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Physics 606: How Things Work II
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Dear Physics 606 Students,
Welcome to How Things Work II. This is a course in conceptual physics that focuses on objects that involve electricity, magnetism, light, radiation, and nuclear energy. The demonstrator and lecturer is Professor Lou Bloomfield who has originated and developed the courses How Things Work I and II at UVa. The lectures on the CDs are not rehearsed, but are edited versions of live lectures given at UVa. Assignments and administrative information related to the undergraduate course have been edited from the CDs. Most of the several hundred students in the class take it as an elective to fulfill a science requirement. Although the class that is taped is an undergraduate class, you will still find the lectures and demos interesting and stimulating. Our purpose in making this course available to teachers is to provide you with a myriad of physics examples of "How Things Work" in everyday life and demos that you can use in your classroom as a teacher. This is an excellent way to motivate young people to learn about science. Some of you may find the level of physics discussion in the classroom on the CDs too rudimentary. However, you may find the multiple-choice exams more challenging as well as arriving at the correct explanations for the essay questions for the case studies that I assign for homework. Dr. Bloomfield starts most of his lectures with a question and proceeds to discuss the physics surrounding the question. From the discussion of specific applications we arrive at the general physics principles. The case studies assigned for homework are quite informative and provide an excellent way to study and learn physics concepts. You may also obtain information on how to build any of the demos you see in this course. For example, see the website http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/demonstrations.html#skating.
The CDs will be sent UPS May 17 to the address on your registration form. It is expected that you will receive them by June 1. If the CDs are late by a few days, you will have plenty of time to catch up before the first problem set is due. Please RSVP via email when you have received the CDs.
On May 24, after I get confirmation from the School of Continuing and Professional Studies that you have registered, I will set up a user name and password on WebAssign for you. I will notify you by email and you will be able to log on to WebAssign. You then should learn how to submit homework and take exams on WebAssign.
The recommended text is the second edition of How Things Work. the second edition the chapter on water steam and ice is on the website and not in the book. You will need access to the website material, which is located at http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW/book.html. Note that in the table of contents you can click on the blue type, which is the material not in the book, and it will come up on the website. This material is actually contained in the longer first edition. If you have the first edition, you really don't need the second edition of the book, since all problems are rewritten on WebAssign.
Please click on the other links and learn more about the details of this course.