Syllabus Physics 1A Winter 2012 Instructor: Michael Jura Oce: 3-907 Physics and Astronomy Building (PAB) Oce

ce Hours: M 9:30-10:30, Tu, W, F 2:30 - 3:30 or by appointment. Telephone: 310-825-4302 Email: jura@astro.ucla.edu Course web site can be found at: http://www.physics.ucla.edu TA: Timothy De Haas Oce: 1-704A PAB Oce Hours: M 1:15-3:15; Th 11:15-1:15 Email: tdehaas@ucla.edu Physics Undergraduate Advisors: Franoise Queval, Elaine Dolalas c Oces: 1-707A PAB, 1-707D PAB Telephones: 310-825-2453, 310-206-1447 Email: queval@physics.ucla.edu, edolalas@physics.ucla.edu Basic Goals: This course is designed to teach you essential principles of Physics. The core topics are energy, linear momentum and angular momentum and how they are used to understand the world around us. Newtons laws of motion will be described, and we will introduce Newtons law of gravity. Preparation: You must have completed Mathematics 31A (or its equivalent) and be enrolled in Mathematics 31B. As the course proceeds, you will understand better that Mathematics is the natural language of Physics. To quote Eugene Wigner: The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We will employ vectors in this course. Organization: The course is formally delivered in lectures and sections. The lectures should be overviews of the material and provide useful examples and applications of the basic principles. The sections are opportunities for you to discuss with a T.A. the material and to go over the homework. You are also strongly encouraged to attend the Physics tutoring center. Book: University Physics by Young and Freedman. Note: Although you may be required to do so in Physics 1B and/or Physics 1C, for this 1A, you are not required to buy the Mastering Physics bundle.

Grading: There will be two midterms and a nal in this course. The nal will count 200 points, each midterm will count 100 points, and the homework will count for 25 points. [Note: your homework course points are not simply the sum of all your homework scores. The homework total of 25 points is scaled from the sum of the individual problem sets.] Therefore, there will be a total of 425 points in the course. However, as described below, only 325 points are used to compute your grade. Except for Homework 0, problems will be assigned each Wednesday and due the following Wednesday in lecture. The graded homework will be returned as soon as possible. Some exam questions will be taken from the homework. While you are encouraged to do the homework as a team; all the exam work should be done by yourself. The exams are all closed-book, no notes and no calculators. We will do our best to prevent cheating, and anyone suspected of cheating will have their case referred to the Dean of Students. This course will not be graded on a curve, but rather on the total number of cumulative points. On the exams, there are 400 total points, however the lowest exam grade does not enter your grade because of the following method. Your score on the nal will be divided by 2, and you will therefore have 4 scores each of which is worth 100 points. The top 3 scores will be added to get your points from the exams. Therefore, you must take the nal, but, you can skip 1 of the midterms. Tentatively, the grading scale is 325-260 A; 259-211 B; 210-163 C; 162-130 D. For students who are close to the dividing line, plus and minus grades will be added to the overall letter grade in a qualitative fashion. Tentative Schedule Part I: Kinematics and Newtons Laws: Week 1: Introduction, 1-D motion, Vectors (Chapters 1, 2) Week 2: 2-D motion (Chapters 3, 4) Week 3: Linear Momentum (Chapters 4, 5) Part II: Work, Energy and Linear Momentum: Week 4: Work/Energy (Chapters 6,7) Week 5: Collisions, center of mass (Chapter 8) Week 6: Gravity I (Chapter 13) Week 7: Gravity II (Chapter 13)

Week 8: Statics/ Fluids (Chapters 11, 12) Part III: Angular Momentum Week 9: Rotation, Torque (Chapter 9) Week 10: Moment of Inertia, applications (Chapter 10) Holidays: January 16, February 20 Midterms: February 1, February 29 Final: Monday, March 19, 8:00 - 11:00