L1—intro,Ch1

PHY 2053C – College Physics A

Fall 2004
Motion, Forces, Energy, Heat, Waves

Dr. David M. Lind

Dr. Kun Yang
Dr. David Van Winkle

Today:
1) Course Organisation and
2) Introduction to Units
3) Coordinates on the world

Course Organisation
Lectures: 101 UPL
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:10 to 11:00
Mini-Exams every second week on Wednesdays
(see schedule on syllabus)
Laboratory:
One session in 107 or 109 UPL
Office hours:
homework help, tutorials: 211 UPL Tuesday
9:30 - 10:30am (Van Winkle)
10:30am-12:30pm (Lind)
12:30-2:30pm (Yang)
4:30 - 5:30pm (Van Winkle)
Homework assignments:
LON-CAPA: Learning on-line with
Computer-Aided-Personal-Approach
Course website: syllabus
http://www.physics.fsu.edu/courses/Fall04/phy2053c/

1
The Lectures

The Monday and Wednesday lectures are used for

“lecturing”, outline of new course material, and
spectacular demonstration experiments
The Friday lecture (usually led by Dr. Yang) is used
for more examples / working through numerical
techniques / help with homework problems
Mini-Exams every second week for the entire lecture
period (see schedule on syllabus)
The Mini-Exam problems are very similar to the
examples discussed on Friday.
Note that there is a strong correlation between class
attendance and student performance.

CAPA homework assignments

There will be a CAPA homework assignment every
week.
Assignments are available early Tuesday and due
before a week later on Wednesday 5am firm!
You will log into the CAPA computer system and
enter your individual answers to your individual
assignment problems.
Login: at http://capa.fsu.edu/
Account: use your acns.garnet acct username
and password
We generated your CAPA-accounts last Friday
morning, and everyone should have access to
your accounts now.
v Log onto CAPA before Wednesday and print out
at least one problem. We want to make sure you
are able to log on properly before your first set is
due!

2
Class Meetings: Labs
9 different sections / UPL 107 or 109, depending on
which section you are registered for!
Hands-on experience with equipments
Analyzing scientific data: graphing and spreadsheet
techniques
Reinforcing the topics / concepts of the lecture
Lab-manual available on-line from the course webpage
Print out a copy of the manual and read it before
coming to each lab!

The lab is a required component of this course!

You must complete every lab (12/12) to pass this
course!

Grading of the course

In order to pass this course, you must:
Complete every lab satisfactorily
Attempt all seven bi-weekly mini-exams
Attempt the final exam

Your Grade is calculated based on

1.) seven mini-exams 50%
2.) labs 15%
3.) CAPA homework 15%
4.) Final Exam 20%

Letter grade: See table in Syllabus

3
Bonus Points
Every Student can add up to 2% to his/her final
course average by earning bonus points:

v Questions will be given to the whole class during

each lecture and you will answer the questions
using the “personal response system” (PRS)
v You will get 2 points for each correct answer or
1 point for each attempt.

v At the beginning of each week's Monday lecture,

you can turn-in a one-page summary of the
material to be covered that week. -> 3 points

Where and how to get help

Many students think, physics is hard.
It is, if you don't let us help you!
v Attend all lectures
v Check the webpage for announcements
v Come to professor's office hours / homework
help sessions / tutorials:
(all held on Tuesday in 211UPL)
Dr. Van Winkle 9:30 - 10:30am, 4:30 - 5:30pm
Dr. Lind 10:30am-12:30pm
Dr. Yang 12:30-2:30pm
v Find a study partner
v Work hard

4
What is physics ?
(and why do YOU need it ?)
Foundation on which all modern science
and technology is built – it is becoming more and
more important.
Today's medical imaging technology/computers /
telecommunication / is yesterday's physics
research.
Teaches a particular way of addressing problems and
observing the environment.
Helps you understand
what is possible and what is not,
which information to believe and which not.

Question 1

Why are you here ?

1) I love physics.
2) Understanding Physics helps me understand
my major subject better.
3) It is a required course for me.
4) All of the above.
5) What ? This is Physics ? I was looking for
Freshman English Composition !

5
Units
Physics measurements require units
1 in = 2.54 cm
= 0.0254 m
= 0.0833 ft
= 1.58 x 10-5 mi
We see five different expressions (using different
units) for the same length measurement.
Physical expressions are meaningless without
specifying the units.
The CAPA-homework system is very strict about
using units for your answer!

Unit conversions
In real life you will encounter that more than one unit
is used to measure the same thing.
e.g. American Unit system <=> Metric System
Conversion mi/hr into km/hr
1 mile = 1.609 km
mile 1 mile 1.609 km km
70 mph 70 70 112
hour hour 1 mile h
Conversion mi/hr into m/s
1 hour = 3600 s, 1 mile = 1609 m
mile 1 mile 1609 m 1 hour m
70 mph 70 70 31.3
hour 1 hour 1 mile 3600 s s
Conversion mi/gallon into km/liters
1 gallon=3.8 liters, 1 mi = 1.609 km
mi 1 mi 1.609 km 1 gal km
18 18 7.62
gallon 1 gal 1 mi 3.8 liter liter

6
Our units
Physics uses the “International Unit System”
Systeme Internationalle (SI),
which is a version of the metric system.
The “standard units:”

Property Unit Name Symbol

Length Meter 1m
Mass Kilogram 1 kg
Time Second 1s

Essentially All other units are derived from these three!

Homework Problems:
Always convert first to standard units

Modification of Units
For some problems, the standard units are unconvenient.
They can be modified by “prefixes” to show powers of
ten such as

Name Symbol Value Example

milli m 10-3=1/1000 mm=millimeter
mg=milligram
micro µ 10-6 µs=microsec.
nano n 10-9 nm=nanometer
kilo k 103=1000 kg=kilogram
mega M 106 MegaByte (?)
giga G 109 Gigawatt

7
Kinematics
We will start with the subject of Kinematics:
“How do we describe the motion of objects?”
a) In one and two dimensions .
b) As a function of time.
c) with constant acceleration (free fall)

The next subject (next week) will be Dynamics:

“What causes the change in motion of objects?”

Frame of Reference
If we want to describe motion mathematically, we
must choose a frame of reference in which we
measure the (changing) position of an object by
providing its coordinates.
A typical choice for the zero-point is
a point fixed relative to the earth's
surface, e.g.
The bottom left corner of the
UPL 101 projector screen
All of you can now describe your
position by giving three numbers
in meters: x,y,z

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Displacement vs Distance
DISPLACEMENT is the difference between final and
original coordinates as defined by your Frame of
Reference

The ∆ stands for “change in ...”

Example:
“Travel 70 m to the east,
then turn around
and travel 30 m to the west”

Displacement (Here = 40 m) pos. or neg.

Distance is the total length of the path
always positive (Here = 100 m)

Stay tuned...

vThis Wednesday: Lecture on Kinematics

vThis Friday: Recitation/Homework Problems

vBefore Wednesday ...

– Read the syllabus
– Look at our web-page
– Log onto CAPA and print
out first problem set
(bring to class Wed.)
– Read chapter 2

http://www.physics.fsu.edu/courses/Fall04/phy2053c