Physics 1A

2014 - Summer Session C

June 23 - August 1
MTWRF, 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, PAB 2434
Instructor
Josh Samani
jsamani@physics.ucla.edu
Oce Hours: M/W/F, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, PAB 1-707L
Teaching Assistant
Alec Stein
alecstein@ucla.edu
Oce Hours: T/Th, 2:30 AM - 4:00 PM, PAB 1-704A (TA Center)
Exams
There will be one midterm exam and one nal exam with the following properties:
Exam Spacetime location
Midterm Monday, August 25, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM, PAB 2-434
Final Friday, August 1, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM, ROOM ???
There will be no make-up exams.
If you miss the nal exam, you will be get an F in the course unless at least one of the
following two criteria is met: (a) A medical emergency prevented you from taking the
exam. (b) You explicitly make arrangements with me before the exam to be assigned
an incomplete (I) in the course. In either of these extenuating circumstances, you will
be assigned an incomplete in the course which means that you will need to take the
nal exam the next time the course is oered and you are registered.
Exams are closed everything except for your brain and a writing utensil. Yes every-
thing, including a calculator or any other electronic device except for a wristwatch.
What will be graded besides exams?
Challenge problems: Each day, I will assign one challenge problem for students to
complete. The set of ve challenge problems for a given week will be
Due at the beginning of lecture on Monday of the following week.
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Exercise sets: An exercise set will be assigned each Monday via Mastering Physics
and will be
Due on Monday of the following week (check Mastering Physics for exact time).
In-class worksheets: At the end of each lecture, I will pass out a short worksheet on
that days lecture topic. You will have a few minutes to complete the worksheet either
by yourself, or with a partner. These worksheets will be pass/not-pass, and you will
pass if you simply put in a good-faith eort to complete the worksheet.
How will grades be assigned?
You will be assigned a grade according to the following scheme:
1. Graded materials in the course will be weighted as follows:
Final 40%
Midterm 20%
Challenge problems 20%
Mastering Physics 10%
In-class worksheets 10%
2. At the end of the course, a weighted average of all of your grades (problem sets, exams,
etc.) will be used to assign you a score out of 100.
3. I will rank everyone in the class according to her/his score.
4. If either your ranking is in the top-percent range r, then you will receive at least the
letter grade g(r) as determined by the following table:
r g(r, s)
1-5 A+
6-15 A
16-20 A-
21-30 B+
31-45 B
46-55 B-
56-65 C+
66-75 C
76-85 C-
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5. If you do not rank in the top 85% of the class, then you will be at serious risk of
failing. In some cases, you will still pass if this happens, but I will decide that on a
case-by-case basis.
6. I reserve the right to increase anyones grade after the rankings have been set accord-
ing to intangibles such as improvement as the session progresses, attendance in class,
attendance in oce hours, participation on Piazza.
Textbook
There is no textbook that is strictly-speaking required for this course, but my recom-
mendation is
An Introduction to Mechanics, Kleppner and Kolenkow, 2nd edition
I used the rst edition as a student, and there is a revised second edition that was released
last year. It was the rst physics book I used in college, and its denitely in my top 5 favorite
physics texts. Its a dicult book which is a good thing because it will prepare you well for
the material in the course. A lot of the problems I will give are taken directly from this book.
Another option is the textbook that is correlated with the online problem system (Mas-
tering Physics) that well be using. That textbook is
University Physics, (volume 1), Young and Freedman, 13th edition
It has a lot of nice examples and pictures, but its at a lower level than I will teach this
course. It would be a good supplement for those who need more practice with basic concepts
along the way.
How to purchase Mastering Physics
You have at least three options for purchasing mastering physics:
1. Purchase only a Mastering Physics subscription for $66.00 directly from the Pearson
website. This can be done when youre trying to access Mastering Physics for the rst
time (see the next section).
2. Purchase a Mastering Physics subscription along with a copy of the ebook version of
Young and Freedman for $119.05 from the UCLA student store.
3. Purchase a Mastering Physics subscription along with a paper copy of Young and
Freedman for $188.00 from the UCLA student store. I believe this also comes with the
ebook version of Young and Freedman.
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Note that although Im not going to assign any readings from Young and Freedman, I
will be assigning problems with mastering physics, so you at least need option 1.
How to access Mastering Physics
1. Go to www.masteringphysics.com, under Register, click the Students link.
2. Check o whether or not you have an Access Code. If you dont, select the appropriate
textbook for the class (Young and Freedman, University Physics, 13th edition). Accept
the license agreement.
3. Create a Pearson username and password. If you have an Access Code, enter it at the
bottom of the page.
4. On the next page, ll out the appropriate information elds and then click Next. If
you entered an Access Code already, you will be brought to a page from which you can
access the appropriate product. If not, enter your payment information so that you
can Purchase Access, after which youll be granted access.
5. Now you need to enroll in the course. Once again to to www.masteringphysics.com
and sign in with your username and password. One you sign in, click Join a Course on
the bottom of the page, and enter the course ID: MPSAMANI24686. You should be
good to go!
Aspects of the course on the interwebs
We will be using two online platforms in the course:
Piazza: Discussions, questions, announcements, surveys, lecture notes, challenge prob-
lems.
MasteringPhysics: Exercise sets.
Approximate course schedule
Week 1. Kinematics
Week 2. Force and simple dynamics
Week 3. Momentum
Week 4. Energy
Week 5. Rotational Motion
Week 6. Review
Additional Resources
YouTube (seriously, theres great stu on there).
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