General Information

PHYS 103: Physics of Music Laboratory

Fall 2004

Textbook: Physics 103 Laboratory Manual
Fall 2003 edition

Dr. Richard E. Berg

Office: Physics room 1312
Phone: 301-405-5994
e-mail: reberg@physics.umd.edu

TA: Marc Pollak

Office: PHYS 3109
Phone: 301-405-6190
e-mail: marcp@physics.umd.edu

TA: Jorge Ovalle

Office: PHYS 3102
Phone: 301-405-5997
e-mail: jovalle@physics.umd.edu

Section 0101: Th 11:00-12:50 (Pollak)
Section 0201: Th 1:00-2:50 (Pollak)
Section 0301: Th 3:30-5:20 (Pollak)
Section 0401: F 10:00-11:50 (Berg)
Section 0501: F 12:00-1:50 (Pollak)
Section 0601: F 2:00-3:50 (Cancelled)
Section 0701: W 3:00-4:50 (Ovalle)

PHYSICS 103: PHYSICS OF MUSIC LABORATORY is a one credit-hour course that must be taken concurrently with PHYSICS 102: PHYSICS OF MUSIC to receive CORE credit, and may not be taken for credit by physics majors. The lab meets for two hours weekly, giving students hands-on in-depth experience with some of the topics covered in the Physics of Music lecture class.

This is a participatory activity; it is mandatory that you attend all labs. It is also important that you prepare for your lab period by reading over the lab instruction sheet and doing the pre-lab questions. Pre-lab questions serve both as a review of important ideas and preparation for lab activities. If you do not do the pre-lab questions before you come to lab, points will be subtracted from your grade. If you do not understand the questions or have difficulty completing the assignment, you may ask questions. Reports are completed in lab, left at the end of the lab period for grading, and will be returned to the student during the next lab meeting, so that writing (and grading) long land detailed lab reports is avoided.

If you miss a lab for any reason, you may complete that lab during the MAKE-UP week at the end of the semester. If you must make up more than one lab, you may attend any lab make-up session as listed above. Please see the Physics 103 Schedule for details.

Grading will be based on total point accumulation for the eleven labs, each having 40 points. A histogram of total scores will be made, and letter grades assigned approximately as follows:

Top 20%......................A
Next 40%.....................B
Next 30%.....................C
Bottom 10%..............D or F

To qualify for a D, you must distinguish yourself among your peers. It is mandatory to do all labs. Missing one lab will lower your grade at least one letter grade; missing two or more will result in a grade of F. If neither of these situations applies, no D or F grades will be given.

Preparation for Lab #1:

For the first laboratory you should:

(1) obtain your lab manual,
(2) read the Introduction and Lab Experiment #1, and come prepared to ask questions if you do not understand the material, and
(3) answer the pre-lab questions on the first page of the lab data sheet for Lab #1 (page 7 in the manual) before coming to lab.