Welcome to How Things Work!

How Things Work
Physics 103-102
Fall 2018
Sean Lally
seanplally@gmail.com
412.965.0805
T/Th - 326 Smith - 7 - 8:15 PM
Office Hours:  30 minutes before class and immediately after class (as late as desired)
htwfall2018.blogspot.com
How Things Work, Louis A. Bloomfield


Good evening, physics friends!  Welcome to a new semester and your new favorite class, "How Things Work," with your humble host, Sean Lally.

I am thrilled to be sharing some of the big ideas of physics with you this term.

There will be 3 non-cumulative exams, equally weighted.  Exams are generally multiple choice, though it is possible that there *may* be short answer questions, mathematical problems or 1-2 paragraph essays asked as well.

I will assign problem and question sets regularly, but these will not be collected.  Primarily, they are used to help you study material and see what concepts I find to be most valuable (on exams, and in general).  I will give some text references as well, but in general, if it is important I will cover it in class, with related notes on the blog.

I use this blog for my personal notes and to get important information to you.  I tend to use the document projector to work out problems or write essential things.  If it's important stuff, I'll take an image and post it on the blog.  However, don't view this as a substitute for good note-taking.  The blog will have some detail, but also only some skeleton outline of notes.  Sometimes these notes will be up on the blog well in advance of class, and sometimes, well, they won't.

Welcome to "How Things Work"!

8.27  Introduction; course overview
8.29  How to measure things
9.3  Labor Day (no class)
9.5  How things move, part 1: velocity, acceleration and the math of motion (1.1, 1.2)
9.10  How things move, part 2: velocity, acceleration and the math of motion (1.1, 1.2)
9.12  How things move, part 3: Newton’s laws (1.2)
9.17  How things move, part 4:  Newton, pre-history and his first law (1.3)
9.19  How things move, part 5: Newton's laws 2 and 3 (1.3) 
9.24  How things orbit, part 1:  gravitation; Earth and Moon (4.2) 
9.26  How things orbit, part 2:  Universal Gravitation
10.1   How things balance:  center of gravity
10.3  How things move in air:  kites and planes, Bernoulli’s principle (6.2, 6.3)  / test review

10.8  Exam 1

10.10  How things sound, part 1: waves and music (9.1, 9.2)
10.15  How things sound, part 2: harmonics (9.2)
10.17  How things sound, part 3: musical instruments (9.2)
10.22  How things sound, part 4: Music; Doppler effect (9.2)
10.24  How things look, part 1: light, lasers, polarization (13.1, 14.1, 14.3)
10.29  How things look, part 2: lenses, mirrors (15.1)
10.31  How things look, part 3: optical instruments (15.1)
11.5  How things look, part 4: 3-d, optical illusions (15.1)
11.7  How things look, part 5: holograms / test review

11.12  Exam 2

11.14  How things tick, part 1: particles, static electricity (10.1, 10.2)
11.19  How things tick, part 2: batteries and voltage
11.26  How things tick, part 3:  circuits 1
11.28  How things tick, part 3:  circuits 2
12.3   How things tick, part 4  magnetism and electromagnetism 
12.5  How things tick, part 5:  weirdo electrical stuff (11.2)
12.10  Tying up loose ends; exam prep

12.12 Final exam


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