Home Work

Assignments for this course:

Homework problems sets are assigned for each chapter corresponding to all or most of the sections we cover in class. Typically one homework set is assigned per chapter. In each assignment includes some skill building problems as well as a few End of Chapter (EOC) plus one or more test bank problems. The skill-building problems are designed to help you understand the physical principle and are supposed to walk you through problem-solving techniques. All homework sets are assigned on the Mastering Physics (MP) web-based system. I find MP, with all of its idiosyncrasies, to be the most practical way for you to get credit for homework which will constitute the majority of your study time in this class. Do homework problems and doing a lot them is the guaranteed best way to do well in my exams, period. The MP system also provides you with some feedback on your work and is likely helpful. It is not the only resource you should use but its one that will earn you credit towards your class grade.

A registration number was provided to you when you purchased your textbook or if you obtained the license online. Instructions on how to use MP are available online. Some tips are offered below as well.

Each exercise is graded and averaged in with your final grade, see the Grading Policy page for the relative weights. The problem sets official deadlines are available on the Mastering Physics website; they are typically due on Sunday after the material is covered. Please give yourself enough time to do the problems sets they tend to takes a few hours each. Since the problems are there mostly for you to learn and practice your problem-solving skills I’ve configured MP to allowed 10 tries per problem with rather lenient penalties for opening hints and late homework. The grading policies for each set is listed on the website.

Mastering Physics Course ID: RODRIGUEZ2048S18

Mastering Physics License and Registration: 

If you purchase a new textbook you will receive a license for Pearson’s online homework system Mastering Physics (MP). If you decide to purchase a used book or borrow one from a friend or relative you will ALSO need to purchase a license from the MP website.  YOU CAN NOT use someone else’s license since it is not possible to transfer ownership from one user to another AFAIK. To obtain the license online follow the links for “new student:” in MP website. The license is about $65.

Please note that purchase of a license for MP will NOT get a copy of the e-book (e-text). If you want the e-text you can buy that separately when you purchase MP. The online e-book will get you access to problem-solving applets which I find rather splendid. You could also forgo the hardcopy and just go online. PLEASE NOTE: you do not need to buy both the e-book and a hard copy of the textbook but to receive credit for homework you will need to purchase the license for MP.

Finally, there are a number of ways you can obtain the textbook and MP license. Most of you will take this class and the follow-on physics II class so I highly recommend you buy both classical mechanics and electromagnetic volumes of the textbook together. For example there are new, used, versions of volume 1 and 2 separately or volumes 1 and 2 together. There are also a set of Modern Physics sections which can either be purchased separately or added to the physics 1 and 2 sections. All or some of these packages should be available at the FIU bookstore, online or through online retailers like amazon.com. Unfortunately there are just too many of them for me to fully detail what to get and which is the least expensive  etc., However, my recommendations are in order:

  1. Buy a new book bundled with a MasteringPhysics license. If you can get the softcover version do that, it’s a lot less expensive. Also, buy the combined volume, it is heavier but since most of you will be taking physics 2 next semester it will likely save you money. The MP license lasts a couple of years so you can wait a little bit before you take physics 2. The total cost of this package deal is about $300 ;(
  2. Buy an MP license bundled with e-text. This is the least expensive option but you can’t sell your e-text and get some or your money back. Also you will not have access to a hard copy which is something nice to crawl up with before going to bed. This option costs about $115.
  3. Buy or rent a used book. With a used book you will still need to purchase the MP license but now you have to do this separately, I don’t think Pearson offers a bundle with a used or rent option but you can check. I think a used book is about half the price of a new one. The MP license, I’d get from the website for about $70. I think it’s about twice that at the bookstore, go figure.
 How to use Mastering Physics:

First, point your browser to the Mastering Physics website

  1. Logon, if you have an existing account, or register as a new student if you don’t have an account. When you register please use your full name and or panther ID in the registration process so that I can identify your account with you. If you’ve purchased a new textbook you will get a license and registration ID number with your purchase otherwise you can purchase a license online from the website.
  2. When you log in click on the “Join Course” link on the menu bar on the left and enter my course ID, listed above, in the Course ID window and click on the save button. Now you are ready to use the Mastering Physics system. The assignments will be listed in the “Assignment List” tab and the scheduled due dates, grading policies for each assignment are available from the website. Typically each assignment will be due after we’ve covered the material in class.
Tips and Hints:
  1. For numerical results, make sure that you have enough decimal places of accuracy in your result. A good general rule is that your answer should have the same number of decimal places as in the input data, except if the first digit in your answer is 1. In that case, you should use one more decimal place in your answer.
  2. In intermediate steps, it is generally a good idea to keep more decimal places of accuracy than in your final result in order to avoid round-off error.
  3.  Note that in many calculations, the SIGN of the result is important. If you think that your numerical answer is correct, but the system won’t accept it, it may be that your sign is wrong
  4. For answers that require a mathematical expression, indicate multiplication with the Asterix symbol, e.g., x multiplied by y should be written x*y.
  5. To indicate subscripts and superscripts use the underline and hat symbols in front of the subscript or superscript. For example, you might write the electron mass symbolically as m_e, and x squared should be written x^2.
  6. To indicate a vector quantity, use _vec following the quantity, e.g., the position vector should be written r_vec. To indicate a unit vector, use unit instead of vec, e.g., the unit vector in the direction of the position vector should be written r_unit.
  7. For a square root, use sqrt, e.g., the square root of x should be written like this sqrt(x).
  8. Greek letters are indicated by just writing out the name in Latin letters, e.g., pi, mu, epsilon, sigma, theta, etc..