PHYS-141-05 (MTWR at 3:00 PM) and PHYS-141-08 (MTWR at 4:00 PM)
Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics, Pete’s Webpage. See Pete’s other classes.
Email: pschwart@calpoly.edu, 756-1220, 180-608
Office hours: M(10:10 AM), T(2:10), W(noon), F(11), F(noon)
The Syllabus* explains the class policies including how your final grade is determined.
Teaching “flipped”, “parallel”, with an open-online text. Please see video explaining How we are learning physics if you are not a student in the class, or if you don’t need to get credit for seeing the video, you can see the youtube version of How we are learning physics. A recent publication lends support to several aspects of our learning method: Active learning better engages the brain; asking questions (like in our videos) is an effective way to learn; learning concepts in parallel allows us to space out and revisit the concepts over a longer period of time.
While I assign videos via a website that keeps track of your participation, you can also access my youtube videos directly from my youtube website, or just google the titles. However, in order to receive credit for watching them, you need to follow the links on this website.
Group project: see the first project description*, the Second Project Description*, and the Second Project Website* where you can post your project,
Problem Sets:
Exams:
More Practice:
http://www.aplusphysics.com/courses/honors/honors_physics.html
Want more practice problems? Try: F11 total quizzes with answers, or access any exams or problem sets from past classes
Try some problems in your textbook. Try some notes and questions from Professor Ron Brown: Introduction, 1. Forces, 2. Kinematics, 3. Newton’s Laws, 4. Work and Energy, 5. Momentum, 6. Rotational Motion,
Response to Friday Feedback: I will ask you for your thoughts on some Fridays, and provide a summary and my response here
| Week page | Topics |
| 1*
4 day |
Our Learning Model Intro to 4-Concepts: qualitative approach to looking at phenomena day 1: simple examples: momentum in one direction wtih one body stationary, Energy transformations with no formulas, Forces – what is a force and what happens when I put a force on something? Kinematics – constant velocity in the same direction learning to be careful with units. Introduce acceleration. if I start from rest and am moving at 5 m/s on my bike after 2 seconds, what is my acceleration? What is my speed after 5 seconds if I keep this up? Day two – add direction with momentum – two objects moving in opposite directions. when they hit, what happens? two examples: (1) they stop, (2) one has twice the mass and equal speed. Energy – introduce formulas kinetic energy and the unit of a Joule with explicit showing of the units – what happens to the kinetic energy if I double the mass? If I double the speed? Forces, what if I push on something in the opposite direction it is moving in? Look at the rock falling from a cliff through the four lenses. What’s happening? You can take this directly from the manuscript I gave you. Day 3. Introduce formulas for gravitational potential energy the acceleration of gravity, and do a calculation where you drop a rock from 10 meters and calculate its speed when it hits the ground. Also calculate the momentum. Day 4 – Forces and how they affect momentum (p/t) and energy (work)- see video if you need refresher. – probably we’re not ready for this yet: Rate of change. speed, acceleration, power |
| 2*
4 day |
Day 1: Analyzing problems from all lenses. Power. Day 2: Graphical analysis of one-dimensional motion. Work, Energy, Power in people. Day 3: Tracking motion? Day 4: Tracker activity? |
| 3* 4 day |
Day 1: one-dimensional version of dynamics protocol? Can we do this without introducing vectors? 0) Identify this problem is about forces –> Dynamics problem 1) I don’t know anything 2) Sum F=ma I think this can be done in one dimension without having to explain vectors to people. 3) Basic free body diagram 4) Is this in equilibrium? 5) Add the forces Day 2: Potential energy graphs, friction Day 3: Changing reference frames Day 4: Springs? |
| 4*
4 day |
Introduction to Rotation Day 1: 4 kinds of rotational questions and direction (chapter 4.1) Day 2: moment of inertia (point mass only?) and rotational energy (4.2) 1-D rotational kinetics, torque Day 3: Angular momentum (conserved) as a scalar kind of. Day 4: Torque and alpha (where alpha is only omega rate of change) |
| 5*
4 day |
Day 1 Statics Day 2 kinematics analogues graphs, and some word problems Day 3 Gravitation and the inverse square law Day 4 Introduction to Systems ??? Atwood machine. |
| 6* 4 day |
Chapter 5 Centripetal acceleration Satellite Equation Something is screwed up here because we think we might need angles to do centripetal acceleration, but please watch the video and see if we can derive this without angles explicitly.??? Escape Velocity Introduction to components |
| 7*
4 day |
Chapter 6 Day 1: 2-dimensions: components for force, torque, work Day 2: Components for momentum in x and y and but angular momentum components only deal with two objects spinning on the same axis in opposite directions. Parabolic trajectory Dynamics protocol for asking the question and Inclined plane versus fuzzy dice problem. conical pendulum and importance of asking the question. |
| 8*
4 day |
Chapter 7 Torque as rate of change of angular momentum including precession include a day lab… precession lab |
| 9*
4 day |
Wait on this because I can’t remember what it was that I thought we were going to do here. Components and systems Trigonometry revisit parbolic trajectory, and Torque and work, and everything Nasty equations of linear and rotation kinematics |
| 10* 3 day |
Ladder Problem here?? Final exam review |
| Exam week |
An asterisk indicates that the link is to a page from a past class and hasn’t been updated yet.
As I try to improve the class, I am keeping Notes to Self