The third exam will be on Wednesday, April 29th from 5:15PM until 6:15PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1415. 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 online chapters 11 through and including 14. 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. As stated in the syllabus, the exam will include a modified problem taken straight from the first exam and a second modified problem taken straight from the second exam. The modified problems could be a single numerical problem or a group of two or three related conceptual questions (i.e.true/false; increase/stay the same/decrease; direction of electric field; etc). 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.
In the exam section of the syllabus there is a link to the exam I gave in a previous course.
There will not be a TA scheduled for this course in the help room on the evening of the exam (i.e. 6:15-8:00 on April 29th).
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. There are a total of 16 questions on this exam.
Richard Hallstein
The second exam will be on Wednesday, March 25th from 5:15PM until 6:15PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1415. 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 online chapters 6 through and including 10. 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. As stated in the syllabus, there will be one modified problem taken straight from the first exam on this exam. This modified problem could be a single numerical problem or a group of two or three related conceptual questions (i.e.true/false; increase/stay the same/decrease; direction of electric field; etc). 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.
In the exam section of the syllabus there is a link to the exam I gave in a previous course.
There will not be a TA scheduled for this course in the help room on the evening of the exam (i.e. 6:15-8:00 on March 25th).
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 16 questions on this exam.
Richard Hallstein
The first exam will be on Wednesday, February 11th from 5:15PM until 6:15PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1415. 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 (from the online text). 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.
A few people in the help room have asked me if they can expect to see a problem like the “Current” problem from the past homework set on the exam. This problem had two batteries and involved generating/solving three equations with three unknowns. The amount of time required solving this problem make it inappropriate to include on the exam and such a problem will *NOT* be asked. However, if one of the two batteries in this circuit were removed, the complexity of the problem is drastically reduced and such a problem would be appropriate.
In the exam section of the syllabus there is a link to the exam I gave in a previous course.
There will not be a TA scheduled for this course in the help room on the evening of the exam (i.e. 6:15-8:00 on February 11th).
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 18 questions on this exam.
Richard Hallstein
A few students have asked if I could provide a cross-reference chart to identify which chapters in the optional text(s) correspond to the assigned online chapters. The chart is now available in the syllabus at: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2009spring/phy232c/Textbook/crossref.pdf
In my first email I encourage you to use and contribute in the online discussion using the post message feature and asked that you do not simply give the answer to a problem without any discussion. I make this request not to be mean or because I’m an ogre, rather so that all students can think about these problems, discuss them, understand them, understand the underlying concepts and feel comfortable answering similar problems. By posting an answer with little or no discussion, it takes this opportunity away from other students in the class. Students simply posting the answers to questions with little or no discussion certainly do so with all good intensions, but this practice can have unintended effects on their fellow students.
There were a few posts falling into this category on the first homework set. For example, on the “Point P” problem one student posted the following:
“A positive point charge +q is placed at point p to the right
of two charges, A and B. The net force on the +q charge is
found to be zero. Which of the statements below are true?
False: A and B must both have the same sign of charge.
False: Reversing the sign of +q to -q would make the force
on it nonzero.
False: B must have the same sign as A and be less in magnitude.
True: B must have the opposite sign from A and be less in
magnitude.
True: If A is negative, B must be positive.
You are correct. Computer's answer now shown above
Hope that helps.”
While this certainly would result in the reader answering this homework problem correctly, the likelihood of answering a rephrased similar problem on say, an exam would not be as good. An example might be locating point p between the two charges rather than off to the right. Depending on where it is placed, this *COULD* affect all but the second response in this example. Students who simply entered what someone posted on a message board to the similar homework problem and later encountered such a question on say, an exam (say a midterm, final or the MCAT) would likely struggle with it.
I encourage you to contribute to the course by answering questions posted whether they are asked in the online text or in the homework sets, but please do not simply give the answer to a homework problem without any discussion.
Richard Hallstein
The PHY 232C help room hours are Wednesdays 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The help room is in BPS room 1248.
Richard Hallstein
Welcome to Virtual University. PHY 232C is now open. The course syllabus can be viewed at:
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2009spring/PHY232C/
Online reading and homework sets are on Lon-Capa. In addition, there is a recommended textbook for this course (see the syllabus for details). There are instructions for using Lon-Capa in the syllabus. Weekly homework sets due on Wednesdays at 11:00PM. The first assignment is due on January 21st. 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 staffed for this course on 1:00-5:00PM and 6:00-9:00PM on Wednesdays. Students should spend time, 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.
You can use the post discussion option within Lon-Capa to post questions to other students, teaching assistants or the instructor. 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 and 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. By using this option, other students can also benefit from the response(s). Students are encouraged to contribute to the course by answering questions posted, but please do not simply give the answer to a problem without any discussion.
If you have an administrative question about the course, e-mail it to me at hallstein@pa.msu.edu 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 may go unanswered.
Richard Hallstein
Instructor
Last updated: April 23rd, 2009