Exam 1 details

As you may be aware, exam 1 is Monday during our usual class time in our usual classroom. While this is a 2 hour class period, I am designing it to be a 1 hour exam. You will have 2 hours if you need it, but if you finish in an hour (like I hope) you can just leave early.

Here are the sections from the textbook covered

• 1D motion (2.3-2.9)
• 2D motion (4.2-7)
• Force & motion (5.2-9, 6.2-3, 6.5)

There will be 6 problems in total, of which you must complete 4. If you do more than 4, I will grade them all and use the best 4 (but try to get 4 done well first). There will be a formula sheet provided with all the basic formulas and any numerical constants you will need, and you can bring in one sheet of 8.5x11in paper of your own with notes, etc. What you put on the one sheet you bring in is entirely up to you, and you can use the front & back of the sheet.

There will be heavy partial credit on the exam, so show all your work and be as clear as possible about what you are trying to do.

Good things to study? Old homework and exams, and the homework problems I've given you so far. The exam questions will be easier than the homework I've given you, so don't worry too much. Doing the example problems in the book, or the odd numbered end of chapter problems is also good (so you can see the answer when you're done).

I'll be posting HW2 solutions shortly.

Review Session TONIGHT

Room 203 Gallalee, the usual classrom, 6-7pm.

Come bearing questions ...

Old PH105 Exams

I put up some old PH105 exams for you to look at - some with answers only, some with solutions.

They are easy problems compared to what you've been doing, but good practice nonetheless. For the final it will be advantageous to be able to quickly solve a larger number of straightforward problems, as opposed to our usual exams where you have to solve only a few tough problems.

Quiz tomorrow (Friday)

Reminder: there is a 5-question multiple-choice quiz on Ch. 18 tomorrow.

The content of the quiz will be restricted to the sample problems in Ch. 18 - if you can do those, you are good to go.

In addition we'll go over some practice problems for the final (the ones I put on the board today).

Friday's class

We'll delay harmonic motion until Monday. Tomorrow we will spend some time solving homework problems, and a little bit of time discussing the rocket project and your (informal!) presentations for next week.

For the rockets, I'll sketch out some algorithms and pseudo-code you can use to get the trajectory and then find the launch angle (some of you have already done this). There will be extra points for particularly clever solutions, so it is worth some time to optimize your calculations. I heard talk of pointers today, and it pleased me :-) I should mention that spiffy user interfaces and graphics are not necessary, we would rather focus on cleverness of calculation and efficiency for now.

I will also introduce you to the position sensors you'll be receiving next week (one per team) that you can use to determine the target's range and height.

Tuesday's class

Today, we have really only two tasks:

(1) review for the exam on Thursday
(2) get started on our projectile guidance system

The first part will basically be problem solving - working out some of the current homework problems, and a few extras.

The second part will largely be learning how to numerically calculate ballistic trajectories in the presence of resistive forces, i.e., drag. We have to get this out of the way before we start building and measuring things. Part of this will also include organization - forming teams and dividing tasks, defining the scope and details of our little ballistics project.

Finally: in light of the exam on Thursday, there will be no recitation this Friday. (Also, I am out of town on Friday.)

Exam II

Just FYI ... the rules for Thursday's exam are basically like those for the previous exam.

You will have a choice of problems, though a bit less choice this time. You can bring in one formula sheet with whatever you like on it, I will provide the basic formulas and numbers needed.

The exam will nominally cover chapters 7-9, though I think it is clear that the material thus far is somewhat cumulative. Details on precisely what sections are covered (and which ones aren't) will follow later today.

I should have HW6 solutions up before tomorrow's class to aid in studying. Your latest homework set is also meant to get you solving the sort of problems I'll ask on the exam. Yes, it will be harder than the last one, but nothing you can't handle, and nothing we haven't gone over in class. Really, the only way to study for this one is to work problems.

HW 7 is out

Here you go.

Differences this week:

• all problems are due Thursday, just before the exam
• you do not need to use the template this time
• consider this an exam review ...

[EDIT: the last problem should be 9.69, not 9.70. This is only an issue if you downloaded the homework between 19:14 and 19:27.]

More practice problems

I'm not saying you should do all of these tonight, but here are some problems from each chapter I think are worth glancing at. If you know how to do one already, skip it and move in. If you're not sure ... give it a try. These are all odd-numbered problems, so you have the answers in the back of your book.

Ch. 1
not on the exam.

Ch. 2
15, 29, 45, 51, 109

Ch. 3
there are no questions on the exam specifically from Ch. 3, but here are some vector practice problems that are useful: 35, 39, 43

Ch. 4
13, 25, 27, 35, 41, 61, 65

Ch. 5
19, 43, 51, 53, 59, 101

Ch. 6
17, 23, 27, 31, 41, 81, 109

I'll do some of these at the review session tonight - if you have time, glance through these and have some suggestions for which ones I should do on the board.

Practice Exam solutions

UPDATE: full solutions are now up. (The filename has not changed, I just updated the contents.)

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Here are the solutions to about the first half of the practice problems. They are a bit terse, which reflects my haste this evening/morning, but I think they should be understandable.* With luck, complete solutions will follow tomorrow in the early afternoon.

These problems are not as diverse a set as I would have liked,** but I think if you can get through all of these fairly quickly without much trouble, you will be fine on the exam. Another good thing to do is study the example problems in your text.

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* Most likely, I am just too long-winded in my normal solutions, and these are fine ... feel free to weigh in on this point, since I am writing these things for you.

** On the other hand, at least one of these practice problems will show up verbatim on the exam. Really.

Practice exam questions

Here you go.

Answers provided in a couple of hours ... solutions we'll go over at the review session on Monday (7:15pm, 203 Gallalee).

On average, they are easier than I would really ask on the exam, but the idea is to get you practicing on some of the main concepts.