PHYS 3305, Introduction to Modern Physics. 2008 fall semester.

Lecture time: TuTh, 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM, in Fondren Science building, room 155.

Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM  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_fall2008.asp in which our class is scheduled to Fri., Dec. 12, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM.

The course and the grading: In this course we will be discussing about a wide range of fascinating physics principles that have emerged since the turn of the twentieth century. This discussion will help us to apply these modern physics principles in all areas of natural science as well as to further studies in physics.

The lectures are largely based on materials from "Modern Physics, second edition" by Randy Harris (ISBN-10: 0-8053-0308-1 or ISBN-13: 978-0-8053-0308-7). All lecture notes will be posted in this page and students may download them and use them as course materials. 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.

There will be one class project. Each student choose one topic from a group questions and gets two weeks to prepare for an in-class 8 minutes presentation, 2 minutes Q/A, and the grade will be given by the average from the audience, on a scale of 3 to 5. This grade is added as bonus to the final grade.

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, the spreadsheet