Physics 20

SIMS 2016

Instructor: Keith Fratus
E-mail: fratus@physics.ucsb.edu
Office: Broida 6212

Course Information

Meeting Time: 10:00-10:50 AM

Meeting Location: Elings 1601

Office Hours: August 16th and 19th from 9:00-10:00 PM, and August 23rd from 10:00-11:00 PM, in the Jameson Community Center

Textbook: I'll be lecturing out of my own course notes, which won't reference any particular portion of any textbook. On welcome day you should receive a printed version of these notes, but an electronic copy can also be found here. As for other textbooks, the standard text that was used when I was an undergraduate student was University Physics by Young and Freedman. The textbooks which will be used this Fall during Physics 20 will be "An Introduction to Mechanics", by Kleppner and Kolenkow, along with "Physics: Volume One", by Resnick, Halliday, and Krane. This is true for the CCS courses as well.

Syllabus: Physics 20 covers basic Newtonian mechanics, which is to say that it covers the topics of vector mathematics, Newton's laws of motion, kinematics, work and energy, and conservation laws. Since many of you have already received an introduction to these topics in your high school courses, the goal of our course is to give you a brief, but intense, review of the material covered in Physics 20, along with an introduction to a few slightly more advanced topics. Because many of you are already familiar with the core concepts covered in Physics 20, at times our treatment of the subject material will be at a level which is considerably more advanced than what would be found in a standard Physics 20 class. Below I'll keep a copy of the daily lecture schedule, which may be subject to change, depending on how the summer course progresses.

Homeworks

Homework Zero   Solutions
Homework One   Solutions
Homework Two   Solutions
Homework Three


Lecture and Homework Schedule

Date Topic
08/15 Introduction / The Philosophy of Physics / Vectors / Coordinate Systems
08/16 Kinematics / Projectile Motion
08/17 Newton's Laws / Free Body Diagrams / Frictional Forces / HW1 DUE
08/18 Galilean Relativity / Intertial and Non-Intertial Reference Frames / The Equivalence Principle
08/19 Work / Kinetic Energy / Power
08/20 Potential Energy / Conservation of Energy / Potential Energy Diagrams / HW2 DUE
08/21 Rest Day!
08/22 Momentum / Conservation of Momentum / Collisions / Center of Mass / Rocket Motion
08/23 Advanced Methods: Lagrangian Mechanics
08/24 Special Topic: Special Relativity / Lecture Slides
08/25 Final Exam / HW3 DUE


Additional Resources

Here are some additional, more advanced resources which you may find interesting, for those of you looking for a preview of things to come.

The course web page for Physics 103 last summer, which is the junior-level version of our course.
The course web page for my junior-level physics course as an undergraduate student.