Physics 1B Godparenting Info
(Departmental Syllabus)

Goal:

Physics 1B is the second of three quarters which cover UCLA's standard first-year physics course for scientists and engineers. The year-long course is best described as "Halliday & Resnik" physics (even though we use Giancoli). Typically, a first year physics course is designed to be divided into two semesters, one for mechanics and one for E&M. Since UCLA teaches this course in three quarters, rather than two semesters, 1B is split. The first 3 weeks finish mechanics. The remaining 7 weeks begin E&M. Most of the students in the course major in engineering or CS, however, most of the department's physics majors also have taken this series (not honors).

UCLA Course catalog description

1B. Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Oscillations, Waves, Electric and Magnetic Fields. (5)
Lecture/demonstration, four hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: course 1A, Mathematics 31B. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 32A. Recommended corequisite: Mathematics 32B. Damped and driven oscillators, mechanical and acoustic waves. Electrostatics: electric field and potential, capacitors, and dielectrics. Currents and DC circuits. Magnetic field. P/NP or letter grading.

Material:

The course material covers 10 chapters of Giancoli which fits well into the 10 weeks of the course. Not all instructors break this down to one week per chapter.

week 1:
reading: Oscillations (chapter 14)
concepts: spring, equation of motion, SHM, energy in SHM, relation of SHM to circular motion, simple pendulum, damped oscillations, driven oscillations and resonance.
can be skipped: physical pendulum
comments: It is nice (but optional) to show that complex exponentials also solve the eq'n of motion for a SHO.
week 2:
reading: Wave Motion (chapter 15)
concepts: definitions (amplitude, period, wavelength, frequency, angular frequency...), transverse vs. longitudinal waves, wave speed, energy transport by waves, mathematical description of wave (2 basic types), wave equation,superposition, intro to Fourier analysis, reflection, transmission, constructive & destructive interference, standing waves
can be skipped: refraction, diffraction
comments: Coroniti derives the wave equation and shows that specific solutions work. Saltzberg shows the wave equation with some motivation but does not derive it.
week 3:
reading:Sound (chapter 16)
concepts: definitions (loudness,pitch,overtone,harmonic...), pressure wave vs. displacement wave picture, decibels, standing waves on strings and in tubes, constructive vs. destructive interference, beats, Doppler effect, sonic boom
can be skipped: n/a
comments: In order to give context to "bulk modulus", go back to introduce all moduli from chapter 12, which is not covered in 1A.
week 4:
reading: Electric charge and field (chapter 21)
concepts: charge, atomic structure, insulators vs. conductors, induced charge, Coulomb's law, scalar fields vs. vector fields, electric field, fields from continuous charge distributions, field lines, motion of charged particle in electric field, def'n electric dipole, force on dipole in electric field, electric field from dipole
can be skipped: n/a
comments: Pay particular care to how electric field lines are used to represent an electric field. It is important to discuss electric dipoles so that magnetic dipoles can be discussed later. not much material this week, good week for a midterm.
week 5:
reading: Gauss's Law (chapter 22)
concepts: electric flux, Gauss's law, applications in particular field inside a spherical conductor, field inside uniform sphere of charge, infinite plane of charge on conductor vs. insulator, Gauss's law==> Coulomb's law, Coulomb's law-->Gauss's law
can be skipped: experimental tests of Coulomb's law
comments: push on concepts hard here...eg with practice multiple choice questions.
week 6:
reading: Electric Potential (chapter 23)
concepts: potential difference, voltage, electric field-->potential, breakdown voltage in air, potential energy due to electric charges, various charge distributions, equipotential surfaces, potential-->electric field (gradient), electron volt
can be skipped: applications
comments: Be really careful about minus signs in lecture notes and solution sets ahead of time.
week 7:
reading: Capacitors and dielectrics (chapter 24)
concepts: capacitors, capacitance, series vs. parallel, energy storage in capacitor, dielectrics, force on dielectric in capacitor, molecular description of dielectrics
can be skipped: none
comments: not much material this week, good week for a midterm.
week 8:
reading: Electric currents and resistance (chapter 25)
concepts: battery, current, circuit, resistance, resistivity, microscopic vs. macroscopic Ohm's law, P=IV, AC current, Vrms, fuses, drift velocity, E inside a wire
can be skipped: temperature dependence, superconductivity, hazards
comments: be clear that current is a scalar even though it has a sign and that current density is a vector. Point out that E is not zero inside a wire even though it is a conductor.
week 9:
reading: DC circuits (chapter 26)
concepts: EMF of battery and internal resistance, resistors in series and parallel, Kirkhoff's rules, multi-loop circuits, RC circuits and applications, using a voltmeter and ammeter, non-ideal voltmeters and ammeters, designing voltmeter from ammeter and vice versa.
can be skipped: transducers and thermocouples
week 10:
reading: Magnetism (chapter 27)
concepts: discovery of magnetism, north & south poles, magnetic field and field lines, electric currents produce magnetism, magnetic fields excert forces on currents, right-hand rule, force on wire in magnetic field, force on electric charge, static magnetic fields do no work on charges, torque on a current loop: galvanometer, hall effect, mass spectrometer
can be skipped motor

Articulation from 1A

We will not include everything here, but only those topics which we have noticed the students should have learned but are often weak on:

vector products, especially cross product. Students need to know how to calculate cross product both as a*b*sin(theta) as well as the full vector calculation.

Articulation to 1C

We will not include everything here, but only those topics which the 1C instructors have noticed need more attention.

torque on current loop in magnetic field using cross product

Grading

Here are some examples:

	Saltzberg	Coroniti	Others?
A+,A,A-	25-30%	15-20%	?
B+,B,B-	30%	25-35%
C+,C,C-	30%	30-50% ?
D/F	10-15%	10-15%

K. Lee grades on a flat scale.

Example Syllabi

Saltzberg's syllabus
Coroniti's syllabus
Corbin's syllabus
Lee's syllabus
Richard's syllabus
Whitten's syllabus
Chalmers's syllabus

Supporting Information

A sample list of demos

Example logistics

Additional comments from F. Coroniti
Additional comments from D. Saltzberg
Additional comments from K. Lee
Additional comments from R. Richard

So far I only have H.W. assignments from H&R, not Giancoli:

Sample H.W. from Saltzberg: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Sample H.W. from Coroniti (see p. 2)

Physics 1B Godparenting Info (Departmental Syllabus)