Physics 231C Announcements

June 27th

The second exam will be on Tuesday, July 8th from 5:15PM until 6:15PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410. Some streets in and around the campus are closed for construction, so you should allow extra time to get to the exam location. The exam will be comprehensive, but will concentrate on the material in chapters 6 through and including 9. As mentioned in the syllabus, one problem on the exam will be a reworded problem from the first exam. The exam will be based on both the readings and the homework. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 100 possible points on the exam however your percent score will be calculated relative to 90 possible points. So, scores over 100% are possible.

The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original (no copies) hand-written notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheet.

You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver's license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.

When you enter the room, you should pick up an exam and an answer sheet from the front of the room. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and the six letter code in the spaces provided on your answer sheet. You will find your code near the top of your exam. This information is needed to grade your exam.

You will have one hour to complete the exam.

The help room will not be open for the 6:00PM-9:00PM session on the evening of the exam.

The cover page for the exam can be found at the bottom of the table of contents in Lon-Capa. Some useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the useful information listed here is applicable to this exam. There are a total of 15 questions on this exam.

Richard Hallstein

 

June 3

The first exam will be on Tuesday, June 10th from 5:15PM until 6:15PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410. Some streets in and around the campus are closed for construction, so you should allow extra time to get to the exam location. The exam will cover everything through and including Chapter 5. It will be based on both the readings and the homework. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 100 possible points on the exam however your percent score will be calculated relative to 90 possible points. So, scores over 100% are possible.

The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original (no copies) hand-written notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheet.

You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver’s license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.

When you enter the room, you should pick up an exam and an answer sheet from the front of the room. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and the six letter code in the spaces provided on your answer sheet. You will find your code near the top of your exam. This information is needed to grade your exam.

You will have one hour to complete the exam.

The help room will not be open for the 6:00PM-9:00PM session on the evening of the exam.

The cover page for the exam can be found at the bottom of the table of contents in Lon-Capa. Some useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the useful information listed here is applicable to this exam. There are a total of 19 questions on this exam.

Richard Hallstein

 

May 9

Welcome to Virtual University. PHY 231C is now open. The course syllabus can be viewed at:

 

http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2008summer/PHY231C/

 

Online reading and homework sets are on Lon-Capa. In addition, there is a required textbook for this course (see the syllabus for details). There are instructions for using Lon-Capa in the syllabus. There are weekly homework sets due on Thursdays at 5:00PM . The first assignment is due on May 15th. All of the homework is inside the HOMEWORK folder at the bottom of the course table of contents.

 

There is a help room staffed by Graduate Teaching Assistants in The Strosacker Learning Center, Room 1248 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building . The help room will be open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Students should spend several hours per week, as needed, visiting the help room to work with other students and consult with teaching assistants. Both on and off campus students should visit the MSU campus for this purpose.

 

During help room hours, one graduate teaching assistant will provide online assistance via the post discussion option within Lon-Capa. Although you may get sufficient assistance on some of the less complicated questions via the “Post Discussion” option, you will get better service working with the graduate teaching assistants and other students in the help room.

 

There will be three midterms and one final exam given on the MSU campus – the dates, times and location are shown in the syllabus. There will be no make-up exams. However, if you miss a midterm exam for any reason you will be allowed to drop this exam and the midterm portion of your final grade will be based on the other two midterm exams. Only one midterm exam will be dropped – the final exam will NOT be dropped. If you take all three midterms, your lowest midterm exam score will be dropped when calculating your final grade.

 

If you are living far from the MSU campus at the time of the exam, beyond a reasonable commuting distance, or if you are traveling with an MSU-sponsored program, you may be able to arrange a proctored off-campus exam. Arrangements must be made well in advance of the exam – requests made after the deadline will not be accommodated and you will have to take the exam at MSU. See the exam section of the syllabus for details and deadlines for arranging an off-campus exam.

 

Also included in the exam section of the syllabus are midterm exams given in a previously offered course.

 

Questions seeking help with a homework problem should be posted online using the “Post Discussion” option in Lon-Capa. Do not e-mail these questions directly to me.

 

If you have an administrative question about the course, e-mail it to me and include the course title in the e-mail's subject line. If you do not include the course title in the subject line, the e-mail will likely go unanswered.

 

 

Richard Hallstein

Instructor

Department of Physics and Astronomy

 

 

Physics 231C HOME

Last updated: June 27, 2008