Physics 218

1. Lecture 1: Introduction Physics 218 Alexei Safonov

2. Today Lecture • Structure of the class • Organizational issues • Instructors, textbooks, meeting times • Course requirements and grading • Practical details • Exams • Homework and quizzes • Reading assignments • Recitations

3. Physics 218: Basics • Content: • Introduction to Classical Mechanics • Concepts, Problem Solving, and Labs • Requires high school level calculus • Structure: • Lecture (2 per week) – MPHY205 (here) • Recitation (1 per week)- MPHY 335 or 336 • Lab (1 per week) – MPHY 234 or 210

4. Instructors • Lectures (ENPH 202, TR 2:20pm): • Alexei Safonov (me) • Email: safonov@tamu.edu • Put PHYS-218 first in the Subject line!!! • MIST M319, 979-845-1479 • The “tower” portion of the Physics Building • Office hours: W 3:00-4:00 PM • Tentatively, may change later • Recitation and labs: • TA’s will provide contact info at your first meeting • First meeting already this week

5. Online Info • Main link: • http://people.physics.tamu.edu/safonov/218/ • Presumably has links to everything else

6. Syllabus • In elearning, also available on howdy

7. My web-page • Click on “Teaching” tab on the left • Not yet 100% up to date but getting there

8. Pre-Requisites • MATH 151 • It is a GOOD idea to take it before this class • If you do well in MATH 151, you will survive here too, but you are in somewhat disadvantaged position as many of your classmates took calculus in high school • Gauge yourself: • A lot of math in the first week (quizzes, reviews, checkpoints) – a great opportunity to assess your situation • If you can relatively easily get 80+% right, you ok • If not, consider coming back next semester

9. How It’s Meant to Work • You: go over pre-lectures, do quizzes as part of re-lectures and read material of the chapter BEFORE the lecture • You should have pretty good grasp of the material when you come here at conceptual level and have already done at least some problems • Me: in lecture I focus on fixing typical misunderstandings and misconceptions and help you learn how to think “right” • Still main focus (70%) on conceptual understanding, but about 30% practical examples (problems) demonstrating concepts • You: Do homework problems until you can do almost any problem in the book • Most of you will struggle in the beginning, but if you keep pushing you will start “getting it” and there is no other way really • Recitation Instructor: heavy focus on problems, more examples of right thinking, get help with remaining challenges

10. Materials • Get them right now or the bookstore may run out of them: • Buy and Register your clicker ASAP! • Register for Mastering Physics (MP) ASAP! • MP packet comes with new textbooks or loose-leaf book options, also available separately in the bookstore, also can pay online at www.masteringphysics.com • Register for SmartPhysics and (very soon) WebAssign • Note you can use their free trial offers (see syllabus) • Textbook (see syllabus)

11. Grading • Grading will be based on the following scales: • I will curve all scores AFTER the final, but will give you feedback along the way • If your final score is higher than average of exams 1-3, final will be re-weighted to have 275 max and exams 1-3 will be re-weighted to give 200 max

12. SmartPhysics • Pre-lectures that you work on before the lecture (for credit and required) • Pass check-points and send feedback

13. Mastering Physics • Online homework management system • Weekly assignments (for credit), somewhat elaborate grading system with (harsh!) penalties for late submission

14. Lectures • A follow up on the pre-lectures • Focus on specific problems, typical mistakes and feedback from your work on pre-lectures • I assume you already know all basics and more and focus on challenges, misconceptions etc. • Clicker quizzes • These are for credit, designed to check on your progress and facilitate your learning • Many “simpler” questions, but some will be pretty challenging • Still focus on concepts, but will use problems to illustrate the application of concepts • Focus on “illustrative” problems in lecture, will do very few “hard” problems (wrong timing and take too much precious time)

15. Recitations Quizzes • You have to do most of the work on your HW before the recitation • At recitations, you will have a chance to ask questions about the HW problems • Your instructors will walk you through 2-3 problems that attracted most questions • In the last ~10 minutes you will take a quiz for credit

16. Labs • Lab policies are uniform and set by the Department • WebAssign is the online system used by the lab portion of the course • Your TAs will inform you of the details • As a general rule, no labs are to be dropped and you need an officially recognized excuse to re-do a lab • A typical average score for the labs is usually high

17. What to Expect: PHYS-218 • Be prepared that this is one of very hard and time consuming classes • Need typically 10 hours of hard work a week besides classes • Inter-relation and intensity of the material makes it harder: • You miss one thing, but it will come and bite you several times as the same concepts repeat throughout the course • If you can’t afford that much time, take this class next semester

18. Independent Perspective • From koofers.com

19. How To Do Well in PHYS-218 • Maximize scores in all “service” categories • Labs, recitations, HW, clicker quizzes • Do your best on the exams • Exams are the “make it or break it” part of the course • Can still break it if you don’t do well in “service” categories • You won’t do well on exams unless you train yourself in solving HW problems • Do problems yourself: if someone explains you the solution and you “understood” it, that’s not good enough • If you are stuck, ask for help with a similar problem; if you had to get help with a HW problem, solve 5 more similar ones from the book yourself • Really helps to go beyond HW assignments and do more problems from the book • You will struggle withy many of the problems first, but that’s the only way, and you will notice that soon things will start coming to you easier

20. Tutoring • Not a bad idea, but be careful: • You do not want a tutor who is solving problems for you and trains you to solve “standard exam problems” • You want someone who will: • spend time finding your weak spots • help you understand concepts • teach you how to solve problems • check that you figured this material by letting you solve several problems on the same subject while watching your steps and logic

21. Communications • I am pretty busy generally. The way I keep up with all I do is by trying to be efficient and organized • Help me maximize my efficiency in this class • Please read my emails carefully, usually most questions are answered there • If I missed something, email me and I will add clarifications and send a new email to everyone • Be prompt for class, be prepared when you come to my office hours • Make sure “PHYS-218” is in the subject line, give me a day or two to respond to non-urgent emails • I usually set aside several time slots a week when I respond to the emails from students

22. Clicker • Model called “i>clicker 2” • The original i>clicker will be okay as well, but your other classes may require i>clicker2 • Get them now before the bookstore ran out of them! • There seem to be some options to get a discount when you purchase your text book (see my web-page) • Today use as a practice only, next time we will use it for real

23. Registering Your clicker • 1.Go to http://www.iclicker.com/support/registeryourclicker/ • 2.Enter your first and last names as they appear on your TAMU ID. • 3.For "Student ID" enter your TAMU UIN. • 4. For "Remote ID" enter the code that appears on the back of your i>clicker2 (also on the LCD screen upon powering on your i>clicker2)

24. Clickers Setup • Turn on your clicker (press the power button) • Set the frequency: • Press and hold the power button • Two letters will be flashing • If it’s not “BD”, press “B” and then “D” • If everything works, you should see “Welcome” and “Ready”

25. Clicker Question 1 Do you have your i>clicker with you today? • Yes • No • Maybe • I like pudding We use the “BD” frequency in this class

26. Clicker Question 2 Which of the following best describes your high-school physics class? • Great • Pretty good • So-so • Not so good • Awful We use the “BD” frequency in this class

27. Clicker Question 3 • Who do you think will be elected in 2016 as the next US President? • R. Bowen Loftin • Hillary Clinton • Karl Marx • Abraham Lincoln • Britney Spears We use the “BD” frequency in this class

28. Prepare for Wednesday • Read material of Chapter 1 ASAP • Do pre-lectures and check-points if you haven’t done so already • Provide feedback via SmartPhysics • Lecture quizzes • You will need your clicker up and running! • Don’t forget the recitation and lab meetings this week • For some of you it is tomorrow!