General Physics I

General Info

Time: MWF 9:30 - 10:20
Place: SciBldg 216
Text: Young & Freedman's University Physics

General Physics II is continuation of the last term's physics course. This semester emphasizes electrodynamics. While the course itself will, again, not require math beyond algebr, the text does use calculus notation, including some vector calculus. My intent, again, is to discuss what the calculus notation means and to use that notation conceptually.

The course will run much as last term. Expect weekly problem sets, posted here, and about three exams spread over the term. The course is worth 4 credits.

A highly recommended lab is designed to complement the course and give some hands-on experience with this stuff. See the Zap! stuff below for details.

Rough Syllabus

 (work in progress)

 chap 22, electric charge

 chap 24, voltage

 chap 26, circuits

 chap 23, Gauss's Law

 chap 25, Capacitance

Assignments

for Wed Jan 27
1. Read chap. 22 on charge and the electric field.
2. Do Q22-6,12, and 22-5,11,25,33,60,63
for Wed Feb 3
1. Read chap. 24 on voltage
2. Do Q24-4,5,13 and exercises 24-5,11,13,17,25,27, *84
for Wed Feb 10
1. Read chap. 26 on simple circuits
2. Do 26-9,23,27,59,60,*67
for Wed Feb 17
1. Read chap. 23 on Gauss' Law
2. Do Q23-2,5,10,11 and problems 22-7,9, *35
3. Explain the what and why of Gauss' Law
4. Make sure you can use it to find the E-field from a point, line, and plane.

Zap! Lab

A hands-on lab focusing on basic circuits and some basic notions of experimental work. Each student is issued a "toolbox" and will build (among other things) a high-voltage power supply. (A shocking experience.)

Lab 1 - Coin Flipping, Due ?
To Begin We'll Look At Some Basic Notions Of Errors And Statistics With A Simple Numerical "Experiment."
- Measure And Report The Percentage Of Heads Which Turn Up When N Coins Are Flipped. Multiple Trials For Each N Are Strongly Suggested. The Precise Number Of Trials To Perform And Choices Of Values Of N Are Up To You; However, You Should (At Least) Present (I) A Table Of Your Experimental Trials Including Computed Means And Standard Deviations, And (Ii) A Plot Of (% Heads) Vs (N) Complete With Error Bars And A Best-Fit Curve. Feel Free To Use Any Calculator Or Computer Tools, As Discussed In Class.
- References: Data Analysis In The Physics Sciences; Understanding Statistics, Against All Odds (Library Video Series),
Lab 2 - Soldering and Multimeters, Jan 30
Everybody gets issued an electronics kit and we play around. Practice soldering 12 resistors into a cube.
Lab 3 - Voltages in a water tank, Feb 5 Voltage contours and resistance in a shallow water tank.
- Put shallow (.5cm) layer of water in ripple tank.
- Put two pieces of aluminum foil in tank in an "interesting" configuration.
- Attach 5V power supply leads to two pieces of foil.
- Measure and sketch voltage at various positions as measured with meter (one lead to a piece of foil, other to spot in water)
- Plot voltage vs position for various configurations.
- Put current meter into circuit and measure resistance of water. (Does it depend on water depth? width? length?)
Lab 4 - Circuits and Resistance, Feb 12
Do some experiments of your choice from chapter 2 of the Zap! text. I recommend the last few, which describe how to build a voltage divider. We'll discuss more details during the lab itself.

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