Hi everyone,

Several announcements:

1) Wednesday lecture recast as PHY251 Q&A.
Given the number of students who are or intend to be away Wednesday to travel for Thanksgiving,
I decided Wednesday lecture was best spent as a question-and-answer (office-hours-style) about homework
or any other 251 physics issues that are troubling you.

2) No office hours Wednesday.
As a result of 1), *no* office hours Wednesday. If you have questions, come during the regular lecture timeslot,
9-9:50am or 10-10:50am. This is your opportunity to get help from me on Wednesday.

3) Last assignment #9, is posted online, due Friday Dec 4, 5pm.
Deadline is strict. Solutions will be posted immediately after 5pm. Keep a copy of your own homework solution,
as needed, so that you can review this material with your own work as well as solutions in hand for the final exam.

4) Study Session Mon,Tue this week.
Daniel asked me to remind you that he is intending to hold a study session in the Science Library
starting at 7pm on Monday *and* Tuesday this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have posted Assignment #8 below. Note that it is due 5pm Wednesday, Nov 25.
The University will be closed for Thanksgiving Nov 26-27. Willamette Hall will be locked
by roughly 6pm on Wednesday, so be sure to get your homework in ontime.

I'm giving you a full week's notice so that those of you who plan to travel home for Thanksgiving
have plenty of time to complete your assignment and turn it in ahead of time if necessary.

Office hours next week:
Monday 11am-12:30pm (as usual)

FYI: I will not be reading or responding to email from Wednesday Nov 25 evening through Sunday Nov 29 evening.

I decided to make Problem 7.84 on Assignment #6 a bonus problem.

Midterm has been graded, and returned to the homework box.
Numerical grade is out of 30, listed on the inside cover of the first page.
Please respect your fellow students' privacy and take only your exam out of the box.

Andrew did an excellent job grading. I also looked over every one of your exams.
A few of you will see some small modifcation to your grade in red (up or down).
This was my doing, where I found partial credit that should (have or have not) been given.

Midterm solutions.

I am confident that your grade was fair and consistent across all students. Please look over the solutions
very carefully first before considering questioning the grading of any of the problems on the midterm.

Here is a histogram of the distribution of grades.

And, yes, the numerical-to-letter conversion is adjusted (upward) at the end of the course.
I don't convert numerical-to-letter grades any harder than what was given in the syllabus.

Several students have asked me about finding a tutor. The physics department main office maintains a list of tutors,
please see them during their regular business hours for a copy of the list. I neither encourage nor discourage the use
of a tutor in general, and for that matter, anyone in particular on the list. The decision to use (or not)
a tutor is entirely in your hands.

I do, however, remind you that ultimately you need to know how to solve problems yourself,
if for no other reason, than to do well on exams!

Collected advice from students, for students, concerning the assignments, problems, and the course.

Assignment #5 is available. I decided to extend the due date to Friday 6 Nov, 5pm, in the homework box.
Just six problems on Chapter 6 material (gravity), two of which I've suggested as useful exercises pre-midterm.

This week I will be out-of-town Wednesday afternoon through Friday evening. Andrew has kindly agreed
to step in for me on Thursday (as well as his usual Friday tutorial).

Assignment #4 is due on Thursday at 5pm Saturday at 3pm.
You can turn it in anytime in the homework box this week or to me personally by 3pm on Saturday.

I will hold office hours on Monday, 11am-12:30pm (as usual) and Wednesday, 11am-12noon. (No Thursday office hours.)

I have also reserved 110 Willamette at 4pm 2pm, Saturday Oct 31 for extended office hours
in anticipation of the upcoming midterm exam the following Monday.

Midterm exam is on Monday, Nov 2.

In preparation, here are some Midterm Practice Problems with solutions.

The exam will be to solve 3 of 4 problems in the 50 min of class time. You will be given the chapter summaries,
as well as the relevant parts of the inside cover of the book. It is your responsibility
to figure out how to use this material to solve the problems.

A small glitch in the webserver configuration was preventing some all of you
from seeing updated content from this website. The problem has been fixed.
Everyone gets an extra 2 days to turn in their assignment due to the web
configuration error that was my fault -- sorry.

Daniel Berg has volenteered to run a study session this coming Monday night at 7pm. Here is the info:

- room B-70a Science Library (the one just down from the main library desk, furthest from the doors)
- if the Monday study session is successful, a repeating event on subsequent Mondays will be requested

This study session is open to students in both the 9am and 10am sections. The first session is anticipated
to have at least 10 participants. If all goes well, we will have a good turnout, without being inundated
(the room has 15.5 chairs, with a stool counting as the half; and big study tables).

Everyone who attends is strongly requested to have worked on the problems and do the reading individually
before attending. This will provide the maximum benefit for all involved.

Lecture 1 and Lecture 2 posted.

Will the 4th Edition be on reserve at the library?

Some years ago I inquired about this, and the response given to me was that the library expected students to purchase textbooks, and they do not as a rule purchase textbooks despite requests from professors. This is beyond my control. See here for library policies.

Hence my comment in class that if you choose to use the 3rd edition, you'll need a buddy with a 4th edition to see the differenes. The 4th edition is required, and I work under the assumption that you have the book or have access to the content.

You could consider online-only content, such as coursesmart.com, for an alternative means to obtain the content for less cost.

NO CLASS ON THURSDAY, 1 October.
Two lectures this week: Wednesday and Friday. No tutorial.

Assignment #1 is posted as a PDF. No paper copies of the assignments will be distributed.
It is due 5pm, Thu 8 Oct. See below for details.

Website created. Announcements will be posted here.