Classical Physics I (Spring 2015)

Set your clicker to channel 21.

Do not use a smartphone or other messaging
devices in class. Please turn them off.

Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15)

As of today, 244 students are registered for PHY 131
Introduction to Physics as a Science and PHY 131
Units and Unit Conversion
Order-of-Magnitude Estimates
Significant Figures in Calculations
(You will learn about measurements in PHY 133)

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 1

 Are you here with your clicker set to channel 21?

1. Yes
2. No
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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 2

 Did you take and pass a physics course in high school?
1. Yes, 1 semester.
2. Yes, 2 or more semesters.
3. I took a physics course but did not
pass it. 117
4. I did not take any physics course.

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 3
 Is this your first physics course at Stony Brook?
1. Yes, and I didn’t take a physics course at a previous college/university.
2. Yes, but I did take a physics course at a previous college/university.
3. No. I started PHY 131 here but dropped it/withdrew. I’m taking it again now.
4. No. I took PHY 131 here and did not get a C or better. I’m taking it again now.
5. No. I started PHY 125 here but dropped it/withdrew. Now I’m taking PHY 131.
6. No. I took PHY 125 here and did not get a C or better. Now I’m taking PHY 131.

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 4
 Did you take MAT 123 Stony Brook?
1. No. I did not have to take it (e.g., I got 5 or higher on the Math Placement Test.
2. Yes. My grade in MAT 123 was A or A-.
3. Yes. My grade in MAT 123 was B+ or B or B-.
4. Yes. My grade in MAT 123 was C+ or C.
5. Yes. My grade in MAT 123 was below C.

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 5

 What about these courses at Stony Brook?
1. I am now taking MAT 125.
2. I am now taking MAT 131.
3. I am now taking MAT 141.
4. I am now taking AMS 151.
5. I already successfully completed one of the above courses.

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 6
 Have you taken/are you taking now the lab course PHY 133?
1. No, and I have neither taken it here nor taken an equivalent lab course
elsewhere.
2. Yes, I am taking it this semester and did not take it or an equivalent lab
course previously.
3. Yes, I am taking it this semester, but I started PHY 133 here earlier and
dropped it/withdrew.
4. Yes, I am taking it this semester, but I started an equivalent lab course
earlier at another college/university and dropped it/withdrew.

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 7
 What is Physics? (It’s Whatever Physicists Do!)
• Physics is an empirical science studying the natural universe to discover and
understand its underlying regularity, symmetry, and predictability. Physicists
– use experimentation to test and obtain new insights and directions
– make sense of what they observe in the laboratory or remotely (e.g., astronomy) …
– use models and current understanding to provide explanations and make predictions
– Physics is NOT a system of “beliefs” but of rational deductions and inductions that
create new knowledge = understanding. “Believing” in physics is an oxymoron!
• Tools: skeptical and logical mind, persistence, experimentation, mathematical
“language” and theory, and common sense
• Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727):
“If I have seen further it is by standing on
the shoulders of giants.”

• Sir Ernest (later Lord) Rutherford (1871-1937):

“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”

• Albert Einstein (1879-1959):

“The value of a college education is not the learning
of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 8
 Goals of the Two-Semester Sequence PHY 131, PHY 132
• Survey of Classical Physics from Galileo & Newton through Faraday & Maxwell
– Centuries of discoveries and understanding packed into two semesters!
“Modern Physics” (quantum physics after ~1900) is covered in later PHY courses
– This semester, PHY 131 (How many are taking the associated 1-credit lab: PHY 133?)
 Part I – Mechanics (rectilinear & rotational kinematics & dynamics): most of the course!
– characterizing and finding the motions x(t) of things (objects, fluids, gases)
 PHY 131, Part II – Oscillations and Waves (abbreviated):
– description of periodic (sinusoidal) motions and how mechanical systems respond to sinusoidal driving
 PHY 131, Part III – Kinetic Theory & the 1st & 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics (abbreviated):
– the characterization, behavior, and properties of many particles in thermal equilibrium
– Next semester, PHY 132 (It also has an associated 1-credit lab: PHY 134)
 Electrostatics, DC Circuits, Magnetostatics, Induction and Electromagnetism, AC Circuits,
Geormetrical (Ray) and Physical (Wave) Optics, Interference, Diffraction, and Polarization
• You will gain knowledge and skills useful in physics and beyond physics:
– How to solve problems rationally (only if you do the online homework yourself!)
– How to reason and draw conclusions
– How to make quick estimates and understand uncertainties
– How to make mathematics an essential part your everday toolbox
– Thus, this is a “go/no-go” course in many science and engineering programs!
01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 9
 Classical Physics I: PHY131 Spring 2015
• Official, “course-wide” information is in the Syllabus + Schedule Calendar on
– Blackboard: PHY 131.01 (R01 – R07) Classical Physics I - Spring 2015 (check it daily!)
 Link to Syllabus + Schedule Calendar. You are responsible reading all of it carefully yourself. Ignorance
of its details will not be a valid excuse! Now to the pdf to go through some of its parts:
 “Announcements” posted by Prof. Koch also sent to all students via email from within Blackboard
 Link to instructions for how to get access to “MasteringPhysics” for weekly online homework
 Link to instructions for how to register and use your (purchased) “clicker” (in Simons Center 103)
• Each recitation section (R01,…,R07) has its own, specific Blackboard area
• Required:
– Textbook: D. Giancoli “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” 4th Ed.
– Access to MasteringPhysics for weekly online homework (7 am, 1/30/15: only 167 registrants!)
 You must include your student ID number when registering. If you don’t, access will be blocked!
 No more than one MP account per student! If you do this, access to all your accounts will be blocked!
 Do the homework yourself; do not copy solutions from someone/somewhere else. Not doing the
homework yourself is a route to a low grade in PHY 131. You will learn the material by doing the
homework yourself. We know this from previous semesters.
 Get “free help” in the “Help Room” in room A-129 physics building. (I’ll be there 2-4 pm today.)
– One TurningTechnologies RCXR-02 Response Card (“clicker”). Only you can register it properly!
 For proper registration: (i) your SBU ID number must be entered as your “User ID”;
(ii) the 6-hex-digit number on the back of your clicker must be entered as “Device ID”.
 If your clicker is registered improperly, your correct clicker answers will get no credit!
 8 am, 1/30/15: 208 clickers are “active”; 21 are “inactive”; ~25 students have done nothing.
– Scientific calculator (see the Syllabus
01/30/15 for1 (snow-delayed
Lecture the restrictions)
from 1/26/15) 10
 How Best To Learn? Do Your Own Homework!

• This is my first time teaching PHY 131, but from my

PHY 132 class last semester (see the plots to the right):
– Students with high exam scores (2 midterms + final, also
recitation-section quizzes: all individual work with a clock
running) had reasonably high homework (HW) scores.
– Students with high exam scores did not have low HW scores.
– A large number of students had low exam (and recitation-
section quiz) scores but high scores on homework.

• How to explain the above difference? the same data are plotted two different ways
– I don’t know a priori which students did only a small
amount of their own homework, i.e., students who got
solutions from someone/somewhere else: other students/the
internet. However, the data show a large number of
students with high homework scores but low exam (and
recitation-section quiz) scores.
– Students who did not work out solutions they submitted for
most/all of the assigned homework would not have learned
how to solve those kinds of problems. Since those kinds of
problems were on the exams, this naturally explains to me
why many students with high homework scores did poorly
on exams and recitation-section quizzes. PHY 131 is a hard
course! Doing all your own homework will help you get a good grade.
01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 11
 I pledge now not to seek solutions to assigned PHY 131
homework problems from someone else or on the internet.
If I need help, I will seek it in office hours of the PHY 131
faculty and/or in the Help Room (A-129, physics bldg.)
1. Yes, I pledge this.
2. No. I do not pledge this. 182

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01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 12
 inside front cover ↓ Textbook (Re)View Materials ↓ first page

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 13

 last page ↓ Textbook (Re)View Materials ↓ inside back cover

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 14

 Textbook (Re)View Materials (in Appendices)

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 15

 Textbook (Re)View Materials (in Appendices)

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 16

 Textbook (Re)View Materials (in Appendices)

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 17

 Textbook (Re)View Materials (in Appendices)

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 18

 Unit Conversion in Physics: Motivation to Get it Right!

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 19

 A Hit TV Series Mentions the Unit Conversion Mistake!
snippet of script from the NBC TV show West Wing, 2/1/2004:
Season 5, Episode 13: “The Warfare of Genghis Khan”
(The show won 3 Golden Globe and 22 Emmy Awards in its 7 season run)

“JOSH Lyman” (fictional White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Political Advisor in
the fictional Josiah Bartlet administration)
[he is speaking to a group of NASA scientists and engineers visiting the White House]

01/30/15 Lecture 1 (snow-delayed from 1/26/15) 20