Physics 2305 FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS

Spring 2011 Instructor Almas Khan, 308 Robeson Hall; e-mail: almas@vt.edu; phone 231-2455

General Information

This course has three components: lecture, recitation, and laboratory. YOU MUST BE REGISTERED FOR BOTH

A LECTURE/RECITATION SECTION AND A LABORATORY SECTION (two CRNs).

Office Hours Mondays 10:30am – 11:30am Wednesdays 11:30am – 12:30pm, Fridays 12:30pm – 1:30pm, exceptions

announced, and by appointment. Anytime I am in my office and I have time, you are more than welcome to talk to

me. I strongly believe in one on one discussions and help. If you need to meet me outside the office hours, you can

talk to me after class or email me for an appointment.

Textbook University Physics, 11

th or 12

th Edition, by Young and Freedman together with Mastering Physics. A new book

comes with a Mastering Physics Students Access Code. If you purchased a used book, you should get a Student

Access Code from www.masteringphysics.com .

Lecture

Lectures are given mainly to supplement your study of the textbook. You are responsible for all the material on the

schedule, whether or not it is discussed in class. Thus, if class periods are to be beneficial, it is imperative that you

read the textbook material on each topic prior to the discussion of that topic in class. You are responsible for being

aware of any announcements made in class (such as changes to the schedule and/or syllabus) even if you did not

attend.

Recitations

There is one recitation period each week, and it is supervised by a GTA. These are mostly problem solving sessions where questions about homework and additional examples and

problems will be discussed. Occasionally, new material will also be discussed.

Homework

Will be assigned through MasteringPhysics (Course ID: MPKHAN54844 ). You will be asked for your VT

student ID number. Enter this number without a space or hyphen between the first four and last five digits! The

importance of your doing homework can hardly be overstated. Students are strongly encouraged to discuss

problems and questions among themselves, but they are not to share solutions. What you submit must be your own

work. You may use an idea gained from a discussion, but may not copy the written details. Evidence of copying

could result in your appearance before the honor court!

Tests There are three tests and one final exam in this course. Each test is two-hour long and is scheduled on a Friday

afternoon. The dates and times for tests/exam are listed in the syllabus. All tests/exam are closed book, closed

notes, and Virginia Tech's Honor Code applies to all tests and the exam. Make-up tests are scheduled on the

Mondays following the regular tests at 7 AM, and given only for valid reasons or under unusual circumstances

brought to the instructor’s attention before the regular tests.

The final exam will NOT be cumulative. You will be permitted to bring one 8x11 double-sided “cheat sheet” and a

calculator to each test

Grading Homework ---20%, Labs---15%, Tests---45% and Final Exam---20%.

Final Grades:

Final letter grades will be assigned according to the following:

A 93% and above

A- 90% - 92%

B+ 87% - 89%

B 83% - 86%

B- 80% - 82%

C+ 77% - 79%

C 73% - 76%

C- 70% - 72%

D+ 67% - 69%

D 63% - 66%

D- 60% - 62%

F below 60%

Honor System The Virginia Tech Honor code applies to all graded work in this course. Students are responsible for understanding

and adhering to the Honor Code. Among other things, the Honor Code prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized

aid, assistance, or unfair advantage on academic work, including plagiarism. Prior to each test or quiz and the final

examination, the instructor will identify what aids and sources of information may be used. Copying a solution

from any source is prohibited. The assignment that a student hands in must be the product of student's own

understanding of the material.

Students with special needs Any student who feels a need for an accommodation because of a disability (learning disability, attention deficit

disorder, psychological, physical, etc.) please make an appointment to see me during office hours.

Laboratory The laboratory periods are designed to apply the theoretical concepts presented in the lectures to actual

situations. This time allows you to develop good observation, data-taking, and data-interpretation skills. This

component of the course is very important, and the consequences of not completing all of the experiments are

severe. YOUR FINAL COURSE GRADE WILL BE DROPPED BY ONE-THIRD OF A LETTER GRADE FOR

EVERY 2 LABS NOT SATISFACTORILY COMPLETED. For example: if two labs are missing a B+ would

become a B; if four labs are missing a B+ would become a B-. Complete information about the laboratory

procedures and policies, laboratory schedules, and TA office hours and contact information can be found at the

laboratory website (http://www.phys.vt.edu/~labs/).

Ph2305 Lab Information:

Questions regarding the Lab should be directed to Mark Pitt, not to me.

This is his e-mail Mark Pitt, Laboratory Coordinator 309 Robeson, 231-3015, pitt@vt.edu

PHYSICS 2305: FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS I

Spring 2011

Text: University Physics by Young & Freedman

Week

Start

Date

Topics

Laboratory

Exercise 1

1/18

Orientation, Units, Estimates, Vectors, 1-D

Motion,

2-D Motion, 3-D Motion

2 1/24 Force and Newton’s Laws of Motion,

Applications of Newton’s Laws, Frictional

Forces

3 1/31 Circular Motion, Work, Work & Energy,

Variable Force

Lab 1: Introduction to

Motion

4 2/7 Power; Gravitational & Elastic Potential

Energy,

Conservative & Nonconservative Forces

Optional Review (50 min.)

Test 1 at 5:30 PM on 2/11

Lab 2: Changing Motion

5 2/14

Force and Potential Energy, Energy

Diagrams,

Momentum &Impulse, Conservation of

Momentum

Lab 3: Force and Motion

6 2/21 Elastic and Inelastic Collisions,

Center of Mass, Rotational Kinematics

Lab 4: Projectile Motion

7 2/28 Rotational Energy, Parallel-Axis Theorem,

Torque

Angular Acceleration, Rotation about

Moving Axis

Lab 5: Force, Mass, and

Acceleration

Spring Break

8 3/14 Conservation of Angular Momentum

Optional Review (50 min.)

Test 2 at 5:30 PM on 3/18

Lab 6: Passive Forces and

Newton’s Laws

9 3/21 Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies, Newton’s

Law of Gravitation, Weight, Gravitational

Potential Energy, Satellites

Lab 7: Collisions and

Momentum Conservation

10 3/28 Planetary Motion, Oscillations, Simple

Harmonic Motion, Energy in and

Applications of Simple Harmonic Motion,

Damped Oscillatory Motion

Lab 8: Conservation of

Energy

11 4/4 Forced Oscillatory Motion, Fluids at Rest,

Fluid Flow, Bernoulli’s Equation,

Temperature, Thermometers

Lab 9: Rotational Motion

12 4/11 Thermal Expansion, Heat, Calorimetry,

Heat Transfer,

Molecular Properties of Matter

Optional Review (50 min.)

Test 3 at 5:30 PM on 4/15

Lab 10: Torsion Pendulum

13 4/18 Kinetic Theory, Heat Capacities,

Molecular Speeds

Phases of Matter, Thermodynamic

Systems, First Law of Thermodynamics

Lab 11: The Ideal Gas Law

and Heat Engines

14 4/25 Kinds of Thermodynamic Processes,

Properties of Ideal Gas, Directions of

Thermodynamic Processes, Heat Engines,

Refrigerators

Lab makeup week

15 5/2 2nd

Law of Thermodynamics Carnot Cycle,

Entropy

Final Exam: Friday, May 6, 4:25 AM to 6:25 PM Rev. 1/6/2011