THE POSTMA PHILOSOPHY

• I want you to succeed.
• Your success is your responsibility.

UPDATES

• 2016-11-03 : HW6 is due on Nov 10. Problems: 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 6.2, 6.3
• 2016-10-20 : HW5 is due on Oct 27. Problems: 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
• 2016-10-11 : HW4 is due on Oct 18. Problems: 3.1, 3.2, 3.5
• 2016-09-22 :
  1. HW3 is due on Sep 29. Problems: 2.4, 2.7.
  2. Sep 29 will have Quiz 1, and a review session afterwards.
• 2016-09-13 : Midterm 1 is Oct 4. Subject Ch1 + Ch2. Midterm 2 is Nov 15. Subject Ch1 - Ch6
• 2016-09-13 : HW2 is due on Sep 20. Problems: 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.12, 1.15
• 2016-08-24 : Syllabus is up.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a calculus-based introduction to Electricity and Magnetism and Optics. PHYS 225 and MATH 150B are prerequisites. MATH 250 is a recommended co-requisite and/or preparatory. It is recommended that you take the lab (PHYS 220BL) concurrently with this course.

TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE

CSUN's Academic Calendar is here.

Below is a public google calendar that is easy to integrate in your own calendar so you will get class changes pushed to your calendar automatically. Use

• This XML link , or
• This ICAL link, or
• This HTML link

TEXTBOOK

To save you all from having to shell out over $300 for this basic physics course in material that has not been updated for over a century (Pet peeve alert), I have undertaken the monumental task of writing a text book just for you. You will receive an emailed link to the file. As this is a work in progress, there will be updates made available electronically. Therefore: save a tree, please don't print it.

DATE/TIME/PLACE

TIME	NAME	PLACE	COURSE ID
TR 13:00-14:40pm	PHYS 226	Live Oak Hall 1124	16518

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Henk Postma,

webpage www.csun.edu/~hpostma

email: postma@csun.edu

phone 1 818 677 6152.

OFFICE HOURS

TR 14:45-15:30, W 13:00-13:45, in Office Live Oak 1112, or Lab in EH 2023/2026. If you have classes at that time, feel free to email or phone me to make an appointment.

EMAIL POLICY

Although you can expect a reply to an email sooner than that, I am committed to replying within 36 hours to your email, +24h per saturday/sunday/holiday.

ADDING CLASSES, HOMEWORK REGISTRATION and CREDIT LOCKOUT

If I have issued you a permission number, please enroll asap.

TESTS

You can expect the following tests:

• Two 'midterm' exams, covering parts of the material
• A comprehensive final exam
• Both the midterms and the final will have a collaborative component. After turning in your individual solutions, you will work in small groups on a collaborative solution, which you will turn in for extra credit.
• Homework, to be announced at least a week before it's due
• Quizzes, for extra credit, testing you on preparatory material before the final and midterm reviews

Test instructions:

• The tests consist of questions with subquestions.
• You can use any calculator you want
• Turn off your cell phone, do not put it on vibrate. If your phone so much as buzzes, or I catch you looking at it, you are considered cheating.
• You are allowed to make a cheat sheet. For the 'midterm' exams: Take a letter-size (8.5 x 11 inches) piece of paper, hand write (no computer) any equations, diagrams, text you want on one side. For the final: use both sides of a letter-size piece of paper. If your sheet of paper is larger than allowed, I will come with a pair of scissors, cut it in two, and choose which side you can keep.
• You get the regular lecture length for the 'midterm' exams, and 2 hours for the final.
• There is a zero tolerance policy for cheating.

GRADING

Scores and grades can be contested up to 10 days after they have been published, afterwards they become final.

The following contributes to your class grade

• H=Homework, a number between 0 and 1, determining maximum 10% of your grade
• E1=Exam 1, a number between 0 and 1, determining maximum 25% of your grade
• E2=Exam 2, a number between 0 and 1, determining maximum 25% of your grade
• F=Final, a number between 0 and 1, determining minimum 40% of your grade
• Q=Quizzes, as a fraction of 1. Correct answers from these will push your final grade up. If you answered all correct, your final grade will be calculated with Y putting your grade between 20% and 100%. If you don't, your grade will range from 0% to 100%. More generally stated: your final grade will be picked between Q*20% and 100%. See the equation below.
• Y=Your grade before the final Y=0.10 H + 0.25 E1 + 0.25 E2
• G=Grade, your grade for this class before adding the bonus from the quizzes
• G'=Class Grade, the grade including the quizzes G' = 0.20 Q + (1 - 0.20 Q) G

Roll-over points: Unused percentage points from the E1, E2, Homework, roll over and add to the weight of the final.

Take the following example, illustrated in the table below. You scored 100% on your homework, earning 10% towards your class grade. You scored 60% on your first exam, earning 25% x 60% = 15% towards your class grade. You scored 80% on the second exam, earning 80% x 25% = 20% towards your class grade. Because you got less than 100% on the two exams, you have not used 15%. Ordinarily, these points are lost, and the highest grade you can get is 10%+15%+20%+40%=85%, if you get 100% on your final. I have decided to add those unused percentage points to the weight of the final. Instead of 40%, the final is therefore worth 55%, and you can still get a straight 100%. If you score 82% on the final, you earn 82% x 55% = 45%. This way you get 90% for the class without quizzes.

So

1. Your grade before the final is Y = 0.10 H + 0.25 E1 + 0.25 E1
2. The weight of the final is 1 - Y
3. Your class grade before quiz bonus is therefore G = F (1 - Y) + Y

Now assuming you got 100% on the quizzes, that means that your class grade will be at the 90% fraction between 20% and 100%, i.e. 0.20 + 0.80 x 0.90 = 92 %.

	Maximum	Before Final	Unused % are added to 40%	Final is worth 55%	grade before quiz	grade after quiz
5	10% Homework	100%	HW	HW	Class Score=90% before bonus	Grade = 92% after bonus
10
15	25% Exam 1	60%	Exam 1	Exam 1
20
25
30		Unused	Exam 2	Exam 2
35
40	25% Exam 2	80%
45
50			Unused	Final 82%
55
60		Unused	Unused
65	40%(minimum) Final		40%
70
75
80
85
90
95
100

I may curve the grade up, depending on the outcome of the tests

The letter for your class grade G' will be determined from the table below. +/- grading will be applied for grades A through D, where - indicates the lower 4% of the grade scale, and the + the higher 4%. An A+ is not given, so the whole scale is

Letter		G' between
A	in	[90%, 100%]
A-	in	[86%, 90%>
B+	in	[82%, 86%>
B	in	[76%, 82%>
B-	in	[72%, 76%>
C+	in	[68%, 72%>
C	in	[62%, 68%>
C-	in	[58%, 62%>
D+	in	[54%, 58%>
D	in	[48%, 54%>
D-	in	[44%, 48%>
F	in	[0, 44%>

HOMEWORK and EXAMS

All homework announcements will be done on this page, at the top in the Updates section. Homework is due before the lecture starts on the due date.

© Copyright 2008-2016, Henk Postma, CSU Northridge