Mesa Physics 125 - General Physics I

Schedule of Lectures and Assignments

Week 1: Aug 25 - 29

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to produce dimensionally consistent proportionality constants, conduct dimensional analysis to verify validity of solutions, identify and convert proper SI units, identify and solve for trigonometric quantities related to the right triangle.
Book Chapters and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapters One
Suggested Problems:
Ch1: 3, 5, 8, 10, 21, 27, 35, 41
Laboratory and Problem Set Downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Metric System & Density
Problem Set: PS One
Problem Set Solutions: PSS One
Supplementary Material:: Classical Mechanics Primer: Introduction
Trigonometry Practice Worksheet Download

Week 2: Sept 1 - 5

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to differentiate between average and instantaneous quantities, differentiate between speed and velocity, and differentiate between distance and displacement.
Students should be able to correctly label and produce graphs and to read and interpret graphs to find various quantities.
Students should be able to correctly select and solve one-dimensional equations of motion for constantly accelerated systems.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapters Two
Suggested Problems:
Ch2: 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 27, 33
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Force Table
Problem Set: PS Two
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Two
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: Sample Exam Question 1
Online Demonstration: Moving Man

Week 3: Sept 8 - 12

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to produce and interpret graphs representing uniformly accelerated objects.
Students should be able to identify the proper one-dimensional equation of motion (EOM) based on stated problem, and to solve the EOM for the appropriate quantity.
Students should understand the meaning of the unit vector and how to write a vector equation. They should also understand the difference between vectors and scalars.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Two and Three
Suggested Problems:
Ch2 : 37, 41, 49, 51, 57, 59, 61
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Straight Line Kinematics
Laboratory Download Graph Paper with Slope Calculations pdf Files
Laboratory Download: How to Draw a Graph
Problem Set: PS Three
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Three
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: Sample Exam Question 2

Week 4: Sept 15 - 19

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand two dimensional motion as the combined effect of two, one dimensional systems.
Students should be able to solve various projectile motion and two dimensional motion problems.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Three
Suggested Problems:
Ch3 : 1, 5, 15, 17, 25, 43, 47, 51
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Projectile Motion
Problem Set: none
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: Sample Exam Question 3

Week 5: Sept 22 -26 (Note: Quiz One during your lab session, Chapters 1-3)

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to demonstrate proficiency in the areas of unit and dimensional analysis, one and two dimensional systems of motion with constant accelerations.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Three and Chapter Four
Suggested Problems:
Ch4: 3, 7, 11
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: none - Quiz held during lab
Problem Set: PS Four
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Four
Supplementary Material:: none

Week 6: Sept 29 - Oct 3

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to differentiate between the ideas of applied force and net force as expressed in Newton's 'Laws.
Students should be able to construct a clearly labeled free body diagram (FBD) based on information presented in the problem.
Students should be able to use Newton's Laws and the FBD to find the acceleration of an object or system of objects, then use the relevant EOM to obtain information related to displacement, elapsed time and velocity of the system.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Four
Suggested Problems:
Ch4: 3, 7, 11, 27, 29, 37, 39, 45, 53, 67, 73. 81
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Newton's Second Law
Problem Set: PS Five
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Five
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: Sample Exam Question 4

Week 7: Oct 6 - 10

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand the behavior of centripetally accelerated systems, and be able to identify the centripetal force in a circular motion problem.
Students should demonstrate understanding of the static and kinetic friction forces and be able to solve problems involving these forces.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Five
Suggested Problems:
Ch5: 1, 9, 11, 13, 23, 27, 33, 35, 41
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Centripetal Force
Problem Set: none
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: Sample Exam Question 5

Week 8: Oct 13 - 17 (Note: Quiz Two during your lab session, Chapters 4 & 5)

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand the definition of work as it applies to the center of mass of a system.
Students should be able to define work as positive or negative and describe the effect of work done on or by a system.
Students should be able to determine net work done on an object and relate that to a change in the object's center of mass kinetic energy.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Six
Suggested Problems:
Ch6: 3, 9, 11, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, 51, 53, 55, 67
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: none - Quiz held during lab
Problem Set: PS Six
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Six
Supplementary Material:: none

Week 9: Oct 20 - 24

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand that forces that act internal to a system conserve momentum and that while the forces acting on the two bodies are the same, the resulting accelerations are not.
Students should be able to apply the laws of energy and momentum conservation to solve two body collisions, both elastic and inelastic.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Seven
Suggested Problems:
Ch7 : 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 25, 27, 29, 33, 37, 41, 43
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Conservation of Energy
Problem Set: PS Seven
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Seven
Supplementary Material:: none

Week 10: Oct 27 - 31
Week 11: Nov 3 - 7 (Note: Quiz Three during your lab session, Chapters 6 - 7)

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to produce dimensionally consistent proportionality constants, conduct dimensional analysis to verify validity of solutions, identify and convert proper SI units, identify and solve for quantities related to rotating systems.
Students should be able to differentiate between average and instantaneous quantities, differentiate between angular speed and angular velocity, and differentiate between rotations and angular displacement.
Students should be able to identify the proper one-dimensional equation of motion (EOM) based on stated problem, and to solve the EOM for the appropriate quantity.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Eight
Suggested Problems:
Ch8: 5, 7, 13, 19, 23, 29, 33, 39, 47, 53
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: none - Quiz held during lab
Problem Set: PS Eight
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Eight
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: none

Week 12: Nov 10 - 14 (Note: Tuesday the 11th is a holiday)

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand the vector nature of torque and the vector nature of angular momentum.
Students should be familiar with the moment of inertia and the role it plays in rotating systems.
Students should be able to convert quantities back and forth between linear and angular representations.
Students should be able to apply WET to rotating systems to predict the final system state.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Nine
Suggested Problems:
Ch9: 5, 9, 11, 23, 29, 39, 43, 45, 49, 51, 55, 57
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: none - Tuesday is a holiday
Problem Set: PS Nine
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Nine
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: none

Week 13: Nov 17 - 21

Desired Outcomes:: Students should understand that conservative forces lead to periodic systems.
Students should be able to identify the amplitude, frequency and period of a simply harmonic oscillating system by graphical analysis and calculation. Students should understand the description of a wave as the response of the medium as energy propagates through it.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Ten
Suggested Problems:
Ch10: 3, 9, 11, 17, 25, 33, 41, 63
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Waves on a String
Problem Set: PS Ten
Problem Set Solutions: PSS Ten
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question:

Week 14: Dec 1 - 5

Desired Outcomes:: Students should be able to differentiate between transverse and longitudinal wave types and to describe each of these types mathematically. Students should be able to relate physical constants of the system to the wave speed through the medium. Students should understand and be able to apply the principle of superposition to analyze the resultant waveform that arises when two waves 'interfere' with each other.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter Sixteen & Seventeen
Suggested Problems:
Ch16: 1, 5, 17, 23, 35, 51, 53, 59, 65, 71, 79
Ch17: 1, 7, 119, 25, 29, 41
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: Speed of Sound
Problem Set: none
Supplementary Material:: Sample Exam Question: none

Week 15: Dec 8 - 12 (Note: Quiz Four during your lab session. Chapters 8, 9, 10, 16 & 17.)
Week 16: Dec 15 - 19 (Note: Final Exam during your lab session.)

Desired Outcomes:: Students should display a strong conceptual grasp of the core concepts of the course.
Book Chapters and and Suggested Problems :: Book: Chapter One through Ten, Sixteen and Seventeen
Suggested Problems:
Review conceptual questions from all chapters.
Laboratory and Problem Set downloads:: Laboratory Exercise: none - Final Exam held during lab
Problem Set: none
Supplementary Material:: none