Dear Physics 606 Students,

Please read the important information below and click on all the links on the homepage to learn more about your other responsibilities in taking this course.

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. This will be the first time we have taught this course using CDS instead of videotapes. 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 fullfill 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.

WebAssign
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 your personal email and you will be able to log on to WebAssign. You then must learn how to submit homework by taking the "test" on Webassign that teaches you how to use the system. Click on the webassign link on the course home page.

UVa Email
You must activate your UVa email since all correspondence will be through your UVa email address. Please click on the link on the home page that shows you how to activate your UVa email. You will be assigned a username and password for your UVa email.

Blackboard
After you have activated your email address, you must obtain your username and password to use features of Blackboard at UVa. Please click on the Blackboard link on the home page and familiarize yourself with it. Blackboard will be used as a discussion board, chat room, and drop box for this course. Blackboard username is the same as your UVa email username. Password is fist initial of first name, first initial of last name,first three digits of SSN, 4 digit birthday.

Example
Name John A. Smith
UVa email jas2g@virginia.edu
SSN 036268791
Birthday June 2

username jas2g
password js0360602

Lecture CD's
The CD's will be sent by UPS  to the address on your registration form.  Please RSVP via email when you have received the CD's.
Please click on the link General Course Information to learn how to read the CDs.

Textbook
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 link General Course Information to see where to buy the textbook..

Please click on all the links on the homepage to learn about your other responsibilities in taking this course.