Note: When sending emails to the instructor or the head GSI, be sure to sign your real name so that they can respond effectively. Do not assume we can figure out who rgj1927@pacbell.net is!
The class website is here: http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/liphardt/7B.html. Handouts and announcements will be posted on socrates or this site, so please check them it regularly.
Required texts:
(1) TBD
(2) TBD
(3) Elby, Portable TA: Problem Solving Guide, Volume 2. This extremely popular resource contains practice problems about
electrodynamics with completely worked out solutions. It is meant to be worked, not read. These practice problems are
for your own benefit; we will not collect your work on them. We suggest working through at least some of the problems
in Elby before attempting each week’s homework assignment. This is a required text.
Working on homework problems is central to your learning the course material.
All discussion sections begin in the first week. Please check the discussion schedule for the correct room. Sections will begin meeting in the first week of class. If you do not attend during the first week, you will be automatically dropped from the class. You must be registered in the same number lab and discussion sections or you will be dropped from the class. If there is any reason (such as illness) you cannot attend the discussion section in the first week, please email the head GSI or me (Jan).
Lab sections will meet on the second floor of LeConte Hall. Please look-up the specific room (e.g. LeConte 245 & 248, etc.) on bearfacts. Sections will begin meeting in the first week of class. If you do not attend during the first week, you will be automatically dropped from the class. You must be registered in the same number lab and discussion sections or you will be dropped from the class.
1. Your lab worksheets can be found in the workbook that comes in the textbook package (found at the bookstore).
2. MAKEUP LABS: There is no makeup week at the end of the semester. You may make up labs during the week the lab is offered by attending another section and asking permission of that GSI before the beginning of class. It is up to the GSI of that section whether they will allow you to do the lab during their section. If you are making up a lab, it is YOUR responsibility to let the GSI know which lab section you are registered for and that lab section GSI’s name so that your score is recorded properly. You may only make up a missed lab, not redo labs.
3. Read the proper lab each week BEFORE coming to lab. There may be a short quiz at the beginning of the lab designed to test if you’re prepared for the lab. The schedule in this course details handout shows what lab you will be doing each week. You are responsible for being aware of changes/announcements.
Your participation in labs and discussion sections is graded on a three-point scale: 0 if you’re not present, 1 if you’re present but not participating, and 2 if you’re actively participating. Typically, the vast majority of students actively participate, and therefore receive a 2 grade every time.
Midterm 1 - 20%, midterm 2 - 20%, final exam - 45%, Lab - 10%, Quiz/section - 5%.
Means and standard deviations of exams will be posted. Your midterm grades will
give you a sense of the precise grade cutoffs. No makeup exams will be given except for
emergency situations that are discussed with the professor before the exam.
A grade of "Incomplete" will only be given under dire circumstances beyond a student’s control,
and only when work already completed is of at least C quality.
The UC Berkeley grading guideline specifies that in large lower division courses, the total percentage of
students getting A and B should not exceed 65%, and that not more than 36% of students will receive an A.
I do not write bad or mediocre recommendation letters. This is in your interest, since if I agree to write you a recommendation letter, then you know that it will be a strong letter. If you would like a recommendation letter, please email me and ask. If I agree, then you need to ask your GSI to send me a three-paragraph description of your class performance, commenting on the main items requested by the Berkeley rec letter service: your Intellectual Potential, Ability to Analyze/Problem Solve, and Creativity and Imagination.
If you need to switch sections, lectures, add the class, or make other enrollment changes, you must make the change on TeleBears. We are not able to process any changes over e-mail. We will only make special arrangements for graduating seniors and people who were enrolled in cancelled sections. We are not able to create more spaces or kick other students out. Discussion/lab sections will be strictly limited to 22 students; to allow more is not fair to those who enrolled on time.
Lecture | Topic/Reading | Worksheet/Laboratory |
1: Jan. 19 | Introduction, Temperature, Kinetic Theory of Gases | |
2: Jan. 21 | Temperature, Kinetic Theory of Gases | |
3: Jan. 26 | Temperature, Kinetic Theory of Gases | |
4: Jan. 28 | Heat, Entropy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics | |
5: Feb. 2 | Heat, Entropy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics | |
6: Feb. 4 | Heat, Entropy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics | |
7: Feb. 9 | Entropy and the Laws of Thermodynamics | |
8: Feb. 11 | Phase Transitions; Population inversion and lasers | T4,T5,T6,TS-1,TS-2 |
9: Feb. 16 | Electrostatics: Charge and Coulomb's Law | |
10: Feb. 18 | Electrostatics: Gauss' Law and the E field | |
Feb. 23 | No lecture, Midterm 1 | |
11: Feb. 25 | Using Gauss' Law, Gauss' law in differential form | |
12: Mar. 2 | Using Gauss' Law; Electrical Potential | |
13: Mar. 4 | Electrical Potential, conductors, currents | |
14: Mar. 9 | Currents, resistance, simple circuits | |
15: Mar. 11 | Dielectrics and capacitors | |
16: Mar. 16 | Charaging and discharging capacitors | |
17: Mar. 18 | DC circuits |