Hey everyone! Here are administrative details about Physics 326.
(1) HOMEWORK DUE DATE: The homework deadline is each week on FRIDAY at 1 pm.
Solutions are to be written on your own paper and should be dropped off in the
326 homework box on the second floor of Loomis. The homework boxes are in the
overpass on the north side of the 2nd floor and they're painted bright yellow
-- you can't miss them!
(2) OFFICE HOURS: Here is the weekly office hour schedule (details soon...)
Sundays 2 - 5 pm Loomis 464 Naomi
Tuesdays 4 - 5 pm Loomis 464 TBD
Thursdays 5 - 7 pm Loomis 464 TBD
I urge you all to come to Sunday office hours in particular: it's a nice
quiet time to work on the homework *early*, and generally get most of it done
and checked before you leave. There's also FREE CHOCOLATE. :-) In any case,
please do not make the mistake of starting your homework the day before it's
due! (That is *never* a good idea in an upper-level class. :-/)
(3) OFFICE HOUR POLICY: Homework is not a quiz, it's PRACTICE. We WANT you to
get 100% on every homework and we EXPECT you to get around 95%. To this end,
the TAs and I will be very happy to CHECK your homework before you leave to
make sure you understand everything. We are also very happy when you work
together in groups (we strongly encourage it, in fact): exchanging ideas is
a superb way to learn!
(4) HOMEWORK LATE POLICY: We'll accept homeworks up to two business days late
with a cumulative -15% penalty per late business day. Thus, if it's due
Friday 1 pm and you hand it in by Monday 1 pm, you get -15%; if you hand it
in by Tuesday 1 pm, you get -30%. No homeworks will be accepted after that.
Also, for homeworks that are due within the week preceding a MIDTERM EXAM,
NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS are accepted (so that we can post the solution as soon
as possible for studying).
(5) HOMEWORK POSTING: will be on Thursday or Friday. The homework will
appear in this webspace, in the homework subdirectory.
(6) GRADING BREAKDOWN: The final grade breakdown will be approximately
Discussion attendance = 5%
Homework = 35%
Two Midterm Exams = 12% each
Final Exam = 36%
I may tweak this a wee bit, but not by more than 3% or so.
(7) TEXTBOOKS: The required textbook is
• John R. Taylor, "Classical Mechanics"
Of all the many texts on this subject, I find this to be the best pedgogical
presentation. I also give a very strong recommendation to a second book,
• David Morin, "Introduction to Classical Mechanics", which is available
online @ UIUC Library; off-campus access needs VPN in Tunnel All mode
Morin's text is also highly pedgagocial, and complementary in style
to Taylor's, but the unique advantage of Morin's book is its VAST repository
of SOLVED PROBLEMS: over 250 in total. Finally to address a common question:
"Can I survive without any textbook?" If you go to all lectures you can
probably survive, but with a subject this deep, foregoing any textbook is
crippling. Your best resource is a COMBINATION of resources. Maybe the best
answer is that, in lecture/discussion/homework, I am ASSUMING that you
have Taylor and are reading it. I try to avoid replicating his presentation
as you are best served by seeing different perspectives.
(8) DISCUSSION SECTIONS: You may not be able to get through all the discussion
questions during section, and that's fine, but you are RESPONSIBLE for all the
material. Solutions will be posted very soon after each discussion section
so please try the questions you didn't get to, then consult the solutions
for assistance - and maybe for some new ideas on how to solve the problems!
(9a) MIDTERM EXAMS: The midterms will be held during lecture period, with the
first one in week 5 or 6 and the second one in week 11 or 12. The exact dates
will be decided about 2 weeks in advance, after a poll in lecture to find
dates that avoid peoples' other midterms as much as possible. Once we pick
a date for each midterm, you will get an email and the date will appear on
the INFO-Schedule page.
(9b) FINAL EXAM: The dates and times for final exams are determined for all
courses on campus by the Registrar's Facility Management division and
are posted on their Final Exam Info page about 7 weeks after classes start.
Once the final exam date is announced for our course, it will also appear on
INFO-Schedule. Your room assignments for the final will appear in the gradebook
during final exam week; here's the link to the room assignment page.
(9c) FOR ALL EXAMS:
- NO CALCULATORS are allowed (who needs 'em, they would just slow you down)
- NO NOTES or other reference materials are allowed (books, computers, etc)
- FORMULA SHEETS will be provided; they will be posted in the main
area about a week in advance of each exam
- NO HOMEWORK will be due during midterm exam weeks, but all office hours
will be held as normal to help you study. As noted in the office hour
section, if the exam falls on a Thursday, any Thursday or Friday office
hours will be moved to an earlier day of the week.
(10) WHERE'S THE GRADEBOOK? The online gradebooks for all physics courses
are in the same place: my.physics.illinois.edu/gradebook/.
Log in with your usual netid and password.
(11) TA EMAILS:
Discussion TA Ben Villalonga Correa vlllngc2 at illinois.edu
Grader Guannan Chen gchen37 at illinois.edu
Grader Tong Wang twang92 at illinois.edu
Any questions about homework scores should be directed to the graders.
Different graders score different assignments so please email all of them.
Here is a link to email all the graders.
(12) EMAILING NAOMI: Please USE THE PHONE, my dear friends. Phones rock.
Stuff gets done over the phone at relativistic speeds compared with email.
Call or text at any time (really!); the number is below. The only exception
is homework questions: with a class of >100 students, the TAs and I must
regrettably confine homework assistance to the office hours (of which there
are many). As for physics questions, please bring them to lecture! Many of
the greatest insights we've had in lecture were prompted by student questions,
please share your thoughts with all of us! :-)
Cheers! Naomi
---------------------------------------------------
Prof. Naomi C.R. Makins (217) 721-3793
email: please.use@the.phone (call|text any time)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Loomis Laboratory of Physics, Room 463
1110 W. Green St, Urbana, IL 61801-3080