PHY138 tutorial

Sorin Codoban

Office: MP619,  Tel: 416-978-2706,

Office hours: by appointment or on the time agreed upon during tutorials.
Presumably, that is the day(s) before the test -- watch this space for updates.

You may want to visit also   my PHY138 Laboratory page, last updated for the 2004 summer lab session.
Perhaps still applies to the present day lab experiments.
A lot of stuff, written in my spare time.
I really enjoyed doing laboratory demonstrations (although it was sooo... time consuming).
Anyway, please visit the above link (for hints on the lab experiments, lab test, my comments and tips).

Official links for PHY138Y tutorial

  General information about PHY138Y (requirements, timeline, etc..)
 
  Main page of PHY138Y course
 
  Last moment announcements for PHY138Y

Tests and their solutions from previous years:
   archived on Faraday (before 2001)
   Assignments and tests from the past years.
Last, you may try the UofT Electronic Reserve for the final exams from previous years.

Read Guidelines for problem solving   before handing in the problem sets.
The method advocated there is from the Knight textbook: Model, Visualize, Guess, ...
For the same problem set headache, here is a guide for the presentation of the solutions.
Refers to the old textbook, but still valuable (for now, you may skip the advice on significant figures).

Solved problems, my comments, etc. for PHY138 tutorial

Selected "magenta" problems | Other problems or comments | "Unfinished business" | Errata |

Solutions to selected problems ("magenta") from Serway & Jewett

Ch. 1:  no. 64 (.html) Searching for the treasure on the island - a solution using the center of mass concept.

Ch. 2:  no. 52 Free fall in a well - corrections due to the speed of sound. (.pdf, 2 pages, 70kb).   The HTML version is here.

Ch. 3:  no. 43 Projectile motion on an incline (.pdf, 2pages, 100kb).   The HTML version is here.

Other problems and comments

• Police encounters and traffic jam: an exercise on Relative velocity (.pdf, 2pages, 90kb).
  I'll post here (when I get some spare time)       the other road related problem
  I was talking about: the limiting factors of the Gradiner Express Highway bandwidth.
• The bird(s) flying in between trains: a geometric solution.
  For printing, a PDF (40kb), 3 pages version is available.
• Some not-so-obvious results for the 1-D and 2-D projectile motion with friction. (.pdf, 3 pages, 160Kb).
  If there is (air) friction, should you throw the ball at 45 degrees for the max. range?
• A well known spring and collision problem. (.pdf, 2 pages, 80kb).
• The effect of kinetic energy non-conservation in a collision problem (.pdf, 2 pages, 65Kb).
  The HTML version is here.
  
• Explaining the the racing balls experiment (demonstrated in the lecture)
  For printing, take the PDF (30kb), 2 pages version.
• Tennis ball bouncing (demonstrated in the lecture)
  For printing, a PDF (50kb), 2 pages version is available.
• Ch. 14 (Serway & Jewett):   An interference problem (14.9):   (html) and   (.pdf, 2 pages, 65kb) versions.
• Ch. 21 (Knight)   3-sources sound Interference (21.73).   (html) and   (.pdf, 1 page, 20kb) versions.
• Ch. 21:  DC circuits (Serway & Jewett)
    21.32 (.pdf, 1 page scanned, 27kb)
    21.36 (.pdf, 1 page scanned, 30kb)
    21.40 (.pdf, 1 page scanned, 28kb)
    21.50 (.pdf, 1 page scanned, 37kb).
• Playing around with a simple RC-circuit  (.pdf, 2 pages, 80kb).
• Electric field of point-like charges -3q +q +2q   on x-axis (.pdf, 2 pages, 65kb).  
  The HTML version is here.
• Another classic problem: how do you draw maximum power   from a battery? (.pdf, 2 pages, 40kb).  
  The HTML version is here.
• Capacitor charging: when do you think the game is over?   (.pdf, 2 pages, 45kb).
  The HTML version is here.
• Knight textbook, 25.75 Charges in external field   (.pdf, 2pages, scanned, 70kb).

Problems unfinished during the tutorials

Sept. 24 (gr. WB4)  (.pdf, 85kB) -- projectile motion
Oct. 10 (gr. FA4)  (.pdf, 28kB) -- ending of a test problem (May 2000).

Nothing here yet

Other links

Recommended reading: How to lie with statistics by Darrell Huff.
It contains no equations, just a training of common sense (and a bit of statistics).
The reading takes away an evening, but you get wiser for the rest of your life.
Available at UofT library and on Amazon.

Interested in talk shows (natural science oriented)?
See podcasted interviews from Point of Inquiry .

Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom is a very instructive book about the perils of radioactive wastes.
Available for free download from USA DOE publications website.
For more reading, here is a chronology of radiation and protection.
And a very handy Glossary of radiological terms.

Learn about the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
The timeline of the tragedy and an assessment of radiological and health impacts.
I recall taking KI pills (I was in school in Eastern Europe at the time). Not a joke matter, unfortunately.

Learn about radiation shielding at Health Physics Society

Do not underestimate the power of dimensional analysis
A short article estimating the power of a nuke from snapshot series. Neat stuff.

All creatures small and great it's a nice review article in "Nature" about scaling in the living world.
Access the link through UofT network.

On the fascinating physics of life: the water striders at MIT.

BadAstronomy.com - criticizing bad Physics in movies and mass-media

Intuitor physics - yet another site on the same Movies -- Physics relationship.

For Star Trek fans, the critique of
The Physics of Star Trek, by L.M. Krauss. Available at UofT library and Amazon.

For Star Wars fans here is the Empire's eulogy.
Using a bit of Physics (order of magnitude reasonings) in the SW vs. ST saga, the result is ....
the Empire kicks the Federation's ass, weapon wise.
Anyway, use The Science, Luke.

How Stuff Works. A nice resource for applied Physics (and Chemistry, etc...).

Mini-biographies of famous physicists

And last, some links for your leisure time:

    The not-so-easy life of Physics undergrads: the germanium experiment (a quasi-lab report by Lucas Kovar).
    I just hope in Life Science is not this bad.

    Britney Spears is doing Physics!   Funny, in some places.

    Are you happy with the course and the instructor?   Go to RateMyProfs
    N.B. The "ratings " are obviously biased. Read " How to lie with statistics " before taking things too seriously.