PHYS 153 Syllabus - explanation of course outline PDF

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Physics 153L Course Information

Fall 2020 rev: August 16, 2020

Physics 153L is the last course in the Physics sequence intended for physical science and engineering majors providing an introduction to waves, optics, and a taste of non-classical physics topics. The goal of the course is to teach you how to approach and solve physical problems, and to develop an intuition for the important physical properties which affect a given situation. Following this course you should be able to measure the diameter of one of the hairs on your head using a ruler (and not using a microscope), understand how you could travel to Alpha Centauri and return (but not recognize your siblings when you return), explain why only some things conduct electricity, and understand what matter is made of – and it’s not just electrons, protons, and neutrons. The goal is not to make you an expert in modern physics, but to expose you to some of our current ideas and to help you understand both how our current picture developed and why physicists have confidence in fundamental models despite knowing that they are incomplete. The sequence of courses 151-153 should be considered as one continuous course, and not as three independent nonintersecting courses. In 153 you will be expected to be able to freely make use of material covered in both preceding courses in the sequence.

I. Course Instructors Instructor Pronunciation Dr. Gould goold (*) and by appointment

Office SSC 204

Office Hours(*) MW 2-3

Phone e-mail 740-1101 [email protected]

II. Course Materials II.A. Required for the Lecture 1. Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett, Jr., Physics for Scientists and Engineers, with Modern Physics, 10th ed., (Cengage, 2018) This can be a physical or an online book. You should already have this book because it was required for PHYS 151 and 152, but be sure you have the “... with Modern Physics” version. 2. Robert Oerter, The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model..., (Plume, 2006) ISBN-13 978-0452287860. An introduction to some of the ideas in just one field of physics, albeit a highly visible field of physics, developed over the past few decades. 3. Kritik.io account, $15. See section IV.B below. After the first written homework set has been assigned, all registered students will receive an emailed invitation providing access to the course materials within this site. II.B. Required for the Laboratory 4. Science Notebook (National Notebook 43-645). Any equivalent notebook with quadrille ruled pre-numbered pages bound into the notebook, with identically numbered pages for copies (either carbon copies or carbonless forms) is acceptable. 5. Laboratory Manual (Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, current term). The Laboratory Manual is provided on the lab’s Blackboard site. You do not need to print it because a copy will be provided for your reference in the lab room. However, you will need to read the Manual in advance of your lab meeting in order to answer the online pre-lab questions.

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III. Administrivia III.A. Prerequisites The prerequisite for this course is PHYS 152. In turn, this means that you should have already completed the entire introductory calculus sequence. Mathematics courses beyond that sequence are recommended but not required for this course. III.B. Registration Your registration for this course consists of three separate parts: a lecture, a “quiz,” and a laboratory. You must be registered for one of each. (The only exception is if you have previously completed the laboratory and have received permission to carry its grade into the current semester and have given the permission form to your instructor. In that case you would register only for the lecture and “quiz.”) Section Lec 50420R Qz 50421R

Time/Day 8:30-9:50 am MWF 5:00-6:20 pm W

Instructor Dr. Gould Dr. Gould

Location Zoom Bb/ Zoom

The quiz time is reserved for the midterms. The quiz section does not meet except for midterms. The dates for the midterms are indicated on the syllabus. The location for each midterm will be announced shortly before it is given. There are also laboratory sections, meeting once a week for three hours. Lab Section 50426R 50427R 50430D 50428R 50429R 50431R

Time/Day 11-1:50 T 2-4:50 T 5-7:50 T 2-4:50 W 2-4:50 Th 5-7:50 Th

Open Slots 3 3 5 4 3 5

Instructor(s) Xiaofan Zhang Xiaofan Zhang Jing Wu Gautam Rai Gautam Rai Jing Wu

Location Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom

For current information see http://physics.usc.edu/Undergraduate/ta_lab.html#153. III.C. Disabilities The DSP office has requested that we include the following statement: “Students who need to request accommodations based on a disability are required to register each semester with the Disability Services and Programs. In addition, a letter of verification to the instructor from the Disability Services and Programs is needed for the semester you are enrolled in this course. If you have any questions concerning this procedure, please contact the course instructor and Disability Services and Programs at (213) 740-0776, GFS 120.” See also dsp.usc.edu. III.D. Course Ombudsman All classes in the Department of Physics & Astronomy have an assigned Course Ombudsman to serve students as a confidential, neutral, informal, and independent resource when they wish to discuss issues concerning their course without directly confronting their instructor. The Course Ombudsman for this class is Krzysztof Pilch, [email protected], 213-740-1145, SSC 202.

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IV. Grading Your final course grade will be based upon two major components: Component

Weight

Lecture Component In-Class Questions Written Homework Midterms Final Exam

20% 20% 36% 24%

Laboratory Component Pre-lab Quiz Lab Performance Lab Write-Up

20% 40% 40%

Minimum Requirement Submit at least 75% Submit at least 75% Pass (cumulatively) Pass

}

Complete at least 2/3

As indicated in the above table, in order to receive a passing grade in the course (i.e., D- or higher) you must, at a minimum, pass the laboratory, pass the midterms (cumulatively), pass the final exam, and must submit at least the stated fraction of in-class problems and homework sets. For example, even if you get the highest grade in the course on the final examination, if you blow off one of the course components and do not meet the stated minimum requirement you will not pass the course. While this may appear rather draconian, we hope that by making clear our expectations in advance, everyone will make a serious effort in each component of the course, thereby making this class a success. All students in this course will be given the same homework assignments, the same laboratory projects, the same midterms, the same final exam, and will be graded on a common scale. IV.A. In-Class Questions During some lectures you will be presented with a set of problems to work out. When working these problems you will do so essentially always as a member of an assigned group. The minimum threshold 75% submission rate given in the table above refers to a given set of questions as a whole, not to the individual question count. All questions in a given set do not need to be answered in order to qualify as submitting the set. IV.B. Homework Assignments Written homework, often in the style of exam problems, will be assigned regularly, but with two different submission modes provided on each assignment: 1. One or more identified items in each assignment will be submitted through Blackboard where TAs will grade them, and 2. The remaining items in each assignment will be submitted on a separate homework grading site, Kritik.io, where you will subsequently grade other students’ submissions. Your grading assignment here counts as part of your grade. Both submission modes will have the same deadline, which will be identified on each assignment. While in principle you could produce all of your work online, we expect that in practice you will work out the solutions to each assignment on paper. When you do so, you will need to scan that work into a PDF file for subsequent uploading to either Blackboard or Kritik.io. Please do not

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take a picture of your work (such as with a cell phone) because the readability of work on such images is distinctly inferior to scanned versions – not to mention the difficulty you’ll then have of collecting multiple images of separate pages into a single PDF file for uploading to either site. Work which is unreadable, either because of poor handwriting or because the electronic version is itself of such low quality as to be unreadable by the graders, will be scored commensurately. Make sure that you do not include Blackboard-destined solutions on the same piece of paper that you include Kritik.io-destined solutions. Work submitted to the wrong site will not be graded. Your total homework score will be a combination of your score on all of the assigned problems plus a measure of the quality of your grading of other students’ work submitted on Kritik.io. We will help you in this task by providing not only the solutions to each problem, but also a rubric to guide your scoring. Importantly, just as you appreciate constructive comments from TAs, you should provide constructive comments to the students whose work you grade. We expect that it will take you, in total, approximately 6 hours to complete each homework assignment. These homework sets are the central way you will learn physics. “Understanding” physics does not mean knowing the words, having read the book. Instead, “understanding” implies having developed the ability to solve physics problems you have not seen before. Homework problems will range from the trivial to the difficult. Midterm and final examination questions will more closely resemble (and in some instances may be identical to) homework problems on the difficult end of the spectrum. Experience shows a strong positive correlation between total homework scores and total exam scores. The counsel to do your own homework does not mean that you cannot work with other students in the class. To the contrary, we recommend students work together, where feasible, in deciding how to solve problems. Of course, working together does not mean simply copying solutions from each other. That action is a violation of academic integrity standards. There is, however, a large difference between simply copying and learning by cooperating. Take advantage of this opportunity. As with in-class questions, the minimum threshold 75% submission rate cited in the grading criteria above applies to a homework assignment as a whole, not to the individual problem count. A partially completed written homework assignment, regardless of which of the two above sites you submit it to, will qualify as submitting the assignment. IV.C. Examinations There will be two midterm examinations and a Final Examination. The midterm exams will last 60 minutes and will be given during the weekly “quiz” period. The midterms will cover material incrementally through the semester. The Final Exam will last 120 minutes and will be comprehensive of the entire semester. All exams are closed-book closed-notes exams. However, we will include in each exam a page (or more) of Possibly Useful Formulae which will contain all of the important formulae from the book and lectures which might be useful in solving the exam questions. During exams no calculators or other electronic devices are permitted. Students with special examination requirements as documented by the Office of Disability Services must present their documentation to their instructor as soon after the start of classes as is possible, and certainly no later than seven calendar days prior to the first midterm. See section III.C. There are no scheduled make-up examinations for either midterms or the Final Exam. If you are living in a time zone for which the majority of any of the exams will not be from 7:00 am through 10:00 pm in your local time, you must indicate your location and its time zone on

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the Registration Questionnaire. Note that the time for the midterms differs from that of the final exam. Students in such time zones will have the option to take a different exam a few hours later. All such students will take a common exam at one common time, regardless of possibly conflicting events, though we will do our best to minimize the number of such conflicts. IV.D. Laboratory Physics 153 laboratories will meet during the first week of classes. You may be dropped from the lab section if you do not attend the first meeting and there is a waiting list for your section. The Laboratory Manual is available on the laboratory’s Blackboard site. You do not need to print the Manual because a copy will be provided in the laboratory for each set of lab partners to share. The Manual will explain how your Notebook should be prepared in advance of each week’s meeting. Laboratory grades are determined by 1. Your performance during the lab, and 2. Evaluation of your lab write-up turned in at the lab’s conclusion. You must attend only the lab section in which you are registered. Lab TAs are forbidden to make exceptions. If you miss your lab, follow the procedure found in the make-up policy on the lab section’s Blackboard site in order to attend the make-up session scheduled on the following week. The laboratory component will not be graded on an A-F basis to raise or lower your course grade. Instead, cumulative laboratory scores will be evaluated so that normal and expected laboratory performance will not change your course grade as determined by the other components. However, laboratory scores which are significantly above or below normal and expected performance will respectively raise or lower course grades. Complete details about lab grading and make-up policies are provided on the laboratory section’s Blackboard site. Other questions concerning the laboratory should be referred to the Lab Director, Gökhan Esirgen, KAP B19, 740-1138, [email protected]. IV.E. Dropping Some Graded Scores We recognize that from time to time students find it impossible to attend a specific class or complete a specific assignment owing to illness or other outside commitments. Therefore, before computing your course grade a small number of homework and in-class assignments with the lowest scores (which may be zeroes for missing elements) will be dropped. The actual number dropped in each component will be 15% of the total number of that component’s count for the term, rounded up to the nearest integer. Please note that this 15% rule is meant to account for all possible reasons an element is missing. Possible reasons include, but are not limited to, illness, intercollegiate competitions (academic as well as non-academic), intramural competitions, conflicts with other courses which schedule required activities outside of their declared times, and family emergencies (including deaths – unless it’s your own, in which case we won’t compute a grade). We do not want, and will not accept, documentation for any absence or missing grade element, and will not increase the number of dropped scores over the number given above. The only exceptions are for religious observances when documented on the web site of the Office of Religious Life, orl.usc.edu, in which case any affected student must still inform his/her instructor of the conflict no later than the day before the religious observance.

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V. Classroom Behavior All class sessions will be held in the Zoom virtual meeting room identified within the “USC Zoom Pro Meeting” menu item in Blackboard. During each class session you will be (1) with all other students, and possibly (2) partnered with two other students for group work in a “breakout room.” 1. While in the “classroom” you should have your microphone muted. It will be muted when you first enter, but you can un-mute yourself to interrupt and ask questions. In the “classroom” it does not matter whether or not your camera is on because while the lecture screen is being shared, students are not visible on Zoom. There may, however, be brief times without screen sharing. 2. While in a “breakout room” you should activate both your microphone and camera so that everyone in the group will know who they are working with. All class sessions will be recorded and made available immediately after class through the usual Bb menu item. Breakout rooms will not be recorded. You may not make your own recordings, or copies of Zoom recordings, of any class session. Doing so is a violation of the Student Conduct Code as documented in SCampus (B.11.12.C) and numerous other places, which also list the consequences.

VI. Assistance You have a variety of opportunities for assistance available to you. Here we list a nonexclusive set of these opportunities. Your home department or housing unit may provide others. VI.A. Lectures Don’t underestimate the value of questions during the lecture period. In large lectures, many students are reluctant to pose questions which they fear may seem silly to either their cohorts or the instructor. This probably includes you. Almost always, if one student asks a question, there are several others who have been bothered by the same thing. Often such questions tell the instructor what is not clear to the students. Stopping the lecture and getting everyone together on the issue is much more useful than simply letting a lecture continue without clarification. A portion of each week’s lecture time will be devoted to illustrative examples, including some from the assigned homework sets. This is natural considering that midterm questions frequently are derived from homework problems. VI.B. Lecturer Office Hours For more personal attention you can come to the office hours of your instructor listed on page 1 of this document. If at all possible, come to the regularly scheduled office hours listed there. However, if your schedule conflicts with this, it is possible to schedule an appointment at a different time by e-mailing your instructor with the request, or approach your instructor after lecture. VI.C. Your Laboratory T.A. All laboratory teaching assistants are graduate students, usually pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics. They are all capable of answering any question you have regarding subject material. Usually your lab TA can answer your question immediately. However, some problems you pose may be ambiguous, so that your TA will need some time to think. In either event, you should regard your laboratory TA as a resource not only for the laboratory, but also for all physics questions.

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VI.D. T.A. Office Hours Aug 24 - Nov 12 All laboratory teaching assistants have office hours on Zoomfor the assistance of students in all 100-level physics courses. The offices will be staffed with at least one TA from 10 am to 4 pm, Monday through Thursday until the end of classes. The schedule of every TA’s office hours will be constructed during the first week of classes and will be posted on the door of the Office H o u r s r o o m an d main tain ed o n th e D ep ar tmen tal Web s ite at http://physics.usc.edu/Undergraduate/TAofficehours.html. If you find the room unoccupied in contradiction to the posted schedule, inform your instructor. VI.E. Published Solutions Images of midterm and final examinations from previous semesters are available on the course Web site as described below in section VII.B. Similarly, solutions to all homework sets will be made available after you have submitted them for grading. VI.F. Other Books There is no shortage of alterna...