Updated: 1/1/2010
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Updated: 1/1/2010
If you are interested, here are my comments on
preparing for the first day of class.
Please take a moment to go to Blackboard and read the two files
in the Course Information folder that contain advice to you from
students who completed this class last year.
Week 1
Wed 1/6:
Syllabus handed out, info sheets and 'Reality Check' collected.
You are responsible for everything in Chapter 1, whether I review
that material in class or not. Class time is devoted to an overview of
my study suggestions and
how to use LON-CAPA,
plus overview of Chapter 1 and your Chapter 2 assignment for Tuesday.
Sections 1-3 and 1-5 are particularly important.
(Section 1-5 is also reviewed in the lab, which starts Thursday.
Be sure to bring your calculator to the first lab meeting!)
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On the first day I take a few minutes to explain
who belongs in this class.
I will check your information sheets as they come in to try to spot anyone who I think might be taking the wrong course. I may also make a few remarks about what you should be thinking about to be sure you have a good plan for the rest of career at TCC, particularly regarding when you should (or should not) graduate. |
Special Academic Alert for future engineers: Engineering schools have a very strict policy on repeating courses that make up the "core" math and science prerequisites for the major. Details vary, so check the admissions policy of the school you wish to attend. They generally look at every attempt at every school attended, not just at the last grade recorded for your TCC grade point average, for "core" courses such as CHM1045, MAC2311, MAC2312 and PHY2048. |
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You will be responsible for using derivatives when we get
to Chapter 10; for now you just need to know the definitions
involving slopes and areas. See my page on
use of calculus
for details and pointers.
On the second day, or perhaps on the day your assignment W1 is due, I usually tell you my background and qualifications to teach this course if I didn't have time to do it on Monday. Sometimes I tell you the main difference between taking this class at TCC and taking it at some other school. |
Rest of Week 1: Sections 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. On Friday I will repeat a demonstration of how to use LON-CAPA.
Week 2
Material covered in Week 2: Several days on section 2.4, Section 2.5; vector review in Section 3.1, and Sections 3.2 thru 3.4.
Some related web sites for the material in this section:
Week 3
Mon 1/18: Martin Luther King Jr holiday (no class)
Rest of the third week: Sections 3.5 (projectile motion) and 3.6 (circular motion). Start Unit 2 (Sections 4.1 thru 4.5.)
Week 4
Tues 1/26: Exam 1, Sections 1.1 to 3.6 covered by HW-01 thru HW-05.
Reminder: This is a closed book exam.
No notes or electronic devices other than an approved calculator are
allowed. If you answer or otherwise use a cell phone or pager during
the exam, I will pick up your test paper. You may not share calculators.
Do not get up until you are finished;
raise your hand if you have a question.
End of exam:
There is a class after ours, so I will pick up all papers no later
than 11:20, which is 15 minutes before the next class starts (11:35 pm).
If you arrive after the exam has started,
you will get an exam after you are seated and are ready to begin
(calculator and pencils out, everything else put away).
Contact me
if you have any questions.
"What is steel?" was a common question concerning problem 1-10 in Serway and Beichner (no longer used), but typical of questions students have about minor facts that scientists and engineers are assumed to know based on life experience.