Announcements for Physics 260 (Prof. Agashe) - Spring 2008

 
Please keep checking email and this webpage for updates till the final exam. 




The final exam will cover only the 6 chapters on electricity (25, 26, 28, 29, 30 and 31).
Chapter 27 (Gauss’s Law) will not appear on the final. The exam is on Wednesday, May 
21 from 8-10 am. in Rm. 1410. 




For a short review for the final, see lecture 39 here (all lecture notes have now been posted 
here). A longer review is here and some sample problems on chapters 29-31 are posted
here. For sample problems on the other chapters (25, 26 and 28), take a look at 3rd midterm
here or sample for it here.
 
There will be 6 problems on the final, roughly 1 on each of the 6 chapters. The level 
of difficulty will be similar to the homeworks 9-13, the 3rd midterm and the sample problems
(although the topics for the problems on the final might not be the exactly same as on 
the 3rd midterm or the sample problems).
 
All formulae you need will be provided on the final exam question paper - no crib 
sheets/notes/books are allowed. 




Final grades will be curved, something like top 30% getting A's, the next 30% B's, the next 
30% C's and so on. (these are still tentative numbers: I will decide the final 
scheme only after looking at the final total scores). So, do not worry about lab grades being 
low since that seems to be the case for everyone – the effect of low lab scores will "cancel 
out" in the curving of the final grade. 




Good luck for the final and thank you taking this course!
 
If you haven’t yet picked up graded 3rd midterms (and written homework 12), then you can
come to my office hours (Room 4119 Physics Building) from 2 to 5 pm. on Monday, May 
19. I am available to answer questions about homework or sample problems as well 
during these hours. I will not be in my office on Tuesday, May 20.
 
Averages for 1st , 2nd and 3rd midterms were about 26, 34 and 23 (all out of 40), respectively.
 
Solutions to 3rd midterm have been posted here. Solutions to homework 13 are posted
here. There's a small mistake in solutions posted for written homework 12
(problem 29.58): answer to part (c) should be 4 * [ Q in part (a) ] = 8.36 x 10^(-10) C
instead of 8.34 x 10^(-12) C as on the solutions.
 
 

 
Earlier announcement about early warning grades: I have given you early warning grades
(which you should be able to access using Testudo website) based on your 1st midterm
scores as follows (average for 1st midterm is 26.6 out of 40):
 
(i) A: 35-40
 
(ii) B: 30-35
 
(iii) C: 25-30
 
(iv) D: 10-25
 
(v) F: 0-10
 
Please note that these grades are only meant to give you an indication of your
performance in this course so far. Your final grade will obviously be based on homework,
exams and lab scores as given on the course webpage.