PHYSICS 2211 A - INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS I

Class Notes

Dec 15

Final Exam:  2:50 PM - 5:40 PM, Howey L2 and Boggs B6A

The Final Exam will be in two parts:

Part I (50 min) 26 qualitative questions which focus on Chapters 1 - 11
PRS(classes 02-08)    PRS(classes 09-14)    PRS(classes 15-23)    PRS(classes 24-32)

Part II (120 min) 12 problems from the entire curriculum, Chapters 1 - 14
Read the Learning Objectives for each class, below.

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Dec 8

Class 45 - Conclusion:  what have we learned?   

Dec 6

Class 44 - What changes angular momentum?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Calculate the cross product of two given vectors.
2. Given vector representations for applied forces and moment arms, calculate the torque on an object and analyze the motion of the object.
3. Use conservation of angular momentum to analyze the motion of a rigid body.
   

Dec 4

Class 43 - Which is faster, a hoop or a sphere?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Determine the total mechanical energy of a rotating object.
2. Analyze the motion of an object which rotates while translating in a straight line.
3. Solve physical problems using the energy of a rotating object.
   

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Dec 1

Class 42 - Where will the ladder slip?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Calculate the net torque on an object.
2. Analyze the motion of a rotating object.
3. Calculate the moment of inertia for an object.
4. Analyze the conditions required for rigid body equilibrium.
   

Nov 29

Class 41 - Quiz 5:  Chapters 12 & 14

Nov 27

Class 40 - What are your (physics) questions?    
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze written questions and problem statements and categorize the problems based upon the physics required to solve the problem.

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Nov 22

Class 39 - How does a rigid body move?    
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze the motion of a rotating object with nonzero angular acceleration.
2. Identify the center of mass of a symmetric object.
3. Calculate the center of mass for objects with uniform and non-uniform mass density.

Nov 20

Class 38 - How does a pendulum work?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze the dynamics of a damped oscillator, determine the time constant, and calculate the energy of the system.
2. Calculate the natural frequency for an oscillator and analyze the motion of a driven oscillator.
   

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Nov 17

Class 37 - How does a pendulum work?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Calculate acceleration, velocity, and displacement for an object executing SHM, and determine where these quantities are maximum, minimum, or zero. 
2. Analyze problems in which a mass hangs from a vertical spring and oscillates
3. Analyze the motion of a physical pendulum in order to determine the period of small oscillations.

Nov 15

Class 36 - What is the motion of a spring?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Determine the amplitude, period, phase, and frequency of an object in oscillatory motion.
2. Calculate acceleration, velocity, and displacement for an object executing SHM, and determine where these quantities are maximum, minimum, or zero. 
3. Calculate the kinetic and potential energies of an oscillating system as functions of time.
4. Analyze an oscillating system using conservation of energy.
   

Nov 13

Class 35 - How do the planets orbit the sun?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Use conservation of energy to analyze gravitational problems.
2. Determine the escape velocity from a massive body.
3. Apply Kepler’s Laws to analyze the orbit of an object or calculate a change of orbits.
4. Determine the height of a geosynchronous orbit.
   
   

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Nov 10

Class 34 - What is your weight on the moon?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Using Newton's Law of Gravity, determine the force that one mass exerts on another, the mass of an object, or the motion of one object from known quantities.
2. Determine the acceleration due to gravity at a point outside of a spherical mass.

Nov 8

Class 33 - Quiz 4: Chapters 9 - 11    PRS (classes 24  -32)

Nov 6

Class 32 - Where does energy go?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a situation in which the mechanical energy of an object is changed by a dissipative force (e.g., friction) or by an external force.
2. Calculate the power required to maintain constant acceleration of an object.
3. Determine the work performed by a force that supplies constant power, or the average power supplied by a force that performs a specified amount of work.

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Nov 3

Class 31 - When is energy conserved?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a physical situation using the connections among force, work, and energy.
2. Determine the change in mechanical energy due to a nonconservative force.
3. Calculate the force associated with a potential energy.

Nov 1

Class 30 - How is energy transferred?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Calculate analytically or graphically the work done on an object.
2. Determine the change in kinetic energy or motion that results from performing an  amount of work on an object.     
3. Use the scalar (dot) product operation to calculate the work done on an object.
4. Given an object with a change in speed or kinetic energy, calculate the work performed by the net force (or by each of the component forces).
5. Apply the work-energy theorem to determine the change in an object’s kinetic energy and analyze the motion of the object.

Oct 30

Class 29 - What is a perfectly elastic collision?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a perfectly elastic collision using conservation of linear momentum and conservation of energy.
2. Interpret an energy diagram to analyze the motion of a particle.

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Oct 27

Class 28 - How does a spring work?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Given the spring constant, displacement from equilibrium, or the force applied on an object for an ideal spring, use Hooke's Law to analyze the motion of an object in contact with the spring.
2. Calculate the total energy (potential + kinetic) of an ideal spring.
3. Use conservation of energy to analyze the motion of an object under the influence of an ideal spring.

Oct 25

Class 27 - What is energy?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze the motion of a particle and determine its kinetic energy.
2. Calculate the gravitational potential energy of an object and use this to analyze the motion of the object.
3. Use conservation of energy to analyze the motion of a particle moving without friction along a trajectory under the influence of gravity.

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Oct 20

Class 25 - How does a rocket work?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Use conservation of linear momentum to solve one- and two-dimensional elastic collision problems.
2. Apply conservation of linear momentum to analyze explosions.
3. Analyze one- and two-dimensional inelastic collisions using conservation of linear momentum.

Oct 18

Class 24 - What happens during a collision?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Given an object or a system of objects, use the definition of linear momentum to calculate unknown values of mass, velocity, or momentum using given data.
2. Interpret a graph of force as a function of time to determine the change in momentum of an object.
3. Use the impulse-momentum theory to calculate impulse, average force, or change in linear momentum for an object.
4. Use Newton's Third Law to identify an isolated system in which momentum is conserved.
5. Identify situations where linear momentum is conserved and use conservation of momentum to determine changes in mass or velocity.

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Oct 13

Class 23 - How do we analyze interactions?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Use Newton's laws of motion to analyze a system of interacting objects, construct simultaneous linear equations based on that analysis, and solve the equations for unknown forces and accelerations, then determine the motion of the objects.

Oct 11

Class 22 - How does a rope work?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a system of objects connected by a rope and determine the tension in the rope.
2. Analyze the motion of system of objects connected by a string which passes over massless pulleys.
   

Oct 9

Class 21 - What keeps you in your chair?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Distinguish between the interacting objects in the system of interest and the environment that influences the objects through external forces
2. Identify force pairs and the objects on which they act, and determine the magnitude and direction of each force.
3. For a system of objects constrained to accelerate together, determine the forces acting on the system and solve for the motion of the objects within the system.

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Oct 6

Class 20 - Is there a centrifugal force?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze an object in uniform circular motion and determine what forces act on the object at any given point in its trajectory.
2. Determine the critical speed or critical angular velocity required to maintain a circular orbit.
3. Calculate the kinematic components for an object on a circular path which experiences a tangential acceleration.
   

Oct 4

Class 19 - Why do astronauts feel weightless?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze the forces operating on an object and identify the conditions in which the object moves in uniform circular motion.
2. For an object moving with uniform circular motion, determine the magnitude and direction of the net force, or of one of the forces contriubuting to the net force.
3. Analyze the kinematics and dynamics of an object in a circular orbit.

Oct 2

Class 18 - How is circular motion described?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the position, angular velocity, and centripetal acceleration of an object moving with uniform circular motion, and relate these values to the radius of the circle and the speed or rate of revolution.
2. For an object moving with uniform circular motion, graphically describe or algebraically determine the components of the velocity and acceleration vectors at any instant, and sketch or identify graphs of these quantities.

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Sep 29

Class 17 - Do two people see the same motion?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Given functions x(t) and y(t) which describe the motion of a particle in two dimensions, determine the components, magnitude, and direction of the particle’s velocity and acceleration as functions of time.
2. Determine the change in velocity of a particle or the velocity of one particle relative to another.

Sep 25

Class 15 - What is the path of a thrown ball?    Slides    Movie
Learning Objectives:

1. Identify or draw graphs of the vertical and horizontal components of velocity and position for projectiles in a uniform gravitational field.
2. Analyze the motion of a projectile launched with an arbitrary initial velocity.
3. Separate the components of the kinematic quantities which describe an object moving in a plane and analyze the motion  when the object is acted upon by multiple forces.

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Sep 22

Class 14 - What are common forces?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze under what circumstances an object will start to slip, or determine the force of static friction.
2. Calculate the frictional force on an object moving on a rough surface and analyze the consequent motion of the object.
3. Determine the terminal velocity of an object moving vertically under the influence of a velocity-dependent retarding force.
4. Analyze the motion of an object experiencing non-negligible air resistance using a simple model of the drag force.

Sep 20

Class 13 - How are weight and mass related?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Calculate the mass of an object from the observed weight on earth.
2. Given specified forces on an object of known mass, determine the weight, or apparent weight, of the object.
3. From an observed apparent weight, determine the forces acting on a body of known mass.

Sep 18

Class 12 - What is equilibrium?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Determine if an object under the influence of several forces is in static equilibrium and analyze the kinematics of that object.
2. Given an object under the influence of several specified forces, determine the net force, then analyze the consequent motion of the object.

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Sep 15

Class 11 - How does motion change?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Given an object with a specified acceleration, calculate the magnitude of the net force acting upon the object.
2. Given an object under the influence of a specified net force, calculate the acceleration of the object.
3. Analyze a situation where an object is under the influence of several forces and graphically determine what additional force is required for static equilibrium.
4. Determine if an object under the influence of several forces is in static equilibrium and analyze the kinematics of that object.
5. Analyze a written problem statement for an object under the influence of several forces and draw a full physical representation (a free-body diagram) of the object. 

Sep 11

Class 9 - What are forces?    Slides    Movie
Learning Objectives:

1. Identify a force acting on an object, identify the agent of that force, and determine the vector which represents the force.
2. Given a set of forces acting on an object, calculate the net force.
3. Determine the inertial mass of an object based on the observed acceleration due to an applied force.

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Sep 8

Class 8 - How are vectors used?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Determine suitable unit vectors for a given problem and decompose vectors into appropriate components.
2. Graphically or algebraically solve vector calculations using vector components.

Sep 6

Class 7 - What if acceleration changes?    Slides  Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a situation in which acceleration is a specified function of velocity and time, write an appropriate differential equation and solve for velocity.
2. Translate verbal descriptions motion into pictorial, physical, or graphical representations, formulate algebraic equations describing the motion, and solve for unknown observables.

Sep 1

Class 6 - How does the Earth affect motion?    Slides    Example
Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize free fall and describe the situation algebraically using g, the acceleration due to gravity.
2. Identify physical situations which exhibit uniformly accelerated motion, write equations describing the motion, and solve for unknown observables.

Aug 30

Class 5 - What is the effect of acceleration?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Using a graph of position, velocity, or acceleration as a function of time, determine in what time intervals the other two quantities are positive, negative, or zero and draw a graph of each value as a function of time.

Aug 28

Class 4 - How are position and velocity linked?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Translate verbal, pictorial and physical representations of position and  velocity into a graphical representation.
2. Interpret a graph of either position or velocity as a function of time to determine in what time intervals the values are positive, negative, or zero, and draw a graph of the other quantity as a funciton of time.

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Aug 25

Class 3 - How do we analyze motion?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze a written problem statement of motion and translate the kinematic information into appropriate pictorial and physical representations.
2. Given a numerical value, identify the number of significant digits.
3. Apply order-of-magnitude and dimensional analysis to assess the validity
   of problem solutions.

Aug 23

Class 2 - How do we describe motion?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Determine the sum or difference of two vectors using graphical analysis.
2. Determine the displacement, velocity, or acceleration of a particle using graphical vector analysis.

Aug 21

Class  1 -  Introduction:  what is this course about?    Slides
Learning Objectives:

1. Interpret a description of motion and draw a corresponding motion diagram.
2. Translate a motion diagram into a written description of the motion.