Syllabus

Personnel

Course Coordinator:	Phillip M Duxbury, Heiko Hergert, Dean Lee, Stuart H Tessmer, Terence Tarnowsky, Huey-Wen Lin, Richard J Hallstein
Instructor:	James Laverty
Teaching Assistant:	Benjamin Thomas Loseth, Eric Edwin Ciolek, Jay Ajay Patel, Erin Mackenzie May

Instructor Information

PHY 232 Lecture Sections 001, 002 & 003:
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Section 001:
Terence Tarnowsky
Office: 2012 NSCL
Phone: 517-908-7140
Email: tarnowsk@nscl.msu.edu
Office hours: TBA in Strosacker Helproom BPS 1248.

Section 002:
Richard Hallstein
Office: 1253 BPS
Phone: (517)884-5509
Email: hallstein@pa.msu.edu
Office hours: TBA in Strosacker Helproom BPS 1248.

Section 003:
Prof. Stuart Tessmer
Office: 4237 BPS
Phone: (517)884-5660
Email: tessmer@pa.msu.edu
Office hours: TBA in Strosacker Helproom BPS 1248.
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Teaching Assistants for PHY232

Ben Loseth: losethbe@msu.edu
Erin May: mayerin1@msu.edu
Jay Patel: patelj15@msu.edu
Eric Ciolek: cioleker@msu.edu


TA schedules in the Strosacker Helproom (BPS 1248) will be shown under "Course Contents" in "helproom_hours.pdf" when they are available.

Course Description

Electricity and magnetism; geometric and wave optics; special relativity; quantum mechanics; atomic and nuclear physics.

Prerequisites

PHY 231 or PHY 231B or PHY 231C or PHY 183 or PHY 183B or PHY 193H or LBS 271.

Class Hours

Section 001: 12:40-1:30pm MWF BPS 1410
Section 002: 1:50-2:40pm MWF BPS 1410
Section 003: 3:00-3:50pm MWF BPS 1410

Office Hours

Richard Hallstein: TBA
Prof. Stuart Tessmer: TBA

All regular office hours will be held in the Strosacker Center help room, BPS 1248.
Meetings with the instructors may also be arranged at other times by appointment.

Helproom Hours

The Strosacker helproom is in 1248 BPS and is open from 9:00AM to 9:00PM Monday through Thursday and from 9:00AM to 6:00PM on Fridays. You are welcome to go to the helproom during any of its open hours but there will be appointed times when TAs specifically for PHY232 will be available. The PHY232 TAs' schedules will be announced by the end of the first week of class.

TA schedules in the Strosacker Helproom (BPS 1248) will be shown under "Course Contents" in "helproom_hours.pdf" when they are available.

Project Information

There will be no honors option offered for PHY232 this semester.

Exam Information

Exam #1: Feb 8, Friday during your lecture hour in BPS 1410
Exam #2: Mar 15, Friday during your lecture hour in BPS 1410
Exam #3: Apr 05, Friday during your lecture hour in BPS 1410
Final Exam: Apr 29, 8pm-10pm, Location: TBD

For University approved reasons only and scheduled prior to April 15, there
is an alternate final exam session on Tuesday, April 30, 7:45am-9:45am

Deadlines

The homework sets will be due at 11:59PM on Thursdays.
Correction exam sets are due on the Thursday after each midterm exam at 11:59PM.
The deadline to drop with a tuition refund is 2/1/2013 at 8:00PM
The deadline to drop with no grade reported is 2/27/2013 at 8:00PM

Grading Information

Percent weights for PHY 232
Clicker questions: 6%.
Homework: 16%.
Three midterm exams: 3 x 16% = 48%.
Final exam: 32%.

The weights add up to 102%.

Clicker questions: Correct answer: 3 points. Incorrect answer: 1 point. Not present: zero points. Absolutely no make-ups for missed clicker questions (i.e. absence, did not bring clicker to class, dead batteries, lost clicker, etc.). To receive credit for clicker questions, you must submit your responses in the section in which you are enrolled. We will drop one third of the clicker points prior to calculating the final grade.

Homework: Every homework question is worth 1 point.

Midterm exams: Maximum score on each midterm: 50 points. The midterm exams will have correction sets as a homework. 30% of the positive difference between the correction exam and the in-class exam will be added to your in-class exam score as a bonus. The correction set is not available to students who do not take the midterm exam. One double-sided, US letter-sized (8.5"x11"), original, handwritten help sheet is allowed for each midterm exam (you may write on both sides).

Final Exam: Maximum score on the final: 100 points. The final exam will not have a correction set. Four double-sided, US letter-sized (8.5"x11"), original, handwritten help sheets are allowed on the final exam: three from the midterms and one from the last block of the class.

Grading scale:
4.0 >= 92%,
3.5 >= 84%,
3.0 >= 76%,
2.5 >= 68%,
2.0 >= 60%,
1.5 >= 52%,
1.0 >= 44%,
0.0 < 44%.

This grading scale might be lowered a little (in your favor), but it will not be raised.

Students with Disabilities: Michigan State University is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services and activities. Requests for accommodations by persons with disabilities may be made by contacting the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities at 517-884-RCPD or on the web at rcpd.msu.edu. Once your eligibility for an accommodation has been determined, you will be issued a verified individual services accommodation (VISA) form. Only MSU VISA forms will be accommodated. Please present this form to me at the start of the term or no later than the end of the second week of class (January 18th). Requests received after this date may not be honored.

Instructor Evaluations: Michigan State University takes seriously the opinion of students in the evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction, and has implemented the SIRS (Student Instructional Rating System) process to gather student feedback. This course utilizes the “online SIRS” system. You will receive an e-mail sometime during the last two weeks of class asking you to fill out the SIRS online form at your convenience. Please note the final grade for this course will not be accessible on STUINFO for seven days following the University grade submission deadline published by the Office of the Registrar unless the SIRS online form has been filled out. You will have the option in the online SIRS form to decline to participate in the evaluation of the course – we hope, however, that you will be willing to give us your frank and constructive feedback so that we may instruct students even better in the future.

Web Links

The URL for LON-CAPA is:
http://msu.loncapa.org

The URL for the PHY232 course is:
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2013spring/phy232/

The homepage for the Physics and Astronomy Department is:
http://www.pa.msu.edu

Textbook

Rex & Wolfson: Essential College Physics, Volume 2. This book is required.

You will also need an i-Clicker for class participation/quizzes during lectures.