Dear PHY231c students, Welcome to Spring Term and Physics 231c. The course home page is posted at: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/phy231/ This is the webpage for both 231 (the inclass lecture) and 231c (the web-based material) versions of the course. Here, you can find office hours, grade scale, class announcements and most other information concerning the course. Everything described in the message you are reading is described, often in more detail, at the course home page. The LON-CAPA site, which includes on-line homework and lecture material, can be accessed by dialing into: http://msu.loncapa.org Log in with your pilot ID and password. You can find log-in help at http://msu.lon-capa.org/res/msu/felicia/Instructions/instructions.html In preparing for the homework and exams, you can either study the course text book (Serway and Faughn, College Physics) or the on-line lecture material which is posted on LON-CAPA. My recommendation is to buy the text book and to access the on-line material when you feel the need for more explanation. The on-line material includes many on-line demonstrations. Homework is listed on-line in the LON-CAPA "HOMEWORK" folder. Inside that folder you will find each week's homework problems. You are given 99 tries for each problem. The system will inform you immediately whether you have correctly answered the problem. Homework is due every Tuesday morning at 3:59 AM (except for the first week's HW which will be at 10:00 AM because of Martin Luther King's Day). Answers will be made available immediately afterward. The entire year's problems are posted, though we warn you that we might change a few problems during the semester. The course will have three midterms - time and room to be posted latter. The location of the final is not yet determined. The dates, which are also posted on the course calendar and can be accessed from the home page, are: MIDTERM I: Thursday, Jan. 31st MIDTERM II: Thursday, Feb. 28th MIDTERM IIII: Thursday, Apr. 3rd FINAL 5:45-7:45 PM, Monday, April 28th (Location TBA) Each midterm counts for 20 points, the final counts as 30 points, and the homework counts as 15 points. In addition there will be 2 bonus points on the final exam. This grade is assigned on the basis of 100 point with the extra 7 points added as a bonus. All the exams are closed-book, closed-note. You will be provided a standard formula sheet which can be accessed at: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/phy231/cheatsheet/cheatsheet.html We recommend that you use this sheet for doing your homework. The exams are much easier if you know what formulas are on the sheet, where they are, and how to use them. Many of the exam problems will be inspired from homework problems. At least one problem from the second and third midterms will be a "modified" problem from the previous midterm(s). The 16 questions on the final exam from material covered in the first three midterms will come from "modified" problems from the following sources: the 231 midterms, the 231C midterms, or the exams from previous courses posted on the course web site. "Modified" could mean that 'y' is given and 'x' is asked for, whereas the original problem had the reverse. It might also mean word changes such as "helicopter" -> "bird", or a conceptual problem might be morphed into a numerical problem. Old exams are posted on the course web page, following the "EXAMS" link. The homework grade will be calculated relative to a base of 80% of the total possible points, but you will not be allowed to score over 100% on the HW. For example: If you correctly answer 40% of the problems, you get 50% of the points. If you correctly answer 80% of the problems, you get 100% of the HW points. If you correcly answer 98% of the problems, you get 100% of the HW points. No extensions will be granted for the homework unless there are exceptional circumstances. The 20% leeway should account for technical problems, such as "I can't log in from my parent's house". Students are responsible for finding locations from which they can answer the questions. If there are campus-wide network problems, we will make extensions for the entire class. Students are encouraged to work with one another on homework problems. The Strosacker Center, Room 1248 Physics, is designed explicitly for that purpose. It will be staffed throughout the week by TAs who should be able to assist you with all your physics needs. Staffing hours will be posted on the course home during the first week of class. No advice for success in physics class applies to everybody, but nonetheless, we give some pointers here. 1) Work on the class more than one day per week. Don't try to do everything in a 12-hour marathon session. 2) Don't read the course chat pages before trying the problems yourself. Often students provide combined formulas which work only for the specific problem. It is better to start with what is on your formula sheet. Also, if you write on the chat page, your comments will be more helpful if you refer to the formulas on the formula sheet, e.g., "combine F=ma with x=v0t=(1/2)at^2 to get ____ ". 3) If you get a problem correct after getting the hint, ask yourself "How should I have recognized the correct method?", not just "What was the right thing to do?". A chess master can easily explain to a novice why he made a certain move. For instance, "I wanted to gain control of the d-4 square and block his bishop", but it is much more difficult for the master to explain why he did not make one of the other 73 possible moves. The same applies for knowing how one should know which physics formula to apply. 4) Don't over-think the exam problems. We are not trying to trick you with the problems. There is a group of people who think "Oh, that is too obvious", and talk themselves out of the correct answer. This same group struggles with driver's exam written tests. 5) Take advantage of the Strosacker center and the instructor's office hours! Please don't hesitate to send an email if you are having any problems or questions, but first please check the web page before concerning procedural items. I hope to meet as many of you as possible in the coming months and wish you the best of luck for the upcoming semester Sincerely, Alex Brown brown@nscl.msu.edu