PHYSICS 183                                                          Spring 2000

Physics for Scientists and Engineers I

Course Description:

Physics 183 is the first semester of a two semester course in Physics for Scientists and Engineers.   The prerequisite is MTH 132.  Topics to be covered are mechanics, Newton's laws, momentum, energy conservation laws, rotational motion, oscillation, gravity, and waves.

Teaching Staff:

                Prof. Carl Schmidt
                Room:         216A Physics/Astronomy Building
                Telephone:    432-0192
                Email:        schmidt@pa.msu.edu
                Office hours: Friday 9:10-10:00 am and by appointment

                Bill Peters  (Graduate TA)
                Email:        peters@pa.msu.edu

                Chigusa Ohbuchi  (Graduate TA)
                Email:        ohbuchi@pa.msu.edu

                Ryan Stelzer  (Undergraduate TA)
                Email:        stelzer2@msu.edu

Text:

       FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS
       Halliday, Resnick, and Walker
       John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (1997)
       5th Edition
       (Parts 1 and 2)

Class Organization:

The class meets for lectures on M,W, Th, and F at 4:10 to 5:00 PM in room 118 Physics/Astronomy Building.  There will be no recitation sections after the first day.  Instead there will be numerous hours in the Physics Learning Center (PLC), where students can get individual attention.  Help can also be obtained through the PHY183 Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN).

Exams:

There will be three 1-hour Exams with optional 30% partial credit for corrections, and one 2-hour Final.  They will be based on the Lectures, Text, Quizzes and Homework.

Quizzes:

Several un-announced quizzes will be given in lecture each week.  The goal is to promote understanding and to assess progress.

Homework:

There will be 12 assignments.  Students may wish to use MSU's CAPA system to enter their homework solutions on the Internet, for which the standard due dates are Friday at 7:00 pm.  Otherwise, solutions and assignment sheets are due at the start of the Friday lecture.

Grading Procedure:

Grades are based on the following formula:
Homework               30%
3 Hour Exams          30%
Quizzes                       7%
Final                         35%
-------------------
                                102%
The guaranteed scale (it may be lowered a little but not raised) is:
90 - 102%             4.0
83 -   90%             3.5
76 -   83%             3.0
70 -   76%             2.5
64 -   70%             2.0
58 -   64%             1.5
52 -   58%             1.0

Honors Option:

Students interested in the honors option should contact C. Schmidt during the first week of class.

Links:

Last Updated on 1/6/00.
By Carl R. Schmidt
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2000spring/PHY183/