Nov 18: The next quiz is on Monday Nov 23rd (the week of thanksgiving). It will cover Chapter 26 on refraction, and perhaps something on interference from Chapter 27.
Rainbow on one of the Black river waterfalls, taken May 2008.
Nov 8: Exam 2 is scheduled for this coming week: Thursday November 12th. It will cover Ch. 21 Magnetic Forces and Magnetic Fields, Ch. 22 Electromagnetic Induction, Ch. 24 Electromagnetic Waves, and Ch. 25 Reflection of Light. Please read through the notes given below for Exam 1 as a reminder of things to think about in preparation of the exam.
Nov 2: Quiz this week is on Wednesday. It will cover Chapter 24 on electromagnetic waves.
Oct 29: No Quiz this week. We will continue with chapter 24 on electromagnetic waves in lecture.
Oct 19: Quiz this week will be on Thursday. It will cover material up to where we are on Wednesday.
Oct 13: Quiz this week will be on Wednesday, covering the last part of Chapter 20 (20.12 capacitors in series and parallel, and 20.13 RC circuits), and what we've done from Chapter 21 on magnetic fields.
Sept 28: The
first class exam is this week, Thursday Oct 1st.
It will cover
chapter 18 (Coulomb's law), chapter 19 (Electric potential and potential
energy), and chapter 20 (Circuits).
Some thoughts for Exam preparation:
Good things to study will be homework, lecture notes, quizzes, the practice exams, and examples from the book.
Practice exams can be found by choosing the solutions link. Note that there are blank copies and solutions. Use them wisely! Try the questions first, and then look at the answers. You'll learn more that way. Study the answers, even if you got them right!
This exam counts 17% of your final grade.
You are allowed one sheet (both sides) of 8.5 by 11 inch paper with your own handwritten notes (no Xerox copies, or shrinking).
Work quickly. Practice working quickly! Budget your time carefully. Do not waste time on a question you are stuck on if there are others you have not looked at yet. You have to know the work very well to finish ahead of time.
Draw a picture and annotate it with the information given in the problem.
To get partial credit you have to show some calculations. If you write an answer only, and it's wrong, you will get zero for it.
Always write down the formula you are using in symbolic form first, and solve for the unknown. Only then should you substitute the numbers and units to get the answer. This helps to get you partial credit, and helps you to understand what you were doing if you come back to that question later in the exam.
Think about and identify the mistakes you have made in solving homework problems and quizzes, and try to ensure that you do not make them on the Exam. Units? Vector concepts? Sign issues? Unit conversions?
Sept 22: Quiz this week is Wednesday (23rd). It will cover Chapter 20, sections 1 to 6.
Sept 15: Quiz this week is Wednesday (16th). It will cover Chapter 19, but will focus mainly on capacitors and dielectrics.
Sept 10: Quiz today (Thurs) will be on Chapter 19, the first four sections (Electric Potential).
Aug 31: Quiz this week will be on Wednesday, covering Chapter 18. See the solutions link for an indication of the style of questions. Note that (as indicated on the syllabus link) you may bring an index card with your own handwritten notes for use during the quiz.
August 23, 2009: Welcome to PH 202. This site will be used to post various materials that should be helpful to you as the course progresses. Use the links on the sidebar to access homework solutions, the dates of exams and quizzes, solutions to quizzes and exams etc.
The first lecture is Mon 24th at 4 p.m. in WS 2906.
Laboratory sections start in the first week of classes.