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PHYSICS 1370
Quantum Mechanics I
TERM 13-1 (Fall 2013)
TERM 13-1 (Fall 2013)
Lecturer: Dr. Chandralekha Singh
Office: 221 A Allen Hall
Office hours: Wednesday and Friday, 12-1 pm or stop by when my door is open
Phone: 624-9045
E-mail: BEST WAY TO CONTACT ME clsingh@pitt.edu
Lectures: MWF 11-11.50 am (210 Thaw Hall)
Text: D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Second Edition
Grader: to be announced (grader's office: 441 Allen Hall)
grader's E-Mail: rer50@pitt.edu rer50@pitt.edu
Course Description
Course Description
The major goal of this quantum physics course is to enable you to develop logical reasoning skills, to explain or predict diverse phenomena in everyday experience, and to become good problem solvers and independent learners. I encourage you to participate fully in class discussions. Physics knowledge is hierarchical: new concepts rely heavily on solid understanding of prior material. I strongly encourage you to ask questions to clarify your doubts. Remember that all questions are good questions, and there is a good chance that if you are having trouble understanding a concept, others are also struggling with the same concept. "Plug-and-chug" approaches to physics are neither useful for developing problem solving, reasoning and higher order thinking skills that I hope you will develop nor likely to produce satisfactory results on examinations. I also want you to remember that struggling is a very natural part of learning. Do not get discouraged. The lecture material will not necessarily follow the text and therefore students must come to the class regularly. Many of the homework assignments will be drawn from the text but there will also be assignments from outside the textbook.It is a good idea for you to purchase the text or have regular access to it. Since there may also be assignments from outside the book on relevant material it is important for you to come to the class and keep up with the material. The first semester of the course will cover Chapters 1-4.
The major goal of this quantum physics course is to enable you to develop logical reasoning skills, to explain or predict diverse phenomena in everyday experience, and to become good problem solvers and independent learners. I encourage you to participate fully in class discussions. Physics knowledge is hierarchical: new concepts rely heavily on solid understanding of prior material. I strongly encourage you to ask questions to clarify your doubts. Remember that all questions are good questions, and there is a good chance that if you are having trouble understanding a concept, others are also struggling with the same concept. "Plug-and-chug" approaches to physics are neither useful for developing problem solving, reasoning and higher order thinking skills that I hope you will develop nor likely to produce satisfactory results on examinations. I also want you to remember that struggling is a very natural part of learning. Do not get discouraged. The lecture material will not necessarily follow the text and therefore students must come to the class regularly. Many of the homework assignments will be drawn from the text but there will also be assignments from outside the textbook.It is a good idea for you to purchase the text or have regular access to it. Since there may also be assignments from outside the book on relevant material it is important for you to come to the class and keep up with the material. The first semester of the course will cover Chapters 1-4.
Courseweb
Courseweb
Useful information including assignments for this course are available at the courseweb site for this course. You can access this site by going to http://courseweb.pitt.edu and typing your university username and password. This site can also be used for discussion forums related to this course in which your fellow classmates and instructor can participate.
Homework
Homework
Confucius has summarized the learning process well: ``I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand". Homework is an integral part of learning the material of this course. Homework will be assigned each week on Wednesday and collected next week on Wednesday. You are strongly encouraged to discuss the homework problems with each other after you have tried them to the best of your ability because you can learn a lot from each other (but please do not copy others homework). The solutions for the homework will be posted on courseweb the following week. You will also do reflective homework each week that will be turned in on the courseweb by 10 am on Wednesday each week. The reflective homework should be turned in on the courseweb through the assignment link for that particular reflective homework which can be found by clicking on the course Document. You can prepare the answers to your reflective homework questions in any format but the uploading (use attach file option and click on Browse my computer) on the courseweb should be in text format, pdf format or word format. Please note that you must click on the submit button to send the document. Please remember to use the submit button each time you send the reflective homework to your TA.
Confucius has summarized the learning process well: ``I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand". Homework is an integral part of learning the material of this course. Homework will be assigned each week on Wednesday and collected next week on Wednesday. You are strongly encouraged to discuss the homework problems with each other after you have tried them to the best of your ability because you can learn a lot from each other (but please do not copy others homework). The solutions for the homework will be posted on courseweb the following week. You will also do reflective homework each week that will be turned in on the courseweb by 10 am on Wednesday each week. The reflective homework should be turned in on the courseweb through the assignment link for that particular reflective homework which can be found by clicking on the course Document. You can prepare the answers to your reflective homework questions in any format but the uploading (use attach file option and click on Browse my computer) on the courseweb should be in text format, pdf format or word format. Please note that you must click on the submit button to send the document. Please remember to use the submit button each time you send the reflective homework to your TA.
Grading Scheme and Other Details
Grading Scheme and Other Details
There will be two mid-term exams and one comprehensive final exam. The final exam date is set by the university and can be found by contacting the registrar's office. Midterms will be during the regular lecture hour. The first midterm is on October 11 and the second midterms will be announced later. There will be an optional discussion class each week when general concepts and homework will be discussed. You have to turn in your schedule to me within the first week so that I can set the dates for the weekly discussions and midterms when everyone is available (this time has now been determined to be Monday from 9-10 am in 102 Thaw Hall). Very frequently, you will be working during the class on tutorials with a classmate. Each tutorial will be preceded by a pre-test and the pre-test and tutorial will generally take the whole class period. You should complete the tutorial at home if you did not complete it during the class. The post-test for each tutorial will be given in the following class. Tutorials will reinforce the material covered in lecture but sometimes they will be used to introduce new material. A majority of the questions in the pre-test and post-test for the tutorials will be conceptual. There will occasionally be class quizzes which are not part of the tutorials. To ensure that you are understanding the underlying concepts covered during the lecture, I will integrate conceptual questions in the lectures. I will ask such questions several times during the lecture. You will be asked first to think about the question by yourself, and then discuss it with your neighbor. Then, I will poll the class to see how many of you obtained the correct answer. Each student will be assigned a personal response system transmitter (clicker). At the end of the class, please return the transmitter (clicker) to the correct bin number. It is important that you take the peer discussion seriously because research in physics education shows that you can learn a lot from your peers. Moreover, the kinds of questions asked in the class will help you understand that memorization of definitions is NOT the goal of the course and it is important that you pay attention to your knowledge structure and learn to interpret and draw inferences using various principles in diverse situations. If you actually make an effort to organize, repair and extend your knowledge, you will retain the material and be able to use it in the future after the course is over. The final grade will be determined by the traditional and reflective homework (25%), tutorial pre-tests (5%) tutorial post-tests and class quizzes (15%), mid-term exams (15% each), and final exam (25%). You can earn upto 5 bonus points towards the course grade based upon your responses to the clicker questions. For the clicker questions, you will get 80% for trying each question regardless of whether they are correct or not and 100% if you get it correct.
There will be two mid-term exams and one comprehensive final exam. The final exam date is set by the university and can be found by contacting the registrar's office. Midterms will be during the regular lecture hour. The first midterm is on October 11 and the second midterms will be announced later. There will be an optional discussion class each week when general concepts and homework will be discussed. You have to turn in your schedule to me within the first week so that I can set the dates for the weekly discussions and midterms when everyone is available (this time has now been determined to be Monday from 9-10 am in 102 Thaw Hall). Very frequently, you will be working during the class on tutorials with a classmate. Each tutorial will be preceded by a pre-test and the pre-test and tutorial will generally take the whole class period. You should complete the tutorial at home if you did not complete it during the class. The post-test for each tutorial will be given in the following class. Tutorials will reinforce the material covered in lecture but sometimes they will be used to introduce new material. A majority of the questions in the pre-test and post-test for the tutorials will be conceptual. There will occasionally be class quizzes which are not part of the tutorials. To ensure that you are understanding the underlying concepts covered during the lecture, I will integrate conceptual questions in the lectures. I will ask such questions several times during the lecture. You will be asked first to think about the question by yourself, and then discuss it with your neighbor. Then, I will poll the class to see how many of you obtained the correct answer. Each student will be assigned a personal response system transmitter (clicker). At the end of the class, please return the transmitter (clicker) to the correct bin number. It is important that you take the peer discussion seriously because research in physics education shows that you can learn a lot from your peers. Moreover, the kinds of questions asked in the class will help you understand that memorization of definitions is NOT the goal of the course and it is important that you pay attention to your knowledge structure and learn to interpret and draw inferences using various principles in diverse situations. If you actually make an effort to organize, repair and extend your knowledge, you will retain the material and be able to use it in the future after the course is over. The final grade will be determined by the traditional and reflective homework (25%), tutorial pre-tests (5%) tutorial post-tests and class quizzes (15%), mid-term exams (15% each), and final exam (25%). You can earn upto 5 bonus points towards the course grade based upon your responses to the clicker questions. For the clicker questions, you will get 80% for trying each question regardless of whether they are correct or not and 100% if you get it correct.
If you have any questions, please contact me at: clsingh@pitt.edu
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. Academic integrity is very important. Anybody found cheating in the course will obtain a failing grade in the course.
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