Phys 4C Light and Modern Physics

Phys 4C Light and Modern Physics - 2004 Fall

Course syllabus: please read carefully.

Instructor: Dr. Ringwald
E-mail: ringwald[at]csufresno.edu and replace [at] with @

Phone: 278-8426

Also: 278-2371

Office hours (between August 23 and December 10):
MWF 1-2, TTh 3:30-4:30 and at other times too, but please make an appointment first.

Office: McLane Hall, Room 11, in the new Building J (or "J-wing").
This is across the outdoor "hall" from McLane 149, 151, and 161 (near the Women's Room).

You don't need an appointment to come to office hours. This is time set aside for you, when I'll be in.

Please feel free to contact me, if you have any problems whatsoever in this course, or if you're doing well and just want to talk. It's in my interest, and I care, that you do well!

Course Description (from the CSUFresno 2004-2005 General Catalog): (3 credits). Prerequisites: Phys 4B, Math 77. Maxwell's equations, geometrical optics; electromagnetic radiation; physical optics; introduction to special relativity; quantum physics; and the physics of atoms, nuclei, and the solid state.

Lecture meeting times and location: Schedule 76217 (Section 01), TTH 2-3:15 p.m., McLane 162.

Required Course Text: Physics for Scientists & Engineers, Volume 2, ***6th Ed., by Serway & Beichner.

Course web page: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/phys4c.html .

The Homework Assignments are available on the course web page, at: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/hw4c.html.
Solutions to the homework assignments will be posted to the course web page the day after they are due.

Exam Practice Questions are available on the text's web site, at: http://www.harcourtcollege.com/physics/pse.

Course grades will be awarded for the following final percentages:
85.0-100% = A; 70.0-84.9% = B; 55.0-69.9% = C; 40.0-54.9% = D; 0-39.9% = F.

These percentages will be computed from the following:

Thursday, May 16

A favorite pastime is to try and determine a ``running'' grade (i.e. trying to figure out a grade based on a single exam or some subset thereof). Given the fact that there are many contributors to the final grade this isn't very useful. The above grading scale will not be moved; how you do doesn't depend on how anyone else in the class does. If there is a dispute in the grading of the exams, the final exam or for the final grade then you can present your case to me one time during my office hours, after class or at some other time that we can arrange. If after this you still feel that your exam, final exam or overall grade deserves another look you can write down your reasons for me to reconsider my grading. This written request must be typed and must be a minimum of 1/2 page single space for exam or final exam questions, and a minimum of 1 page single spaced for the overall grade. I expect that most of these rules will never be used, since the single face to face meeting is usually enough to figure out whether the grade should be changed or not.

Mid-Term Exams and the Final Exam: There will be two Mid-Term Exams which will be given on the dates in the course outline below. The Mid-Term Exams will consist of some concept questions as well as some problems that must be worked out in detail. The Final Exam will follow the format of the Mid-Term Exams, although it will be longer. Example Mid-Term Exams and Final Exams will appear on this web site before the exams.

Make-Up Mid-Term Exams or Final Exam: I'm sorry, but I cannot give make-ups for Mid-Term Exams, nor can I give Mid-Term Exams or Final Exams in advance. I have too many students for it to be humanly possible for me (because I cannot be in two places at once). Also, I can never be sure that a makeup or advance exam was really fair, since it must be different from the regular exam. If you must miss a Mid-Term Exam for a compelling reason (e.g., job interview or illness documented by a physician's note), the part of the course grade that mid-term exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%. If you must miss the final exam for a very compelling reason (e.g., illness documented by a physician's note), you will receive a grade of I (incomplete) for Phys 4C for the semester. It will then be your responsibility to contact the university administration in a timely fashion, and make the necessary arrangements to remove the I grade. See the California State University, Fresno General Catalog for regulations concerning the I grade. Only students who can document very compelling reasons to miss final exams (e.g. with a physician's note) will be eligible for incompletes: other students missing the final exam will get a 0% on the final exam.

How to do well in this course: Physics is different from most subjects you may have taken. Unless you're exceptionally gifted it's very hard to learn physics by ``cramming''. Here are some tips and advice that should help you with the course.

Please do the homework problems on 8.5 X 11 inch paper, folded vertically, with your name , Physics 4C, the date, and the assignment number on the upper half of the outside.

2. Read the material in the text before you come to lecture. It's much harder to understand a lecture if you don't know at least a rough outline of what the lecture is going to be about. Also if you find something obscure in the reading then you'll be able to ask about it when I get to it in lecture. The readings are indicated in the course outline. In general we will skip the starred sections, unless I say otherwise.

3. Attend the lectures. I'll try to supplement the reading in the book through a different presentations, by working examples, and doing demonstrations. By attending the lectures you'll also get an idea of what I consider to be important, and from a practical point of view this will be useful to you on exams. Finally, you are responsible for everything in lecture even if you don't attend. If I decide to move a exam date (not very likely) and announce this during a lecture that you missed you are still responsible for this.

4. Plan to spend a minimum of 15 hours a week outside of class on this course. This course requires significantly more time in order to understand the material than some other courses.

5. As soon as something is unclear please ask me to clarify it, either during class, or in person during my office hours, or by e-mail or phone. You can also get help from the graduate TAs. They staff McLane 124 about 20 hours per week. The schedule for the TA hours is posted outside the door of McLane 124.

TENTATIVE Course Schedule (updated 2004 August 14). Always do the readings before class:

Week	Tu	Th	Read by Tuesday of next week
1	8/24: Introduction; E/M waves (Chapter 34)	8/26: E/M waves (Chapter 34)	Chapters 34, 35, and 36
2	8/31: Geometric optics, mirrors and lenses (Chapters 35 and 36)	9/02: Geometric optics, mirrors and lenses HW 1 due (on Chapter 34)	Chapters 35 and 36
3	9/07: Geometric optics, mirrors and lenses (Chapters 35 and 36)	9/09: Geometric optics, mirrors and lenses HW 2 due (on Chapter 35)	Chapter 37
4	9/14: Interference of light waves (Chapter 37)	9/16: Interference of light waves HW 3 due (on Chapter 36)	Chapter 38
5	9/21: Diffraction and polarization (Chapter 38)	9/23: Diffraction and polarization HW 4 due (on Chapter 37)	Review Chapters 34-37
6	9/28: Review for Mid-term Exam 1	9/30: Mid-Term Exam 1 (on Chapters 34-37)	Chapter 39
7	10/05: Relativity (Chapter 39)	10/07: Relativity HW 5 due (on Chapter 38)	Chapters 39 and 40
8	10/12: Relativity (Chapter 39); Quantum physics (Chapter 40)	10/14: Quantum physics (Chapter 40) HW 6 due (on Chapter 39)	Chapter 40
9	10/19: Quantum physics (Chapter 40)	10/21: Quantum physics	Chapter 41
10	10/26: Quantum mechanics (Chapter 41)	10/28: Quantum mechanics (Chapter 41); HW 7 due (on Chapter 40)	Chapter 42
11	11/02: Atomic physics (Chapter 42)	11/04: Atomics physics; HW 8 due (on Chapter 41)	Chapters 42 and 43
12	11/09: Atomics physics (Chapter 42)	11/11: Molecules (Chapter 43) HW 9 due (on Chapter 42)	Chapter 43
13	11/16: Solids, superconductivity (Chapter 43)	11/18: Solids, superconductivity	Review Chapters 37-41
14	11/23: Mid-Term Exam 2 (on Chapters 37-41)	11/25: Holiday	Chapter 43
15	11/30: Nuclear structure (Chapter 44)	12/02: Nuclear fission and fusion (Chapter 45) HW 10 due (on Chapters 43 and 44)	Chapter 46
16	12/07: Particle physics (Chapter 46)	-	Re-read Chapters 34-44

Please note:

Class Attendance:
All students are required to attend all class sessions. All students are also expected to arrive for class on time, and to attend to the end of all class sessions. Doing otherwise is disruptive, in large classes like this. Please check your schedule and work out problems at the beginning of the semester. If you must miss a class for a compelling reason (e.g. job interview or illness documented by a physician's note), it is your responsibility to get the notes from another student. It is also your responsibility to check on announcements made while you were absent. To do this, check the notes taken by another student: I may or may not remember everything offhand.

Don't miss class. Listening to lectures and participating in discussions are much more effective than reading someone else's class notes. Active participation is even better: it will help you retain what you are learning.

Always do the reading assignments before class. Class time is valuable: it is much better spent in informed, active discussion among us all than in just me talking. It always amazes me: the students who get "A"s are almost always the ones who keep up with the reading. The ones who don't, almost always are the ones who don't.

Don't be shy about asking questions in class, or during office hours. Remember that the only "dumb" question is the one you didn't ask, that fouled you up later because you didn't ask it. This is especially so in this class: there are some mighty strange things out there in the Universe.

Note taking: Everything I write during class, on the chalkboard or on overhead transparencies, is of primary importance for exams. Copy it into your own notes, which you may put between pages in the loose-leaf folder the Class Notes are in. Students who get grades of "A" often re-copy and re-organize their notes, after class. This makes learning active, and more thorough.

All students are required to turn off all beepers, pagers, and portable phones while classes are in session.

I often use e-mail to communicate with students, and please feel free to send e-mail to me. However, all assignments must be handed in as paper copies during class, including homework, lab assignments, paper titles and summaries, and papers.

NO late assignments can be accepted. Sorry, but it's just not possible, for classes this size. Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period specified by the due date, and will not be accepted at any time after the end of class.

All students are required to keep all course materials for the duration of the course. Retain all copies of all work you have done in all your classes, ever. Hang on to your textbooks, too: even the real stinkers can serve as bad examples.

If a student wishes to withdraw from Phys 4C, the Dean of the College of Science and Math may require written substantiation of the serious and compelling reasons for a withdrawal.

Students with Disabilities: The Department of Physics cooperates with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with physical, perceptual, or learning disabilities (cf. Americans with Disabilities Act and Section of 504, Rehabilitation Act). Students with disabilities must present their written accommodation request to Dr. Ringwald within the first two weeks of class.

Conduct, Cheating, and Plagiarism : Please refer to the Policies and Regulations section of the University Catalog for the University policies governing conduct, cheating, and plagiarism.

If for any reason a student leaves the classroom while an exam is being given, the student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam. This includes trips to the bathroom, so plan ahead.

All students are required to remove hats and sunglasses during all exams, because they have in the past been used to aid cheating. Calculators may be used for the exams. Students may not use calculators, pagers, cell phones, or any other devices that can communicate outside the classroom during exams. This constitutes cheating, and any students caught cheating, in this or any other way, will receive an F in the entire course.

Always show all work in all course assignments, especially in homework involving mathematical calculations, including the units. Not showing all work, and the correct units, will be cause for points to be taken off.

Dr. Ringwald will be photographing this class several times, to get to know the class, and during exams, to prevent various forms of cheating.

There will be opportunities for Extra credit, which Dr. Ringwald will announce throughout the semester. As with a university education in general, extra credit is a privilege, not an entitlement. Dr. Ringwald therefore reserves the right to abrogate any or all extra credit, without warning and for any reason, including disruptive classroom behavior, arriving late or leaving early during class or at extra credit activities, carrying out the extra credit assignments incorrectly or getting incorrect answers, turning in a class paper at the beginning of class and then walking out, asking Dr. Ringwald to excuse deadlines because of family emergencies and then refusing to provide documentation, etc. Extra credit points will be worth the same amount as percentages on the Mid-Term Exams. All extra credit will accrue to the higher of the two Mid-Term Exams, since the lower Mid-Term Exam will not be counted. If the higher Mid-Term Exam and the extra credit exceed 100%, the extra credit will not be forgotten: it will be applied to the grade in general, by an amount equal to percentages on the Mid-Term Exams.

This syllabus and schedule are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check on announcements made while you were absent. Your being registered in, and not dropping, this Phys 4C lecture section for which Dr. Ringwald is the instructor means that you accept all the above terms on this syllabus.

Go to Dr. Ringwald's home page

Last updated 2004 August 14. Web page by Dr. Ringwald (ringwald[at]csufresno.edu and replace [at] with @)
Department of Physics, California State University, Fresno