Physics 101: How Things Work

The concept of this course is to gain an understanding and appreciation of physical principles by seeing how they operate in concrete examples taken from everyday life. Ordinary objects and phenomena will be examined to understand how they work and to discover the rules (physical laws) that govern their behavior. Concrete examples will help you discover the rules for yourself and to "educate your intuition" so that the rules can be seen to be just common sense. The topics covered this semester include mostly mechanical and thermal phenomena.

The lectures are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:15 AM to 12:05 PM in room 304 in the Nielsen Physics Building. This is one floor below the front entrance. The lectures, textbook, and on-line material are all designed to complement each other, and you should take advantage of as much of it as possible to enhance your learning.

See the course syllabus for the schedule and homework assignments. Please try to read the assigned chapters before coming to class, to obtain the maximum benefit from the lectures. Physics is a hands-on subject. The only way to understand the course material is to work through it on your own. Watching someone else talk about physics will not alone make you learn it. To get the most out of the course, you should begin working through the material on your own just before the lectures begin on a topic. You should be sure you can answer all of the questions at the ends of the chapters, and take full advantage of the online materials made available through the web site.

On line study guides and quizzes will be part of the course. Students are expected to actively participate on the Web. On line study guides and homework assignments will be part of the course.

The final grade is determined by three exams and a final. The final makes up 25% of the grade. Each of the other three exams makes up 20% of the grade. The remaining 15% will consist of quizzes or other measures of participation.