The Honor Code

Your conduct and work in this course must adhere to the standards of the Olin College Honor Code .

All members of the Olin faculty regard the Honor Code as essential to the academic integrity of Olin College.  We expect that all assignments, exams, projects, and other course activities will be completed under the guidelines set by the Honor Code.  Guidelines for allowed collaboration are below.

Grading

Your grade for the physics component of the cohort will be based on the following approximate breakdown:

          Assignments                                                       30%

Exams                                                                  35%

          Final                                                                      30%

          Subjective                                                               5%

Homework grades will  be on a 0-6 scale  for the entire assignment.  Homeworks that are late by up to one day will be downgraded one grade; later homeworks will not be accepted for grading.  Grades are not grievable.  The approximate meanings of the grades are:

 Remember that it is more important that you understand the solution to a problem than it is to get the right answer.  The difference between getting a 4 (or even a 3) and a 5 on a homework set will be much less important than being able to utilize what you have learned on the exams.

Final Grades

During the second semester at Olin, we are using an ABCDF system. You can find descriptions of the letter grades on page 19 of the Student Handbook.

Collaboration

We want to encourage an atmosphere of collaboration, but we also need to monitor what you are achieving as an individual.  As a general homework policy, we strongly encourage you to be alone when you take the first crack at your homework problems.  Go somewhere quiet, and try to see how much you can do when you are alone with your books and notes.  After you have spent time trying to work out each problem, we encourage you to work with other students, compare approaches, and help each other learn the material.  We do expect and encourage you to partake in this type of collaboration, but we also expect you to cite the persons or sources from whom/which your received help (and whom you helped).  

We trust that you will not hand in a solution if you don’t understand it.  We are trusting that you will not try to get around this by citing a person who tried to explain the solution to you.  If you do not understand a problem, even after consulting with other students, please come and see the instructor about it.  

Time Expectations

We expect that a well-prepared student, working effectively, needs to spend a total of about 30 hours per week doing everything associated with this cohort (including attending class), split approximately evenly among physics, math and the project.  Depending on your background, however, you may need to put in fewer or more hours. If the number of extra hours becomes excessive, you should see us for help.

Homework Policies – Physics

Reading Assignments will be posted at this website (generally about a week in advance).  This reading is really important, since we’re going to spend class time clarifying (as opposed to introducing) concepts. 

Reading Quizzes will be administered via WebAssign, and are due by 8AM on the day of the relevant class meeting.  These will typically be very short (they should take about 10 minutes), but they might allow you to see what issues you should bring up in class for clarification.  Reading quizzes count towards your homework grade.

Homework (5-8 hours of work) will be assigned about once per week, generally with the reading assignments.  They will generally be collected in class on Mondays and returned (graded) on the following Monday.  Homework will typically include problems of varying difficulty, which you can combine to suit your learning style and needs.  There will be some relatively straightforward problems that are meant to demonstrate your familiarity with the basics.  You will probably want to choose others on your own in order to convince yourself that you really understand the material.  The formal homework assignment might also include some problems that are a bit more challenging; you should attempt these when you have the more straightforward problems in hand.  It is essential that you try all the homework problems.  It's OK if you don't have time to complete the  more complicated ones if you have used your time effectively.  For all problems, the manner in which you attack them is much more important than the answers, and you should make your approach to each problem clear so that you can follow your reasoning when you go back to review your homework later. 

Physics Learning Objectives:  At the end of the semester, you should be able to...

• Use analytical techniques to find electric fields and potentials for simple two and three dimensional systems

• Use electric field, charge, current, potential and energy to explain and model the behavior of common electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors and semiconductor devices

• Find magnetic fields for simple quasi-static current configurations

• Explain the physical foundation of the wave equation for both mechanical systems (e.g., strings) and for electromagnetic waves

• Use Maxwell's equations and the wave equation to explain basic behaviors of electromagnetic waves (e.g., reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction)