Physics 104 Electricity and Magnetism
Instructor: Dr. Hank Yochum

How to contact me:

I will use the www and email  for communicating, so please consult the web page for class announcements, exam hints, homework assignments, and other useful information.  You will also be submitting work before (see OMA below) each class period over the web.

Feel free to call whenever you need assistance. I tend to check my voicemail and email frequently, so if I am not around, I will get in touch with you as soon as possible. One of the benefits of going to a small college like Sweet Briar is the opportunity to actually interact with your professors, take advantage of this in all your courses.

Text:
Fundamentals of Physics, 5th Edition, by Halliday, Resnick and Walker

Office Hours:
Monday 10:30-11:30
Wednesday 10:30-11:30
Thursday 10:30-11:30
Drop by whenever though.
I am generally around the department, so if you are looking for me, look in the physics department whether or not I am having office hours.

Preparation:
You are expected to have working knowledge of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. You should be able to take derivatives of polynomials and understand derivatives.   You should also be able to do simple integrals and understand  integrals.   It is also assumed that you have a working knowledge of the concepts from Physics 103 (Mechanics).  Do not be surprised when you need to understand F=ma and the other concepts from Mechanics in the context of this course. 

Course Objectives:
After this course, the student should be able to:
    solve word problems
    apply physical principles to novel situations
    provide a description of how to solve a problem, justifying their choices
    provide different representations for a problem (verbal, graphical, vector, diagrams, or equations)
    describe the nature of electromagnetic phenomena
    understand circuits
   
Attendance:
Coming to class is expected. Missing class will make learning the material difficult, as some of what you get out of this course will come from discussion in class with your peers.

Thursday Class Sessions:
The Thursday class session will be used to go over homework and example problems. On some Thursday sessions we will also cover new material..

Homework Sets:
In general, homework will be assigned every Friday and will be due the following Friday. HW will generally consist of questions and problems from the text. Just as one would practice a sport to get good at it. One must practice physics, the HW is your chance to do this.

Waiting to do the HW the night before it is due is a SERIOUS MISTAKE!

I encourage you to work with your peers on the HW. Conversations with your classmates are an excellent way to learn. However, this does not mean you should copy homework.

HW will be graded on a 3 point scale. 3 for a completely correct solution, 2 for a mostly correct solution, 1 for using the correct concept but little else, and a 0 for no effort. Neatness is very important on the HW. A solution that is disorganized but still has the correct answer may not necessarily get a 3 point grade.

One Minute Assignments:
The OMA will consist of a few short questions in regard to the lecture and text. There will be one OMA for essentially every class session, except for Thursdays. An example of an OMA questions is: What did you not understand from today's lecture? The OMA question will be posed on lecture days (MWF) by 3 pm and due the following lecture day by 8 am . Amazingly in the past the class average for OMA's was only around 75 %, there is no reason why the OMA should not help your grade!  The OMA is not graded for correctness, only attempt.  Your responses will be emailed to me at hyochum@sbc.edu through the class web page, http://hyochum.physics.sbc.edu.

Tests:
There will be three tests and some short quizzes.  The short quizzes will be announced at least the day before the quiz.  In general short quizzes will   fundamental questions concerning the material we are going over.

Grades:
Homework sets............................................................20 %
One minute assignments and class participation..............5 %
Three exams..................................................................50 %
Short quizzes........................................................... .....5 %
Cumulative final exam...................................................20 %

Since I can't write exams in such a way that I know in advance precisely how difficult they are, I can't give you an advance guarantee of points resulting in a specific grade. I will give you specific feedback after exams and anytime you ask. I encourage you to see me at any time for my assessment of your work.

Lab:
Your lab is a separate 1 credit course.

Tentative Course Schedule:
These dates are subject to change...