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This is the web page for the Fall 1998 course as it looked on the last day of class.
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The Fall 1999 course will probably be taught by a different professor and may be
structured a bit differently.
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Audience
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This course is intended for students who are interested in physical
explanations of everyday physical phenomena but are not (yet)
interested in learning how to apply mathematical techniques to
analyze physical situations.
The mathematical content of the course will be limited
to truly essential concepts.
Very little algebraic manipulation will be required.
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There will be many opportunities in this course to exercise problem-solving skills and think rigorously about qualitative issues. The lack of quantitative calculation required does not imply a lack of precision in the qualitative treatments of physical concepts. Professor
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Joshua Socolar --
socolar@phy.duke.edu
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Physics 204D / 660-2557; Office hours: Mondays 3:00-5:00pm , or by appointment Assistant
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Berk Sensoy --
bas7@phy.duke.edu
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Physics 045 / 660-2555 or 613-1692 Office hours: Wednesdays 2:15-5:15pm, or by appointment. NOTES:
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For the last two weeks of the course we will operate on a slightly revised schedule.
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READING FOR UNITS 6 and 7:
The response for Unit 7 will be due on Wednesday, December 9. You will receive further instructions for this response later. QUIZ 6: The quiz for Units 6 and 7 will emphasize the physics electric motors, radios, and aspects of sunlight and lasers that we will cover in class. The date of the quiz will be Monday, Dec. 7 .
Lecture 1: What is "conceptual physics"? Structure
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Two-week Units:
The course is divided into seven
two-week units. Each unit begins on a Monday and consists of 5 lectures
on the primary topic of the unit and one class that includes a quiz and
a mini-lecture on a topic of current or general interest. For each unit
except Unit 6,
students must write a journal entry and
a response to a classmate's journal entry. | Term Paper: A paper must be written on a topic of the student's choice. The topic must be approved by Dr. Socolar in a small group meeting held during the week after Fall Break. Each student must arrive at the meeting with a written paragraph describing the chosen topic. Textbook
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is "How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life", by Louis Bloomfield.
The book assumes no prior familiarity with physics concepts and no mathematical
expertise beyond the simplest algebraic manipulations. Bloomfield's approach
is to use familiar objects as examples of physical principles, emphasizing
only the physics that needs to be discussed in order to understand how
these objects work. The table below provides a tentative list of the objects
and relevant concepts we will study.
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Students may find it useful to consult additional texts for further explanation of the concepts discussed by Bloomfield and as references for additional material covered in lectures. " Conceptual Physics ", by Paul Hewitt, is recommended. The somewhat childish style of Hewitt's book may put some students off, but his explanations are clear and on the mark and his choice of topics is quite appropriate. A copy will be on reserve in the Math-Physics Library. Another resource that may be helpful is the "How Things Work" web page maintained by Bloomfield at the University of Virginia. Syllabus
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Newsgroup
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[top] duke.courses.phy035 |
(This link works for me. If it doesn't work for you, try to open a newsreader and find the newsgroup duke.courses.phy035 directly.) Click on the link above to read the class newsgroup. During the course it will contain students' journal entries. All students are strongly encouraged to browse through their classmates entries for a given unit after they have posted their own. Follow these simple rules for posting:
Practice: There is a message there entitled "UNIT 0". Read that message and practice responding to it according to the above rules. If you need more help with the newsgroup, email Berk. Journals
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Each journal entry must be posted to the class Newsgroup by 10:00am on the first Wednesday of the relevant unit. Journal entries should consist of informal writing (and perhaps figures). They should present whatever thoughts are stimulated by the assigned readings, discussing aspects that strike you as interesting, incomprehensible, sublime, or absurd. Feel free to refer to Bloomfield, class lectures and discussions, and any experience that is likely to have been shared by a reasonable number of students in the class. Entries should be addressed to the students in the class, not to the professor. All entries of sufficient length that demonstrate engagement with the material will be given full credit. In other words, attempts to grapple with concepts that are not yet fully understood are perfectly appropriate. Journal entries should be at least 500 words long (five times as long as the preceding paragraph). Almost all entries of sufficient length will be given full credit, the only exceptions being those that demonstrate a very low level of engagement with the relevant material. Responses
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A response to an assigned Journal Entry must be e-mailed to the author
by 8:00pm on the second Tuesday of the relevant unit.
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Each response must consist of two sections: a discussion of one of the Cases in Bloomfield and a direct response to the author of the assigned Journal Entry.
To: author's e-mail address
CC: bas7@phy.duke.edu, socolar@phy.duke.edu
Subject: YourName, JournalAuthorsName, UNIT X
You must e-mail your response to your classmate and send carbon
copies to Dr.Socolar and Berk with the appropriate subject line. You
will eventually receive a message with a few comments and a grade for your
response. Due to time constraints, the comments will be rather brief.
If you would like further feedback, feel free to contact
Dr. Socolar and/or Berk. Term Paper
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The paper is due on Wednesday, November 25 (the end of Unit 6).
The paper should treat the physics of some familiar phenomenon
not directly addressed in the course lectures.
It should aim to explain a familiar physical phenomenon or device
in terms accessible to other students in the course.
If you wish, you may turn in your paper early
(at least two weeks before the due date),
have it graded, and revise it.
Your grade for the paper will be based only on the final version.
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Quizzes
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[top] Quizzes will consist of a few short-answer
questions and one problem requiring a paragraph of explanation.
No numerical computation is required, but some problems require careful reasoning.
On occasion, it will be strongly suggested that the student perform a particular
experiment at home before taking the quiz.
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Grades
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It is possible to earn 200 points.
180 guarantees a grade of at least A-, 160 guarantees at least B-, etc.
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