Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova [year]

Atmospheric Thermodynamics Elementary Physics and Chemistry Gerald R. North Tatiana L. Erukhimova Texas A & M University SLATE award: 2008, 2009, Distinguished Achievement University-Level Award in Teaching 2009 AFS College-Level in Teaching 2013 John E. Trott, Jr. Award in Student Recruiting Sigma Xi’s Outstanding Science Communicator Award, 2014

Can you make a light bulb work with a battery and a wire? “Minds of Our Own” by Dr. Matthew H. Schneps and Dr. Philip M. Sadler Harvard-Smithsonian

Make your own MOTOR! All you need is a battery, a nail, a small magnet, and a wire (foil works better)

Overview of Today’s Class Syllabus and Course requirements Tricks to survive Mechanics Review and Coulomb’s Law

Syllabus Instructor Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova Homepage Office: Mitchell Physics bldg (MPHY), Room 308

Phone: Class times: MWF: 9:10 am to 10:00 am Sections 521, 522, 525, 526 Location: MPHY 205 Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1:30pm – 3pm or by appointment

There will be recitation this week! For the lab: Read Physics 208 WebAssign Instructions at htm

Textbook: “Don’t Panic: Volume II”, by William H. Bassichis, 5th 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>clicker and register it for this class at

Grade Policy Exams 50% Lab 5% Quizzes 5% Final 40%

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

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

Homework You’ll have weekly homework assignments Every week you’ll have hw quiz with one problem from your assignment. All quizzes will be given with i>clickers

Check my webpage for hw assignments Example for Week 1 (Week Jan 19): Week Jan 19 (due Jan 26): All Chapter 1 problems and exercises “Due” means that I’ll give you a hw quiz on that day

Exam schedule All mid-term exams will be from 7:00 to 9:30 pm February 17 Exam I March 24 Exam II April 23 Exam III Final May 8

My Advice to You Be proactive!! Get into it and have fun Always watch the chapter outline video and read the book before you come to class 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) 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!

I make help sessions before each midterm exam and the final. Week in review on Mondays 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

Learning community: Wednesday at 8 pm?

A little bit of Mechanics A couple of very important concepts: ____

does NOT depend on path!

Mechanical energy is conserved!

We can find Gravitational Potential Energy r mm GrU 21 )( 

Consider now a different type of a force…..

Consider a force like gravitation which varies as but 1) billion-billion-billion-billion times stronger; 2) there are two kinds of “matter”: positive and negative; Like kinds repel and unlike kinds attract (unlike gravity where there is only attraction) ++ + __ _

From long view of the history of mankind – seen from, say, ten thousand years from now – there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19 th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade. Richard P. Feynman Nobel Prize in Physics,

Have a great day! Hw: All Chapter 1 problems and exercises Reading: Chapter 1