Physics 311, "University Physics I", Winter 2009

This material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys311/phys311.html

Outline for the course, class schedule, etc.

Syllabus, including reading assignments and test dates.

Grades in the course

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.

Workshops

• Week 1, Day A: Introduction, units, estimates
• Week 1, Day B: Measurements, uncertainties and graphing
• Week 1, Day C: Kinematic quantities

• Week 2, Day A: 1-D Kinematics under constant acceleration
• Week 2, Day B: More 1-D Kinematics problems, Vectors
• Week 2, Day C: 2-D Kinematics in simple situations

• Week 3, Day A: Projectile motion
• Tue, Dec 15: Test 1: 6-7 PM, room 06-A205 Equation sheet for Test 1
• Week 3, Day B: More projectile motion
• Week 3, Day C: Uniform circular motion

• Week 4, Day A: Forces
• Week 4, Day B: Atwood Machine I (level)
• Week 4, Day C: Newton's Third Law and Friction

• Week 5, Day A: Friction in complicated situations
• Week 5, Day B: Atwood machine II (tilted)
• Week 5, Day C: UCM again

• Week 6, Day A: Variable forces: springs
• Tue, Jan 19: Test 2: 6-7 PM, room TBA Equation sheet for Test 2
• Week 6, Day B: Variable forces: air resistance
• Week 6, Day C: Variable forces: gravitation

• Week 7, Day A: Work and Kinetic Energy
• Week 7, Day B: Work in non-trivial situations
• Week 7, Day C: More Work

• Week 8, Day A: Conservative forces and potential energy
• Week 8, Day B: Conservation of energy experiment
• Week 8, Day C: Forces and potentials, escape velocity

• Week 9, Day A: Impulse and momentum
• Tue, Feb 9: Test 3: 6-7 PM, room TBA Equation sheet for Test 3
• Week 9, Day B: Momentum and collisions
• Week 9, Day C: Center of mass, planets around other stars

• Week 10, Day A: The Ballistic Pendulum (part I)
• Week 10, Day B: The Ballistic Pendulum (part II), and rockets
• Week 10, Day C: Review: Physics at the Winter Olympics

• Wed, Feb 24: Final exam: 2:45 - 4:45, room 08-2300 Equation sheet for Final

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 RIT E-mail address, something like abc1234. Your initial password should be the final 4-digits of your student RIT ID number, so if your ID number is 12345-6789, the initial password would be 6789. Include all zeroes: if your ID number is 12345-0081, then your initial password will be 0081. You can change your password from the default after you log in for the first time.

• Homework 0: Introduction to WebWork due Thursday, Dec 3, at 2 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: Practice with a graph due Thursday, Dec 3, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 1
• Homework 2: Kinematics and uncertainties due Monday, Dec 7, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 2
• Homework 3: 1-D kinematic problems due Wednesday, Dec 9, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 3
• Homework 4: Vectors due Thursday, Dec 10, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 4
• Homework 5: Vectors and 2-D Kinematics due Monday, Dec 14, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 5
• Homework 6: Projectile motion due Wednesday, Dec 16, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 6
• Homework 7: A tough projectile motion problem due Friday, Dec 18, at 2 PM. (extended due to an error in the answer)
  Answers to homework 7
• Homework 8: A horizontal Atwood's machine due Wednesday, Jan 6, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 8
• Homework 9: Newton's Third Law due Thursday, Jan 7, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 9
• Homework 10: Forces with friction due Monday, Jan 11, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 10
• Homework 11: More friction problems due Wednesday, Jan 13, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 11
• Homework 12: This should look familiar due Thursday, Jan 14, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 12
• Homework 13: Centripetal forces due Monday, Jan 18, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 13
• Homework 14: Variable forces due Thursday, Jan 21, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 14
• Homework 15: Variable forces due Monday, Jan 25, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 15
• Homework 16: Work and the dot product due Wednesday, Jan 27, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 16
• Homework 17: More work due Thursday, Jan 28, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 17
• Homework 18: Work, work, work due Monday, Feb 01, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 18
• Homework 19: Conservation of energy due Wednesday, Feb 3, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 19
• Homework 20: Bungee jumping off a bridge due Thursday, Feb 4, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 20
• Homework 21: Using conservation of energy and potential energy due Tuesday, Feb 9, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 21
• Homework 22: Momentum, impulse, and simple collisions due Thursday, Feb 11, at 2 PM.
  Answers to homework 22
• Homework 23: Center of mass and complicated collisions due Thursday, Feb 17, at 2 PM.
  Note that you need to do only 4 of the problems on this set to receive a score of 100%. The last problem is a BONUS problem; consider the library as a resource for it.
  Answers to homework 23
• Homework 24: Practice problems due Tuesday, Feb 23, at 2 PM.
  These problems do not count towards your homework score. They do provide good practice for the final exam.
  Answers to homework 24

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

1. Human Reaction Times. Due Dec 11 at 4 PM.
2. Indoor Exercise. Due Dec 18 at 4 PM.
3. The Paris Gun. Due Dec 18 at 4 PM.
4. Measure the Earth's Radius. Due Jan 8 at 4 PM.
5. Coefficient of Static Friction. Due Jan 22 at 4 PM.
6. Bouncing balls. Due Feb 5 at 4 PM.
7. A Solar Sail. Due Feb 19 at 4 PM.
8. The Office Chair Radar Gun. Due Feb 19 at 4 PM.

For more information

• Looking for equation sheets you may use during the tests? Here they are in PDF format.
  • Equation sheet for Test 1
  • Equation sheet for Test 2
  • Equation sheet for Test 3 and Final Exam
• Both Professor Lindberg and I have tried to explain the rules for dealing with uncertainties in measurements.
  • Professor Lindberg's guide to uncertainties (PDF)
  • My tutorial on uncertainties
  • Ultra-condensed description of propagation of errors
• Britney Spears explains semiconductor physics
• 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 The Nine Planets.
• Information about the Earth's oceans can be found at the Argo Project's web page.
• The Physics Video Library has many movies of objects in motion, and suggestions for analyzing the films.

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Dec 4, 2009.

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