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Land Acknowledgement
We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
What's this course about?
This is an introductory physics course. It's meant for anyone who is considering doing a specialist, major, or minor in physics. The primary goals are: to make sure you can start second year physics courses with a solid foundation; and to help you integrate mathematics (especially calculus) into physics.
The topics we cover are classical mechanics (energy, momentum, rotation) and special relativity.Â
What do you need to succeed?
Comfort with mathematics. A willingness to try new and hard things. The ability to commit 8-9 hours per week to learning in this course. High school experience with most of the topics. We will slow down for rotations and special relativity, but the assumption is that the other concepts are already familiar to you and that the mathematical descriptions of the concepts are what's new.
The textbook is "Physics For Scientists and Engineers" (5th edition) by Randall D. Knight. The same textbook is used for PHY152. Please buy the electronic textbook from the bookstore! Buying it elsewhere makes it impossible to setup through Quercus.
A smart phone or laptop for classes will help you. A scientific calculator without graphing/calculus features will be useful for the tests and exam.
Who Belongs Here?
Everyone. I'm not a gatekeeper, and you shouldn't be either. The more people who understand science in general and physics in particular, the more scientifically literate society will be, and the sooner we'll be able to tackle some of today's serious problems such as, but not limited to, climate change.
Since this is my course, I need you to be welcoming of everyone. Please do not dismiss anyone else's contributions to the course, and do not make anyone feel unwelcome here. Thank you!
Oh, and please call me out if you see me making anyone uncomfortable! Systemic racism/sexism/ableism/etc is hard to deconstruct, and I'm doing my best, but pobody's nerfect!
Where are classes, practicals, etc?
Classes are in ES1050. It is circled in yellow in the map. ES = Earth Sciences Centre. 1050 is the big lecture room (fits 400 people!) in the round tower part of the building. It's on the ground floor, not the 10th floor.
Practicals are in MP. MP = McLennan Physics. They are in the north wing of the building, on the ground floor.
The offices of Ms. April Seeley, Prof. Jason Harlow and Prof. Brian Wilson are very close to the practical rooms. We are in MP129.
My advice on how you can do well in this course
Watch the pre-class videos, or read the relevant chapter from the textbook, before class.
Come to class. Participate. Take notes. Review your notes before the next class. Highlight anything you need to study for the test. Review the class video if you need to fill in gaps in your notes.
Start the written homework assignments before the practicals. Do not try to finish them.
Go to the practicals. Work on the written homework with your group. Try to finish it.
Finish and submit your homework. The Mastering Physics homework has a hard (but short) version and an easy (but longer) version. Start with the hard one. If you do well, skip the easy one.
Do the reflection on each chapter. Keep notes of your reflections about what you have successfully learned and what you still need to work on.
Come to office hours to learn anything you've highlighted as being difficult. Or ask questions on Piazza.
When you go to study for the test, only study the topics which gave you troubles (and which you've kept notes about). Do not waste your time reviewing the material that you found easy. Try not to study for more than 1-2 hours oer day (per subject). Go to bed early the night before the test! I promise you that more sleep is better than an extra few hours of cramming physics content.
Try to stay calm during the test. Before the test you should drink enough water, have a small lunch, and avoid (or moderate) caffeine or other substances.
After the test, talk to others about the test. Then go home and write your mulligan that evening. There are still some marks available for you!
Note that sleep is a major part of learning. You want to break your learning up over many days so that the sleep will help you consolidate your learning better and build a stronger foundation for the next topic. Try your best not to procrastinate and cram all your learning into 1 or 2 days. It doesn't work well in physics.
Use of Generative AI
You may not use AI on the tests and exam.
You may use it for anything else if you find it helps you learn. I suspect it's more effort than it's worth right now, especially since the homework is designed to prepare you for the tests and exam. If you cannot use AI on the tests and exam, then using it for homework risks making the tests and exam harder for you.
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