Physics 211, "University Physics I", Spring 2021

This material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys211/phys211.html

Outline for the course, class schedule, etc.

Where should you sit? Who are your remote partners? Look at this list of group assignments, version 2.

• Groups ordered by student name
• Groups ordered by group
• Groups ordered by day in class

If you want to read through my lectures from the old, lecture-based version of this course, then visit

• my old lecture-based University Physics I web site.
• my old lecture-based University Physics II web site.

You may also find it useful to look at my notes from an intensive version of University Physics I, which meets 4 days a week.

• my University Physics I for physics majors web site

Workshops

• Week 1, Day A: Introduction, measurements, ring experiment [Equipment: yes, click to see ] ( Zoom recording )
• Week 1, Day B: Kinematic quantities, uncertainties and graphing [Equipment: yes, click to see ]
• Week 1, Day C: 1-D kinematics under constant acceleration
• Week 2, Day A: 1-D kinematics, continued
• Week 2, Day B: Vectors
• Week 2, Day C: 2-D Kinematics in simple situations
• Week 3, Day A: Projectile motion
• Week 3, Day B: Uniform circular motion
• Week 3, Day C: Forces
• Week 4, Day A: Atwood's Machine
• Week 4, Day B: Newton's Third Law and Friction
• Week 4, Day C: UCM and centripetal force
• Week 5, Day A: Variable forces: springs
• Week 5, Day B: Variable forces: gravity
• Week 5, Day C: Work and kinetic energy
• Week 6, Day A: Work in complicated situations
• Week 6, Day B: Potential energy and conservation of energy
• Week 6, Day C: Forces and potential energy
• Week 7, Day A: Review
• Tue: 6:30 - 7:45 PM, Test 1 via ExpertTA
• Week 7, Day B: Impulse and momentum
• Week 7, Day C: Momentum and collisions
• Week 8, Day A: Center of mass (I)
• Week 8, Day B: Center of Mass (II)
• Week 8, Day C: Angular quantities
• Week 9, Day A: Angular kinematics
• Week 9, Day B: No class (recharge day)
• Week 9, Day C: Rotational KE, moment of inertia
• Week 10, Day A: Torque, moment of inertia for extended bodies
• Week 10, Day B: Rolling motion [Equipment: yes, click to see ]
• Week 10, Day C: Torque with vectors (and the vector cross product)
• Week 11, Day A: Work in rotational motion
• Week 11, Day B: Angular momentum
• Week 11, Day C: Conservation of angular momentum
• Week 12, Day A: The gyroscope and other angular momentum in action
• Week 12, Day B: Static equilibrium
• Week 12, Day C: Review of differential equations and a swinging meterstick
• Week 13, Day A: Review
• Tue: 6:30 - 7:45 PM, Test 2 via ExpertTA
• Week 13, Day B: Simple harmonic motion
• Week 13, Day C: The pendulum
• Week 14, Day A: Pendulum theory, the physical pendulum
• Week 14, Day B: Waves and wave motion
• Week 14, Day A: Adding waves together: interference and beats
• Week 15, Day A: Standing waves on a string experiment
• Week 15, Day B: Review

• Final exam: Date and time TBA

Homework sets.

In order to use the on-line homework system, you need to know your login name and your initial password. Your "login name" should be the same as your last name, but spelled in lower case only; so Joe Smith should type smith. Your initial password should be the final 4 digits of your 9-digit RIT student ID number, so if your ID number is 123456789, the initial password would be 6789. Be sure to include any zeroes: if the final digits of your ID are "0035", then your password is 0035. You can change your password from the default after you log in for the first time.

• Homework 0: Introduction to WebWork due Tuesday, Jan 26, at 6 PM.
      This assignment does not count towards your grade; it is intended to uncover any errors in the system and give us time to fix them.
      Answers to homework 0
• Homework 1: Graphs and kinematics due Wednesday, Feb 3, at 6 PM.
      Answers to homework 1
• Homework 2: 1-D kinematic under constant acceleration due Friday, Feb 5, at 6 PM.
      Answers to homework 2

Extra Credit Projects (each student may hand in up to 2 extra credit projects during the semester)

1. Human Reaction Times
2. Indoor Exercise
3. The Paris Gun
4. Measure the Earth's Radius
5. Coefficient of Static Friction
6. Bouncing balls
7. A Solar Sail
8. The Office Chair Radar Gun
9. Moment of Inertia of the Human Body
10. Verify Conservation of Angular Momentum
11. The Pendulum
12. Record a Wave
13. Measure the Speed of Sound in Air

For more information

• I have written down some very simple rules for dealing with uncertainties in measurements.
  • My tutorial on uncertainties adopts the "simple" version of error propagation
  • Ultra-condensed description of propagation of errors again using the "simple" version of error propagation
• Know it all? Try solving some of the Duke Physics Challenges
• Solar sails can propel a spacecraft through the solar system without any fuel. How? It's just conservation of momentum .... If you want to get into the messy details of sending spacecraft to another planet, check out
  • Solar Sails: A Novel Approach To Interplanetary Travel is an electronic book in the Wallace Library
  • NASA's Basics of Space Flight
  • The Rocket and Space Technology version of Basics of Space Flight
  • Orbiter -- a space flight simulator a free program which runs under Windows
  • So You Wanna Build A Rocket? takes a somewhat speculative look into future rocketry.
• The Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics site tries (futilely, no doubt) to point out how Hollywood ignores Mr. Newton.
• A good place to look for information on the solar system is NASA's "Welcome to the Planets" site
• Information about the Earth's oceans can be found at the Argo Project's web page.

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Jan 21, 2021

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.