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.

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. 

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.

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 takes a topical and two weeks to prepare for an in-class 15 minutes presentation, 5 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. Once the homework key is posted, that homework is over due. No make-ups on quizzes, and homework assignments are allowed. There may be one make-up test for each exams. 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

Syllabus:

grade report