Physics 1304 -- Fall 2003
(FS 123, TTH 11:00 am-12:20 PM)

Homepage: http://www.physics.smu.edu/~vega/em1304/p1304.html

1. Instructor: Roberto Vega, Office: FS 102, (214)768-2498

	Office hours: TBA
	You may contact me through email: vega@mail.physics.smu.edu (subject line should include EM1304 otherwise your message may be ignored)

TAs:

	To Be Announced
	Free Tutoring: by appointment

2. Course materials:

Textbook: Serway and Beichner, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 4th or 5th edition.

References:

	Study guide and Student Solutions Manual accompanying the current text.
	"Thinking Physics" by Lewis Carroll Epstein.
	Conceptually Guided Questions on E & M by George Mathew

	Homepage of this course: (The URL is at the top of this page). This page is a convenient home base. From here one may go to: the Homework Service, IQ-library, Instructor comments, and Discussion board.
	Discussion board/email: Please submit your queries and physics discussions on the discussion board on the HW site. The board will be monitored by your TA twice a week, times to be announced.

3. Homework/Tests/Final: See your handout, which is also on the web on the course homepage.

Homework: There will be 12 to 14 homework sets. The homework service (linked to our homepage) handles the distribution and the collection of the homework using the Web. No late homework will be accepted. During the semester, for homework performance, student should pay attention to the % scores not the scaled scores.  At the end of the semester the instructor may use a modified version of the scaled score to compute your grade.    Procedure to be announced during the semester.

Tests and Final exam: There will be 3 partial exams and a comprehensive final exam. See the handout for details. During any of the exams,

	a fresh course summary sheet will be given to you. No crib-note card will be allowed.
	Programmable calculators may be used for numerical calculations only.

4. Grading policy: (note: If you are registered for 1404, you lab grade will count for 20% of the total)

	Homework (drop 2) 20%
	Tests 45%  (15 % each)
	Final 35%

Good effort: Definition HW>80%, and   attendance > 80%. The following considerations will be applied to students who have earned the "good effort" status:

	If the final exam letter grade (determined by the default cutoff) is higher than the letter grade of semester average (including the final), the semester average letter grade will be pushed up by one level.
	For the borderline case, where student's scaled score is within 10 scaled score points to the cutoff, the next higher grade will be assigned to the student.

First class reminders

	Homework Service Registration: Go to "Homework Service" (from our homepage). Read students' instructions to get you started. Do the homework service registration and download homework 1.  Do this before the second class so that we may solve any unexpected problems. You will need unique #53823 and password: smuphy.
	Homework due time: Homework #1 is due 12 midnight, Monday 1 Sept 2003.   From HW2 on, all homework will be due at 12 midnight on Mondays.