Final exam layout

The final exam will be broken up into 5 sections. In each section, you will have a few required multiple choice questions and a choice of problems (4 problems given, solve any 2). The multiple choice questions will require some calculations, but will be much shorter than the problems. Here are the details of each section, with the corresponding sections of the book noted.

Overall, you need to do 10 problems and 12 multiple choice questions. An extensive formula sheet will be given, and you will be allowed to bring in two sheets of paper (front and back) with your own notes.

Section 1: Kinematics

• 2.2-10 (1D motion)
• 4.2-7 (2D motion)
• 5.2-9, 6.2-5 (forces)

2 required multiple choice questions, choose 2 of 4 problems

Section 2: momentum and energy

• 7.2-8 (K, work)
• 8.2-8 (PE, consv. E)
• 9.2-10 (p)

4 required multiple choice questions, choose 2 of 4 problems

Section 3: rotation and gravitation

• 10.2-10 (rotation)
• 11.2-4, 6-11 (torque, angular momentum)
• 13.2-8 (gravitation)

1 required multiple choice question, choose 2 of 4 problems

Section 4: oscillations and waves

• 15.2-7 (oscillations)
• 16.2-10, 17.2-5 (waves)

2 required multiple choice questions, choose 2 of 3 problems

Section 5: fluids & thermodynamics

• 14.2-10 (fluids)
• 18.6-11 (temperature, heat)
• 19.3-5, 11 (kinetic theory of gasses)

3 required multiple choice questions, choose 2 of 4 problems

Exam 4 and its solution

Here is exam 4 and its solution. Though it was an optional exam, it is a reasonable guide to what sort of questions I might ask about oscillations and gravitation on the final.

Details of the final exam coming soon.

HW6 solutions

Here you go. Final exam details and Exam 4 solutions coming shortly.

Grades updated

I've posted the grades to Blackboard again, and the lab grades should show up now. I also made a few corrections based on your feedback.

Please check carefully that all the HW sets you turned in have grades. If your lab or quiz average doesn't seem to make sense, let me know and I'll give you a detailed breakdown.

If you took the optional fourth exam on Wednesday, I'll have your graded exams back on Friday. Though very few of you took it, you chose wisely: each of you did improve your grade. (That's not to say anyone made a mistake by not taking it - for the fourth exam to really be a good call, you had to be on the borderline between grades and have one anomalously low exam grade. Not many of you fit that scenario.)

Grades online

I've just posted your grades on Blackboard. TL;DR check them carefully. UPDATE - the lab grades did not get uploaded somehow. I'll fix that tonight.

You should see grades for each individual HW sets from 1-5, an average lab grade, and an average quiz grade. I've dropped 1 lab, 1 homework, and 2 quizzes (note that you took quiz 5 twice). Basically, this is everything you've turned in to date, except HW6 (which is still not counted late, so most of you haven't turned it in yet). Your overall average is a fair reflection of your grade going into the final.

Please pay special attention to the HW grades  - particularly with email submissions, it is possible I've missed something. Make sure you have grades for all the HW sets you turned in, and that they match what you were handed back. Let me know if you have questions or want clarification.

The rocket competition counted for 2 labs. Out of three targets, you had 9 possible shots that counted (one practice shot per target). Here's how the grading worked:

• 8-9 hits: 100%
• 6-7 hits: 95%
• 4-5 hits: 90%
• 3 hits: 85%
• 1-2 hits: 80%

Even if you didn't do that well in the competition, the grading was fairly generous. You all put in a lot of work leading up to the competition, and I didn't want to penalize any given group too badly for just having a bad day. Overall, we had 10 lab grades with one dropped, so there was not a lot of pressure to be honest. Tomorrow (Wed) I'll announce the winners of the competition.

Anyway: please check your grades carefully. In particular, if you have a zero for a homework set you know you turned in, let me know as soon as possible so we can figure out what happened.

Quiz 4 & 5 solutions

Solutions for all the quizzes are now available. 

Remaining schedule

Tomorrow (Friday) we'll finish up the rocket competition. Most of you still need to try the elevated targets, we'll have to work quickly and efficiently tomorrow to finish it up.

Next week, we'll cover chapters 18-20 on thermodynamics. Roughly speaking, Ch. 18 will be on Monday, Ch. 19 on Wednesday, and the parts of Ch. 20 we'll cover we will finish do on Friday. Chapter 19 will be largely familiar if you've had chemistry (ideal gas law and so on), and we will not cover all of chapter 20, so it is not as much material as it looks like.

If we can find a reasonable time to do so, and if there is enough interest, I will try to have a final exam review session during finals week.