Web Page http://casswww.ucsd.edu/ph9
Our www page will contain most of the following:
handouts, scans of lecture notes, exam times, a table of topics and
pages which we have covered, announcments of when materials have been graded
and are ready to collect, answers to exams and homework, grades,
and links to the many excellent www pages on the solar system.
Course Lectures:
Tu Th 11:10-12:30 /Center Hall 113
Instructor: Prof. David Tytler, Room 428 SERF, 534-7670,
tytler@ucsd.edu,
Office Hours: Tu 1:10-2:00
Course Secretary: Barbara Lowe,
Physics Student Affairs Office,
115 Urey Hall Annex, 534-1745 blowe@ physics.ucsd.edu
Secretary in Instructor's Building: Shirley Roy, SERF room
408,
sroy@ucsd.edu, 534 2690
Teaching Assistant:
Michael Burin , Room 439 SERF, 822-2018 or 822-3712, mburin@ucsd.edu,
Office Hours: Wed 6:30-7:30pm and/or by appointment.
Course Description:
Physics 9 is our basic introduction to the solar system
for non-science majors who have
no experience with astronomy, physics or maths.
Your goal is to become familiar with the scientific way of
thinking and solving problems. The solar system provides exciting and
visually dramatic examples.
We discuss:
- The objects in the solar system: the sun, planets, their moons, the
asteroids, comets and meteors.
- The formation of these objects and their evolution.
- The basic physics needed to understand these topics, including
gravity, orbits, atoms, light, spectra, heat and energy.
- The scientific method, including research tools such as telescopes and
some history.
- The unity of scientific ideas.
Two related courses, Physics 5 and 7 cover the whole of astronomy,
including the stars, galaxies and cosmology. These courses are at
a similar level, but they spend from zero up to 20% of their
time on the solar system.
Mathematics:
Some familiarity with algebra and geometry
would help, but none is needed.
We occasionally use graphs (both histograms and x-y plots),
equations with powers (exponents), proportion,
angles, triangles, and logs.
The required text is
``The Planetary System", Morrison,David and Tobias Owen, 2nd edition,
1996,Addison Wesley Publishing, ISBN 0-201-55450-X
Class Activities:
We will follow three steps:
- As we start each topic, we will summarize the main points and
explain the technical terms and physical concepts which are
mentioned in the book.
- You should then read the relevant part of the book and
prepare questions for discussion in lecture.
- The next time we meet, we will discuss your questions about
the material which you read. Sometimes we will do practice
exam questions.
GRADES
First Midterm 15% Thurs Oct 28
Second Midterm 25% Tues Nov 23
Homework 30%
Final 30%
All exams may include anything from the lectures and homework.
Some of the questions will simply test your memory, but most will
require you to understand and use the ideas that were presented in
the lectures. All three exams will be
cumulative, meaning that they can include any topic covered up to that time,
including those already covered in an earlier exam.
Your numerical (not letter grade) score on each of the
exams and the homework will each be scaled so that the maximum
possible score (not the average of the actual scores)
contributes the appropriate percentage of the total score. The letter grade
will be assigned to the sum of these scaled scores.
We will not ``curve'' the grades, so the grade that you receive depends
only on your performance and not on that of the best or worst or average
students in the class.
The pass/no pass point is decided by inspecting the answers of the relevant
exams. There is no pre-determined percentage score to pass, and there is no
pre-determined percentage of people who will get a given grade.
Please bring following to exams:
B2 pencils, GREEN scantron form, blue-books for written answers.
We will give each of you a code number for this course.
You should write this number on all homework and exam
materials instead of your name.
If you accidentally write your name on these materials, they will be much
harder to retrieve.
Graded material will be left in a box outside the elevator on the 4th floor of
the SERF building. We will indicate when this happens on the web page.
You will be able to track the points that you obtain towards your
final grade on the web page.
DISHONESTY and CHEATING. Read the UCSD General Catalog
entry on
``Dishonesty, Academic'' (p.72 in the 1998-99 edition). These rules will be
enforced. Cheating includes submitting another's work as your own, copying
from another person, allowing someone to copy from you,
and using unauthorized materials during an exam. You should do homework
on your own and ask the TA and the instructor for advice and help.
If you work in a study group you must:
- write down the names of all in the group (including any tutors)
on each homework,
- do all your own calculations
- use your own words for all answers.
If you copy from a book or anywhere else, you must write down the
reference (including page numbers) and show exactly what you copied
with quotation marks. We will compare homeworks, and all which appear to
involve cheating will be sent to the Deans.
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