Instructor: Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Physics 218: Mechanics Instructor: Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Sections 801, 802, 803 Lecture 1

Howdy! Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova [year] How to start email

Overview of Today’s Class Folders Syllabus and Course requirements Tricks to survive Why study Physics? (we’ll do some demos today)

Please take the folders Section 801 (recitation starts at 9:10 am) – red folders Section 802 (recitation starts at 10:20 am) – blue folders Section 803 (recitation starts at 11:30 am) – green folders If you forgot your Section number, please check it with me

We’ll use the folders only in class: DO NOT take them home! Please pick them up before each class and return back after the class DO NOT take them home! I’ll return the tests and quizzes in these folders

Syllabus Instructor Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Homepage http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/etanya/P218/ Office: Engineering-Physics building, Room 530

Phone: 845-5644 E-mail: etanya@tamu.edu Class times: MWF: 8:00 am to 8:50 am Sections 801-803 Location: Rich 101 Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 1 pm – 3pm or by appointment

Dedicated students like it! Textbook: “Don’t Panic: Volume I”, by William H. Bassichis, 5th Edition Dedicated students like it! No lab manual is required

Grade Policy Exams 45% Lab 5% Quizzes (including homework quizzes) 10% Final 40%

Grade Policy (cont) You must pass both the lecture (3 midterm exams, final exam, homework) and laboratory (>70%) parts of the course separately in order to pass the course Students not taking or failing lab will receive an Incomplete

Grade Policy (cont) If your grade on the Final Exam is higher than your lowest grade on one of the three exams during the semester, the grade on the Final will replace that one lowest exam grade in computing the course grade (it will only replace one grade in case of two exams having the same lowest grade). The Final Exam grade cannot be used to replace an exam that has been missed without an University excused absence. The missed exam will count as a zero when computing your final grade.

All Exams are Closed book No numbers! In general the problems will be formula solutions with variables Problems will be similar to those on homework and recitation

Similar does not mean identical! Many of you have taken high school physics are used to being given formulas and numbers to plug into them… We are not going to do this on the exams! We’ll use variables… Good news: If you do the homework the way we ask you to, you’ll be well prepared for the exams!

Homework You’ll have weekly homework assignments Every week you’ll have hw quiz (for 10-15 min) with one problem from your assignment. Good news: you are allowed to use YOUR notes (no books or photocopies) Bad news: small partial credit (for hw). You have to show your work, get a correct formula, and, if required, a numerical answer

Check my webpage for hw assignments Example for Week 1 (Week Aug 25): Week Aug 25 (due Sep 1): All Chapter 1 problems and exercises “Due” means that I’ll give you a hw quiz on that day

All mid-term exams will be in HELD 105 from 7:00 to 9:30 pm Exam schedule All mid-term exams will be in HELD 105  from 7:00 to 9:30 pm September  23             Exam I October      21             Exam II November  20             Exam III Final             TBA

Help sessions are every Monday 30 min before the class I also make help sessions before each midterm exam and the final. However, these sessions cannot substitute for regular class attendance.  They are to give you a good guidance on how to prepare for the test and to succeed in problem solving. Please check my webpage for help sessions schedule

Standards We’re teaching you how to THINK about how to solve technical problems. If you think this class is “plug and chug” you’re going to be VERY unhappy If you think you can memorize a few formulas and ace this course, you are very mistaken

My Advise to You Be proactive!! Get into it and have fun Be serious about an old rule of thumb: you have to study 2-3 hours a week outside the class per each credit hour Don’t miss classes (lectures, recitations, labs) Solve all problems and exercises after each Chapter in the book Don’t fall into the “I understand the concepts but I can’t do the problems” trap. It means you haven’t done enough of the problems in the chapters. Every year we have lots of students who really think they understand but fail during the exams. Don’t let this happen to you!

Why study physics? the most fundamental of the sciences provides the basis of our understanding of the Universe; We do want to find out how things work! scientists of all disciplines make use of the ideas of physics fun to learn and adventure!

What is the role of 218 in your career?

Do your best to build a good foundation for your engineering career! P218 foundation

Language of physics is math Studies show that you need to be good at math to solve physics problems (This is a skill! Anyone can learn it, you just have to learn to deal with the fear and learn it anyways). First week we will learn some calculus: derivatives and integrals that we’ll need in this course

Some statistics… TRACK A # Passed Calc I % 179 44 468 387 82

What happens when physics is ignored?

What happens when physics is ignored? On January 28, 1986, seven astronauts were killed when the space shuttle they were piloting, the Challenger, exploded just over a minute into the flight. The failure of the solid rocket booster O-rings to seal properly at low temperature allowed hot combustion gases to leak from the side of the booster and burn through the external fuel tank. O-ring

Cooling polymers: transition from rubbery to glass state At low temperature molecular bonds become stronger Molecules move too slow to respond to bending Rubber becomes brittle

Let’s do some experiments at low temperature!

Gas Liquid Solid Water Nitrogen Oxygen Boils 100 C (212 F) -196 C (-322 F) -183 C (-297 F) Liquid Freezes 0 C (32 F) -210 C (-346 F) -223 C (-369 F) Solid Our air is ¾ Nitrogen and ¼ Oxygen

How cold is it? Vostok station -89 C Nitrogen boils: -196 C (77 K) Triton, the moon of Neptune: -235 C (38 K)

Earth We are lucky that here on Earth air is gaseous, while water is liquid!

Why is there smoke? This is water vapor! Cold N2 leads to condensation of water droplets in the air. This is how the clouds are formed! Why this vapor goes down while water vapor from boiling water goes up? Because this vapor is cold!

Cooling living cells Rubber regains elasticity when it thaws Living cells are permanently damaged by freezing

Have a great day! Please return the folders and don’t forget your pictures on Wednesday Reading: Chapter 1 (derivatives)