Accelerated Physics I: Mechanics and Thermodynamics

Phys 151, Spring 2024

Course Web Page

Brooks Thomas

Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042

Phone: (610) 330-5207
Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu

Contact Info

Physics at Lafayette

Other Resources

• My Personal Home Page
• Lafayette Physics Department
• Physics Courses

• List of NSF REU Sites
• APS Resources for Students
• Society of Physics Students (SPS)
• CUWiP
• SACNAS
• National Society of Black Physicists

Course Materials and Other Useful Links

• Syllabus
• Resources and Demos Page
• Course Moodle
• MasteringPhysics Site

Textbook

• Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman, University Physics with Modern Physics, 15th Ed. (Pearson, 2019).

Instructor Drop-In Hours (i.e., "Office Hours")

My instructor drop-in hours this semester will be held in Hugel 125. (These are sometimes referred to as "office hours," but in this case that's a misnomer in this case because Hugel 125 is not my office.) These drop-in hours are listed below:


• Mon., 3:00 - 4:00 PM
• Wed., 1:30 - 3:30 PM
• Fri., 1:00 - 2:00 PM

The default assumption is that my drop-in hours will take place in person. However, if the need arises for you to attend my drop-in hours virtually at any point during the semester (e.g., because of a winter-weather emergency or because you are isolating due to COVID-19), please email me in advance to schedule a virtual drop-in-hours meeting.

Course Schedule

The schedule for the course, including the topic to be covered each day and the corresponding chapters in the textbook, is provided below.



Date	Topic	Reading	Homework
Week 1
1/22	Introduction
1/24	Units, Vectors, and Other Preliminaries	1.1 - 1.10
1/26	Kinematics in One Dimension	2.1 - 2.3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
1/29	Motion with Constant Acceleration	2.4 - 2.6
1/31	Motion in Two and Three Dimensions	3.1 - 3.2	HW 2 Due
2/2	Projectile Motion	3.3
Week 3
2/5	Forces and Newton's First Law	4.1 - 4.2
2/7	Newton's Second Law	4.3 - 4.4, 4.6	HW 3 Due
2/9	Applying the Second Law	5.1 - 5.3, 6.3
Week 4
2/12	Newton's Third Law	4.5
2/14	Circular motion	3.4, 5.4	HW 4 Due
2/16	Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation	13.1 - 13.2
Week 5
2/19	Work and Kinetic Energy	6.1 - 6.3
2/19 2/20	Mid-Term Exam I (During Lab Period): 4:15 - 5:35 PM on 2/19 or 1:15 - 2:35 PM on 2/20
2/21	Potential Energy	7.1	HW 5 Due
2/23	Elastic Forces and Potential Energy	7.1
Week 6
2/26	Energy problems	7.2
2/28	Gravitational Potential Energy	13.3 - 13.4	HW 6 Due
3/1	Conservative Forces and Potential Energy	7.3 - 7.4
Week 7
3/4	Power	6.4
3/6	Momentum	8.1 - 8.2	HW 7 Due
3/8	Momentum Conservation and Collisions	8.3
Week 8
3/11	Spring Break (No Class Meeting)
3/13	Spring Break (No Class Meeting)
3/15	Spring Break (No Class Meeting)
Week 9
3/18	Elastic and Inelastic Collisions	8.4
3/20	Center of Mass	8.5 - 8.6	HW 8 Due
3/22	Rotational Kinematics	9.1 - 9.2
Week 10
3/25	Radial and Tangential Acceleration	9.3
3/27	Energy of Rotation and Moments of Inertia	9.4	HW 9 Due
3/29	Rotational Motion and Energy Conservation	9.5 - 9.6
Week 11
4/1	Torque	10.1 - 10.2
4/3	Angular Dynamics	10.3	HW 10 Due
4/5	Angular Momentum	10.4 - 10.5
Week 12
4/8	Vector Torque and Angular Momentum	10.6 - 10.7
4/8 4/9	Equilibrium and Oscillations (During First 50 Minutes of Lab Period in Hugel 142): 4:15 - 5:05 PM on 4/8 or 1:15 - 2:05 PM on 4/9	14.1 - 14.3
4/8 4/9	Mid-Term Exam II (During Latter Portion of Lab Period in Hugel 119): 5:15 - 6:35 PM on 4/8 or 2:15 - 3:35 PM on 4/9
4/10	Simple Harmonic Motion	14.4 - 14.6	HW 11 Due
4/12	Brooks in Washington D.C. (No Class Meeting)
Week 13
4/15	Waves	15.1 - 15.4
4/17	Energy in Wave Motion	15.5	HW 12 Due
4/19	Superposition and Standing Waves	15.6 - 15.8
Week 14
4/22	Fluid Mechanics and Pascal's Law	12.1 - 1.2
4/24	Gases and the Ideal Gas Law	18.1 - 18.2	HW 13 Due
4/26	Kinetic Theory of Gases	18.3 - 18.4
Week 15
4/29	The Boltzmann Distribution	18.5
5/1	Gas Dynamics	19.1 - 19.3, 19.5
5/3	The First Law of Thermodynamics	19.4, 19.8	HW 14 Due
Final Exam
5/6	Final Exam: 8:00 - 11:00 AM in Hugel 225