Accelerated Introductory Physics UN2801

Professor Norman Christ

This site provides information about this course, offered in the Fall of 2020.

• Professor Christ:
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Office:  801 Pupin
  • Telephone:  212 854 3307
  • Office hours: Mondays 9:10 am, Friday 3:10 pm (see Courseworks for Zoom link)
• Text books:
  • Required:    An Introduction to Mechanics, Second Edition, Kleppner and Kolenkow, McGraw Hill, ISBN 978-0-521-19811-0
  • Required (12/2020):   Electricity and Magnetism, Edward M. Purcell,  2nd Edition, available under Files on Courseworks
  • Recommended: The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Feynman, Leighton and Sands, Volume 1, Addison Wesley
  • Recommended: Linear Algebra, fourth edition, Lipschutz and Lipson, ISBN 978-0-07-154352-1, Schaum's Outlines, McGraw Hill.
• Numerical solutions
  • Numerical solutions will be pursued to extend our understanding and explore problems without analytic solutions.
  • We will use the Python language. Instructions, references and sample solutions will be located at: PythonPage.
• Assignments These should be submitted to Courseworks: Go to "Assignments" and chose the proper problem set and click submit. You will then be asked for the location of a file to upload. A pdf file would be preferred.
• Class time and place: 10:10-12:00, Tuesday and Thursday, on-line
• Recitation/problem sessions:
  • Chance to see homework problems solved and to ask other questions
• Conducted by Bigeng Wang ([email protected])
• Wednesday 5:10-6:00 pm, Friday 10:10-11:00 am
• Added Reading.  (Further material that may be useful for the course.)
• Syllabus and schedule.
• On-line lecture notes. (Links to recordings of the lectures can be found under "Pages" on Courseworks.)
• Homework: Reading and home assignments will be posted on this site on Tuesdays.  Homework will consist of 8-10 problems that should be turned in at the end class on the following Thursday (nine days later).
• Midterm Exam:
  • Try the practice midterm exam.
  • A review session, Monday 10/26/2020, will discuss practice exam. Please complete form to determine time.
  • All material up to but not including driven simple harmonic motion will be covered.
  • The exam is open book but you must agree to work without assistence from others.
  • The exam will be posted here at 1:00 pm on Thursday, 10/29/2020 and must be uploaded to Courseworks before 1:00 pm EDT on Saturday, 10/31/2020.
  • The exam should take about 2 hours to complete. Do not leave it to the last minute!

• Final Exam:
  • Try the practice final exam that will be posted soon.
  • A review session with Zoom link on Courseworks, Tuesday 12/15/2020 at 3:10 pm, will discuss practice exam. This will be recorded and posted.
  • There will be two office hours next week: 9:10 am and 6:10 pm Monday (Zoom links on Courseworks.)
  • All material up to and including Coulomb's law will be covered. (The lectures through Tuesday, December 1st).
  • The exam is open book but you must agree to work without assistence from others.
  • The exam will be posted here at 9:00 am on Thursday, 12/17/2020 and must be uploaded to Courseworks before 1:00 pm EST on Saturday, 12/19/2020.
  • The exam should take about 3 hours to complete. Do not leave it to the last minute!

• Grades: Grades will be determined from a weighted average of the homework (20%), midterm exam (30%) and final exam (50%).
• Help Room.  Help with homework and general questions is available in the Physics Help Room, format and hours to be determined.
• Academic integrity
• Students interested in receiving a weekly email newsletter about events and opportunities in the Columbia physics department community can sign up at this link: 
  https://columbia.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6be8c79b26b8fe32ffdd8b00d&id=d47a49b290
• Example of forced oscillation (bridge collapse): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTEeECS7_Ow

This site last modified January 11, 2020