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PHY 181. General Physics I. (4)
The course is a quantitative introduction to the basic physical laws of nature. Kinematics, Newtonian dynamics, energy and momentum, gravity, oscillations, waves, and quantum physics are emphasized. Concepts are developed through lectures, demonstrations, computer simulations, and problem solving. Qualitative reasoning is emphasized, and quantitative problem-solving skills are developed. Concepts from differential and integral calculus are developed and used.
IV. PA-2B. CAS-D.
Co-requisite: MTH 151 or equivalent. -
PHY 182. General Physics II. (4)
The course is a quantitative introduction to the basic physical laws of nature. Thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, circuits, Maxwell’s Equations, and special relativity are emphasized. Concepts are developed through lectures, demonstrations, computer simulations, and problem solving. Qualitative reasoning is emphasized, and quantitative problem-solving skills are developed. Concepts from differential and integral calculus are developed and used.
IVB. PA-2B. CAS-D.
Prerequisite: MTH 151 or equivalent, PHY 181 or equivalent.
Co-requisite: MTH 249, MTH 251 or equivalent.
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You are expected to attend and participate in every class.
Classes will consist of short lectures to reinforce textbook readings and will focus on problem solving techniques.
Between the short lectures, students will work in groups to actively learn how to apply the material to solve problems.
Students will earn in-class points on Learning Catalytics (LC) solving these "Whiteboard Problems" (WB).
- PHY181 and PHY182 are each 4 credit hour courses that meet two times per week for 1 hour and 50 minutes.
- PHY181 has a co-requisite of MTH151 (Calculus I) which means that you must have already passed Calc I or be taking it at the same time.
- PHY182 has prerequisites of MTH151 (Calculus I) and PHY181 and a co-requisite of MTH249 or MTH251 (Calculus II)
Textbook: Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Fifth Edition, 2022, by Randall Knight.
You do not need to purchase a physical paper copy of the text - all of your readings can be done on the ebook on the MasteringPhysics (MP) site. The etext has a versaltile reader that can adjust text size, zoom into figures, and has a built audio reader. The Study Area in MP contains many valuable study tools like review quizzes and videos explaining important items from the text. In addition, most of your inclass work, quizzes, and all of your homework will be done on the MP site. There are a few ways you can purchase these materials. By far, the easiest and most economical way is to buy everything directly from Pearson, the publisher (item #1 below).
- Buy the etext + MP (this includes everything you need) from Pearson:
- Follow this link to MasteringPhysics.
- Sign in if you have an account with Pearson or register as a student if you don't.
- Look on your section instructor's info above or on your main Canvas page and get the MP Course ID for your section of PHY181. Use this MP course ID to register for the course.
- Select a package that includes the etext and MasteringPhysics. You have the choice of an 18 week subscription for $89.99 or 24 months for $154.99. Note, if you are in PHY181 and you plan to go on to PHY182, you'll likely want the 24 month option since we use the same text. So next semester, you won't have to buy anything for PHY182. If you are just taking PHY181, the 18 week subscription will work for one semester.
- Pay for your registration with a credit card or paypal - if you can't pay immediately, Pearson allows a two week grace period.
- When using MP to read the text, do your homework, or accessing Learning Catalytics, always sign in using the link on our Canvas page.
Pearson Virtual Help Desk: For Fall 2025, Pearson is holding Zoom Help Sessions to help students get properly registered for MasteringPhysics. Here's a schedule of the sessions. If you're having any problems getting registered for MP or any issues accessing any parts of it, we strongly urge you to attend one of these sessions - these are the real expert at Mastering.
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Remember, you do not need a physical copy of the text; you'll have complete access to the ebook on MP; however, if you want a physical copy, the bookstores won't have them.
We suggest that you purchase it online.
You can order a paper copy directly from Pearson.
Here's a video on how to get a loose leaf paper copy of the text on MP.
Below is an outline of the topics covered in PHY181 with an estimate of the number of classes for each topic. The detailed reading assignments are on the Calendar page, and the homework assignments are on MP calendar.
Topic(Exam dates are tentative) | Chapter | Aproximate Number | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Concepts of Motion | Chapter 1 | | Kinematics in 1D
| Chapter 2
| | Vectors and Coordinates
| Chapter 3
| | Kinematics in 2D | (incl Rel. Motion & UCM) Chapter 4
| | Force and Motion
| Chapter 5
| | Dynamics I: Motion Along a Line
| Chapter 6
| | EXAM 1 (In Class Wed Sept 24)
| Newton's Third Law
| Chapter 7
| | Dynamics II: Motion in a Plane
| Chapter 8
| | Work and Energy, | Conservation of Energy Chapters 9/10
| | Impulse and Momentum
| Chapter 11
| | Rotation of a Rigid Body
| Chapter 12
| | EXAM 2 (In Class Mon Nov 3)
| Newton's Theory of Gravity
| Chapter 13
| | Oscillations
| Chapter 15
| | Travelling Waves
| Chapter 16
| | Superposition of Waves
| Chapter 17
| | Quantum Mechanics | (History, Bohr Atom, Debroglie, Wave Functions, Schrodinger Equation, 1D Infinite and Finite Square Well, Tunnelling) Parts of Chapters 37, 38, 39, 40, & 41
| | COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM
| (given during final exams week) |
You should have read the Classroom Philosophy on the main Canvas page. Our procedures in moving through the material will try to follow those three steps: textbook readings; lectures with whiteboard problems (WB); and homework(HW).
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Here's how we expect you to proceed for each class:
- Readings: the reading assignments are posted on the Course Calendar on Canvas. For a given class, you should start by reading the assigned sections from
your text BEFORE COMING TO CLASS!.
- Lecture and Whiteboard Problems:
Remember the lectures do not replace the text reading;
instead, they are to emphasize and
show you how to use the material from the text in solving problems. If you haven't read the text, you will have trouble
following the lectures. Lectures will be interspersed with WB problems where you begin to learn how to apply the material. These will count for LC points.
The solutions of the whiteboard problems and the lecture powerpoints will be posted on the Canvas Calendar after each class so you can use them
in doing your homework assignments; also, this means that you don't have spend a lot of time taking notes.
Important Note about WB Problems: For classes, you will be assigned to a group, and each group will have an actual White Board with markers that are to be used for problem solving. It is intended that you work as a group and solve the problem together on the white board. Many students want to work alone in their notebooks instead - we strongly discourage this! Students working alone in their notebooks instead of working with the group on the white board miss out on a lot of learning that takes place amongst the group. In addition, instructors can see the work that you're doing on the white board and can offer guidance; whereas, we can't see what you're doing in your notebook. Many students say that they need a copy of the solutions in their notebooks for study purposes. If you do, then just take a photo or scan of the solution on the white board for future reference. Also, written solutions for all of the WB problems will be posted on the Calendar page after each class for your study purposes.
- Homework:
Every class will have a homework assignment on MP that will consist of a set of problems, questions, and tutorials that build on the WB problems.
The HW assignment will be due at the beginning of the next class - e.g. if your section meets at 8am, the HW is due at 8am.
Solutions for the HW problems will be posted on Canvas after the due date so you can use them to study for the exams.
In addition to problems that build on the WB problems from class, each HW assignment will have a few questions that cover the material that you are assigned to read for the next class. The purpose of this is to motivate you to read the assigned text sections before coming to the next class!
Important Points about HW assignments on MP:
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Although each student is to learn how to do all of the WB and HW problems, we encourage students
to collaborate in solving the problems.
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Late HW Assignment Policy: Any question or problem completed before the due time
will be graded out of 1 point; any problem completed within 24 hours past the due time will receive a
25% reduction; and any problem completed at any time later (including up to the beginning of the final exam),
will receive a 50% reduction.
Because of this generous late policy,
NO ASSIGNMENT EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED!
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We have found that MasteringPhysics works best with the Firefox and Chrome browsers. If you use another browser, you may want to try Firefox or Chrome.
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Really Important:
Our experience with MasteringPhysics is that you still
have to do the physics the old-fashioned way - i.e. paper, pencil, eraser, and calculator!
In light of this, it is very important that you maintain a paper record of your WB and HW solutions.
This will be very useful in studying for exams.
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Also, note that many of the exam problems will have a strong resemblance to the HW and WB problems.
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Although each student is to learn how to do all of the WB and HW problems, we encourage students
to collaborate in solving the problems.
- Weather Cancellation Policy: In the event that there is an inclement weather delay of classes or cancellation of classes, we will be holding classes on Zoom. So, if there is threatening weather, pay attention to the announcements on Canvas.
- Readings: the reading assignments are posted on the Course Calendar on Canvas. For a given class, you should start by reading the assigned sections from
your text BEFORE COMING TO CLASS!.
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There will be two 90 minute exams given in class and on paper during the semester
as well as a final comprehensive 120 minute exam during finals week. The exams will consist of multiple choice
problems/questions. We will tell you how many of each and other details
about the format before the first exam.
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For each exam, you will be supplied with a copy of the physical constants and conversion factors from the front
cover of your text and a sheet of important equations.
The equation and constants sheets are available on the main Canvas page. We suggest that you print these out and use them while you're doing your homework.
We will supply you with copies with each exam.
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One important item about the final exam: to receive a passing grade for the course, you must take the final exam,
and it must be taken at the time assigned by the registrar and listed on the course calendar.
- A final item regarding exams: No student is permitted to use, or have in his/her possession, any internet enabled device, including, but not limited to, a laptop, tablet, cellphone, or smart watch during any exam. If a student is caught with one of these devices, academic disciplinary procedures will be brought against the student immediately. Bottom Line: turn the ringer off on your phone and stuff it in your pack until the test is over! Also, remove your watch - even if it's a dumb watch - and put it in your pack!
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The weighting scheme for your final grade is in the table below.
The final exam is comprehensive so it is weighted more than a midterm exam. For the final course grade, Canvas will use the following weights
After the Final Exam
Mid-semester Exam 1 24% Mid-semester Exam 2 24% MasteringPhysics (HW + LC) 24% Comprehensive Final Exam 28%
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Before the final exam, the letter grade that Canvas lists for you will be based on a straight
percentage distribution (i.e., 100% to 93% = A; 93% to 90% = A-;
90% to 87% = B+; 87% to 83% = B; 83% to 80% = B-; etc.), i.e. there is no curve considered.
For the final course grade, after the final exam has been taken, these grade cutoffs MAY be
curved downward (they will never be curved upward!).
This means that during the semester, Canvas will be listing worst-case grade for you.
Here's an example of how you can calculate your own Course Score. Suppose you have the following scores at the end of the semester:
Mid-semester Exam 1 80% Mid-semester Exam 2 60% MasteringPhysics (HW + LC) 93% Comprehensive Final Exam 82%
The Course Score is the weighted average of the remaining scores using the weights in first table:
Course Score = (80)(0.24) + (60)(0.24) + (93)(0.24) + (82)(0.28) = 78.88%
Almost everyone will need to seek out some help at some point during the semester. Here are some places to get help:
- Email the instructor your question. Suggestion: if your question concerns a HW problem, take a photo or scan of what you
did to try solving the problem. In most cases, this will allow the instructor to see where you have gone wrong.
- Visit your instructor's office hours - see the main Canvas page for office hours. If these aren't convenient for you, we can make an
appointment for a different time.
- Stop into the Physics TA Help Desk in 303 KRG - here are the hours for Fall 2025.
- Attend one of the Supplemental Instructor's sessions. Scheduling details coming soon.
These study sessions are open to anyone enrolled in this course who would like to stay current with the course material and understand the material better. Attendance at these sessions is voluntary, but extremely beneficial for those who attend weekly. Students who attend these interactive sessions will find themselves working with peers as they compare notes, demonstrate and discuss pertinent problems and concepts, and share study and test-taking strategies. Students are asked to arrive with lecture notes, and questions to these informal, peer-led study sessions. Information about times, days and location of SI sessions will be provided by your instructor and/or SI leader during the first two weeks of classes.
- Important Point: If you need help, do not wait; get help as soon as possible. If you wait until the day before the test, it's probably too late!
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If you are a student with a disability and feel you may need a reasonable accommodation to fulfil the essential
functions of this course, you are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services (SDS). SDS provides accommodations
and services for students with a variety of disabilities, including physical, medical and psychiatric disabilities.
You are encouraged to contact SDS (email: SDS@miamioh.edu) to learn more about registration and procedures for requesting accommodations.
- Current SDS registered students should request accommodations according to SDS procedure. You are strongly encouraged to request and discuss your accommodations needs during the first 1-2 weeks of the semester.
- We expect that the students in this class will behave according to the rules given in the University Policy Library under
Undergraduate Students | Academic Integrity.
- The only exception that we make to these rules is for homework. We encourage students to work together in solving homework problems; although each student is to submit the problems individually on MasteringPhysics. A word of caution about this: make sure that if you consult each other on homework that you're actually learning the material and not just copying what one student does. After all, there will be no collaboration for the exams. The rules for the exams are as given in the University Policy Library under Undergraduate Students | Academic Integrity.
The course withdrawal policy of the University can be confusing. In summary, the policy is:
- If a student drops a full semester course by the third week deadline, the course will be removed from the record. For Fall 2025, this date is Friday September 12.
- If a student drops a course between the third week and ninth week of the term, a "W" will be recorded for the course grade on the student's transcript. For Fall 2025, this date is Monday October 27.
- A student cannot normally drop a course after the ninth week of the term (he/she is in it for the duration) and the only way to drop at this point is by petition.
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For a more complete description of the withdrawal policy, see the section "Dropping a Course" in the University Policy Library under
Undergraduate | Registration.