Physics 141, Fall 2023.

Instructor:

Professor F. L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, B&L 203A
Telephone: (585) 275 - 4937
Email: wolfs@pas.rochester.edu
URL: http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/

Teaching Assistants:

• Guilherme Fiusa - gfiusa@ur.rochester.edu
• Aidan Bachmann - abachma3@u.rochester.edu
• Nathan Skerrett - nskerret@u.rochester.edu

• Ahmed Mohamed - amoham20@ur.rochester.edu
• Baker Hase - bhase@u.rochester.edu
• Anagha Ramnath - aramnath@u.rochester.edu
• Sunny (Jiwon) Woo - jwoo16@u.rochester.edu

Text:

R. Chabay and B. Sherwood, Matter & Interactions, Volume 1, Modern Mechanics, Fourth Edition (required)
P. Bevington and D. Robinson, Data Reduction and Error Analysis (strongly recommended).

Course Homepage:

http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/Phy141/Phy141HomePage.shtml

Lectures:

Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9.40 am - 10.55 am (Hoyt).

Recitations:

Tuesdays: 3.25 pm - 4.40 pm (B&L 269, Nathan Skerrett)
Tuesdays: 4.50 pm - 6.05 pm (B&L 203H, Aidan Bachmann)
Wednesdays: 2.00 pm - 3.15 pm (B&L 269, Guilherme Fiusa)
Wednesdays: 6.15 pm - 7.30 pm (Hylan 202, Guilherme Fiusa)
Recitations will start on Tuesday September 5, 2023

Laboratories:

During the semester you will complete 5 laboratory experiments (roughly one experiment every two weeks). The schedule of these experiments is as follows:

Experiment 1: September 11, 2023
Experiment 2: September 25, 2023
Experiment 3: October 9, 2023
Experiment 4: October 30, 2023
Experiment 5: November 13, 2023 (data taking in Spurrier Gym) and November 20, 2023 (analysis)

Each experiment will take 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete. Currently, three laboratory sections are offered: Mondays between 2 pm and 4.40 pm, 4.50 pm - 7.30 pm, and 7.40 pm and 10.20 pm. All laboratories, except Part 1 of Experiment # 5 on November 13, 2023 which will be conductor in Spurrier Gym, will be conducted in B&L 407.

Office hours will be held during the lab time periods, usually during the week following the experiment. See the Phy 141 Calendar for details.

Lab reports are due on the Wednesday at noon in the week following the experiment. The due date is changed to the Friday at noon if there is midterm exam during that week. The lab reports must be submitted in pdf format using the phy141 laboratory drop box. Use the following format for the name of the lab report you are submitting: Exp#-LastName-FirstName-StudentID.pdf where # is the experiments number (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5), LastName is your last name, FirstName is your first name, and StudentID is you student ID number.

NOTES:

1. You must complete ALL labs and lab reports in order to get a grade for this course.
2. Late submissions are not accepted. If your lab report is late, you will receive a 0 for that report.

Office Hours:

Office hours start during the week of September 4, 2023.

Frank Wolfs:

Thursdays between 11.30 am and 1.30 pm and by appointment, B&L 203A.

Teaching Assistants:

• Guilherme Fiusa: Wednesdays 5 - 6 pm and Fridays 11 am - 12 pm, B&L 304
• Aidan Bachmann: Wednesdays 10 - 11 am, POA.
• Nathan Skerrett: Thursdays 9 - 10 pm, POA.

Homework:

Homework will be assigned each Friday. The homework is due the following Friday at noon. A fraction of the homework assignments are distributed and completed electronically, using WebWork, while the rest have to be dropped of in the Physics 141 homework locker, across from B&L 106.

Each homework set will consist of a number of quantitative problems that are based on the material discussed the previous week. The problem sets will reinforce the course material and it is critical for your survival in this course to complete the assignments and understand any mistakes you may have made while working on these problems.

Extra credit can be earned by completing various programming problems using the VPython programming language. The extra credit problems will be part of the regular homework assignments.

NOTE:

1. Late submissions are not accepted. If your homework is handed in late, you will receive a 0 for that assignment.

Final Grade:

The final grade will be the weighted average of:

1. Final exam (20 - 25%)
2. Mid-term exams (15 - 20% each)
3. Homework (15%)
4. Lab (15%)
5. Quizzes (5%)
   

Midterm exams:

Thursday September 21, 2023, 8.00 am - 9.20 am (Hoyt).
Tuesday October 24, 2023, 8.00 am - 9.320am (Hoyt).
Tuesday November 28, 2023, 8.00 am - 9.20 am (Hoyt).

Final exam:

Wednesday December 20, 2023, 4.00 pm - 7.00 pm (location TBA)

Exam policy:

As part of each exam you will receive a sheet of useful equations that cover the material that is covered on the exam.  You will be able to view/download the equation sheet before the exam so that you will be able to determine what information will be provided on the exam.  Do not spend your time memorizing formulas; it is more important that you understand how to use them!

Quizzes:

Quizzes will be given during lecture. Each quiz will contain 3 - 4 short questions, related to the material being discussed. You will submit the ansers using the polleverywhere tool (using either a web browser or using text messages). In order to get credit for these quizzes you need to register for an account at using this link. Note: you must use your U of R email address to register.

To particpate in the quizzes you use the following URL: PollEv.com/frankwolfs050 or you can scan the following QR code: