Semester grades update

Sorry to not announce the updates before now. We were racing against the clock yesterday, to get your grades plus several hunderd other students' grades uploaded by 5 PM to a tricky, slow and reluctant computer system run by the registrar. After which I got some ZZ til this morning. WHEEWWWW!

Anyway, here are some updates which you might already have figured out:

1. Uploaded final exam scores.
2. Converted CPS work to the points (out of 30) that go into your semester grade. This is in the "CPS pointage" row of your grades page.
3. Computed the CPS bonus for getting more than 75% of CPS questions correct. Seventeen students got it. Nice work!
4. Got the homework points (out of 25) on your semester grade figured out. This data is in the "HW pointage" row in your grades page.
5. Depending on how well you did, I gave up to 1 bonus point on each of the mega reviews: i.e., the Chuck Norris SMA and the Webcourses Super-mega combo review homework.

You could have calculated all of these point values from the data in the gradebook before yesterday, but now you have these rows figured out for you. Good.

Now I will get some ZZZ.

Two more equation mania pages

There are two more equations PDFs in Webcourses. Take a look and use them to help get ready for tomorrow's final.

Equations Mania

I just slapped together a PDF of some interesting comments and questions on impulse and work equations. Look for the mysterious mailbox icon.

S.I. mega-review Thursday evening

Monsieur Avogadro (right) wants you to attend Ed Linsky's S.I. review session:

1. Pegasus Ballroom A, B and C
2. 5:00 - 7:00 PM
3. Thursday

Even if you can only make it for 15 minutes, it will be good and helpful to go.

CPS data uploaded

Big updates in the CPS area.

1. Pointage for lectures 37, 38 are up.
2. Chuck Norris SMA Mega-Review data are up, including your answers to #3 and #8, if you want to double check your work. Remember: the Chuck Norris SMA will be converted to a little bit of bonus points, as a way of making up for a missed lecture or so. So do not ask me now about individual sessions that are missing.
3. CPS sum for the semester is now fully up to date. Included are
   1. Lecture 6
   2. Lecture 7
   3. Lecture 8
   4. Lecture 9
   5. Lecture 10
   6. Lecture 11
   7. Lecture 12
   8. Lecture 14
   9. Lecture 19
   10. Lecture 20
   11. Lecture 21
   12. Lecture 24
   13. Lecture 25
   14. Lecture 26
   15. Lecture 27
   16. Lecture 29
   17. Lecture 30
   18. Lecture 32
   19. Lecture 35
   20. Lecture 37
   21. Lecture 38
   in the two "Total CPS" rows in your grades page. The total CPS baseline is 75 questions.

I still have a lot of grades work to get squared away, but for most of you, you can now figure out your CPS situation. If you have 63 CPS answered, you get all 20 CPS points.

Wednesday office hours

Here are my available office hours for Wednesday:

1. 8:00 - 11:00 AM, room 412 in MAP
2. 1:00-3:00 PM, room 412, in MAP

As always, during office hours, YOU bring the agenda for an office hours visit. I will be sorting out grades etc until you arrive.

Dr. B off the radar scope

I will be going into stealth mode for the next 24 hours or so, with my big astronomy final exam tomorrow. So I will not be answering many course mail messages. We will have plenty of office hours Wednesday, though.

More specs tomorrow night.

Exam scores are UP

Your exam 4 scores are up now, at last!!!

Also, I created the "Best three midterms" row, so you can look at that part of your semester grade.

Meg has updates SSG points for everybody on exams 3 and 4. We will update SSG for the final exam after the final exam.

There is still a ton of work to do with CPS pointage to upload and other things. But your semester grade should be coming into clearer focus now.

Keep preparing for the final exam on Friday!!!!

Chuck Norris Combo Basket is up in Linsky Files

The solution set for the big CPS SMA session is now in the Linsky Files. There is also a backup file with the various tables and diagrams for the several questions.

Super mega-combo review is ready in Webcourses.

The promised Super-mega combo review is now ready in Webcourses. There is a bunch of questions to tackle, so use them as a study tool for the final. Look in the homework folder on the course home page.

No news yet with exam 4 scores. :(

I hope we will get news by class time tomorrow.

Bonus CPS mega-review on Friday

Bring your CPS clicker on Friday, because we will have a nice big SMA review session, for bonus points. This will help you make up some ground if you've missed more than 2 or 3 lectures.

Also, there will be a super-mega combo review in Webcourses, to run Friday to Friday, from our last lecture until just before the final exam next Friday. This super-mega combo review will also be for bonus points, and maybe help out a bit for those of you who "overlooked" a few HW assignments over the semester.

Both review activities will contain Chuck Norris facts that will be new to you. Don't blow it!

Three new Linsky Files are UP

I just uploaded the most recent three Linsky files, mostly on electromagnetism. They are in Webcourses.

Exam 4 today

Make sure to be ready to take midterm exam 4 today, 3:30 PM. Be there or be square.

Bonus points question suggestion for exam 4

There is a new discussion area in Webcourses for posting your question, multiple choice or true/false, for possible bonus points on exam 4.

SSG signups ready NOW

You can go in and sign up for SSG now, everybody! Exam 4 is on Wednesday.

Exercises from today's lecture

We reviewed three exercises today from Ch. 21, #8, #10, #24. I scanned them onto PDF and parked the PDF file in "Go to the doc cam," with the small citrus battery icon. Yay.

Homework T-101, come with me if you want to live.

You can get started on Homework T-101 right now, and try to follow Arnold's advice: "Come with me if you want to live."

It is in Webcourses now.

Homework #909 ready to go

You can now look in Webcourses for 9 questions in Homework #909.

Don't forget the study assignment before attempting the HW:

1. Read pp. 430-433, remembering the concept that voltage is like water pressure.
2. Fig. 21-1 on p. 428.
3. And if you want to skim the rest of the chapter on currents and circuits, you can get a headstart on Monday's lecture.

Homework available after lecture

Homework 14 will be available after lecture today, and it will be due on Friday at 3:30 PM.

Exam 3 breakdown sheets are available now.

Pick up your exam 3 printouts from Meg or Ashton, and then look over the breakdown spec sheet for your exam form, A, B, C or D. The breakdown sheets are now ready as PDFs in Webcourses.

The Avril Constant, 4738381338321616896

SSG points are now up.

If you took part in special study groups (SSG) last week, you can now look at the gradebook and see your two bonus points. YAY.

Homework and CPS pointage totals to date

Right now there are 91 points available through the thirteen homework assignments.

Via CPS sessions, there have been 67 points available.

If you look at your gradebook lines, you can see your totals for CPS answered, CPS correct and homework, and then you can calculate your percentages, based on 67 for CPS and 91 for HW.

P.S. According to the CPS scheme,

1. if you have 57 CPS answered you would get all 30 CPS points, based on having 85% answered, and
2. if your "CPS correct" is 51 or more, then you would get 4 bonus points on top of everything else.
3. IF today were the end of the semester.

But we still have some CPS and HW pointage ahead, so do not count your chickens just yet.

Linsky files are up to date.

I just uploaded Linsky Files for Friday's and today's lecture, plus CPS pointage.

Students present in Friday's class will also notice the CPS mega-bonus points from that session.

Excellent.

Homework 13

Homework #13 is now ready in Webcourses. It is due on Wednesday at 3:30 PM.

I also recommend that you try exercises 6 and 14 from the back of chapter 14.

Exam 3 grades are UP, HW 12 ready

1. Exam 3 scores are now up. I was very happy to see some nice improvement.
   
2. HW 12 is running, and it requires some extra reading in chapter 13. It is due Monday, 3:30 PM.

If you want to read ahead, start scanning chapter 14 about entropy and heat engines. Hurricanes are enormous heat engines.

Have a great weekend.

Thermal properties today

We will be working a homework set, HW 12, this afternoon, which requires some reading on your own in chapter 13 on these topics:

1. thermal conductivity
2. thermal expansion

Excellent.

SSG: Last chance at the O.K. Corral

Last Chance SSG
There is one more late-breaking special study meeting at noon at the library, led by Matthew Kovach. If you missed out in the signups for yesterday's groups, go sign up for Matt's!

Chapters?

In case you are wondering, here are the chapters we will cover in exam 3:

11. Structure of Matter
12. States of Matter
13. Thermal Energy up to p. 254.

We will cover the last few pages in chapter 13 on Friday.

SSG is now open for everybody!

If you were not in the first group, you will now be able to snag a spot in SSG. Signups are now open to everybody. Look for the blue SSG icon on the home page.

SSG holdup

I am working on SSG signups, which appear to be snagging somewhere in Webcourses. I had to ask the Webcourses admin for help.

Stay tuned and be ready to move quickly. I will probably extend the signup availability for the first group past noon, but stay alert.

Linsky Files up

OK, the last few Linsky files are now UP.

21. about the submicroscopic momentum and kinetic energy interactions that form the basis of the ideal gas model.
24. about a submicroscopic kinetic energy brain-burner and the Kelvin scale
25. about pressure and volume of bubbles #1 and #2 plus some brain-burner action on subterranean rodents, i.e., moles and Avogadro's number.
26. pressure differential in bubbles
27. water column, Bernoulli principle and Greenland vs. West Africa.

Trouble

It appears that there is trouble on the Webcourses channel tonight. I cannot modify groups in any way, including SSGs!

Glitch fixed; now SSG is ready for signups

OOOPS, a glitch in SSG was keeping it invisible to everybody. Now it is fixed, so it should be visible and available for the first group to sign up.

AND, there is one more group, so a few more slots open.

SO... go take another look if you want to sign up!

SSG signups will begin at 3:30 PM for limited group.

The signups process will begin for special study groups today at 3:30 PM, inside Webcourses, for the first group. Look for the blue SSG icon on the home page. If you are not in the first group, you will not see the blue SSG icon today.

The first group will have until noon, Tuesday to find a group and sign up. After that, I will open up SSG to everybody, if there are still spots available. Tuesday afternoon, the blue SSG icon will be visible to all.

Sorry we cannot get more of you into SSG, but we did not have many students volunteer to lead this semester.

Bonus points question for exam 3.

Our next midterm can include a question YOU write. There is a new discussion area in Webcourses for posting your question, multiple choice or true/false.

Don't forget to indicate the correct answer with an asterisk (*) and state the chapter and page in the textbook or the day of lecture where your question's concept came up.

No lecture on Friday

Students, due to family emergency, I will not be having lecture for this Friday. No homework.

I will see you on Monday, to talk about H₂O and hurricanes.

SSG: Special study group leaders alert

If your exam avg. is 90% right now, then your course mail in Webcourses has a new message from me. It is my offer to make you a special study groups leader.

Meg Avril and Ashton Dacus, our TAs, were SSG leaders in semesters past, so you can query them about the benefits of beeing an SSG leader.

Reply to me, a yes or no, by Wednesday. Then we can set up signups to start by Friday.

HW 11 is running

HW 11 is running since last night. GO for it!!

Break down sheets are UP

Now that so many of you have gotten your exam 2 printouts back, you can correlate scores to specific topic for each item you missed, by using the exam 2 breakdown sheets.

Look for the blue keyboard icon on the course homepage.

HW 10 - one more time!! But wait, there's more!

HW 10 is now ready for one more try, as I promised in lecture today.

Also, HW 11 is available, due Friday, 3:30 PM. It is a simple question about the weather map we looked at today.

Homework is ready

The next homework is now ready, HW 10, due Wednesday afternoon, 3:30 PM.

ALL EXAM 2 DATA ARE IN

OK, all of the exam 2 data are now UP. Go take a look at Midterm Exam 2 and its three subscores:

1. Exam 2 scantron
2. Exam 2 SMA regular
3. Exam 2 SMA bonus

Scantron data are IN

I received exam data this afternoon from test scoring. Forty of your points are on the scantron. Those points are now UP for all but a handful of you. (A few of you have no score -- bad scantron or no test form, so your grade will wait til next week.)

Also: I am starting to add in the SMA data:

1. Exam 2 regular SMA, 5 points possible, and
2. Exam 2 SMA bonus which was one item, worth 2 bonus points.

So these are going in in small blocks of about 30 students. I will finish after dinner, probably.

See you on Monday.

Exam 2 today, be ready for action.

Exam 2 starts today at 3:30 PM, sharp.

Make sure to bring CPS clicker, a UCF scantron and a pencil. Calculator is OK if you have one.

Today's mini-review CPS session is UP

Check the Linsky files for today's CPS session.

To recap, the toughest question was the size of Δp.

Δp = p_f - p_i and we know its direction is rightward.
p_i = (1 kg m/sec left, 1 kg m/sec down)
p_f = (1 kg m/sec right, 1 kg m/sec down)

Subtract horizontal components, final - initial:
     1 kg m/sec right - 1 kg m/sec left
which is just like
     +1 kg m/sec - (-1 kg m/sec)
and that totals +2 kg m/sec, which is the answer.

Note: the vertical components do not change at the impact, so Δp = 2 kg m/sec rightward and nothing vertical.

CPS pointage updated from last week

I just updated the CPS points from last week, Lecture 19 and Lecture 20 sessions. The corresponding Linsky Files are also in place.

Interesting:

1. 10 Linsky Files from 10 CPS sessions
2. 9 homework assignments.

By the end of the semester we will probably be 20 each, maybe more.

Aggie's and Jarvis' angular momentum project

I just uploaded to the angular momentum movie, with Aggie and Jarvis from Spring 2007, to iTunes U, You can download it and view it in compact form, known as the "summer_version."

S.I. Review session

Breaking news on the exam preparations:

MAP 109 is reserved for the Physical Science review session on Tuesday 10/14 from 2:00 to 4:00pm.

Be there if you can squeeze it in, even 15 minutes!

HW 8 is ready, but are YOU ready?

There are some potentially brain-burning energy questions in HW 8. Plus one simple angular momentum calculation. It is due on Wednesday, 3:30 PM, as usual.

Attempt 5 now available

You can now take a 5th attempt at the Mega-combo homework, HW 7, as mentioned in lecture.

OOOPS

HW 7 was accidentally set to stall out after one attempt, but I intended to give you all 4 attempts.

It is fixed now, and you have until 10 PM tonight to get in your attempts, a short extension. Sorry for the mixup.

Homework 7 is ready

The Mega-combo homework is now ready for study and calculation. Look in the Monsters. Inc. icon in Webcourses.

Stragglers

There are always a few stragglers on the first exam:

1. no PID on scantron,
2. you forgot your clicker,
3. etc.

When that happens, everything slows down for me, and for you because I have to dig out your exam paper and your scantron from two big unalphabetized piles. Heinous.

Exam scores are UP.

Last night I finally received our scantron scores - wow, that was a long wait. Anyway, all your scores are now UP in Webcourses. Look in your gradebook page, and you will see something like this:

The total score is made up of three subscores: scantron, regular SMA and bonus SMA. I also added in a non-numeric row to signify whether I gave you partial credit on the baseball brain burner in SMA bonus subscore, for which the answer was 20.4 meters. I will discuss the partial credit in lecture. If you got it, it is in the SMA bonus subscore. Total possible was 48 points.

Overall, the exam was OK. Almost everyone passed. Nobody aced. Lots of good scores.

Remember: we are shooting for 90% average on the first two midterms, if you want to qualify for Special Study Group (SSG) leader and bypass the final exam.

No lecture today, 9/29.

No lecture today, Monday, Sept. 29.

No scores yet

I was hoping to get scantron scores in from the computer test scoring center before supper tonight: no go.

So we continue to wait, now until Monday.

And just to rub it in, the morning physical science section got their exam scores back late this afternoon. We have to wait!

And on top of that, I am giving everybody the weekend off from homework. I.e., NO HOMEWORK. Sorry to deprive you of such fun. ;)

Two days or more

Do not ask Dr. B about exam scores until Friday, maybe.

It always takes time for scantrons to get graded, up to 48 hours. Since we cannot submit until Thursday morning, that means MAYBE we will get scores by Friday afternoon.

So...

Do not ask in course mail. Do not ask in email. Do not ask in Discussions. Do not ask in the hallway. Do not ask on telephone. Resist the urge to ask until Friday afternoon, earliest.

Violations of this rule will get 5 yard penalty for illegal procedure.

Midterm exam 1 ready for 3:30 PM SHARP

Be there at 3:30 PM, SHARP... if not earlier. The exams are ready, and there will be two bonus points available if you are prepared and ready to rumble.

Bring your CPS!

CPS pointage and Linsky files UP

The Linsky Files from Wednesday and Friday are now up. I also updated the gradebook, so L10 and L11 points are now up, as well.

Bring your CPS clicker to the midterm exam on Wednesday.

Homework 6 ready to go

I just activated homework for Monday, HW 6. It contains some basic gravitation questions plus a mini-review of free-fall calculations. You have 4 attempts, and you can take one hour per attempt. Bring your calculator and be ready to THINK.

No homework, once you finish HW 5

There is a homework assignment that you can skip once you have totally stomped it into the ground, homework #5. No brain-burners, just straight to the heart calculations of where the baseball/asteroid is heading and how fast it gets there and so many other lovely concepts I can hardly contain my excitement, so GO FOR IT.

CPS update

Your CPS pointage is now updated, and the Linsky Files from today are activated.

By the way, I just synched up the CPS roster, and we are down only 3 students, so you guys are looking good for some serious CPS clicking from here on out.

Remember to bring your CPS clicker on midterm exam 1, next Wed.

HW 4 is ready to go.

Take a look at the Monsters, Inc. icon, and you will find your next homework, HW 4, due at 3:30 PM, Wednesday.

GO FOR IT!

CPS pointage updated

I just updated the CPS pointage from Wednesday (L7) and Friday (L8) in your My Grades pages. Also the Linsky Files are updated.

Ashton Dacus, our mighty TA, made some scans of Wednesday's doc cam sketches, and they are posted as PDF in iTunes U. Look for the "Doc cam" tab and you'll see it.

iTunes U: 3 specific podcasts that help with homework etc.

There are three specific podcasts about recent topics in lecture and homework. Look in the "Motion" tab of our iTunes U area.

1. Subtraction of vectors, Ch. 3 (3:32)
2. Ex. 4, p. 54 (4:08)
3. Astronaut's weight on Mars, ex. 18, p. 54 (3:19)

Remember, these are visual podcasts, and they have diagrams and equations in the artwork track. They are meant to be viewed as well as listened to.

Homework UP

Be ready to think about polygons and Δv when you work on homework 3. It is ready now, in Webcourses, due Monday afternoon, 3:30 PM.

"Let me repeat..."

I frequently use the phrase, "Let me repeat that..." in order to emphasize an important concept for your lecture notes.

There is a new discussion area in Webcourses on which to re-post the information from lecture that I repeat with that phrase.

Post it there. Ashton and I will read and double check and maybe even give a bonus point or so if it is well done and timely. It will also be a good study tool after a few lectures.

More homework ready.

Your homework for Friday is now UP. Look for HW 2 in the Monster's, Inc. icon in Webcourses.

There are two questions about friction force and net force, semi-brain-burners, for which it might be helpful to

1. eyeball Fig. 3-12(c) on p. 47 of the textbook and
2. work through Example 3.5.3 on p. 27 of the Problem Solving Manual (PSM)

As always, this assignment is due at 3:30 PM before our next lecture, Friday.

CPS signups looking good.

Signups look good on CPS for you all. The total is up to 108 now. Still remaining: 17 students to go.

CPS for today and Friday's bonus are UP.

I just uploaded your CPS points

1. from today's lecture, L6, the sixth of the semester:
   1. how many you answered and
   2. how many you got correct
2. early CPS bonus point from Friday's lecture.

Look in your My Grades page.

Homework ready now! GO GO GO

The first real homework inside Webcourses is now ready. It works like a quiz:

1. You have 4 attempts.


2. Webcourses keeps your highest of your four attempts.


3. You have 33 minutes per attempt.


4. Many students actually use their first attempt as a reading guide:
   1. take it
   2. go study the chapter
   3. come back and crush a later attempt for max pointage.

Make sure to study through Ch.3 to Newton's 3rd Law before trying this out!!

Look for the Monsters, Inc. icon.

Office hours for fall semester

Here are my official office hours for students in PSC1121 section 0002:

1. Mondays, 2:30 - 3:15 PM, MAP412


2. Wednesdays, 8:00 - 9:00 AM, MAP412


3. Extended Wednesday Δt to be announced when appropriate.

Remember: when you come to see me in office hours, YOU bring the agenda, even if it just to shoot the breeze!

The Linsky Files, from our CPS session today

The PDF of Ed Linsky's session is now available for download in Webcourses. I will be placing Ed's work on Webcourses in PDF every time we have a CPS session. They are great for study tools.

Look for the X-Files icon. That identifies the top secret location of THE LINSKY FILES.

Billion dollar question: what we do.

Right now the prediction has changed: instead of "somewhere in South Carolina" it now looks like NHC is predicting North Carolina... somewhere!

As you might imagine, it is a BILLION dollar question for the people of the Carolinas.

This shows what we talked about in lecture about the scientific enterprise: we want to predict what Nature does. When our principles generate predictions that verify, then we consider the principles more solid. Right now, the hurricane prediction principles are not so solid.... BUT we keep working at it.

Bonus points up; CPS due date, Sept. 8

We will start taking regular CPS points "for real" on Monday, Sept. 8, so try to get your clicker registered by then.

For those of you who get registered before that and bring your clicker to class, we will take one bonus point per day. This is my normal practice whilst you all get used to clicking.

AND: I just posted the Friday bonus point for about 34 of you who were clicking away on Friday. SWEEEEEET.

Widget for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard users

I just created a Dashboard widget for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard users. It works like a simple RSS viewer that lets you keep an eye on the top few posting in this Announcements Blogspot. It is very efficient for checking. Clicking one of the

Unzip it and click on it to start it up and install in Dashboard. When you look on your Dashboard, the PSC1121 Announcements widget looks like this



Look for it on the home page in Webcourses. It is a zip file, 191 Kb.

CPS technical support

The eInstruction company that makes our CPS units, they have excellent technical support:

1. http://www.einstruction.com/Support/ for online chat and FAQ
2. Telephone hotline, 888-333-4988

They are on the Texas time zone.

Their tech support is top notch. If there is something hinky with your registration process, they can get it straightened out on the phone or chat.

I was just in chat with them about registration fees, and they answered my question quickly. Your registration fee is $13 per semester no matter how many courses use CPS, and then $13 per semester until you hit $39, at which point you get free service for life. So that is potentially 3 semesters in a row before the fee goes to zero.

Ten in CPS so far

OK, we have ten of youse guys so far in the CPS database. Excellent.

We will give it a go tomorrow in class, a test flight. get your clicker registered up by lecture and you'll be able to participate.