University of Pennsylvania

School of Arts and Sciences

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Physics 151/141 Spring 2017
Course Overview
This course is an introduction to electricity and magnetism. The course begins with the subject of electrostatics,
introducing the concept of the electric field including superposition, covering Gausss Law and then describing
electric potential. Next we cover capacitors and dielectrics. We will learn about electric current and
electromotive force, and will study direct current (DC) circuits with batteries, resistors and capacitors. We will
then turn to magnetic fields, Gausss Law for magnetic fields and magnetic forces. We will study the sources of
magnetic fields, including the Law of Biot and Savart and Amperes Law. Next we will cover electromagnetic
induction, Faradays Law, Lenzs Law, induced electric fields and displacement currents. We will cover
inductance and circuits with inductors and resistors or inductors and capacitors. Ultimately we will summarize
what we have learned in four equations known as Maxwells equations: arguably the most important intellectual
achievement of mankind in the nineteenth century. We will conclude by learning one of the solutions of
Maxwells equations is an electromagnetic wave that propagates through free space and that light is an
electromagnetic wave. The laboratory will cover some geometric optics, and the course will conclude with a
brief introduction to interference.
In mechanics we talked about forces and the consequences of Newtons Laws. The laws of electricity and
magnetism are expressed much more concisely (as Maxwells equations) using the concepts of electric field and
magnetic field, which are more abstract than forces. The mathematics used in this course is more advanced than
the mathematics required in our introductory course on Newtonian mechanics. Consequently many students find
the study of electricity and magnetism more challenging.

Instructor
See your individual Site Canvas Web Page for information about your instructors office and office hours, as
well as the Combined Site Page that lists all instructors office hours.
TA
See your individual Site Canvas Web Page for information about your TA.

Textbook
The textbook for the course is:
Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman: University Physics, Addison-Wesley, Paperback edition,
Volume 2, 14th Edition. The textbook is available in the Penn Bookstore. You are not required to purchase the
additional electronic materials such as Mastering Physics. There is free access to ActivPhysics.

Course Organization
Each individual section may organize its normal four hours of class differently---some sections will use the
fourth hour for active learning, some may use it for lecture, others will be all active learning. The fifth hour,
Thursdays at 5:00PM, will be used during the semester for the two mid-term exams. This time may also be
used for review sessions, make-up lectures or additional problem solving sessions, so you should keep it as
open as possible. We understand that some students have classes that conflict with this time, and that these
students have had to request special permission to enroll with this time conflict. These students should rest
assured that attendance in any additional lectures is optional. The only time that all students are required to be
available for the Thursday hour is for the two required midterms see below.
The lectures will cover the important points of the material and will work through detailed examples. Physics is
best learned by working out problems yourself: Redo the lecture examples yourself and solve the assigned
homework problems yourself. Study steadily throughout each week, trying 4 or 5 problems every other day to
master the material.
The textbook provides additional worked examples and more information on each topic. One approach to
getting the most out of both lectures and textbook is to take 15 minutes at the start of each week to skim through
the textbook chapter that will be covered that week so you can see what to expect in class. Then review in more
depth the relevant sections of the textbook after class.

Exams, Quizzes, and Homework

There are two midterms and one final exam:
1st midterm Thursday FEBRUARY 9 from 5:00-5:50 PM (on Ch. 21 23)
2nd midterm Thursday MARCH 30 from 5:005:50 PM (on Ch. 24 28)
Final Exam Monday, May 1 from 3:005:00 PM (cumulative, emphasis on 29, 30, 32, 35)
Exams will take place simultaneously for all sections in separate lecture halls. You will be assigned to a lecture
hall based on your section or last name. Your assigned exam room will be announced a few days prior to each
exam. You must go to your assigned room. During all exams and quizzes, the use of cell-phones even just
as calculators is forbidden. Bring an actual calculator with no communication or note storage capability!
There will be no make-up exams for the midterms for any reason. Please inform your professor during the
first week of the semester if you have a conflict with the midterm dates. If you are ill or have a serious family
emergency before the midterm, then please inform your professor before the midterm exam and see the
instructions below on registration of absences. In the event of an excused absence, the course grade will be
based on the remaining exams and quizzes. If you fail to take a mid-term exam and the absence is not excused,
you will receive a score of zero for that exam.
There is a make-up in September 2017 for the final exam. You may choose to take this make-up exam only
if you have three final exams on the same calendar day as the Physics 141/151 final exam and the Physics exam
is the middle exam. You must inform your instructor one month in advance of the final exam if you wish to
exercise this option. If you are ill or have a serious family emergency that prevents you from taking the final
exam, again you must inform your instructor before the final exam, and if your absence is excused, you must
make up the final exam in September 2017.

Homework: Homework will be assigned each week with a suggested due date. After this due date, any material
that has been covered in the homework may be covered on a quiz or exam. Although the homework will not be
graded, all students will find it necessary to complete all of the homework in order to do well on the exams and
quizzes. Solutions will be provided, though you should consult these solutions only after you have tried to do
the problem yourself or to check your fully-worked solutions. Trying to learn physics by only reading the
solutions is like trying to play the violin by reading about it. Only reading the solutions instead of working
out the problems yourself will not help you learn the physics and it will lead to poor performance when
confronted with a blank sheet of paper for a quiz or exam! You are encouraged to work with your peers on the
homework and to come to office hours with questions about the homework. During the collaborative learning
sessions you will have direct opportunity to do this.
Quizzes: There will be about 10 quizzes during the semester. A calculator may be required and you are
expected to bring a calculator for every quiz. No cell phones may be used during quizzes even as a calculator.
The quizzes will be held each week during class at a time announced by your instructor. The first quiz will be
the week of Jan. 26. The lowest quiz score will be dropped in determining the final quiz average; you cannot
be excused from additional quizzes due to illness, athletic events etc. If you miss a quiz, you will receive a score
of zero for that quiz. There are no make-ups. Each section will have different quizzes, and the quiz scores of
each section will be adjusted so that the average quiz score of all of the sections are identical. Each section may
also have other components that enter the quiz grade, such as active learning scores, etc., and these will be
treated in the same way.
Absences: Please enter any absences in the Course Absence Report system using Penn-In-Touch. The Course
Absence Report (CAR) system has been designed to provide a consistent way for students to notify course
instructors of short term absences for one or more courses. It also provides a method for advising offices to
track absences and coordinate support for students who miss classes. The submission of a CAR does not
excuse you from your course obligations, students are still responsible for following up with each professor
directly and adhering to course policies and procedures as outlined in the syllabus. For more information on
CAR, see http://www.upenn.edu/registrar/CIT/CIT-CAR-User-Guide.pdf.

Web Site
Announcements, assignments, problem solutions, and grades will be made available on Canvas. You should
have access to two different course sites, one for your section alone and one for all sections combined. All
announcements of interest to all sections will be posted on the latter site.

Physics 151 Labs

The schedule of labs is posted outside DRL 3N18. It, and other related information, is also available online at:
https://www.physics.upenn.edu/node/45437. The laboratory experiments are intended to supplement the
lectures in the course by providing concrete demonstrations of the specific physical principals and by giving
some insight into how those principles operate in practice. The rooms in which the experiments will be
performed change from week to week, and will be posted on bulletin boards located outside DRLB 3W5 and
3N18.

Grading Rubric
Physics 141/151:
Final Examination
Midterm Exam 1
Midterm Exam 2
Quizzes

40%
20%
20%
20%:.

To pass Physics 151, you must complete all the labs and obtain a passing grade in the labs.

Academic Integrity
All students in Physics 141 and 151 are expected to adhere to the University of Pennsylvanias Code of
Academic integrity: http://www.upenn.edu/academicintegrity/ai_codeofacademicintegrity.html.

Syllabus
We will cover approximately one chapter per week. The course is fast moving so be careful not to fall behind!
Sections that are omitted may be discussed in class but will not show up directly on exams.
Week beginning:
Wed Jan 09
Ch. 21: Electric Charge and Electric Field
Mon Jan 16
Ch. 21 Electric Charge and Electric Field continued
Mon Jan 23
Ch. 22: Electric Field: Gausss Law
Mon Jan 30
Ch. 22-23: Gausss Law contd; Electric Potential
Mon Feb 6
Ch. 23: Electric Potential
The first midterm exam is on Thursday February 9 at 5pm on Ch. 21-23
Mon Feb 13
Ch. 24: Capacitance and Dielectrics
Friday Feb 17
Last day to drop the course
Mon Feb 20
Ch. 25: Current, Resistance, and Electromotive Force
Mon Feb 27
Ch. 26: Kirchoffs Laws, Direct Current circuits, R-C circuits (omit 26.3, 26.5)
Mon Mar 6
Spring break
Mon Mar 13
Ch. 27: Magnetic Field and Magnetic Forces (omit 27.8, 27.9)
Mon Mar 20
Ch. 28: Sources of Magnetic Fields, Biot-Savart & Amperes Law
Friday Mar 24
Last day to withdraw from a course
Mon Mar 27
Ch. 28 Continued
The second midterm exam is on Thursday March 30 at 5pm on Ch. 24-28
Mon Apr 3
Ch. 29: Electromagnetic Induction, Faradays Law (omit 29.8)
Mon Apr 10
Ch. 30: Inductance: R-L circuits and L-C circuits (omit 30.6)
Mon Apr 17
Ch. 32: Maxwells Equations and Electromagnetic Waves (omit 32.5)
Mon Apr 24
Ch. 35 Waves: Interference
Last day of classes is Wednesday April 26.
Reading days are Apr 27-April 28.
The final exam is Monday, May 1 from 3pm to 5pm
Sections in the chapters that are specified above as omitted will not be covered on exams; some of the content
of these sections may be covered in lecture.
Also not examinable on quizzes, midterms, and final exams are the following: We skip Ch.31: Alternating
Current, and we only cover in the lab Ch. 33: The Nature and Propagation of Light and Ch. 34: Geometric
Optics.
Although exams may emphasize more recent material, all exams are cumulative they may have problems that
require knowledge of all of the course material covered up to that point in the exam.