Course Syllabus for

PHY205 - Summer 2016

Physics Of Everyday Life

Dr. Damya Souami

Office : MP405
dsouami@physics.utoronto.ca

C OURSE D ESCRIPTION
Welcome ! An introduction to the physics of everyday life. In this conceptual course, we will learn about
the principles of physics that govern physical phenomena found in our everyday lives. Applications
of these principles include exploring the functioning of anything from automobiles, cameras, musical
instruments and many others.
Course Web Site http ://portal.utoronto.ca/

C OURSE O BJECTIVES

AND

R EQUIREMENTS

Learning about Physics of everyday life ... The purpose of this course is to give you an introduction
to how scientists think, and how they approach problems. Physics is one of the oldest sciences, and in
some ways it is the most simple. Physicists start with a big, messy problem and they first simplify it as
much as they possibly can. Only then do they try to analyse the situation. They then gradually introduce
more complications, one at a time, until they eventually end up with a very complicated model. While
we will not be going into the deep end of the pool of mathematics for this course (the focus will be on
the concepts which are embodied in the mathematics), we will see some of the more simple equations
and we will discover how simple concepts can interact to describe complicated phenomena. You will
want to have a calculator which you are comfortable using.
We will study introductory physics from the perspective of everyday experiences. The specific topics
we will study are listed on the table at the end of this document. This course is primarily intended as a
Breadth Requirement in Category 5 : The Physical and Mathematical Universes for non-science students.
There are no university-level prerequisites for this course. However, there are several exclusions : you
may not have taken or be taking PHY131 or PHY151, or your registration in the course will be deleted.
High school level ability in algebra and geometry will be needed, and you will need a non-programmable
pocket calculator that can do scientific notation.
By the end of this course you will be able to use basic concepts from physics to explain and predict
simple situations. You will also be able to describe basic concepts from physics and explain how, why,
and when they are useful. Finally, you will be able to look at a complicated system and be able to
describe a couple of basic concepts which together form a simple model of the system.

C OURSE M ATERIAL
Required Text :
Conceptual Physics with MasteringPhysics (12th edition) by Paul Hewitt. Pearson Education.
You can purchase either the hardcopy or the e-text version of the book. This course covers Chapters 2-8, 12-16, and 19-28. Copies of the book should be available at the bookstore.
When you register on MasteringPhysics make sure to use your UTORid.

How to register on MasteringPhysics ?

Go to the website http://www.masteringphysics.com. To register for MasteringPhysics you need

an access code, which comes for free when you purchase a new Conceptual Physics (12th Edition) by Hewitt, at the U of T Bookstore or Discount Textbooks. Stand-alone accounts on MasteringPhysics are also available for students who have obtained used textbooks. You can also
choose to get the e-text instead of the hard copy textbook, as long as you are using edition 12.
You will also need to enter your University of Toronto Student Number (9 or 10 digits long), in
order to receive your marks. To help you get started on MasteringPhysics, Dr. Harlow, who does
thought another course using a MasteringPhysics has posted a 3 minute video which leads you
through the steps of creating your account at : https://youtu.be/CJ_ByY4Ykm4. Note that the
Course ID Dr. Harlow refers to in the video is not correct for this course, and information about
the first Pre-Class Quiz is also not correct for our course.
The course ID you will use for our course is the following :

MPSOUAMI14896
iClicker
You will need to purchase an iClicker. available from the campus bookstore. When you register
your iClicker, be sure to use your UTORid not your student number. The website will ask you
for your student number, ignore that and use your UTORid.
A calculator
A Calculator will be useful. You will not need an expensive one. If you are good at basic arithmetic, you might be able to do the exam without a calculator.

L ECTURES
Please respect others, including the professor, in the classroom. Turn your cell phones to silent mode.
Do not play Angry Birds or watch TV shows.
Lectures will be structured assuming that you have read the textbook before coming to lecture (please
refer to the lectures calendar).

T UTORIALS
During tutorials you will be given a worksheet. You are to work in groups and fill in the worksheet,
which will be handed in at the end of the tutorial. This sheet will be graded and returned in the following
tutorial.
Your lowest tutorial grade will be dropped at the end of the semester. Your tutorial grade will be the
average of the rest of your grades. This only applies to the tutorial work sheets. Every quiz will count.
There will also be quizzes during the tutorials.

M EETING T IMES
Office Hours : Wednesday 10 :00 - 11 :30, in MP 405.
If you cannot make the office hours please e-mail me and we will try to arrange an alternate time.
In addition to this TA office hours will be announced on the course calendar on the portal.
Lectures :Lectures are on MW (Mondays and Wednesdays) from 1 :00 - 3 :00 pm in room MP 203.
Tutorials : Tutorials meet once per week on Mondays or Wednesdays. The locations and times for these
tutorials are posted on ROSI.
1. Monday @16 :00 - 18 :00.
2. Wednesday @16 :00 - 18 :00.
You MUST register and attend one of the tutorials. If for some reason you cannot make it one week,
please let me know as far in advance as possible. We will try to make an alternate arrangement.
NOTE : You must register for both the lecture and the tutorial parts of this course.

E-M AIL
I try to answer e-mails within 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays). If I do not, please send a
follow up e-mail. Please note that it is not always easy to answer a physics question by e-mail.

A SSESSMENT S CHEME
F INAL E XAM
M ID - TERM
T UTORIAL W ORKSHEETS & Q UIZZES
L ECTURE PARTICIPATION (C LICKER USE )
P RE - CLASS READING Q UIZZES ONLINE USING M ASTERING P HYSICS

45%
30%
10% in total
5% in total
10% in total

The Midterm (2 hrs long) will be held during lecture time on June 1st, it will take place in
EX100. Let me know at least 10 days before the test if you have a conflict, so I can try to find an
alternate time for you to write the test. It is your responsibility to avoid course conflicts in your
schedule. You are to bring your own non-programmable calculator (no sharing of calculators will
be allowed), ruler, pencils, and pens. An aid sheet will be provided to you with all the necessary
formulas. This formula sheet will be posted on the portal on May 21st.
3

 The Final Exam will be two hours long, some time during the week of June 20. The exact date,
time and place will be announced. You are to bring your own non-programmable calculator (no
sharing of calculators will be allowed), ruler, pencils, and pens. An aid sheet will be provided to
you with all the necessary formulas. This aid sheet will be posted on the portal beforehand.
Tutorial Worksheets : During each tutorial session, you will be working with a team on some
problems and activities, and filling out your answers on a worksheet. This worksheet will be
turned in at the end of each tutorial, marked, and handed back to you during the next tutorial.
There are a total of 5 tutorial worksheets through the semester, and the best 4 out of 5 of these will
count toward your Tutorial Worksheets component. If more than one tutorial must be missed this
semester, please provide me with documentation, medical or otherwise, and I will excuse these
absences.
Pre-class Reading Quizzes on portal : Classes in this course involve a lot of discussion and reflection, and they are much more effective if every student already has some familiarity with the
chapters we will be discussing. In order to encourage reading ahead, before every class beginning
with class 2 on May. 11, you will have to complete an online assignment on MasteringPhysics
based on the reading for that day. The work is due by 11 :00am E.S.T on the day of the lecture,
so I highly suggest completing it the evening before the class or even the evening before that.
There are 9 pre-class reading assignments in the course, and your mark will be determined based
on the best 8 of these.
Lecture Participation : Every student should have their own i-clicker remote, available from the
campus bookstore. I use these clickers to involve students in the class, survey the class, figure
out what the majority of the class knows, and promote discussion. For each lecture beginning
with class 2, one participation point is awarded for clicking any answer (right or wrong) for half
or more of the quizzes per lecture. The final Lecture Participation mark is based on the best 7
out of 9 scores, and is out of 7. Any student can miss or fail to participate in up to two classes
without penalty. If more than two classes must be missed please provide me with documentation,
medical or otherwise, and I will excuse these absences. Unlike the other aspects of this course,
i-clickers are not strictly mandatory. If you do not own, and do not wish to purchase an i-clicker
remote, please contact me as early as possible to make other arrangements for monitoring your
lecture participation, so you do not lose marks. The deadline for making other arrangements is
May 18, 2016.
T ESTS AND E XAMS
There is a midterm test in this course, all the information about date, time, and content of the test is
given in the table below. The location will be announced at the very start of the semester.

The midterm and the final exam will draw from the lectures, tutorials and textbook. This could include
material presented in the lectures or tutorial material that is not covered in the textbook. It could also
include assigned reading material that was covered in the textbook but not explicitly discussed in lectures
or even question pre-class work.
The exam will cover all the material, including material that was on the term test. You will be permitted
to bring a hard-copy translation dictionary to the test and exam.
T UTORIAL Q UIZZES
During some tutorials there will be a couple of quizzes. These quizzes are announced in the tutorial
calendar ; there will be no surprise quiz.

Please, note that these questions will be basic problems that you should master before the test and exam.
Questions on the test and exam may be more difficult than these quiz questions. Think of them as the
first few rungs on a ladder, with the exam being the top of the ladder.

C LASS PARTICIPATION
During lectures, Clicker questions will be asked. These are multiple choice questions. You get marks for
participating ; you do not need to get these correct.

The participation grade will be based on the number of questions you answer. There will be a 10% forgiveness policy. The following example illustrates the situation : if there are 80 Clicker questions, then
90% of 80 is 72, and your grade is computed as if there were only 72 questions. So if you answered 70
out of 80 questions, your grade would be 70 out of 72. You cannot get more than 100% credit though ;
if you answered 75 questions in the previous example, your grade would be a perfect score, not 75 out
of 72.
You may not use someone elses Clicker to vote. This is giving them marks which they did not earn,
hence is academic fraud ! Appropriate use of the Clickers will be checked during randomly chosen
lectures. If you are caught with another students Clicker, or if you are caught getting credit without
being in the lecture, all students involved risk severe academic sanctions.

C ONCERNS
If you have any concerns about the course and your ability to do well, please come see me and we can
discuss your situation. I am happy to make reasonable accommodations to ensure that all students have
an equal opportunity to do well in this course. The university has many resources to provide us the best
chance to help you succeed.
ACADEMIC H ONESTY & P LAGIARISM
Please refer to the Student Code of Conduct.

L ECTURES C ALENDAR
Month

Mon, 9

Inertia, Net Force, the Equilibrium Rule

Speed, Velocity, Acceleration, Free Fall

Reading from
Conceptual Physics
Ch 2 - pgs. 20-38
Ch 3 - pgs. 39-56

Wed, 11

Friction, Mass and Weight, a = F/m

Action Force / Reaction Force, Vectors

Ch 4 - pgs. 57-73
Ch 5 - pgs. 74-89

Mon, 16

Work, Power, Potential and Kinetic Energy

Circular Motion, Rotation, Torque, Stability,
Centripetal Force, Angular Momentum

Ch 7 - pgs. 109-131
Ch 8 - pgs. 132-159

Wed, 18

Liquids : Pressure, Buoyancy, Flotation, Capillarity

Gases : The Atmosphere, Barometers,
Bernoullis Principle, Plasma

Ch 13 - pgs. 244-263
Ch 14 - pgs. 264-282

Wed, 25

Temperature, Heat, Heat Capacity, Thermal Expansion

Heat Transfer : Conduction, Convection, Radiation

Ch 15 - pgs. 284-301
Ch 16 - pgs. 302-319

Mon, 30

Oscillations, Waves, Doppler Effect, Shock Waves

Sound in Air, Resonance, Interference, Beats

Ch 19 - pgs. 356-373
Ch 20 - pgs. 374-390

Mid-term
EX 100

Wed, 1

Mon, 6

Music, Pitch, Sound Intensity, Musical Instruments, DVDs

Light, Transparent and Opaque Materials, Shadows, the Eye

Ch 21 - pgs. 391-404
Ch 26 - pgs. 486-503

Wed, 8

Diffuse Reflection, Absorption, Transmission, Colour

Mirrors, Refraction, Rainbows, Fiber-Optics, Lenses

Ch 27 - pgs. 504-518
Ch 28 - pgs. 519-543

Mon, 13

Electricity : Conductors and Insulators, Voltage, Capacitors

Current, Resistance, Batteries, AC/DC, Circuits
course including all of the

Ch 22 - pgs. 406-429
Ch 23 - pgs. 430-451

Wed, 15

Magnetism, Electromagnets, Electric Motors, Biomagnetism

Electric Generators, Power Transmission, Transformers

Ch 24 - pgs. 452-468
Ch 25 - pgs. 469-484

Date

June

May

Class

10
EXAM

Main Topics

Chapters 2 - 8 & 12 - 16
255 McCaul St. [just South of College St.]

The 2 hour final exam will cover the entire

- assigned reading
- tutorial materials, as well as
the material that was discussed in class

This symbol in the table indicates that there will be an online assignment on MasteringPhysics for you to
complete by 11 :00am E.S,T on that day. The assignment will be open at 11 :00am E.S.T two days before, you
will thus have 48hrs to complete the work.

Note : Please refer to the course calendar on the portal, as it will be updated every week.