Physics 225

Prof. Gregory J. MacDougall

Announcements

NEW ! Final grades for the course are posted! Tuesday, May 19, 2016

Thank you for your time and dedication, and best of luck to you all going forward!

Final exam grades now available online. Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Average was 68%, though the distribution was clearly separated into two groups. Final grades for the course will be calculated by the end of the week.

Error found in Q8 of solution scan. Monday, May 16, 2016

It has now been corrected. Exam grades should be posted in coming days.

Solutions to the final exam now posted on the Homework portion of the class webpage. Thursday, May 12, 2016

Check back next week for grades.

Special office hours next week for final exam prep. Monday, May 9, 11am-3pm; Tuesday, May 10, 12-2pm. Loomis 222. Monday, May 2, 2016

TAs will be available to answer questions or to help with practice exams.

Room of the final exam has been changed to Loomis 141. Time is STILL 7-10pm on May 11.    Friday, April 15, 2016

Note that the college had for a time mistakenly listed the exam time as 1:30pm. It has been corrected. The exam will be at 7pm!

Vector field slides from last lecture now posted.    Thursday, April 7, 2016

For slides with all information about the fields presented at once, click here.

For slides where information is gradually released (for self-testing), click here.

Midterm grades now available online. Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Average was 62.2%, though there was a small skewness towards higher scores. Graded exam papers will be returned in Discussion this week.

Solutions to midterm exam have been posted on the Homework page. Wednesday, March 15, 2016

Exam grades will likely not be posted until after Spring Break. Enjoy your time off!

Clicker questions from Lectures 4 and 5. Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016

By request. To download slides, click here.

Short office hours again on Wednesday of this week. Monday, Feb. 22, 2016

Same arrangements as last week have been made. Prof MacDougall will man the Mon office hours, and Matt Quiroz will be at the Wednesday period, but only from 1-3:30pm. Please make use of the Monday and Tuesday office hours, as needed.

Short office hours on Wednesday this week. Monday, Feb. 15, 2016

For Wednesday of this week, office hours will run from 2-3:30pm, instead of the usual 2-4pm. Please take note and make use of the Monday and Tuesday office hours if they are needed.

Notes for Lecture 3. Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016

For those who would like a record of the derivation of the Lorentz transform equations, click here.

Notes for the first lecture posted. Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016

This will not be done for future lecture. For link, click here.

Website is up    Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016

Please take two minutes to read through the general course information on this page (and take one more minute to click on the other links at the top so you know how the site is organized.)
Some specific points:

• Please look at the office hours posted below. There are times on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Times and locations are probably final, but may change in the near future. Please check this webpage first before coming in.  
• In any case, I encourage everyone to make use of the office hours to work on homework before Tuesdays, if at all possible. This will enhance the value of the lectures, as you will already have wrestled with the material. (You may have encountered this concept when taking one of the the Phys 21X courses. The principle is the same. We're simply not as strict about enforcing it here.) Coming to an office hour early in the week will allow you to tackle the class material in a relaxed environment, get your homework finished early and have it checked by an instructor before you leave -- great way to start the week!

General Information

Office hours

Please do make use of office hours. Homework is not a quiz; it's training. We want and expect you to get every answer on the homework correct, and we'll be happy to check your homework at office hours to make sure you understand everything before you leave. Also bring any questions you have about the units, lectures, or anything else to office hours, and we'll make sure your questions are answered.

Sunday afternoon	3:00 pm - 5:00 pm	Loomis 222	Billy Passias
Monday afternoon	12:00 pm - 2:00 pm	Loomis 222	Matthew Quiroz
Tuesday after lecture	4:50 pm - 5:30 pm	Loomis 151	Prof. MacDougall
Wednesday afternoon	2:00 pm - 4:00 pm	Loomis 222	Prof. MacDougall

Class Times and Locations

Lectures	Loomis 151, Tuesdays, 4:00 - 4:50 pm
Discussion Sections	Loomis 64 (Thursdays) or Loomis 147 (Fridays)

Instructors

• Prof. Gregory MacDougall, MRL 216  → gmacdoug @ illinois.edu with "225" in the subject line
       or call me at 300-0147

• Matthew Quiroz  → mquiroz2@illinois.edu

• Billy Passias  → passias2@illinois.edu

Graders  

• Atma Chan, Dong Xu and Ye Zhuang  → Email with grading questions

Recommended Text Books (all on reserve at Grainger)

There is no required book for this course, but a textbook is often very helpful to provide a different point of view and additional detail. Here are some recommendations:

• "Spacetime Physics" by Taylor and Wheeler.
  Good first book on Special Relativity. Lots of physical insight, extended discussions of the consequences of relativity and apparent paradoxes, and many worked examples.

• "Special Relativity" by A. P. French
  More of a classical text on Special Relativity, notable for its excellent historical presentation. We won't talk about history in 225, so do pick up this book if you are interested. Note that the Copyright is 1968, so there will be used copies available, possibly at considerably lower prices than new books.

• "Basic Training in Mathematics: A Fitness Program for Science Students", (Paperback) by R. Shankar.
  It's not for everybody, but definitely has some great content. It's also one of the only texts on mathematical physics which meets these two criteria: it's at a freshman / sophomore level, and it's recent enough that it uses modern notation.

Policies

Course Grading

Your grade in this course will be based on successful completion of the weekly homework assignments (35%), participation in the discussion sessions (10%), performance on a mid-term exam (15%), and performance on the final exam (40%).

Homework due dates and time

Homework is due at 11 am on Thursdays, before the beginning of the first discussion session for the week. Your solutions are to be deposited in the course homework box that is located on the second floor of Loomis Lab, at the entrance to the overpass to the Materials Research Lab (MRL) on the north side. The homework boxes are painted bright yellow; you can't miss them. The box for Phys 225 is on the bottom row.

Late Policy for Homework

If you don't make the deadline, you lose 15% of your grade for each weekday that your homework is late. The graders check the homework box each day at 11 am; anything turned in after that time will belong to the following day's submissions. No homework will be accepted after 11am of the following Tuesday.

Late Policy for Attendance at Discussion Sessions

If you're 8 minutes or more late, you will receive only half credit for that week; if you are 15 minutes or more late you get zero credit. (You will still, however, receive intellectual benefit from your participation. )

Conflict Exam Rules

Physics 225 does not schedule conflict exam sittings. For final exams, the rules concerning conflicts are outlined in points (5) and (6) of the Student Code - Final Exam section. Point (5) describes the important max-2-in-a-row rule: no student can be required to take three consecutive exams in one day. Please read this important rule so you know your rights! There is a strict order of precedence that determines which courses have to offer you a conflict exam if you have a scheduling collision (including the 2-in-a-row rule). As Phys 225 runs a "non-combined" final and has a relatively small number of students compared with many other 1st or 2nd year classes, it is first in this order, i.e. you will take the conflict exam for your larger classes. If you have a final exam scheduling collision which is not resolved by these rules (e.g. two smaller / "non-combined" courses that collide), email the instructors from all of the courses involved at the same time so that they can work out among themselves who will give you a conflict sitting. This will not be an issue until the end of the semester.