PHYS273(H):  From the course catalog: Oscillations and AC circuits using complex variables, Fourier series and integrals, waves on strings, sound; electromagnetic waves from Maxwell's equations in differential form; physical optics. Prerequisites: PHYS272 (Universal gravitation, electric and magnetic fields and potentials, simple circuits, Maxwell's equations in integral form.) and  MATH241 (Introduction to multivariable calculus, including vectors and vector-valued functions, partial derivatives and applications of partial derivatives (such as tangent planes and Lagrange multipliers), multiple integrals, volume, surface area, and the classical theorems of Green, Stokes and Gauss.)

Study Sessions:   Tentative time 2-6 pm, Tuesday, Room 4102. These are informal group study sessions. I will drop in from time to time, and you may be able to reach me or the grader Liang Tao in our offices. Feel free to stop by the study session at any time to ask a few questions, or to stay there to study or participate in discussions of other students' questions as well as your own.

Course web site:   Class notes, supplements, homework assignments, and solutions will all be posted at the course web site, www.glue.umd.edu/~tajac/273c.

E-mail:    I encourage students to make use of e-mail for quick correspondence with me (or the grader) regarding lecture material, homework problems, or whatever. I will also use e-mail to communicate with the class at large. I can often be reached at night or on weekends by email. Students are responsible for making sure I have their correct email address and checking their email daily. Important messages will sometimes be sent to the class by email.

Textbooks:  Two books are required for the course: Vibrations and Waves, A.P.French (W.W.Norton & Co.), and Physics, vol. 2, 5th ed., D. Halliday, R. Resnick, K.S. Krane  (John Wiley & Sons).  Physics, vol. 1 & 2, were used for  Phys 171 and 272, so it is assumed that most students already have them. The chapters specifically relevant to Phys 273 are Vol. 1, Ch. 17-19 and  Vol. 2, Ch. 36-44 (except 40). A copy of each of these will  be on two-hour reserve in the EPS library.

In addition there are hundreds of books on vibrations and waves in the EPS Library. As a recommended book I suggest The Feynman Lectures on Physics, which is a three volume set. Any serious student of physics would benefit from studying  these books, which offer great insight and are entertaining. The level ranges from elementary to quite difficult, although the original lectures were for introductory physics classes. The relevant chapters for Phys273 are: Vol. 1: Ch. 21-34 (except 27 & 32), Ch. 37-38, and Ch. 47-51; Vol. 2: Ch. 18, Ch. 20-24, and Ch. 32-33;  Vol. 3:  Ch. 1-3,7 (Ch.1-2 of v. 3 are identical to Ch. 37-38 of v. 1.) 

Computer software and printing:   Some course material may involve the use of a computer software package for mathematics. For instance Mathematica and Matlab are available on many public computers on campus. To find them see http://www.oit.umd.edu/wheretogo/allSoftware.cfm. You would need to be able to print the output for class assignments. (This will likely amount to less than  20 pages total for the semester.) If you need a printing account from the physics department, you must have an account on the glue system and then provide me with your account name. (A wam account is not adequate.) To get a glue account follow the instructions at http://internal.physics.umd.edu/pnce/PNCE-Unix/account.html.

Homework:   Assigned weekly, due at the beginning of class on the assigned day (usually Thursday). Late homework accepted only under dire circumstances. If you know it will be impossible to turn in an assignment on time you must discuss this with me  in advance of the due date. Medical reasons accepted  only with a doctor's note. You are encouraged to discuss the homework with others, but what you finally hand in should be your own work. Please make sure you include your name and the homework and course numbers and staple the pages together. Homework sets must show reasoning leading to the final answers in a clear and readable fashion to obtain credit.

Honors section:   The honors section is for students who desire a deeper and more advanced course of study. It will require significant extra time, so you should enroll in it only if you are willing to devote that time to it. In addition to the standard course meetings, a weekly one hour required meeting with the honors students will take place to discuss the honors topics. The honors students will have an extra homework assignment each week. Please hand this in separately from the regular assignment. This might consist of (1) a more advanced or involved problem, (2) a numerical computation or simulation, (3) a home experiment to carry out and write about, (4) a reading assignment to digest and write about, (5) a question to research and report on. The honors homework will count for 20% of the homework grade, i.e. 4-8 % of the overall course grade (see below), or between a third and two thirds of a letter grade in the A-B range. 

Exams:   Two mid-terms and a final. The final is Thursday,  Dec. 19, 8:00am-10:00pm. Absence from exams will be excused only under dire circumstances. If you know it will be impossible to attend an exam you must discuss this with me in advance of the exam. Medical reasons accepted only with a doctor's note. A missed exam with legitimate excuse may be replaced by an oral exam.

Grading:  Early warning grades  will  be submitted by Friday, Oct. 18. The course grade will be based  on the homework and the exams. The lowest two homework scores will be dropped. The relative weights will be adjusted at the end of the semester to maximize the total for each student, with the homework in the range 30 +/- 10%, each of the two midterms in the range 20 +/- 10%,  and the final exam in the range 30 +/- 15%. The letter grades will likely correspond roughly to the following ranges of percentage points, though these will be adjusted as seems fit: A (100 - 89), B (88 - 77), C (76 - 60), D (59 - 43), F (42 - 0).

Tips for doing well:

• Freely ask questions in class.
• Read the textbooks.
• Do all of the homework problems. You are allowed and encouraged to discuss the homework with anyone you wish.  However, in order to optimize your learning, you should initially make a serious attempt to solve the problems by yourself.
• Don't wait until the night before the homework is due to begin working the problems!!
• Seek help immediately if you don't understand the material.

Academic honesty:   For the University policy on matters of academic dishonesty please refer to the web page  www.testudo.umd.edu/soc/dishonesty.html. As for this course in particular, note that although you are encouraged to discuss homework with others, the work you turn in should be your own formulation and should reflect your own understanding. This is perhaps a fine line to judge in some cases. Please ask Dr. Jacobson if you have any questions.