Course Resources
Physics Resources – Math Resources – Computer Resources – Discussion Forum – Recommended Study Strategies –
Review Questions – Instructor Office Hours – General Resources at
Madison College
Physics Resources
Math Resources
- Calculus textbooks
- Calculus
1 – Functions and Graphs – Limits – Derivatives – Integration –
Review of Pre-Calculus
- Calculus
2 – Integration – Introduction to Differential Equations – Sequences
and Series – Power Series – Parametric Equations and Polar
Coordinates
- Calculus
3 – Parametric Equations and Polar Coordinates – Vectors –
Differentiation of Functions of Several Variables – Multiple Integration
– Vector Calculus – Second-Order Differential Equations
- Table
of Integrals
- See Computer Resources for online
tools
Computer Resources
- Computational Physics with the Jupyter
Notebook – this will not be required, but it may be helpful.
- Online math tools
- Desmos is a nice
free graphing calculator. With a (free) registered account, you can save
and share your work.
- Wolfram Alpha can do
equation solving and calculus. Wolfram’s technology stack (Mathematica,
Wolfram Alpha Pro, etc) is available to all Madison College students. Go
to the wolfram site info
page and sign up with your College email.
- Cymath shows steps for
equation solving
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- The Large Language
Models available today, such as ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, or Poe, are not intended to answer
numerical questions like Physics problems. They are good at composing
prose, not math. You will find that they provide a nice
sounding solution, but often with the wrong theory applied and
the wrong final answer.
- AI models are under development that do the math and theory
correctly, such as Khanmigo from Khan Academy (available for a
subscription fee). But until these are available and reliable you should
not count on using AI to help with your Physics homework.
- Great information at the AI Library
Guide.
Discussion Forum
This onlne discussion forum is for students to post questions,
comments or hints about the homework, as well as questions or comments
about the course generally.
I monitor these forums for new posts and respond promptly. If you
don’t want to miss any discussion, may wish to “subscribe” to this forum
– this will send you an email whenever a new post goes up. If a student
asks me a question by email, I often ask that they post the question to
the forum so that all students can profit from the discussion.
If you post a question about a particular homework problem, the
Subject of the thread should include the HW set and problem number
(example: HW2 Q4).
Recommended Study Strategies
- Generally
- Homework
- If you are stuck, don’t spend more than 30 minutes on a problem. Get
help from peers or the instructor. Posting at the Discussion Forum is a good place to start.
- To gain greater mastery, do extra problems from the textbook.
Answers for many problems are available.
- Collaboration with peers is permitted (and encouraged), but be sure
such collaborations are of mutual benefit.
- Exams and Quizzes
- Understand the solutions to the review
questions. Multiple choice problems will be modeled on the Concept
Questions; long Answer problems will be modeled on the Long Answer
Questions.
- Be careful not to just memorize the equation that solves the long
answer problem. It is almost certain to be different, and no partial
credit can be given for quoting the equation in the model solution.
Instead learn why the solution is as it is, so you can apply that
knowledge to a slightly different situation.
- Be aware of the exam and quiz rules and
expectations.
Review Questions
Exam and quiz questions will have concepts and solution methods based
on these model questions.
See Course
Info for exam information.
Instructor Office Hours
See Instructor Contact Info
Office hours may change throughout the semester. That page will
always have the correct times.
General Resources at
Madison College
Last modified: November 05, 2024