May 20

PHY 231C exam notice (2 of 2) coverage, practice problems and studying suggestions

Dear PHY 231C student,

The midterm exam covers everything in the course from its start through and
including the material associated with homework set 4 due on Tuesday, May 28 at
5PM EDT.  It will be based on the assigned readings, the online lectures, and
the homework.  Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will
have numerical answers. There are 50 possible points on the exam and a total of
18 responses on this exam.


To further assist you in focusing your studies, here is a breakdown of the
distribution of points on the exam:

1D motion: 14 points
2D motion: 14 points
Force 14 points
Work and energy: 8 points


In general, and across all topics you are responsible for knowing units.


A copy of the exam's cover page is visible in the exam folder in Lon-Capa. Some
useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page
contains information for all exams and not all of the useful information listed
here is applicable to this exam.


Here are some study suggestions:  review the readings, online
lectures and the homework problems; make a good sheet of notes for the exam.

There are practice exam problems available in the Practice Exams folder.   There
are three sub-folders with problems and solutions.  One contains every midterm
exam problem I gave in this course during the academic year 2016-2017; the
second contains every midterm exam problem I gave in this course during the
academic year 2017-2018; the third contains every midterm exam problem I gave
during this past academic year (2018-2019).  So, there are six full semesters
worth of exam problems that I assigned for in this course available to you.

The problems themselves are coded in lon-capa in exam mode with no due date and
correct/incorrect feedback disabled.  This way, you can return to these problems
later to try them again without having the correct response highlighted from an
earlier correct attempt.  There is a sub-folder within the each practice exam
folder with the same questions, but correct/incorrect feedback enabled so you
may attempt these problems and get immediate feedback as to whether your
response was correct or incorrect.

The solutions to these problems take on one of three forms:

1. An online lecture if a very similar problem is not already present in the
course material.
2. A reference of where to find the solution to a very similar problem in the
online material.
3. A reference of where to find the solution to a very similar problem in the
required text.

 
When attempting these problems, use a draft of your exam note sheet and then
modify it as needed based on what you thought you were missing or what your
thought would be useful to have included.


As always, click on the move button to inbox button below to keep this critical
message from continuing to pop up as you work on the course -- this is of
particular importance for those taking their exams online.


Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C on campus exam section: Midterm exam notice (1 of 2) is at 5:00PM on Wednesday, 5/29 in CEM 138

Dear PHY 231C on-campus exam student,


The midterm exam will be on Wednesday, May 29th at 5:00PM in room 138
Chemistry.  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 handed out promptly at 5:00 PM; students arriving after 5:00 PM
will not be given an exam until all who arrived promptly have started their exam.

The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inches or smaller
sheet of original HAND-WRITTEN notes and equations; your note sheet will be
checked at least once during the exam. You may use both sides of your note
sheets.  If you show up to the exam with a set of notes that are not original
and handwritten, you will have to take the exam without notes.  Having any other
notes out other than the original handwritten notes will result in a penalty
grade of zero on the exam and an official report of academic misconduct sent to
the university. Your note sheet will be checked at least once during the exam.

In general, on this exam and the final exam, the questions will be in the order
the material was covered in the course; this should help you organize 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). However, the use of
cell phones, PDAs, apple watches, tablets, computers or any similar devices for
any reason is NOT permitted. If you have any of these devices out, you will
receive a penalty grade of zero on the exam.
 
Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided.  Also as a courtesy to your fellow
students, you should turn off your stored away cell phone before entering the room.

When taking the exam, all baseball caps or brimmed hats must be removed or
turned backward. Furthermore, all caps or hats covering the ears must be removed.

When you enter the room, sit in the row assigned to you based on your last name
(seating assignments will be displayed on the screen at the front of the room).

The exam and scantron sheets will be handed out once all students arriving
promptly are in their assigned rows. 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
your name on the answer sheet. Make certain that your exam has your name and
picture on the cover sheet.  If it does not, you have the wrong exam.  When you
are finished with the exam return both your answer sheet and your exam to an
instructor or an assistant.

You will have one hour to complete the exam.

Richard Hallstein

 PHY 231C, section 731 exam notice (1 of 2) video proctor time will be for the 1 hour time slot you will sign up for between 6:00PM EDT on 5/29 and noon EDT on 5/30

Dear PHY 231C section 731 online video proctored exam student,

You are receiving this message because you are in the online exam section and
you WILL take your exams online via video proctor.

Move this and all critical messages to your inbox to avoid preventable
interruptions while taking your exam online.

The midterm exam will be next week with your one-hour exam starting between
6:00PM EDT Wednesday, May 29th and noon EDT Thursday, May 30th (the time slot in
Examity will adjust your time to your local time).

Time slot sign up will open up after the tuition refund drop deadline passes,
but no later than Friday, May 24 at 8 AM -- I will send you a short email to
confirm it is available.  Slots will fill on a first come, first serve basis you
should not wait to do this once it is available.

In addition to a calculator and a double-sided 8.5inch by 11 inches or smaller
sheet of original HANDWRITTEN notes, you will be permitted to have a drink on
your desk during the exam, a printout of the instructions for getting
started/taking your exam on exam day.  These instructions are specific to
connecting to Examity(your online proctor) via Lon-Capa and some blank pieces of
scratch paper.  The instructions are in place and viewable now in your exams
folder in lon-capa.  I suggest downloading the pdf, opening it with your pdf
reader of choice and printing it out.  While taking the exam, no other notes
other than the single sheet of original handwritten notes may be used.  If any
other pre-prepared notes are used, you will receive a penalty grade of zero on
the exam.

You will have one hour to complete the exam.
Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C, online exam section 731midterm exam time slot scheduling will be available via Examity by Friday 5/24 at 8AM EDT

Dear PHY 231C online web proctored exam student,

Midterm exam time slot scheduling will be available by 8AM this Friday morning
(5/24) at 8AM via the Examity link in Lon-Capa.  To do this, you must have
already created an Examty profile -- this profile creation process is covered in
an earlier message and in the syllabus -- this has been avaialble since the
start of the course.  If you have not set up a profile, you should do so now.

Once exam scheduling is available, in Lon-Capa, open your Examity Dashboard via
the Examity Dashboard link. Click on the "Schedule Exam" picture and select a
time slot the Midterm exam is one hour long and you can schedule your exam start time anytime between Wednesday,
May 29 at 6:00PM eastern time and Thursday, May 30 at noon eastern time.

The granularity is 30 minutes, meaning you can choose start times on the half
hour or the hour.

Examity has a large number of exams to proctor each day, but a finite number of
employees and a finite amount of computational resources to do so. Please be
patient and have several time slots ready on your schedule when selecting a
start time. Times slots are filled on a first come first serve basis.
If your exam is scheduled successfully, you will receive a confirmation message
from Examity.

If you scheduled your exam more than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you will
not be charged any proctoring fee. The MSU Physics department will pay this
cost. However, if you schedule it less than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you
will have to pay the cost of the exam as an on-demand proctoring fee. There is
no reason to wait this long, as the scheduling will be available well in advance
of ethe exam.

As stated in the syllabus and in earlier messages, scheduling for our final exam
will be available on June 6.

Richard Hallstein

May 16

 PHY 231C - section 731: Examity profile set up for online exams is now available

Dear PHY 231C, section 731 student,

You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in the online video
proctored section and will take both of our exams via a video proctoring
service.  The profile setup for the proctoring service (described below and in
the syllabus) is now available.  Time slot schedule for our May29/30 midterm
will be available on May 24 and for our June 26/27 final on June 6.


Online exams will be proctored by an online proctor/monitoring service called
Examity (www.examity.com). All access to examity and your exams will be done in
Lon-Capa. In order to arrange for your online proctored exams, you need to do an
initial set-up of your Examity Profile. Initial setup involves two steps as follows:

In the "Contents" of the course in Lon-Capa, click on "Go to Examity
Dashboard(for online exam students only)"

Click on the "Initial Setup of Examity" link. This will bring you to your
Examity dashboard where you must create a profile.

Click on the "My Profile" icon to create a profile. Here you will:
Identify your time zone (if you are in a different time zone for the final exam,
than you are for the midterm, don't forget to change this setting in your
profile). Within EXAMITY only, your self selected exam times will show up as
your local time based on the time zone you enter in this step. All other times
associated with this course a published as Eastern time (i.e. in Lon-Capa and in
this syllabus).

Upload a scan or photo of a picture ID, such as a driver's license or student
ID. This MUST be the complete ID, NOT just a picture.  Note: uploading just a
picture will result in you not being able to take an exam.

Select three security questions from a given set and provide answers to them

Enter your biometric keystroke signature. All you have to do is enter your first
name (no caps), your last name (no caps) and your first and last names (no caps
or spaces)

Later, when you take your exams, your identity will be verified with your
uploaded picture of your photo ID(you will need to reshow via your webcam to
your online proctor) and one of your security questions (please remember your
responses). Finally, you will be asked for your biometric signature.

If you receive all three green check marks, you are done setting up your Examity
account. You can click log out now.

The next step is to schedule your exams.  This will be available on May 24 for
the midterm and June 6 for the final.

Richard Hallstein

May 10 and 13

PHY 231C - correct link to course syllabus

Dear PHY 231C student,

The link I sent earlier for our syllabus was not correct.  Here is the correct
link to our syllabus:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2019summer/PHY231C/

Since this is an online course, messages sent via this forum is the only
mechanism to send you course information.  To make sure you see these messages,
they will all be sent as a critical message.  Critical messages will continually
pop up in Lon-Capa while you work on the course until you click the move to
inbox link at the bottom of each message.  This can be annoying while working on
homework, but it is particularly crucial that online exam takers move all
critical messages to their inbox prior to starting an exam.  Doing so will avoid
using up valuable exam time closing these critical messages during an exam. 

Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C is now available - off camus video proctored exam section#731 (message 3 of 3)

Dear PHY 231C, section 731 summer session 1 online video proctored exam student,

You are receiving this email because you are enrolled in section 731 of PHY 231C
for the first summer session and I want to make sure you are enrolled in
the correct section.   No worries if you are not, as there is plenty of room in
both sections and it is easy to switch sections if you need to via schedule
builder here: https://schedule.msu.edu/

Students in this section 731 will have their exams proctored via student
provided webcam and microphone.  You will be watched/recorded via your
computer's webcam for the duration of each exam and your computer screen will
also be recorded.

If *ALL* three of the following conditions are met, you are enrolled in the
correct section and will have your exams proctored via webcam:
1. You are living greater than a 1 hour drive from MSU
2. Regardless of how far you are living, you are not enrolled in another course
meeting on the MSU campus in East Lansing (if you live close enough to come here
for class, you are close enough to come here for our two exams).
3. Your computer hardware and internet connection meets the criteria outlined in
the syllabus.

If *ALL* of these conditions are met and you wish to use online video
proctoring, you are enrolled in the correct section (731).  If any of these
three conditions are not met OR you wish to take your exams at MSU even if they
are met, you must enroll section (730) and take your exams at MSU on May 30 29 and
June 27 26.

If you remain in this section, you will need to set up an account with Examity,
the online video proctoring service.  This is covered in detail in the online
proctored exam section of the syllabus.  Links to this part of the syllabus are
both on the opening page of the syllabus and in the exam section of the
syllabus. For convenience, here is a link to the syllabus:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2019summer/PHY231C/    You will be able
to set up your account later during the first official week of the session --
after open add ends. Most likely Friday(5/17), but possibly late Thursday(5/16).
You will be able to schedule your midterm exam start time on the morning of
Friday, May 24 and the final exam start time on the morning of Thursday, June 6;
I encourage you to do this early, as time slots will fill up on a first come
first serve basis.

If you need technical support for Examity, you can contact their 24/7 support
via: phone 1-855-EXAMITY (1-855-392-6489) select option 1; email or chat -- both
of these are linked on every Examity webpage.

Lastly, there are two exam folders in Lon-Capa.  Each folder currently contains
only the cover sheet for our midterm exam (useful constants and information).
However, you will only be able to access the online video proctored exam
folder.

Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C is now available - on campus exam section#730 (message 3 of 3)

Dear PHY 231C, section 730 summer session 1 on campus exam student,

You are receiving this email because you are enrolled in section 730 of PHY 231C
for the first summer session and I want to make sure you are enrolled in
the correct section.   No worries if you are not, as there is plenty of room in
both sections and it is easy to switch sections if you need to via schedule
builder here: https://schedule.msu.edu/

First off, there are two exam folders in Lon-Capa.  Each folder currently
contains only the cover sheet for our midterm exam (useful constants and
information).  However, you will only be able to access the on campus exam
folder.

Your exams will be given in person on the MSU campus on May 29 at 5:00PM in CEM
138 and June 26 at 5:00PM in CEM 138.

If *ALL* three of the following conditions are met, you can have your exams
proctored via webcam, but you will need to switch sections:
1. You are living greater than a 1 hour drive from MSU
2. Regardless of how far you are living, you are not enrolled in another course
meeting on the MSU campus in East Lansing (if you live close enough to come here
for class, you are close enough to come here for our two exams).
3. Your computer hardware and internet connection meets the criteria outlined in
the syllabus.

If *ALL* of these conditions are met and you wish to use online video
proctoring, you must enroll in section 731.  Students using online video
proctoring will be watched/video recorded for the duration of each exam via
student provided webcam and microphone; the computer screen will also be
recorded.  If any of these three conditions are not met or you wish to take your
exams at MSU even if they are met, you are enrolled in the correct section (730)
and no further action is required.
For convenience, here is a link to the syllabus:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2019summer/PHY231C/

Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C is now available - bonus points (message 2 of 3)

Dear PHY 231C student,

Students will, at times ask at the end of the semester about doing extra work to
get a higher grade.  In this class, there are plenty of extra credit
opportunities offered throughout the session and I encourage you to take
advantage of these opportunities.  The time to start accumulating this extra
credit is now (not at the end of the session, as then it is too late).   These
bonus opportunities have limited windows of availability and strict due dates.
Other than what is outlined below, no other extra credit will be given. Please
take advantage of each of these opportunities, as they can significantly help
your final grade in the course.  Much of this is in the bonus point section of
the syllabus.

Here are all of the bonus point/extra credit opportunities available in the
course:

 Bonus homework, section specific survey question due 5PM on Wednesday, May 15
is worth 5 regular homework points (it will add more than 0.5% to your final
average). This one, frankly should not take you more than 30 seconds to
complete.  Here are the details:
This question is necessarily due at 5PM on Wednesday, May 15 to allow students
enrolled in the wrong section time to switch into the correct section.  This
bonus question is different from the bonus questions outlined below and embedded
with the online lectures.


Concept tests: the
pre-course version is available now and due on Sunday, May 19; the post
class version will be available on June 17 and will be due on Sunday, June 23
(before the final exam). Here are the details:
Concept tests: An assessment meant to determine student understanding of
mechanics concepts. The department offers this to help improve future versions
of this course and its traditional equivalent. The pre-course version will be
available from the start of the session and is due on May 19 and the post course
version will be available from June 18 and will be due on June 23. A
participation bonus of 1 point added to your final exam score will be given to
all students who seriously attempt* each of these items. Participation bonuses
are as follows: Pre-course +1 point on final exam; Post-course version +1 point
on final exam; any student making a serious* attempt on both will receive an
additional 1 point bonus on their final exam score (for a total of +3 points
added). *- Simple submission patterns (like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly
clicking on any response throughout the concept test are not considered serious
efforts and no bonus will be given. This will be checked.
Completing all of these as described will add 3% to your final exam score or
1.2% to your final average

Available now and due with associated homework assignments throughout the
session.  There are about 250 regular homework problems and about 50 additional
bonus homework problems.  Homework is weighted at 30%, so attempting these bonus
problems could add 6% to your final average.  Here are the details:
There are bonus questions in the online lecture folders. You should be able to
answer these after completing the assigned reading from the required text and
watching the online lectures. These bonus questions are programmed to look like
exam questions, as such, they are all multiple choice. In addition, some of
these bonus questions are questions used on previous exams for this course and
its traditional equivalent. Lon-Capa's feedback option is disabled, so unlike
regular homework problems, Lon-Capa will not tell you if you have the correct
answer until after the due date. In addition, the discussion board on these
questions has been disabled. These questions are meant for you to work out
yourself after having read the assigned reading and watched the online lectures.
All points earned here will be added to your total homework points as a homework
bonus (so, homework scores over 100% are possible). Hints and/or solutions to
the bonus questions will not be provided.

Correction assignment for the midterm exam done online as a homework assignment
can increase your midterm score and thus, you final average.  It will be
available from on Friday, 5/31 and is due on Tuesday, 6/4 along with homework set
5.  Here are the correction assignment details:
The midterm exam will have a correction exam assigned as a homework assignment
in Lon-Capa. 30% of the positive difference between the correction exam and the
in-class (or proctored) exam will be added to your in-class exam score as bonus.
As such, the correction exam homework assignment can only add points to your
midterm exam score. Only students taking the original exam will have access to
the correction exam. The correction exam will be available at noon two days
after the scheduled exam and will be due at the regular homework due date/time
the following week.

No other extra credit will be offered or given in this course.

Richard Hallstein

PHY 231C is now available (message 1 of 3)

Dear PHY 231C student,

Welcome to the summer session of PHY 231C.  This is the only message I will send to you via the registrar's mail system.  A copy of this message and all future messages sent to the class will come from the Lon-Capa mail system with a copy sent to your MSU email address.
 
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 231C section 730 or section 731. All online course material will be delivered using Lon-Capa.  You can log in using your MSUnet ID and password (same as your email) here: https://loncapa.msu.edu/ This message will be resent today via lon-capa’s mail system and again on the official start of class, Monday, May 13 using both the Registrar’s system and Lon-Capa’s mail system.  I apologize in advance for these duplicate messages, but it is necessary for me to make all reasonable attempts to contact all enrolled in the course.
 
I realize this message is long, but you should read it carefully and in detail as it is part of the syllabus and it is copied in the announcement section of the syllabus for your reference.  You will also receive two additional emails today.  One is a section specific email about our two exams.  The other is an outline of all available extra credit (bonus points) available to you in this course.  There are some opportunities only available in the first week, so review this promptly!
 
We will cover all material usually covered in a fifteen week course in a little over six weeks.  This course runs only in the first summer session starting on May 13 and finishing with the final exam at the end of June.  In general, there are two homework sets due each week.    Every week during the session will require a significant online time commitment with a reliable high speed internet connection. Extensions of the homework due dates will not be given.
 
There are two exams.  The midterm exam and final exam are traditional, multiple-choice paper and pencil type exams taken either here on the MSU campus (must enroll in section 730) or off-campus via your computer/web-cam for qualifying students (must enroll in section 731).  Qualifying means all three of these conditions must be met:
1. You must live greater than a 1 hour drive time from where you are living to MSU. 
2. You cannot be enrolled in any other course requiring you to drive to MSU during the session (if you are close enough to attend class here, you are close enough to take your two exams here). 
3. Your computer and internet connection meet all of the requirements outlined in the off-campus online proctored exam part of the syllabus.  Of course, if you meet all of these requirements and wish to take your exams at MSU, you can do so, but need to be in (or change to) section 730.
 
On the Friday following the midterm exam, a correction exam will open up in homework mode.  The correction exam is completed online just like all of the regular homework assignments.  This correction assignment allows you to do the same exam again with a different randomization for your assigned values.   30% of the positive difference between your correction exam score and your original exam score is added to your original score as a bonus.  The correction exam can only help your score on the exam; do nothing and your original score stays as-is.
 
The required text book is Rex & Wolfson: Essential College Physics, Volume 1.
 
It is sold at the MSU bookstore and at SBS on Grand River.  This class will use LON-CAPA. LON-CAPA is a computerized homework and exam management system developed right here at MSU. We will NOT use D2L or the Mastering Physics add-on to the textbook in this course.  Since this is an online class, you are not required to purchase an i-clicker.
 
 Whenever you finish using Lon-CAPA you should *ALWAYS* log out.  Staying logged in for an extended period of time will prevent you from seeing any new material added to the course i.e. correction exam, exam results, practice exam problems.   In addition, leaving Lon-Capa idle for a long time can cause access errors (i.e. getting a message when trying to answer a problem stating the system is not available).  No extensions will be given for such preventable errors.
 
Please visit www.loncapa.msu.edu and log in using your MSU Net ID and password.
 
Select the "PHY 231C, Summer 2019" class. The first item on the top is the syllabus.  You can also review the syllabus without logging in to Lon-Capa here: https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2019summer/PHY231C/htm   Read all sections of it carefully. This is the official syllabus of the class.

The next item is a folder containing the lectures for the course.   The Online Lecture folder contains the lectures specifically designed for this online course; they are in the form of narrated PowerPoint presentations with example problems and some lecture demonstrations.  A high speed internet connection and a computer with the ability to view flash video are required.  All of the online lectures for the course are currently available.
 
Embedded within the online lectures are bonus homework questions.  These questions are optional and can only help your score in the course.  Most of these questions, relate at least in part to the assigned reading and/or the online lecture immediately preceding the question.   These questions are programmed in exam mode (multiple choice) with correct/incorrect feedback disabled; the correct answer will be available after the due date.  The discussion board on these bonus questions is disabled and so.  In addition, hints and/or solutions to these extra credit bonus questions will not be provided.

The next folder will contain the homework for the course.  There are homework sets that are due, in general every Tuesday at 5PM and Thursday at 5PM.  The first homework set is due FRIDAY, May 17th at 5PM (this is the only set due on a Friday).  All homework sets are currently available, so if you know you have a conflict at some point in the semester, you can work ahead.  Additionally, you should not wait until the last minute to do the assigned homework -- extensions on homework will not be granted.   There is an extra credit survey question due Wednesday, May 15 (this coming Wednesday) at 5PM – it addresses your enrollment in the proper section and this due date is necessary as open add ends at 8PM on 5/15; if you’re in the wrong section you can change sections.  This should take you seconds to complete and is worth 5 homework points of extra credit.
 
There is also a folder with three sets of practice exam problems.  One set of practice problems include every single problem from midterm exams I gave in this past academic year (Fall 2018 and Spring 2019).The next set of practice exam problems includes every single problem from midterm exams given in the previous academic year (Fall 2017 and Spring 2018)  The last set of practice problems include every single problem from midterm exams I gave in the academic year Fall 2016 and Spring 2017.  These problems are coded in Lon-Capa and appear in exam mode for zero credit (no due date is set and correct/incorrect feedback is disabled to allow you to return to the problem later). A second folder with each practice exam is available for you with correct/incorrect feedback enabled.  The solutions to these problems take on one of three forms:
1. A reference to a very similar problem in the required text.
2. A reference to a similar problem worked out in the online lectures.
3. A new video solution.
You are encouraged to use these to help prepare for the exams. Try solving the problems first before watching the solutions.  Even if you answer the questions correctly, as you may find some additional useful information in the solution.
 
You are encouraged to come to the help room (BPS 1248) with your questions.  Our Teaching Assistants are more than happy to answer your questions.  Starting May 13, the help room will be open for this course on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00AM-8:00PM; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00AM-5:00PM. During these help room hours, there will always be at least two TAs in the help room assigned to this course.  One is assigned specifically to provide online help using the course discussion board.  While this TA will be in the help room, the online support TA’s first priority is to give online assistance.  Only after all online questions are answered is this TA permitted to assist students in the help room.

You are also encouraged to use the discussion board inside LON-CAPA. If you don't understand a problem or you need help, just click on the "Post discussion" link and post your question. Please do not send questions about the homework via email – the discussion board should always be used for this purpose.  If you are seeking electronic help on a homework problem, use the post discussion option.  More likely than not, others will have the same question and unlike email, everyone can then benefit from your question and subsequent response(s).  If you know the answer to a question, just post your answer. Don't forget: The best way to learn is to teach.
 
Working and understanding the homework problems is a very important part of understanding the material.  While, you can likely find a quick, easy formula derived by someone else in the class or by someone online, which will yield the solution to a homework problem, going straight for this type of solution will not help you learn the material.  If you are faced with a similar problem that does not use the same end formula, that quick and easy homework solution will be of little help.  However, if you understand the underlying concepts and the process that went in to finding that end formula, that similar problem should not be difficult to solve.  Rather than using a quick and easy formula that someone else put the work into finding, a better course to follow is attempting to work the problems yourself after completing the assigned readings and watching the online lectures.  Only after an honest attempt at the problems should you seek further assistance.  Yes, this is more work, but my belief in the importance of working through the homework yourself to your success in the course is both emphasized and rewarded by its relative weight in determining your final grade.
 
To reiterate, two additional emails will follow this one.  Please read them both promptly.
 
Richard Hallstein
(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu