Satisfactory performance in all of the assessment types is required to pass the unit.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Required Text

Matter and Interactions by Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood.

Either Volume 2 (Paperback) or the combined Volume (hardbound). Note that Volume 1 is the required text for PHYS107 in semester 1.

Required Resources

A copy of the PHYS106 Laboratory Manual should be purchased from the Coop bookshop before the laboratory sessions begin in the second week of the semester.

Web Resources

More information on the required text as well as additional ressource material can be found at http://www.matterandinteractions.org/

There are also other high quality learning resources on the web which we would recommend to you to use in your studies. The HyperPhysics site hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University is widely acclaimed and used. The site also has mathematics learning resources on the maths used in physics.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html (Mechanics, and, Electricity & Magnetism).

Increasingly there are excellent web-based interactive simulations available – some are in the on-line resources that support the textbook. We encourage you to conduct your own web searches for others, and to develop your own critical judgment of which sites provide high quality resources that assist your learning. Two that we recommend to you are:

• http://www.explorelearning.com/ The Explorelearning Gizmos: follow links to Grade 9-12, Physics, Motion and Force; and Electricity & Magnetism. You will have to register to use this site.

• http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php?cat=Featured_Sims The University of Colorado, Boulder, Physics Education Technology (PhET) Simulations: follow the links to Motion; Energy, Work & Power; and Electricity, Magnets and Circuits. This site also contains maths resources, for example vector addition.

Technology Used and Required 

Lecture notes, tutorial questions and answers, assignments, and other resources will be posted on the PHYS106 iLearn site.

Learning and Teaching Strategy

This unit is taught through lectures and tutorials and through undertaking laboratory experiments. We strongly encourage students to attend lectures because they provide a much more interactive and effective learning experience than studying a text book. The lecturer is able to interpret the physics that you will be learning, showing you the relationships between different components/concepts and emphasising the key physics principles involved. Questions during and outside lectures are strongly encouraged in this unit - please do not be afraid to ask, as it is likely that your classmates will also want to know the answer. You should aim to read the relevant sections of the textbook before and after lectures and discuss the content with classmates and lecturers.

This unit includes a compulsory experimental component. The experiments are stand-alone investigations and may include topics not covered by the lecture content of this course - they are an important part of the learning for this unit and the skills learned are essential for a well-rounded physics graduate.

You should aim to spend an average of 3 hours per week understanding the material and working on the tutorial problems and the assignments. You may wish to discuss your tutorial and assignment problems with other students, the tutors and the lecturers, but you are required to be able to show your own work (see the note on plagiarism). Tutorials and assignments are provided as one of the key learning activities for this unit. It is by applying knowledge learned from lectures and textbooks to solve problems that you are best able to test and develop your skills and understanding of the material.

As mentioned, there are many useful web resources on this material and we encourage you to seek out youtube videos on electromagnetism and other resources.  However, while reading over the lecture notes and reading the textbook are very important, reading notes and watching physics videos are passive learning activities. It is critical that a substantial portion of your study time in physics is devoted to active learning strategies by attempting numerous problems from the text, tutorials, assignments and past exams. It is simply impossible to become adept in this subject by watching physics problems, you must do physics problems.

Lectures:

There are three lectures per week, as timetabled. Lectures follow the chapters from Volume II of the textbook Matter and Interactions.

Week 1: The electric field

Week 2: Electric fields in matter

Week 3: Electric fields of distributed charges

Week 4: Electric potential 

Week 5: Electric field and circuits

Week 6: Circuit elements

(The midsemester exam will cover content up to this point)

Week 7: Magnetic field

Week 8: Magnetic force

Week 9: Patterns of field in space

Week 10: Faraday's law

Week 11: Electromagnetic radiation

Week 12: Waves and particles

Week 13: Revision

Tutorials

You should attend one tutorial per week. 

Laboratory work

Lab experiments start in week 2, and take place each subsequent week apart from week 9 and 11. See the section on Laboratory Practicals. 

We have changed the operation of the exams in the unit. This session, if your final exam mark is better than your midsession exam mark, then only your final exam mark will count towards your final grade. This should not encourage students to place less emphasis on the midsession exam, but does allow for students whose performance improves through the session to get a final grade commensurate with their final performance. 

We will publish recommended problems from the textbook each week. These questions are a suggestion for what work you can do to help you master the key concepts from the course. 

Your quiz answers will be returned to you each week, so that you can compare your answer with the model solutions provided. 

Laboratory Requirements

The laboratory component is considered an essential component of your studies and so counts for an appreciable fraction of your final assessment. 

The laboratory work is designed to introduce you to some of the basic skills and techniques that are used in experimental physical science.  Some of the activities in the laboratory may not relate directly to the material in the lecture course.  This is because the laboratory activities are intended not only to illustrate physical concepts but also to introduce you to some techniques of measurement.

There is not a close correspondence between topics covered in the labs and those covered in lectures. By providing you with instructional material in the form of the Laboratory Notes manual, together with help from the laboratory demonstrators, the laboratory work has been designed to be tackled independently of the lecture material. There is some advantage in becoming familiar with a topic in an experimental situation before you meet it in lectures -  that is often the case in real life!  All the information you need for each experiment is contained in the Laboratory Manual. There is no need to spend a long time outside the laboratory hours in preparation, however a quick read through the lab notes beforehand will allow you to make better use of your time in the laboratory

Location of the 100-level Physics Laboratory

The laboratory is located on the ground floor of building E7B, at the NE corner (room 114).  Entry is from the courtyard at the opposite end to the main staircase. 

Laboratory Attendance Requirements

You are required to attend all rostered laboratory sessions.  If you miss more than one session without a written explanation then you will not be considered to have satisfactorily completed the laboratory component of the unit and you will fail the course.  Each time you attend the laboratory you must sign in and out (legibly) in the attendance book.

If you miss a laboratory session you should contact the Unit Convenor, David Spence, with written explanation and/or a medical certificate. If you miss a session without a valid reason, you must make up that session at an alternate time arranged with the Lab Manager Danny. 

Lab manual

There is a PHYS106 lab manual, which guides you through each of the experiments. The laboratory manual is available on the iLearn website, and will also be available on the computers in the laboratory itself. If you wish, you can also buy a printed copy of the manual from the printery using this link.

Lab Notebook

You will be provided with a notebook to record your experimental results. Your notebook should show your collected data and the calculations and graphs resulting from the data.  At the end of each section summarise your findings and answer any questions posed in the guiding notes. 

At the completion of each laboratory session you must show your book to the laboratory supervisor who will check it and collect for marking.  The marker (one of the laboratory demonstrators) will be checking your book to see whether you have kept a satisfactory record of what you have done and what you have concluded.  Your marked notebook will be available at the start of your next scheduled laboratory.  Be sure to check you book for comments from the marker as this will help you refine you laboratory technique (and increase your laboratory mark).  Your notebook will be kept in the laboratory, and must not be removed from the laboratory at any time; this includes any previously filled notebook.

Laboratory Assessment

Details of the laboratory assessment will be outlined in the first session.

Laboratory Safety

You are required to follow all safety guidelines given in the lab manual, and as outlined by your lab supervisor.  Food and drink cannot be taken into the laboratory and students without suitable covered footwear will be refused admission.

Laboratory Schedule

The schedule of labs is posted in the lab.  Labs start in week 2, and are on each week apart from weeks 9 and 11. Please attend your nominated laboratory session.  If you cannot attend your nominated session due to illness etc then you need to bring a doctor certificate to David Spence.