Instructor: Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Physics 218: Mechanics Instructor: Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Sections 549-552, 570, 571 Lecture 1

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Atmospheric Thermodynamics Elementary Physics and Chemistry Gerald R. North Tatiana L. Erukhimova Texas A & M University SLATE award: 2008, 2009, 2011 Recipient of 2012 Distinguished Achievement University-Level Award in Teaching 2009 AFS College-Level in Teaching

Why study physics? the most fundamental of the sciences provides the basis of our understanding of the Universe; We do want to find out how things work! scientists of all disciplines make use of the ideas of physics fun to learn and adventure!

What happens when physics is ignored?

What happens when physics is ignored? On January 28, 1986, seven astronauts were killed when the space shuttle they were piloting, the Challenger, exploded just over a minute into the flight. The failure of the solid rocket booster O-rings to seal properly at low temperature allowed hot combustion gases to leak from the side of the booster and burn through the external fuel tank. O-ring

Cooling polymers: transition from rubbery to glass state At low temperature molecular bonds become stronger Molecules move too slow to respond to bending Rubber becomes brittle

Let’s do some experiments at low temperature!

Gas Liquid Solid Water Nitrogen Oxygen Boils 100 C (212 F) -196 C (-322 F) -183 C (-297 F) Liquid Freezes 0 C (32 F) -210 C (-346 F) -223 C (-369 F) Solid Our air is ¾ Nitrogen and ¼ Oxygen

How cold is it? Vostok station -89 C Nitrogen boils: -196 C (77 K) Triton, the moon of Neptune: -235 C (38 K)

Earth We are lucky that here on Earth air is gaseous, while water is liquid!

Why is there smoke? This is water vapor! Cold N2 leads to condensation of water droplets in the air. This is how the clouds are formed! Why this vapor goes down while water vapor from boiling water goes up? Because this vapor is cold!

Cooling living cells Rubber regains elasticity when it thaws Living cells are permanently damaged by freezing

Overview of Today’s Class Why study Physics? (we’ll do some demos today) Syllabus and Course requirements Tricks to survive

Syllabus Instructor Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Homepage http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/etanya/P218/ Office: 308 Mitchell Physics bldg (MPHY)

Phone: 845-5644 E-mail: etanya@tamu.edu Class times: MWF: 11:30 pm to 12:20 pm Sections 549-552, 570, 571 Location: 204 MPHY Office hours: MWF 2 pm – 3 pm or by appointment

Dedicated students like it! Textbook: “Don’t Panic: Volume I”, by William H. Bassichis, 6th Edition Dedicated students like it!

Clickers We will use i>clickers for various kinds of assessment: pop quizzes, homework quizzes, in class discussion, etc. You will need to buy i>clicker2 at the MSC Bookstore and register it for this class at www.iclicker.com

WebAssign for labs Once you buy the program, do not register with WebAssign since the first 30 days are free

Grade Policy Exams 45% Lab 10% Quizzes (including homework quizzes) 5% Final 40%

Grade Policy (cont) You must pass both the lecture (3 midterm exams, final exam, homework) and laboratory parts of the course separately in order to pass the course

Grade Policy (cont) If your grade on the Final Exam is higher than your lowest grade on one of the three exams during the semester, the grade on the Final will replace that one lowest exam grade in computing the course grade (it will only replace one grade in case of two exams having the same lowest grade). The Final Exam grade cannot be used to replace an exam that has been missed without an University excused absence. The missed exam will count as a zero when computing your final grade.

All Exams are Closed book No numbers! In general the problems will be formula solutions with variables Problems will be similar to those on homework and recitation

Similar does not mean identical! Many of you have taken high school physics are used to being given formulas and numbers to plug into them… We are not going to do this on the exams! We’ll use variables… Good news: If you do the homework the way we ask you to, you’ll be well prepared for the exams!

Homework You’ll have weekly homework assignments Every week you’ll have hw quiz with one problem from your assignment. Good news: you are allowed to use YOUR notes (no books or photocopies)

Check my webpage for hw assignments Example for Week 1 (Week Aug 26): Week Aug 27 (due Sep 2): All Chapter 1 problems and exercises “Due” means that I’ll give you a hw quiz on that day

All mid-term exams will be from 7:00 to 9:30 pm Exam schedule All mid-term exams will be from 7:00 to 9:30 pm September  17             Exam I October      22             Exam II November  19             Exam III Final             TBA

I make help sessions before each midterm exam and the final. Also, there will be week-in-review sessions However, these sessions cannot substitute for regular class attendance.  They are to give you a good guidance on how to prepare for the test and to succeed in problem solving. Please check my webpage for help sessions schedule

Standards We’re teaching you how to THINK about how to solve technical problems. If you think this class is “plug and chug” you’re going to be VERY unhappy If you think you can memorize a few formulas and ace this course, you are very mistaken

My Advise to You Be proactive!! Get into it and have fun Be serious about an old rule of thumb: you have to study 2-3 hours a week outside the class per each credit hour Don’t miss classes (lectures, recitations, labs) Always read the Chapter before coming to class (Chapter outline videos will help!) Solve all problems and exercises after each Chapter in the book Don’t fall into the “I understand the concepts but I can’t do the problems” trap. It means you haven’t done enough of the problems in the chapters. Every year we have lots of students who really think they understand but fail during the exams. Don’t let this happen to you!

Language of physics is math Studies show that you need to be good at math to solve physics problems (This is a skill! Anyone can learn it, you just have to learn to deal with the fear and learn it anyways). First week we will learn some calculus: derivatives and integrals that we’ll need in this course

Have a great day! Reading: Chapter 1 Chapter outline video: http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/etanya/P218/videos.htm