http://online.chabotcollege.edu/shildreth/physics/5hw.html

Each week in our course, you'll have a few things to do:

• Do the reading.  Harris' book was chosen because it was extremely well written, with wonderful examples and a fantastic range of applications of relativity and quantum physics to current society.  Don't miss the end-of-chapter summaries, and the advances/applications at the conclusion of each chapter.  To test your understanding of concepts more than math, look at the conceptual questions that follow each chapter.  I'll suggest good problems from the chapters as well in our discussion area, but note many have answers in the back of the book.
   
• Ponder and discuss the conceptual questions.  Each week, I'll ask you to answer one conceptual discussion question from the end-of-chapter list in our textbook, post your response in the Blackboard shell (by Thursday night, please) and then - usually by Sunday - read and respond to the post of at least one other student.  In addition, I'll have some short research and discussion questions that you can investigate online.  Hopefully these will be interesting and fun, and help you learn much more about what is going on *today* in physics and engineering.
   
• Try the online simulation tools, which offer very short investigations and illustrations of many of the concepts we'll be exploring.  Most of these come from the wonderful ActivePhysics database of java simulations.  These typically take 10-15 minutes, and have just a few questions for you to answer.  Send me your answers to the questions for credit, as a message within Blackboard, by the deadline.  I usually expect you to get these done by Thursday night as well.
   
• Do the homework problems at Mastering Physics.  For the start of the class, these will be drawn largely from the Mastering Physics database of tutorials and skill-building problems that have stepped hints.  A few additional problems taken from Knight will also be assigned, that do not have hints.  At times I'll ask problems from Harris as well.  These assignments are typically due on Sunday night, and Mastering Physics will automatically decrease the credit you earn for late work (up to a maximum of 2/3 off, meaning if you are more than 2 days late, the best you can earn is 1/3 credit if you get everything right.
  
  Note that the homework assignments are not timed, and you can open the questions and work on them over many hours or days.  I recommend that you use the hints whenever possible, as they will help you learn the material far more effectively than if you guess at the answer, or keep trying wrong answers.  I also welcome you asking questions about the homework problems, in the weekly discussion forum!  And working together is definitely encouraged, as well.
  
  Please do the problems on Mastering Physics (http://session.masteringphysics.com/myct?productID=knight2) by logging in with your own personal userid and password.  You need to join our course by entering our Course ID: CHABOTPHYSICS5SPRING2009.  If you haven't purchased your book and access code in the bookstore yet, you must email me or contact me.  You can use the default username of "physics5student" and password of "spring2009" to LOOK at the problems, but you'll have to write down the answers on paper, and turn those in by the due date for credit, and once you buy the code, I'll adjust your score.  If you had an active Mastering Physics account in Autumn 2008, you might need to contact your professor for that class to be "disenrolled" so that you can join our class.  Mastering Physics limits students to one active site a term. 

Please note the Mastering Physics has system requirements and math requirements for the entering of expressions. And I've cut and pasted formula/symbol entry help pages here for your reference.

Discussion Questions and Short Reading/Research Assignments

• Thursday 1/22: Biographies, VARK, and our Online Class
• Thursday 1/29: Evaluating Online Resources for Modern Physics
• Thursday 2/5: Tests of Special Relativity
• Thursday 2/12: GPS, Gravitational Lenses, and LIGO
• Thursday 2/19: Antimatter in Medicine!  Positron Emission Tomography
• Thursday 2/26: Applications of Uncertainty
• Thursday 3/5: Schrödinger's Cat - Quantum Cruelty to Animals?
• Thursday, 3/12: Quantum Wells and Dots
• Thursday 3/26: The STM - Is it the most important piece of technology ever developed?
• Thursday 4/2: What quantum physics applications are in the news now?
• Thursday 4/16: More simulations and Resource Reviews
• Thursday 4/23: A new spin on Spin Quantum Number
• Thursday 4/30: Researching Lasers
• Thursday 5/7: CCDs, STJs, LET's, and other acronyms
• Thursday 5/14: Researching Lawrence Livermore's Fusion Projects
• Thursday, 5/21: Researching the LHC's experiments

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Questions? Email me at shildreth@chabotcollege.edu