Physics 2A Fall 2015

Instructor: David Newton

Office: S11-a

Office phone: 864-8668

Email: newtondavid@fhda.edu

Web Site URL: http://nebula.deanza.edu/~newton/

Office hours: Monday 2:30-3:20 PM, Tuesday 11:30-12:20, Wednesday- 12:30-1:20 PM, Thursday - 11:30-12:20, Friday 12:30-1:20, and by appointment.

Final Exam: Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 9:15-11:15 a.m.

Text: Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker, 9th edition (but the 8th is also ok)

Prerequisites: Co-requisite: Math 1A
The goal of this class is to study the "laws of motion", that is, Newton's laws with energy and rotation. We will also cover fluids, vibrations, and waves and sound. This amounts to chapters one through twelve in your text.

• If you miss more than five lectures you may find yourself dropped from the class. 

• NO make-up exams without PRIOR consent from the instructor. Use the office phone number given above if you can't see me at school. If I'm not in my office, there is an answering machine at that number available for you to leave a message day or night. You must arrange to take a make-up the exam within two days after the missed exam or you will be scored a zero. 

• No questions are allowed on the day of an exam regarding exam material. This does not apply to quizzes but only exams and the final. Any other types of questions are, of course, fine. 

• Of your two exams the low score will be minimized on a percent basis as follows: Your high score will be tripled and then added to the low score and that total divided by four for an average total exam score. No exam score will be thrown out. Also, NO cheat sheets or note cards or whatever you might call them will be allowed during exams. Exams will not require detailed memorization of many equations.
•    Your lowest quiz score will be dropped. No make ups for quizzes will be given. If you miss a quiz consider this to be your throw out.  

• To pass the class you must take all the midterm exams, the final exam, and the lab final. 

• A grade of zero points will be assigned to any work done if a student has been found cheating on it.

• It is the student's responsibility to drop the class, not the instructor's. A student who has not dropped the class but fails to show to class will be given a grade of F.

• Grading mistakes, or protests for exams and quizzes will only be considered when a written cover letter is submitted to the instructor with the exam or quiz in question. Your appeal will be considered, and the decision will be final. No protests will be considered orally.

• You will be graded on the union of the information provided in the lecture and from the assigned text readings. The grades will be given on the traditional percentages:

Grade distributions:

A-:  90-91%
B+: 88-89%
B:   82-87%;
B-:  80-81% 
C+: 78-79%
C:   60-77%;
D:   50-60%;
F:    lower than 50%.

Lab Work 10%

Homework/Quizzes 10%

Exams (two exams) 40%

Final (comprehensive) 40%

Lab Attendance: Lab attendance is mandatory. If you miss two labs you will be liable for an instructor initiated drop from the entire course. You are dismissed from a lab for the day after you have the instructor's permission to leave. Although you may leave the lab for a short time and then return, attending lab and leaving early for the day without explicit permission from the instructor will constitute an absence.