PHYS 1304, Electricity and Magnetism for scientists and engineers. 2009 spring semester.

Lecture time: TuTh, 11:00 AM to 12:20 PM, in Fondren Science building, room 123.

Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM  in my office (Fondren Science building, room 037); or by email appointment at least one week in advance.

The schedule: We follow the school calendar: http://www.smu.edu/registrar/Calendar/calendar08-09.asp and final example schedule: http://smu.edu/registrar/Final_Exam_Schedule/finalexam_spring2009.asp in which our class is scheduled to Thurs., May 7, 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM.

The course and the grading: In this course we discuss the principles and concepts of electricity and magnetism, and their applications in sciences and engineering.  The emphasis is on physics concepts and problem solving skills and abilities. The students are required to memorize basic formulas. The ability to understand the problems at hand and decide which formula to use is the goal we want to achieve. 

The lectures are largely based on materials from "Physics: for Scientists and Engineers, Vol.2" by Serway and Jewett (ISBN-10: 0495385441 or ISBN-13: 978-0495385448). All lecture notes are posted in this page and students are encouraged to download them and use them as your course material.

Students are strongly encouraged to preview the course materials and come to the class with questions. In-class quizzes (usually two problems/questions) will be used to check the efforts spent in these previews, as well as the understanding of materials in previous classes. Prompt review and timely completion of the homework assignments are required and the effort is also checked in the quizzes. Quizzes are open-book, but timed. 

There will be two exams, the mid-term exam and the final, cumulative exam. Both exams are close-book with four page (letter size, single side) formula sheets allowed.

Grading policy: Homework is graded for 50% correctness and 50% completion. No make-ups on quizzes are allowed. Homework make-ups are allowed until the day of the final exam, but will only be counted for completion and will not be graded. There may be one make-up test for each exam for students with a good reason. Discussions among students and with the instructor about homework and quiz problems are highly encouraged. Students are required to understand all problems in the homework and in the quizzes, which define the scope of the mid-term and the final exams.

The final grade are computed based on homework (30%), quizzes (30%), the mid-term exam (20%) and the final exam (20%). 

Letter grade break points:

91.5 < A  < 100
87.5 < A- < 91.5
83.5 < B+ < 87.5
79.0 < B  < 83.5
75.0 < B- < 79.0
71.0 < C+ < 75.0
62.5 < C  < 71.0
50.0 < D  < 62.5
  0.0 < F  < 50.0

Disability Accommodations: Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first contact Ms. Rebecca Marin, Coordinator, Services for Students with Disabilities (214-768-4557) to verify the disability and establish eligibility for accommodations. They should then schedule an appointment with the professor to make appropriate arrangements. (University Policy No. 2.4.)

Religious Observance: Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the semester, and should discuss with them, in advance, acceptable ways of making up any work missed because of the absence. (University Policy No. 1.9.)

Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities: Students participating in an officially sanctioned, scheduled University extracurricular activity should be given the opportunity to make up class assignments or other graded assignments missed as a result of their participation. It is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled examination or other missed assignment for making up the work.
(University Undergraduate Catalogue)
 

Syllabus:

grade report