Wonders of Technology main page

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  Wonders of Technology - FALL 2005

Course SYLLABUS

GENERAL
FEATURES AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE
The course grade
The Final Project
The Final written Exam (see info at the Features and requirements of the course)
 

GENERAL

Instructor: V. Adam Niculescu 

Office: Oliver Hall - Physics, 2008.

For location of the office see the map at the link: http://www.vcu.edu/maps/acmap/olivern/olivern.htm

e-mail: vanicule@vcu.edu

Note: when sending an e-mail, please write in the subject line: 

Phys107 fall 05.

Due to the very high volume of spam e-mail, only the e-mail with the above subject line will be answered.

Course Web Page: http://www.people.vcu.edu/~vnicule/phy107.htm

Note: The webpage of the course is an integral part of the course. It is your responsibility to access it regularly in order to get all the relevant information as the semester progresses.

Office hours:      Monday: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm in Oliver Hall - Physics, 2008,

Other times by appointment.

 

The lecture will be as follows:

                    Sections 001- 010: Monday 12:00 – 12:50 PM, LFSC0151

                    Sections 901 – 904: Monday 5:00 – 5:50 PM, Temple 1165

The studio will be held in Temple 3316. The instructors and the times are listed below:           

 

Peter Martin: pmartin@vcu.edu

Pat Goolsby: pgoolsby@vcu.edu

Bill Geiszler: wageiszler@vcu.edu 

George Reid: gbreid@vcu.edu

Pat Woodworth: phwoodworth@vcu.edu

John Skrobiszewski: skrobbie@hotmail.com

 

Time

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

 9:00 - 11:45 AM

001 - Goolsby 004 - Reid 007 - Goolsby 010 - Woodworth

12:00 – 2:45 PM

002 - Goolsby 005 - Reid 008 - Goolsby 904 - Woodworth

  3:00 – 5:45 PM

 003 - Martin 006 - Geiszler 009 - Skrobiszewski

  

  6:00 – 8:45 PM

901 - Martin 902 - Geiszler 903 - Skrobiszewski

Each studio instructor will schedule office hours that will be announced in the first week of classes.

Required materials

Text: Wonders of Technology, Third Edition, by Adam Niculescu, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , ISBN #  0-47170948-4

Studio Manual: Wonders of Technology, Peter Martin.

The CPS-RF keypad

'‘Wonders of Technology’ is a General Education Course in Science. This is a 4 credit studio-based course. It is an introduction to physics concepts involved in everyday technological applications. The course covers selected topics in mechanics, heat, optics, electricity and magnetism by depicting their role in common devices. The course will be offered with the lecture, experimental projects, and recitation integrated in a laboratory-type setting.

Below is the schedule of activities for the semester. You should expect changes and adjustments to this schedule, thus, check it regularly .  The homework, key for the quizzes and some lectures will be posted with links from the main web page of the course.

 

Week of

Lecture

Quiz

Instruction (I)

Project
  On Thursday August 25 and Friday August 26 there are no classes

  week of Aug. 29 (1)

Lecture 1 - Introduction -  and Ch. 1

Pre-course survey

 I 1 - Hypothesis, efficiency, errors, averages, graphs

Proj. 1 - Sprinkler

 

Add, drop, and late registration period (ends on August 31)

  week of Sep 5 (2)

No lecture

Quiz 1 - Proj. 1

I 2 - Areas, volumes, density, mass, conversion of units, indirect measurements.

Proj. 2 - Direct and Indirect Measurements

 week of Sep 12 (3)

 Lecture 2 - Ch 1 continued

Quiz 2 - Proj. 2,

I 3 - Stress, strain, elastic modulus

Proj. 3 - Elasticity

 Week of Sep 19 (4)

 Lecture 3 -  Ch. 5, 6, 7 Fire of Life

 Quiz 3 - Proj. 3,

I 4 -  Experimental design, heat, temperature, loss of heat

Proj. 4 - Harried Cup of Coffee

  Week of Sep 26 (5)

Lecture 4 -Ch. 2 - All Things Known to Man; 3 - World of Crystals

 Quiz 4 - Proj 4

I 5 - Velocity of light, ray diagrams, reflection and refraction of light

Proj. 5 - Reflection and Refraction

 Week of Oct 3 (6)

 Lecture 5 -   Ch. 8 - World of Light and Color

Quiz 5 - Proj. 5

I 6  - Images and objects, plane mirrors

 Proj. 6 - Image formation

 Week of Oct 10 (7)

Lecture 6 - Ch. 8 - continued

Quiz 6 - Proj.6

I 7 -  Demo of laser light properties, sources of light

Proj. 7 - Color and Light Sources
 Week of Oct 17 (8) Lecture 7-  Ch. 9 -Light waves

No studio   this week

 Week of Oct 24 (9)

Lecture 8 - Ch. 11 Making Connections

Quiz 7 - Proj.7

I 8 - Demo. on charge and electrostatics, series and parallel connections

Proj. 8 - Making a Battery
Oct 28

Final Project outline due 

  Week of Oct 31 (10)

Lecture 9 - Ch. 12 - Over the Rainbow

Quiz 8 - Proj. 8

 I 9 - Electrical circuits and equipment Proj. 9 - Electrical circuits
Nov 4

Last day to withdraw from class with a mark of "W"
  Week of Nov 7  (11) Lecture 10 - Ch. 13: Dawn of the Electronic Brain Quiz 9 - Proj. 9 I 10 - Demo. of relation between electricity and magnetism Proj. 10 - Electromagnet

  Week of Nov 14 (12)

Lecture 11 - Ch. 14 - Chariots of Fire

Quiz 10 - Proj 10

I 11 - Speed, velocity, acceleration, energy and work

Proj. 11 - Motion

  Week of Nov 21 (13)

Lecture 12 - Ch 14 -16

No studio   this week

 Week of Nov 28    (14)

 Lecture 13 - Review lecture (on the Internet)  Quiz 11 - Proj. 11 I 12 - Buoyancy, Archimede's law Proj 12 - Flotation
Week of Dec 5

Final Project  Presentations 
   

Final Exams Schedule

 Sections 001 - 010 will have the final on December 14th (Wednesday) from 1-3:50pm in  classroom: LFSCB 151.

Sections 901 - 904 will have the final on  December 12th (Monday) 4-6:40pm in classroom: Temple 1165.

 

 

       

 The course grade will be computed this way:  

Class projects 36%

Lecture quizzes 5%
Studio quizzes 30%
Homework 5%
Final project 12%
- outline 2%
- Final project report (content and presentation) 10% 
Final written examination 12%

 

  

 

If your final course grade is:

90 - 100, you will receive an A,

80 - 89.9, you will receive a B,

70 - 79.9, you will receive a C,

60 - 69.9, you will receive a D,

  0 - 59.9, you will receive an F.

 

 

Enjoy the course