the web version of problem 7-30  (#5 on the assignment due tonight) is missing the reference to Problem 7-29 that's in the book version.  That gives the distance between the Earth and the Moon (384000 km).  Also note that you can enter big numbers like that in scientific notation, in the format 3.84e5.
  
• 3/15/06:  Problem assignments 7 and 8 are on WebAssign, due Monday and Thursday after spring break, respectively.
  
• 3/13/06:  Exam results are available on WebAssign, with updated averages through March 10.  The exam score and individual question answers are available from MyBama (if you bubbled in your student number).   Solutions and a copy of the exam are on this web site, and the solutions are also posted in the display case outside room 200.  Tentative scale is:

  Letter Grade	A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-
  Bottom of raw score range	13.25	12.5	11.75	11	10.25	9.5	8.75	8.0	7.25	6.5	5.75	5

• 3/8/06: Exam is Friday (March 10) at 10 am, in room 200 again.  It will be multiple-choice; a sample exam is posted, with key.  The exam will have only about two questions on Chapter 7 (Secs. 7.1-7.3 only).  The rest will be Chapters 5 and 6.  You should  print out the Planetary Motion interactive physics exercise from the schedule above.  Homework assignment 6 is due tonight at 11.
  
• 3/4/06: You should read sections 7.1-7.3 for Monday, and print out the Asteroid exercise from the schedule above.
  
• 2/28/06: Midterm grades (as of about Feb. 20) are on WebAssign.  See grading details.  The lab for today is the Interactive Physics 1D collision exercise -- you should print it out and read through Section 6.2 in the text.
  
• 2/22/06: Print out the problems for today ("Energy conservation problems").
  
• 2/20/06: Exams were handed back last Friday.  The next WebAssign homework (#5A) is due next Monday, 2/27.
  
• 2/13/06: Solutions ( pages 1&2, pages 3&4) to Exam 1 are on the web site.  I have not finished grading it, I hope to get it back Wednesday.  No homework is due this week.
  
• 2/6/06: Sample exam with solutions ( pages 1&2, pages 3&4) is on the web site.  Exam is Friday in ROOM 200 (not room 203!).  Bring pencil and calculator.  It is a closed-book exam -- the formula list (link above) is for study purposes, not to use on the exam. You need to know the basic equations -- anything else you need (e.g. conversion to English units) will be given on the exam sheet.  A seating chart will be posted at the door.  Homework (on WebAssign) is due Thursday at 11PM.  The worksheet for today does not print correctly in non-Microsoft browsers (greek Delta comes out as a D in Mozilla browser.) 2/2/06: There was something wrong with the powerpoint lecture notes (see link above) -- I replaced them, let me know if you still can't download them. 
  
• 2/1/06: Homework (Assignment 3) for this week is due Friday at 11PM instead of Wednesday, because we won't finish Chapter 3 until today.  (Next week's homework, Asgt. 4, will be due Thursday Feb. 9 because you need to do it before the exam Friday.)   Print out and read the "Cliff" worksheet for today.
• 1/22/06: We will finish Chapter 2.  I will take a straw vote on the next exam time (Feb. 10 vs. Feb 13), so be sure you've checked your schedule.  As always, make sure you've printed out the lab exercise and read through it. Note that today's exercise was converted from Microsoft Word and cannot be printed by some browsers (e.g., Mozilla).
• 1/20/06: Assignment 2 (chapter 2) is on WebAssign.  It has problems 2-6,20,22, 26, and 44 (though the version on WebAssign may differ from the one in the textbook in some details).  There is a link at the top of this page to "homework hints" -- this time I have put them on the WebAssign page too, in the "Instructions" box.  I may not do this in the future -- the formatting doesn't come out well.  So you should look at the "homework hints" page also, in the future.
• 1/18/06: Assignment 1 (chapter 1) is due tonight at 11 PM.  Assignment 2 should be available on WebAssign later today.
• 1/17/06: There is a correction to the syllabus -- last week I thought WebAssign came with the textbook and you didn't have to do anything special to get it.  It does come with the textbook (if you bought it new) but you have to enter an access code from your textbook.  If you didn't buy it new, you have to buy an access code ($14.95).  You can use WebAssign until Jan. 25 without the code, but after that you won't be able to log in.  Sorry about the confusion.
• 1/11/06: Welcome to PH 101!  Some of the lectures will be available on the web at  http://bama.ua.edu/~visscher/PH101/LectureNotes.  This just gives you a file list -- the files are by chapter, e.g. Chapter2.ppt and Chapter2a.ppt are from Chapter 2.  Some lectures have more detail than others (e.g., Chapter2a has very little detail -- entering equations in Powerpoint takes a lot of time.)
  If you don't have PowerPoint installed, you can download a free viewer from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads (search for "powerpoint viewer").