3 May: The course grades that were posted had an error in the computation
of the course grade. Your course grades have been submitted. The
posted course grades have been taken down.
23 April: Someone did not put their name on the homework 10. It is done in blue ink on white lined paper. If you think it is yours, let me know (or see me in class Monday).
22 April: Copies of the new vugraphs
are here (although most of the graphics are in .bmp format and are about
50K each). Copies of a sample
final are here and the
answers are here.
30 March: Review vugraphs can be found in the 'Lecture Notes' section under 'Review'
26 March: Sample exam 2 is posted (along with solutions). The test
will cover through chapter 27 (it will not cover material from the first
test).
Homework solutions are posted.
The last page of today's notes is posted under chapter 28 vugraphs
below.
18 March: For directions to Landstown HS, click here
10 March: Homework set 6 solutions are posted.
1 March: Vugraph 19-14a (doppler shift) is here
13 Feb Extra Credit: The Tidewater Physics Olympics will be Saturday, March 27, from 8:30 to 12:00. Come and help organize and judge the events. Let me know (by email) if you want to help out and earn 2 course extra credit points. For more info see. For directions to Landstown HS, click here 16 Jan - Lab schedule updated on the syllabus.
Please correct your printed syllabi.
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
| intro | 11 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 18 | |
| 19 | 20 and 21 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| 32 | 33 | 34 | review |
| 11 | 13 | 14 | |
| Homework Set # |
Due Date | Project | Exercises | Problems | Extra Credit |
Solutions |
| 1 | 1/23 | Chap 13: 1 | Chap 11: 4, 6, 16, 26 Chap 13: 2, 3, 6 |
Chap 13: 2, 4 | Estimation 1
(See below) |
click here |
| 2 | 1/30 | Chap 13: 10, 12, 18, 28, 30, 38, 40, 42, 44, | Chap 13: 8 | Estimation 2
(see below) |
click here | |
| 3 | 2/6 | Chap 14: Any* | Chap 14: 4, 7, 10, 16, 22, 32, 34, 46 | Chap 14: 2, 4 | Estimation 3
(see below) |
click here |
| 4 | 2/13 | Chap 15: 10, 20, 26, 34, 42 Chap 16: 2, 6, 9, 12, 34, 38 |
16: 6 | Estimation 4
(see below) |
click here | |
| 5 | 2/27 | Chap 18: 2, 4, 12, 14, 20, 26, 28, 36, 38 | Chap 18: 2, 6 | Estimation 5
(see below) |
click here | |
| 6 | 3/5 | Chap 19: 4, 10, 12, 24, 26, 28, 34 Chap 20: 6, 8, 11 |
Chap 19: 4, 6 | Estimation 6
(see below) |
click here | |
| 7 | 3/19 | Chap 20: 14, 16, 20, 24, 40 Chap 21: 2, 8, 12, 18, 19 |
Chap 20: 2, 6 | Estimation 7
(see below) |
click here | |
| 8 | 3/26 | Chap 27:1* | Chap 26: 16, 22, 26, 28 Chap 27: 10, 18, 20, 26, 28, 34 |
Chap 26: 4, 6 | Estimation 8
(see below) |
cli ck here |
| 9 | 4/9 | Chap 28: 2, 4, 10, 16, 28, 30, 36, 42, 44 | Chap 28: 2, 4 | Estimation 9 See below |
click here | |
| 10 | 4/16 | Chap 29: 2, 12, 20, 26,
30 Chap 30: 4, 8, 12 Chap 31: 6, 8, 12, 26 |
Chap 31: 2 |
Estimation 10 |
click here | |
| 11 | 4/23 | Chap 32: 2, 8, 24 Chap 33: 2, 4, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 34 |
Chap 33: 2 | Estimation 11 |
click here | |
| Practice | Never | Chap 34: 3, 7, 11, 15,
21, 23, 27 |
in textbook |
*Do it for fun. It won't be graded. You don't have to write it up in your homework. (Elementary school students would love some of these projects. My kids do.)
Estimation 1: Pressure increases with depth under water. If you dive 3 m (about 10 feet) down in a swimming pool, what is the pressure on your body? How much total force does the water exert on the front of your body? On the back of your body? Give your answer in Newtons and in tons (1 ton = weight of 1000 kg = 10^4 N).
Estimation 2: If all the people in the world are crowded together as closely as possible, how much area would we occupy? Give your answer in m^2 and in km^2. How does your answer compare to the area of Virginia Beach (about 400 square miles or 1000 km^2)?
Estimation 3: How many people in the world are picking their nose right now (or at any other specific time)? There are about 6*10^9 people in the world.
Estimation 4: How much heat does a person emit on average? Assume that all of the calories you eat in one day are converted to heat. Give your answer in Watts = Joules/second. Compare your answer to the power used by various light bulbs (4 W nightlight, 25 W bulb, 100 W bulb, 500 W halogen bulb , ...) or electric heaters (1500 W heater). Note that a food calorie (C) is 1000 physics calories (c) and 1 physics calorie is about 4 Joules (1 c = 4 J).
Estimation 5 (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 6 (extra credit): One of the loudest sounds ever made on Earth was from 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 or weeks).
Estimation 7 (extra credit): On average, how many people in the United States are playing a musical instrument at 8:00 PM on a Thursday evening?
Estimation 8 (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 9 (Extra credit): Approximately 50
Americans are killed each month in Iraq. Approximately 40,000 Americans
are killed by cars and trucks each year. Approximately 400,000
Americans are killed by tobacco-related causes each year. a) How
much time does it take for cars and trucks to kill 50 Americans
(give your answer in minutes, hours or days, whichever is most reasonable)?
b) How much time does it take for tobacco to kill 50 Americans
(give your answer in minutes, hours or days, whichever is most reasonable)?
Estimation 10 (Extra credit):
If all the pizza boxes from all the pizza that ODU students consume
in 1 year are saved and spread out evenly on Foreman Field,
how many layers will they make? A football field is approximately
50 m by 100 m.
Note on estimation questions: These questions are intended to help give you a feel for numbers and for estimating unknown quantities. There will usually be some number that is not supplied. For example, in Estimation 1, you will need to supply the area of the front of your body. Because we are estimating, we are looking for approximate answers. This means that I usually want at most one significant digit in your answer. The order of magnitude (power of ten) is much more important. This means that if your answer is 678234, you should write 7*10^5. 7 is the significant digit and 5 is the order of magnitude.
