Final grades

My flight leaves in <8hrs, so I'll be brief ...

• MasteringPhysics grades should be up to date. Check your lab scores carefully.
• Each HW is calculated as a percentage (they don't all have the same number of points), and the lowest two dropped. The rest are averaged. If you just added up total points, you may have gotten a different result.
• I scaled exam 3 to have an average of 80% instead of 73%, so you all gained some points.
• Final grades are on myBama now. Some of you got the benefit of the doubt with regard to +/- grades if you were on the borderline ...
• I'm happy to answer any questions you have about grading, just send me an email.
• I'm back in town on 8 July if you want to see / go over your test.
• If you're continuing on with PH102, I will have a sub (the guy teaching the 2nd section) covering the first two classes next week. Check out ph102.blospot.com for course info, notes, and the calendar. We'll use MasteringPhysics again, course id LECLAIRPH102.

Don't hesitate to email me if you have some questions ... I didn't intend to post final grades and run, but it sort of worked out that way! I will have email access while away though.

Hints on practice problems

I'm not sure why hints aren't working on the practice problems. Baffling.

If you're having trouble with any of them, I did work them all out this afternoon. Send me a message of some sort, and I will give you some hints of my own. Same goes for HW7 I suppose, if you're still having trouble.

Exam 3 hints

I sent one of you an email a little bit ago with exam suggestions. Here's what I said.

Draft of exam 3 formula sheet.

Here you go. Proofreading to do, and I'll check for any obvious omissions ...

You will be given any required numerical quantities (specific heats, densities, etc.) in the problems themselves.

Grades

All grades (except the SHM lab from last week) should be up to date now. There is also a new column in Mastering Physics listing your overall grade as of right now, which includes dropping the lowest 2 homework sets and the lowest lab.

Keep in mind you have 1 homework and 1 lab yet to come, as well as one more exam.

Exam 3 practice problems / details

There are some exam 3 practice problems on Mastering Physics now. I have set it up so you can guess without penalty an unlimited number of times, and 'give up' to view the answer at any point. These are just for exam practice, they will not count toward your grade at all.

Additionally, exam 3 will have 5 problems, of which I will grade the best 4. You can bring in a formula sheet as before, and I will provide a basic formula sheet (which I will post Monday night so you can see it ahead of time, but it may be late before I get it done ...).

Exam 2 scores are up

Lab scores have not yet been revised, that will be done (and the last lab's scores added) later today. Tonight, I will have some practice problems for exam 3 up hopefully. The last HW set is good practice material for the exam ...

Exam 3

Exam 3 will cover:

11.2,3,5
12.6,7
13.2,3
14.4-7 (we didn't cover quite at all of 14.7 in class)
15.3

There should be practice problems later today, probably late tonight.

Also, exam 2 grades should be ready tonight sometime. It is taking longer than anticipated.

Exam 2

The exam you just took can be found here. There were two different forms, which differed really just in the ordering of problems and a few inconsequential numbers. I hope to have solutions & grades by Saturday, maybe Friday night if things go well enough ...

Grading update

A few more grades are in, as well as some updates.

• The problem solving competition grades are in. I grossly underestimated how seriously you would take this, so the class average was ~102% ... you win this round! In retrospect, I should have set the grading scale higher, but it was an experiment ...
• The collisions lab scores are in too.
• I updated almost all of the revised lab grades, except for a few of you, so most everything should be current now.
• Since the labs were entered as a % score (up to 100 points) and the homework as a number of points (9 to 11 points per homework set), I realized it is probably hard for you to gauge your current grade. I therefore multiplied all the homework scores by 10 to make them comparable to lab scores. Your lab average and homework average have equal weight, as do each of the exams. Keep in mind I drop the lowest 2 homeworks and the lowest single lab.
• To calculate your grade right now, drop the lowest 2 HW sets, and average the rest. Drop the lowest lab grade, average the rest. Take those two averages, and add in your exam 1 score. Divide by 3, and that's your current grade. After exam 2 scores are in, add your averages and both exam scores, and divide by 4 ... 
• If you'd rather I just tell you your grade, I have up-to-date overall grades, just ask or send me an email. So far as I can tell, MasteringPhysics does not let me put in an overall grade column to make this easier.
• Right now, the class average is a solid B. More than half of you have A's or B's at this moment. Very few of you are in any danger whatsoever of failing. After exam 2, nearly 75% of your graded work will be in.

And, to head this off ... I hope to have your second exam graded by Friday or Saturday, and will post grades as soon as they are done. 

Practice problem bugfixes

There were an embarrassing number of typos in the solutions, so here are some fixes. I'm not saying I caught all of them, but a lot of the silly errors are gone at least.

It is embarrassing when I make little mistakes, since I'm supposed to know better. When you do it on the exam, it is just a point or two off since you're still learning :-)

I guess the lesson is that one should never stop practicing ... you never know it well enough that mistakes are not possible.

UPDATE: moments later, someone pointed out that on problem 4, 11 rad = 1.75 revolutions (not 5.1 rev). The linked file is fixed now.

Exam 2 formula sheet

Find a draft here. Same rules as list time - I'll provide something like this formula sheet, you can bring in one of your own with whatever you like on it.

Tomorrow / Exam coverage

Tomorrow, we'll spend some more time on torque and cover angular momentum (Ch. 10). With what time remains, we'll start elasticity (Ch. 11). Based on the slightly-delayed schedule, I am leaving Ch. 11 material off of the upcoming exam. That means the following are fair game for exam 2:

Ch. 6.1,2

Ch. 7.2-7

Ch. 8.1-5

Ch. 9 all

Ch. 10.1-6

This also means that exam 3 will cover about the same number of sections as the previous two exams (Ch. 11-16).

Exam 2 practice problems

Some practice problems. The first few are missing solutions, I will add those later tonight. I may also add a few more problems tonight.

UPDATE: added a couple new problems, and there are now solutions to all problems. Same link above.

Exam 1 solutions

Here you are.

Grade revisions

I've posted the lab 5 (work-energy) grades on MasteringPhysics now, as well as changes to some earlier lab grades for those of you who asked me to have a look. Please have a careful look - be sure that your lab grade matches the one written on the report you got back, and that your grade is the same as your group mates'. Same goes for the exam grades, do check that everything seems to be correct.*

The scores from today's problem solving competition should be ready tomorrow (Thurs), and I'll post the scores by team number here for the curious. It was a bit more chaotic and slower than I had imagined (as always), but I liked that you were engaged and putting in a good effort. You can leave (anonymous) comments here if you have thoughts on the competition, particularly how to improve it or if you'd want to do it again (modulo improvements).

* I try to be very obsessive and careful, but already at this point there are 340 lab grades alone to manually enter, and typos happen. This is something you should do in all your classes, in my opinion - anyone can make a mistake, now and again, so you should keep track of your own grades as best you can to make sure nothing seems off. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking a professor to explain their grading calculation, that level of transparency should be considered mandatory. I don't mind at all if you question my numbers, and will happily explain them, I don't want them incorrect any more than you do.**

** If you notice an error in your favor, it is your call to mention it or not. I consider it your lucky day, and a lesson that I should be more careful. I don't expect you to bring it up, and don't fault you for taking the 'bonus.' If your conscience is eating away at you, however, then by all means let me know ...***

*** As we're on the subject of grading: I will add a column to MasteringPhysics shortly listing your overall course grade. You can ask/email me at any point for a grade update, I have them already calculated at any given moment.

Exam 2 is soon ...

For the next test, I'm planning to include most of the material after that covered by exam 1 up until Monday of next week. Specifically,

Ch. 6.1,2
Ch. 7.2-7
Ch. 8.1-5
Ch. 9 all
Ch. 10.1-6

The second exam will be much like the first in format. I'll try to have some practice problems out before the weekend, but doing the worked examples in the book is a very good place to start, as are the homework problems.

Things

Exam 1 scores are now on Mastering Physics. The average was 81.7% with a standard deviation of 16.0%. I was pretty much happy with this ... you'll get the exams back on Wednesday.

Lab 3&4 scores are now on Mastering Physics. I have not yet adjusted scores on labs 1 & 2 for those of you that handed them back to me for regrading.

The HW4 deadline is extended through Tuesday, since I'm out of town anyway. HW5 will follow soon.

No lecture tomorrow (Mon) or Tues, but there is a lab as scheduled on Monday afternoon/evening.

Exam 1 for your reference

Here is the exam you took yesterday. I hope to have solutions & grades up this weekend. Have a good weekend!

More practice problems

Here are a few practice problems from another course, with solutions.