Phys 2231

Contact Information

COVID-19 Changes

Teaching will proceed online starting on Monday March 23 at regularly scheduled times. New material will be taught starting on Monday March 30. Review canvas announcement and posted material, also on canvas, to learn how to join online classes and how the syllabus will change.

Course Objectives

This class is dedicated to Newtonian Mechanics. This is an honors class. As such it will cover topics in more depth than Phys-2211. The course is designed for physics majors and very curious engineering/science students. This is the list of topics to be studied.

1. Vectors and kinematics
2. Newton's laws
3. Empirical and fundamental forces
4. Linear momentum
5. Work and Energy
6. Collisions
7. Fixed axis rotation. Angular momentum and torque.
8. Topics on mechanics: Simple harmonic oscillator. Normal modes. Mechanical stability. Orbital mechanics.

TextBook

An Introduction to Mechanics, 2nd ed. Kleppner and Kolenkow. Cambridge University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0521198110

Organization

Lectures: Howey S107. Mo 9:05 - 9:55 AM / Mo 3:00 - 3:50 PM CULC 323 / We: 9:05 - 9:55 AM.

Recitation: Howey S107. Tu 9:30 - 10:20 AM

Recitation and tests: Howey S107. Th: 9:30 - 10:20

Laboratory: Dr. Eric Murray will be in charge of the laboratory part of this class.

Grading

• Tests (3): 40% of the final grade.
  • Tests are ranked from best to worst and are assigned 1/2 (20%), 1/3 (13.33%) and 1/6 (6.67%) of the total test grade (40%).
• Homework: One per week except test week and reading week. 20% of the final grade. A maximum of 2 problems per HW will be graded. If more than 2 problems are assigned on a HW, the to-be-graded problems will be selected at random.
  • Homework due Thursdays 11:59 PM
• Final: 20% of the final grade
• Lab: 10% of the final grade. You must pass the laboratory (minimum D) to pass the class.
• Recitation: 5% of the final grade. In class activity style
• Participation: 5% of the final grade.

The tests last 50 minutes. Tests include all prior material up to the topic indicated in the schedule, with emphasis on non-tested material. The final lasts 2 hours and 50 minutes. The final is comprehensive, with slight emphasis on non-tested material. A formula sheet will be provided for tests and final (to be posted here). You are allowed a "dumb scientific" calculator on tests and the final. A dumb scientific calculator provides logarithms, powers, trigonometric functions, etc., but it does not have memory for formulas or graphing capabilities. No other devices are allowed.

Grading scale: A: 100 - 90 , B: 89-80 , C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: less than 60. For a pass/fail grade, a C or higher is considered passing. There are no curves applied on this course - unless the professor believes he has made a mistake on the level of a test/final.

HomeWork POLICY

Homework will be submitted electronically on canvas. PDF or pictures are acceptable. The HW grading system has been setup anonymously: you don't have to write your name on the HW. Homework are due Thursdays at 11:59 PM. Late HW are not allowed at all. If you have an institute recognized excuse (illness, family emergency, etc.) discuss this with the instructor to agree how to handle missed HW.

The HW solutions will be posted on canvas.

HW grades will be reported over 10 points each.

PArticipation Policy

A randomized list of students will be used to ask questions during class. A questions can have a grade of 100% (correct), 70% (incorrect) or 0% (absence). Three-Four questions per class are anticipated.

Recitation policy

Recitations will be led by the teaching assistant. The TA will present a problem(s) to be solved in 50 minutes and based on recent lecture activities. Recitation problems will be challenging and in some cases, no student may have time to finish the problem(s). In these cases, there's no grade penalty for not finishing the problem. Grading will be based on physics insight, quality of work and on providing a brief (one paragraph maximum) description of the strategy being used to solve the problem. Providing a guide to answering the problem has more weight than actually arriving at the right answer.

Recitation activities will be conducted on groups of 3 people exactly. If the number of students attending recitation is not divisible by 3, there will be a maximum of one group of 2 or one group of 4 people. A grade penalty of 3 points will be applied to all groups of 2 and >3 people, if there's more than one such group in a given recitation session. People arriving late to recitation will be assigned to the appropriate group by the TA/instructor.

Each recitation will be graded on a scale of zero through ten. The first five points will be for participation in recitation. The additional points are assigned with this criteria:

• 1 Poor -- needs major improvement
• 2 Fair -- minimally acceptable work, but needs significant improvement
• 3 Good -- generally good work, needing some improvement
• 4 Very Good -- good work, needing only minor improvement
• 5 Excellent -- well-organized and detailed work, showing all relevant ideas and calculations

Laboratory Policy

The lab will be lead by Dr. Eric Murray and the appropriate TA. Lab policies are set by Dr. Murray. A minimum grade of D is required. The laboratory website is: https://introphys.gatech.edu/lab/index.html