Download Syllabus Physics - Moore Public Schools

Mr. Stamatin
Physics
Syllabus
2016-2017
Course Description
Physics is a college preparatory course for those students seriously interested in a career
in the engineering and/or medical field. Student grades are based primarily upon tests, quizzes &
lab examinations.
General Rules
1.
Respect the teacher, fellow students, and classroom materials at all times.
2.
Be prepared to do work every day. Bring your book, paper, notebook, and a writing
instrument (preferably a pencil) to class. You will need a pencil for most tests. Please no
pink or red ink.
3.
Be on time. Do NOT be tardy. Be prompt and seated in your assigned seat and ready to
work with all materials when the bell rings. You must be inside the door before the last
chime of the bell.
4.
Do NOT disturb or play with lab equipment or any equipment in the room until told to
do so and do so only under the instructor’s directions.
5.
No food or drinks will be allowed during Labs. On days that we are doing experiments
or dissections, no food or drinks will be allowed. Any student caught with food or drink
will have it taken away.
6.
ID’s must be worn and visual at all times while in school.
7.
Cell phones and other electronic will be allowed in class, at teacher’s discretion, for
educational purpose only. If the phone is brought to class it must be on silent and put
away during class period. If a student is caught using a cell phone during class without the
teachers permission you will be asked to put the phone away and if the problem persists it
will given to the office and disciplinary steps will follow.
Tardy Policy
When the bell rings, the students are expected to be within the door. Failure to meet this
requirement will result in the student being given a “tardy.” Two tardies equals one absence as
outlined in the student handbook. If a student is more that five (5) minutes late, they will be
counted absent.
Discipline Policy
As a consequence of inappropriate behavior, the teacher may assign detention, send a
referral to the office, and/or contact the parent(s). Detentions will be held in the mornings or
afternoons only (based upon individual circumstances). Failure to serve assigned detentions will
result in added detentions &/or referral to the office.
Semester Exams
A comprehensive semester examination will be included in the semester grade. The
examination shall count 10% of the students’ final semester grade. The use of supplementary aids
(open notes, note cards, open book, etc.) for the examination will not be allowed.
Late Assignment Policy
Assignments that are handed in on time have the potential to receive full credit. Assignments that
are handed in late, without good reason, will be worth a maximum of 50% credit. All assignments must be
turned in within two (2) days of the original due date. Failure to complete and turn in the assignment by the
two day limit will result in the assignment being recorded as a ZERO.
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Remember that it is the STUDENT’S RESPONSIBILITY to ask for make-up work when he/she is
absent. If a student is to be absent for a school activity, he/she should find out about any make-up work
before leaving for the school activity. Please note the agenda for the week, assignments,
homework and due dates are usually found on my website.
Students that miss an announced test will be given a different test from the rest of the class. Most
make-up tests will be in fill-in-the-blank and short answer form.
Grading Policy
Lab Notebook = 10%
Classwork/Homework = 60%
Quizzes/Tests = 20%
Final = 10%
Students will be required to keep a daily notebook. The notebook will be checked randomly (one
time per quarter) and should contain all notes, diagrams, quizzes, tests, etc. to that point. The purpose of this
assignment is to help the student with organization, note taking and study skills. Lab notebooks will also be
required and will be checked after the completion of each lab and will count as a Lab Grade.
Course Outline
One Dimensional Motion / Graphing. We explore the meaning of the slopes of (t, d) graphs and
introducing the concept of "area under the curve." We also define some important ideas: position, velocity,
and acceleration.
One Dimensional Kinematics and Dynamics. A dimension is something that can be quantified using a
number line. We'd usually call it "horizontal" or "vertical" or maybe "the x-axis" or "the y-axis." In this unit
we study one dimension at a time. We look at the two most common types of motion, constant acceleration
and constant velocity motion. That's all the "kinematics" part. The "dynamics" part is where we introduce the
concept of force (a push or pull) and go through Newton's 3 laws for dealing with forces.
Projectile Motion. In this unit, we work with motion in two dimensions. It's a relatively minor part of the
course, but we'll spend a large amount of time on it, because it's the first topic that requires us to organize our
thinking. We'll also introduce what I call the Vegas rule: "what happens in horizontal stays in horizontal, and
what happens in vertical stays in vertical."
Circular Motion. Two new concepts are introduced: the centripetal (inward) acceleration that things moving
in a circle have to have, and the concept of fictitious forces, which among other things sometimes make us
feel like there's a centrifugal (outward) force on us.
Gravitation and Satellite Motion. This section introduces Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation. It uses
this new force combined with the ideas of circular motion to help us understand ideas of planetary motion. A
complete treatment of planetary motion doesn't come until later in the year, when we study the concepts of
energy and momentum.
Energy. This is the most important unit in the course for helping us be better citizens. It goes through what
"doing work" means in physics and discusses what objects or phenomena have the ability to do work. The
ability to do work is called energy, and it's the reason energy is so important in our society: if we we want to
change our environment, we need energy to do it. It will also be a valuable tool in solving problems that were
too difficult to do using the concept of forces. Finally, Power (the "velocity" of energy) is discussed.
Momentum. This concept is useful for helping to understand situations where complex forces are acting,
forces that increase and decrease during the interaction. We'll see it is especially helpful for collisions and
explosions. There are two main topics: first, where momentum is changed by an outside force, and second,
where there are no outside forces and momentum remains constant.
Rotational Kinematics and Dynamics. Everything we've been studying up to now moves in a linear
fashion: up/down, left/right, in/out and every combination thereof. But what about spinning objects?
Fortunately, a parallel and very similar set of rules applies to these. This unit is basically a repeat of the entire
course, zeroed in on the specific topic of rotation.
Simple Harmonic Motion and Waves. This unit is an introduction to repetitive motion. Objects that
regularly move back and forth, either linearly or rotationally, are interesting for many reasons, not least of
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which is that they can be used as clocks. Simple Harmonic Motion is what you get when how hard the object
is pulled back is directly proportional to how far away from the midpoint it is. The unit also discusses how
something vibrating in simple harmonic motion can force nearby atoms and molecules to do the same, which
can force atoms and molecules near them to do the same, creating a repetitive process that makes a travelling
wave.
Electrostatics. This topic is about how charges can be separated, and how charged objects behave
physically. There's a discussion of the electric force (Coulomb's law,) of how much charge an object can
hold, and of the electric field, which we'll understand as being very similar to the gravitational field. We'll
also discuss lightning and dielectric breakdown
DC Electric Circuits. This unit discusses the kind of electricity that comes from a battery, where charge
always flows in one direction. We call the movement of charge current, and since the charge is always going
in one direction we call it direct current. Batteries, light bulbs, resistors, and capacitors are discussed. We
discuss Ohm's law for determining current in a branch of a circuit and qualitatively mention Kirchhoff's
rules.
Magnetism. In this unit, we begin by mapping magnetic fields. We then discuss Orsted's discovery that
moving charge causes magnetism, and go through a bit of atomic theory to understand how permanent
magnets are caused by electronic currents in atoms. We talk about the direction of force on moving charged
particles and how this enables a DC electric motor to work.
AC Electric Circuits. This unit gets put into the middle of the magnetism unit. Michael Faraday and Joesph
Henry figured out in the middle of the 19th century how Orsted's discovery could work in reverse, that is,
how magnets could be used to produce electricity. This allowed us to make the generators that supply us with
power. The electricity produced by a generator doesn't all flow in one direction, it alternates going one way
and then another, so we call it alternating current. This focuses on the amplitude and frequency of AC, how
generators work, how transformers work, and how your cell phone charger converts AC power from the wall
outlet to DC power for your phone to use. Magnetic braking and how an electric guitar works are part of this
unit too. It wraps up with the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves, which are actually light waves, and will
be talked about later on.
Sound. This unit discusses resonance in musical instruments, "the sound barrier," beat frequencies, and the
Doppler effect. This last topic applies to all waves, but it is easiest to understand with sound. There's a
discussion here of how we use the Doppler effect with light to do astronomy and predict weather.
Light. This unit discusses light, or electromagnetic waves, which were introduced in the Magnetism/AC unit.
It talks about many different frequencies of light, including those we can't see, and what we use them for. It
discusses the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, color blindness, making colors by
adding light, making colors by subtracting light, atomic spectra, lenses, why the sky is blue, and polarized
sunglasses and 3D movies.
Contact Information
Nicolae Stamatin
Email: [email protected]
WHS Ph # 735-4800
Conference period –1st Hour
Signatures
____________________________________
Parent / Guardian
date
____________________________________
Student
date
Students and parent or guardian are to sign and date this form and place inside notebook.
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