Physics 102 (Spring 2002) Conceptual Physics II

This is an old page from a previous year

Lawrence Weinstein
Room 217 Oceanography Physics Building
Room 104 Nuclear Building (1021 W 47th St)
683 5803
weinstei@physics.odu.edu
 

News:

Final grades are posted here.  They are listed by the last 4 digits of your ID number.  Let me know if I made any mistakes.  I will remove this from the web Monday.

Here is the final exam and the final exam with solutions.

Sample final is now posted.
Here are the answers.  Note that this includes only problems about chapters 28-34.  The actual test will have about 30 more questions on the first 2/3 of the semester.  I expect that there will be about 60 questions on the final.  I promise that there will be no less than 50 and no more than 70 questions.

One student suggests that you look at the web site physicsplace.com that accompanies the textbook.  There are good practice quizzes there and other useful information.

I have posted a suggested set of practice problems for Chapter 34.  Note that they are all odd numbered problems so that the answers are all in your practice book.  DO NOT HAND THIS IN.  IT WILL NOT BE GRADED.

The  review pages are posted.
Homework set 11 solutions are posted.

Calculate your radiation dose at the EPA's web site.

Thanks to all who came on the tour.  You will each receive 1 extra credit point.
 

Exam2 is here and the solutions are here

Sample Exam 2 is now posted.
Solutions are here.

Web site of the day:  Physics fun with a microwave oven.
Exam 1 and its solutions are now posted (finally).

sound barrier shock wave picture (Thanks Mac!)

Sample Exam 1 is posted (click here).

Answers are posted here

You can find the powers of 10 video that we saw the first day of class on the web at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

The syllabus is here page 1 page 2 page 3

You can download the lecture notes from here

2002 OLD Homework Assignments:

*Do it for fun.  It won't be graded.  (Elementary school students would love some of these projects.  My kids do.)

Estimation 1 (extra credit): When they measure your blood pressure (with numbers like '60 over 120' where the 120 refers to the highest pressure and 60 refers to the lowest), they measure it on your upper arm at the same height as your heart.  This is because the pressure in your arteries (like the pressure in water) varies with height.  How much different would the measurement be if they measured your blood pressure on your calf while you are standing up?  Is this difference a lot or a little compared to a typical blood pressure (eg: 60 over 120).   (Assume that blood has the same density as water.  You will need to convert the pressure difference from pascals to tor since blood pressure is measured in 'tor' or 'mm of mercury'.  100,000 Pascals = 760 tor.)

Estimation 2 (extra credit): The specific heat of water is 1 cal / g degree-C = 4.2 J / g degree-C.  This means that it takes 1 calorie to increase the temperature of  one gram of water by 1 degree celsius.  a) How much energy (in Joules) does it take to heat 1 kg of water from almost freezing to barely boiling?  b) If instead of using this energy to heat the water, you used it to increase the kinetic energy of the water, what speed would the water have?  Is this slow or fast?

Estimation 3 (extra credit):  At a distance of the Earth's orbit  from the sun, every square meter receives about 1000 W of solar radiation.  How much solar power hits the Earth?  (Remember that power is in Joules per second.  The Earth has a radius of about 6400 km.  Be careful to estimate how much of the Earth can be hit by solar radiation at a time.)  One large nuclear power plant puts out 1 billion watts of electrical power.  How many nuclear power plants would be needed to equal the solar power?

Estimation 4 (extra credit):  A large electric power plant generates 1 Billion Watts of electricity.  If its thermodynamic efficiency is 1/3, how much coal does it need to burn each year?   Burning coal produces 10^7 J/kg.  Express your answer in tons and in railroad carloads (100 tons each).  How much uranium would a nuclear power plant need each year?  Uranium releases 10^14 J/kg through nuclear fission.  Express your answer in tons.

Estimation 5 (extra credit): (Why tall people walk faster.) The period of a pendulum is T = 2 pi * sqrt(L/g) where g = 10 m/s^2 and L = pendulum length.  Treat your leg as a pendulum with L = 1/2 leg length (since most of the mass is in the thighs, not the calf).  What is the normal walking speed of

1. a person (1 m leg -> pendulum length = 0.5 m)
2. a giraffe (2 m leg)
3. a dog (0.5 m leg)

Estimation 6 (extra credit): One of the loudest sounds ever made on Earth was the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa.  How long would it take the sound from that explosion to travel completely around the Earth (and return to its starting point)?  Give your answer in hours (or, if necessary, in days).

Estimation 7 (extra credit): The dynamic range of the human eye:  Light actually comes in bunches called photons.  The smallest flash of light we can see (when our eyes are completely dark-adapted) is seven photons, about 2.5 * 10^(-18) J of energy, in 1/10 of second.  We can estimate the largest amount of light we can tolerate as 10 times less intense than the sun.  About 1000 W/m^2 reaches us from the sun.  a) calculate how much energy from light would enter one eye in 1/10 second from the sun if you looked right at it (are your pupils large or tiny when you do this?); b) what is the ratio of this energy to the energy of 7 photons (this is the dynamic range of the eye)?

Estimation 8 (extra credit): Driving 40 miles increases your chance of dying immediately in an automobile accident by 1 chance in a million.  According to some models, 10 mrem of radiation increases your chance of dying eventually from cancer by 1 in a million.  Three Mile Island (near Harrisburg, PA), the worst nuclear power plant accident in United States history, might have exposed the surrounding population to 1 mrem each.   a)  How many extra people did the TMI accident probably kill?  b) If you lived near TMI, how far would you have to drive to have the same risk of dying in an automobile as you would from the radiation?