PHYSICS 215

Thermodynamics and Modern Physics
Michigan State University - Spring 2009

General Information

[Homework] [Help] [Exams] [Grades] [Course schedule]

Course Outline:

Relativity, Thermodynamics, Quantized systems, Atomic physics, Nuclear physics

Prerequisites:

PHY184 or PHY184A, or PHY184B, or PHY294H, or LBS267

Lecturer:

Prof. David Tomanek
Office: 4231 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.
Phone: (517) 355-9702

Lectures:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9:10 am - 10:00 am, BPS 1420;
for details see the course schedule below.

Recitations:

Tuesday, 9:10 pm - 10:00 pm, BPS 1420;
for details see the course schedule below.

Office Hours:

After class or by appointment, 4231 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Textbooks:

Modern Physics:
Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers
by Thornton and Rex,
third edition, Thomson Learning,
ISBN 0-534-41781-7.

Note that the Modern Physics textbook comes together with a support web site which contains a number of useful resources for the course. Of particular interest are computer simulations, some of which will be used in the lectures. The link to the web site can be found here.

Thermodynamics:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers
by Fishbane, Gasiorowicz and Thornton,
third edition, Prentice Hall,
ISBN 0-13-035299-3.

You can find more information on the websites of the publisher or other bookstores such as Bookfinder.com. Only chapters 17 through 20 from the "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" will be used for the PHY215 course. You may thus opt for purchasing only the volume containing chapters 17 through 20 from the multi-volume version.

If you already own the second edition of any of the above text books, you can use it for the PHY215 course.

Homework:

There are 11 homework assignments, which are due on Wednesdays at 3:00 am (see the course schedule). MSU's LONCAPA system will be used for the course homework One of the advantages of the LONCAPA system is that students may enter solutions to questions and problems and know immediately if they are right. There is no penalty for wrong answers and credit is earned for all correct answers entered before the due date of the assignment. By default there are 10 tries for each part of a homework problem.

Help:

The Teaching Assistant for the course is Xu Lu. The TA's job is to assist students in homework assignments by solving example problems at the recitations. The TA will be present in the Strosacker Learning Center in 1248 BPS, is available for office hours (3 h per week) on case-by-case appointment basis, and is reachable via e-mail at <luxu@msu.edu>. Note that there is a discussion forum within LONCAPA, where students can post and answer questions. The TA will monitor the discussion forum and answer open questions every Tuesday of the semester from 2-7 p.m. Formation of small study groups is strongly encouraged, with incentives provided for those, who coordinate such informal study groups.

Reading:

Students are expected to read the chapters listed in the course schedule prior to each lecture. There will be LONCAPA based quizzes on the reading assignments posted after each lecture with a due date at 8:00 am on the day of the corresponding lecture. Reading quizzes will provide an opportunity to communicate to the instructor problems with physics understanding of the material covered in the reading assignment prior to the lecture; special care will be taken by the instructor to address these problematic topics during the lecture.

Quizzes:

Reading quizzes will contribute to the 7% of the quiz grade. By default there is only one try for any single quiz question. In addition to the reading quizzes, there will be unannounced short quizzes during lectures and recitations.

Exams:

There will be three one-hour Midterm Exams and one Final Exam. The exams will be based on the material covered in the lecture, lecture quizzes and homework. The Midterm Exams will take place during Class hours at the usual class location.

You are responsible for bringing the following to each one-hour Midterm Exam and the Final Exam:

• A calculator: All exams will require the use of a calculator. Make sure that your calculator's batteries are fresh, as sharing of calculators will not be allowed.
• Two "Number 2" pencils - to be used for filling out the computer scoring sheet.
• Your student picture ID.
• Midterm Exams: You may bring one 8.5"x11" study sheet. Only one side of this study sheet may contain hand-written formulas, notes, etc.
• Final Exam: Your study sheet may be filled on both sides.

All exams are closed book exams.

To check your score after the exams are graded, enter "term summary" in LONCAPA.

You can make up to 30% of your exam score by solving Partial Credit by corrections assignments, which contain all exam questions, but will be treated as homework.

Grades:

The relative contributions of homework, quizzes and exams to the course grade are:

This adds up to 102%, and includes 2% bonus points for potentially missed quizzes.

The final grades will be calculated based on the following cut-off lines. These cutoffs may be lowered, but not raised (student grades may get better, now worse).

Links of interest:

Click HERE for additional information related to this course.

PHYSICS 215 - Spring 2009
Course Schedule