Updated HW solutions

UPDATE:
The solutions for HW8 and 9 are now completed and online, as are partial solutions for the final exam review questions. You can find everything here.
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I have updated the solutions to HW7, completed all but one solution to HW8, and finished about half of HW9.

I should have the rest of HW9 finished tomorrow, and I will also post the solutions to the final exam practice questions.

You will be well-prepared for the final exam, I promise. No surprises.

Material covered on the final

As you hopefully realize, the final exam is comprehensive. Below is a list of the chapters and sections that are included. Some specific sections of certain chapters will not be included on the final.

Ch. 23 - all
Ch. 24 - NOT 24.5
Ch. 25 - NOT 25.7,8
Ch. 26 - all
Ch. 27 - NOT 27.5,6
Ch. 28 - NOT 27.6
Ch. 29 - NOT 29.6
Ch. 30 - NOT 30.8,9
Ch. 31 - NOT 31.7
Ch. 32 - ONLY 32.1,2,4
Ch. 33 - NONE
Ch. 34 - NONE
Ch. 35 - ONLY 35.1-5,7,8
Ch. 36 - ONLY 36.1-4

One can logically group the chapters into sections, I think:

Ch. 23-26: electric fields, forces, & energy
Ch. 27-28: circuits
Ch. 29-32: magnetism & induction
Ch. 35,36: optics

Your final exam will have two parts. The first is multiple choice questions, worth in total half of the final exam grade. There will be about 20, they will be mostly conceptual in nature (like the 'quick quizzes'). The second is problem solving. In this case, you will have approximately four problems for each of the four sections above, and you will be required to solve two in each section. Thus, out of a total of 16 problems listed, you need to solve 8.

You will be given an extensive formula sheet and all requisite physical constants, etc., and are allowed to bring in two 8.5x11in sheets of paper with anything on them you like.

More details will follow as the final gets closer.

Final exam review

I have made up a list of problems that will be useful for you to review for the final exam, which you can find here. Some of the questions should be familiar, some should not, but they should all be ones that you can solve.

I will also post some example multiple choice questions soon. Other useful study aids are your homework sets, and the example problems and 'quick quizzes' in your textbook. Finally, some of my previous PH102 material will be helpful - there are a good number of solved problems included in the PH102 homework, exam, and quiz directories.

This problem set will not be graded, it is only for studying purposes. I will post solutions to all the problems over the break at some point as well.

Lab for today

Today we'll investigate converging and diverging lenses. It should be a reasonably short activity.

I'll also give some details about your last homework set in class today, it is not quite ready yet. It will be an exam review.

Moodle grades are up to date

I just updated the grades on Moodle ... they now include everything outstanding *except* homework 8. All labs, quizzes, etc. are otherwise included.

Remember that your papers counted for 2 homework sets, and please check through everything carefully to make sure the gradebook agrees with your own records (or recollections at least).

Tomorrow we'll move on to lenses, which I'll post more about later. If you were to skim through the relevant chapter in the book before tomorrow afternoon ... that would be great :-)

Also, I'll be posting your last homework set soon, which will be a small review for the final exam.

Today's lab

Today, we'll do a short experiment on total internal reflection.

I opted to do this shorter experiment instead of the longer lab on mirrors so we have some time to go over homework problems ...

Multi-touch screen videos from today

Here is a link where you can watch the multi-touch screen demo videos from this afternoon's lecture.

Lab for today

Here you go, we are starting optics!

Recitation today

I just wanted to post a quick note to say I'm sorry I unexpectedly wasn't at recitation today, since I had mentioned earlier in the week we'd cover a bit more on EM waves. Somehow, it slipped my mind that I had agreed to go to a local elementary school and work with some 5th graders ... but I knew you'd be in good hands with Neha.

For the record, it was fun, and they were a pretty sharp bunch. And, if it makes you feel any better, I was still teaching physics today, just in a different location.

Anyway: as penance, we will spend a good deal of time on Monday working out homework problems. So enjoy the game and the usual craziness associated with it, but don't forget to read Ch. 35 before Monday ...

Homework 9

Homework 9 is out. It is due next Friday, 21 Nov. 2008. This is the second-to-last homework set ...

Exam II solutions

Except for the last problem (which is an example problem in your textbook), I have preliminary solutions up for exam II, as well as the original exam.

Let me know if you see any errors or have questions. Good study material for the final ...

Moodle grades are up to date

UPDATE (Wed 12Nov08, 02:25): There were a few mistakes in the lab grades as posted, and I have made the requisite changes. I think everything is correct now, but please check your grades carefully to make sure everything seems OK.

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I have updated your grades on Moodle, which includes all work to date excepting the assessment results (giving you bonus quiz points) and the papers (giving you 2 new homework grades). Both of those should be up tomorrow.

One thing to note that is new: the individual quiz grades have now all been scaled upward to ensure an average of 75% on every quiz. That means basically you can add the following number of points to each quiz:

Quiz 1: 24
Quiz 2: 9.4
Quiz 3: 15
Quiz 4: 15.5
Quiz 5: 0
Quiz 6: 11.8
Quiz 7: 6.6
Quiz 8: 0

So, take your raw percentage score from each quiz, and add the requisite number of points listed above. Quizzes with "0" listed mean that the average was already more than 75% for that quiz. The quiz averages have tended to be fairly low so far, so I have scaled them all upward to compare more favorably to the other components of your grades (HW, Exams, etc), which all have class averages in the 70-80% range.

Anyway: check your grades carefully, to make sure I am not missing anything, and to find any errors. We have done our best to make sure everything is correct, but mistakes can happen.

Finally: this affects only a few of you, but the grading software will not deal with percentages over 100%. If you scored over 100% on the last exam due to bonus points, your exam score has been rounded to 100%, and your overall grade in Moodle will be slightly lower than what it actually is. I will give you detailed grade reports on Wednesday that will not suffer from this problem.

Exam II results ...

So, it was a bit mixed. Here is the distribution:

The exam average was 76%, with a standard deviation of 20%. About half of you received A's or B's on the exam, which is good. On the other hand, about half of you are well below the C mark, which means we have some work to do. I may end up scaling the exam a little bit, and will decide that soon.

We will go over the exam solutions in class today, and based on these results, review a few things I think we need to spend more time on.

The exam grades, along with up-to-date labs, quizzes, HW, etc, will be on Moodle some time later today. I will also have your papers back this week, but probably not until Wednesday ... at which time, I will give you each a summary of your overall grade to date, broken down by category.

Wheatstone.

Formula sheet

This is what I'll give you on the exam tomorrow.

Impending Exam

So the exam is made. You would do well to study the example problems in the chapters listed in the previous post ...

Also: Helmholtz Coil.

Friday's exam

The exam is basically going to cover chapters 28-31, but not quite every section. Specifically, the following sections are "fair game:"

• Ch. 28, Sect. 1-5
• Ch. 29, Sect. 1-4
• Ch. 30, Sect. 1-7
• Ch. 31, Sect. 1-7

More or less, these are also the sections I focused on more in the lecture periods. The exam will have a total of 6 or 7 questions, and you will have to pick 3 of them to solve. All problems will have equal weight, so you can really choose any three problems you like and solve those. There will be heavy partial credit, so even if you can't finish a chosen problem, get as far as you can and show as much work as possible. The more I think you knew what you were doing, the better you will do.

The problems will be similar to the homework problems, but easier - not as many steps, not quite so much math. Not so easy as the quiz questions though. You can bring in one formula sheet, front and back, with whatever you like on it, and I will also provide the basic formulas and numerical constants required.

My suggestion is to study the homework solutions and the example problems in the textbook. This one is going to test problem solving ability more than memorization, so the logical thing to do is solve as many practice problems as you can.

For example, you could look here for some good solved problems.

HW 7 partial solutions / Quiz answers

Solutions to homework 7 are out, excepting two problems. I will try to get the solutions finished tomorrow, but the problems missing solutions will not be on the exam.

Also, the answers to all quizzes are now online; you can find all quizzes and answers in this directory.

HW 6 solutions

Here you go.

Homework 7 solutions should follow some time tonight, along with quiz solutions.

Tomorrow's lab / HW5 solutions

Tomorrow, we'll do a lab on mutual inductance. Or, wireless power if we want to sell the thing a bit more.

Also, HW5 solutions are now out. HW6 and 7 solutions should follow later today, I will post here when they are ready. I will also post details about Friday's impending exam later today ... but a good start is to study the HW5 solutions.

Today's exercise

Today you will build a motor, with nothing more than a battery, some bits of wire, a deck screw, and a little magnet.

Homework 8 is out

This is delayed a couple of days, but so is the corresponding due date.

Homework 8, due 10 Nov. 2008.