Physics 6B

Physics for Life Sciences Majors:

Fall 2015, Lecture 1 (MWF 9-9:50am)
Instructor:

Dr. Shoko Sakai

Office: PAB 3-349
Phone: 5-6209
Email: shoko@astro.ucla.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2-3 pm
Thursday 1-2 pm

TA:

Andrea Trivella
Krishna Choudhary

Class Website:

https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/15F-PHYSICS6B-1

andrea.trivella@physics.ucla.edu
krishnachoudha@ucla.edu

This website will be the main repository for 6B, including lecture notes,
practice tests, solution sets and many more. Please check it regularly.
Class Meeting Times:
Lecture:
Discussion:

MWF 9:00 9:50 am KNSY PV 1220B

1A
W 3-3:50pm
Geology 4645
1B
W 4-4:50pm
Geology 4645
1C
W 5-5:50pm
Geology 4645
1D
Th 4-4:50pm
Geology 6704
1E
Th 5-5:50pm
Dodd 170

In addition, you must attend a two-hour Lab session.

Grading:

Homework
Midterms
Final
Lab

10%
20% each
40%
10%

What you need for Physics 6B:

1. Textbook
2. Mastering physics (see below)
3. iClicker2 (OPTIONAL, see below)

Assignments: There will be two types of assignments: short pre-lecture assignment and (weekly)
homework. Pre-lecture assignments are due once or twice a week. I will send you a reminder
email so that you are aware of exactly what is due every week. The pre-lecture assignments are

designed to help you read the textbook before the material is covered in class, so that we can
use the lecture time for more hands-on work. Studies show that the active learning is more
effective than the old-fashioned passive lecture format. Although it may sound daunting that you
have a short homework twice a week in addition to weekly homework, this will help you learn
more and master the material during next ten weeks.

Mastering Physics: All the homework assignments are done using Mastering Physics website.
You will need to purchase the Mastering Physics account. If you have never used mastering
physics before, go to www.masteringphysics.com and follow the instruction on how to register
and login. Choose the following course:
MPSAKAI2015FALL
Please register as soon as possible, as the first set of homework is due very soon.
For each question, you are allowed three tries. You will see that Mastering Physics gives you a
little hint if you get a question wrong. You are not penalized for a wrong answer, or using hints.
However, the deadline is enforced strictly, so please try to submit your answers a couple of
minutes before the deadline (since your clock might not be synchronized perfectly with the
Mastering Physics clock!).
There will be a very small penalty (5% per day) for late submission. However, try not to get too
behind! It is in your best interest to make sure that you do the pre-lecture assignments and
homework by the due date, especially the pre-lecture homework as the following lecture will be
based on the assumption that you all have completed the assignment.
The Mastering Physics site becomes very useful for getting ready for exams. Even after the due
date, all the assignments are still available and you can answer each question as if you are
solving them for the first time. Please note that your score will not be modified after the due
date, even if it improves.

Exams: There will be two midterms and the final exam. The exam questions should be similar to
the problems in the textbook, and those from homework assignments.
Midterm 1:
Midterm 2:
Final:

Friday 10/16 in class

Friday 11/13 in class
Wednesday 12/9 11:30am-2:30pm

If you know that you will be missing a midterm in advance, please come talk to me asap. You
will need to take the exam before the rest of the class. If you miss any of the exams without
talking to me beforehand, you will receive a zero on it automatically.

Labs: There will be six labs in Physics 6B. The lab room is Knudsen 1134. Please read the
Introduction in your Lab Manual carefully, as the Lab grading scheme is explained in detail in this
section. The lab sections start meeting in Week 2 (week of 10/5). Please read the lab description
in advance.

Students who have completed some of the 6B labs in the past must contact Elaine Dolalas in
Room 1-707D PAB as soon as possible, as you do not need to repeat the labs you have already
completed.
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week

of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of

9/24-25
9/28-10/2
10/5-9
10/12-16
10/19-23
10/26-30
11/2-6
11/9-13
11/16-20
11/23-25

NO MEETING
NO MEETING
Orientation & Driven Harmonic Oscillator
Standing Waves
NO MEETING
Electrostatics
Van de Graaff
NO MEETING
Electrical Circuits
Charge-to-Mass Ratio of the Electron

Clickers/In-Class questions: I will ask you few questions during most lectures and you will need
to answer them using clickers (iclicker 2). As clickers are not inexpensive, they are optional in
this Physics 6B class. If you do have a clicker (iClicker 2), please bring it to every lecture.
If you would like to purchase one, clickers are available either for purchase at the bookstore,
on ebay or amazon. You will then need to register your i>clicker remote. Once you have
responded to a question with your i>clicker remote, log into the class CCLE site, locate the
i>clicker block on your class site (on the right side), and click on the Student Registration
link. Enter the i>clicker ID located on the back of the clicker.
What should you do if you want to do well in this class?
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

Attend lectures and sections.

Read the textbook!!! Not everything is necessarily covered in lectures. The textbook
has many great examples.
Try not to get behind, and complete each assignment on time. Start working on
homework early so that you are working a little bit on it every day.
Email me if you have any questions.
Come to the office hours (mine and TAs).
The Department offers a free TA Center in PAB 1-704A. Students enrolled in any
physics class can meet with a TA in the Tutoring Center for additional help. Please
see the schedule posted by PAB 1-704A.
Pick a problem randomly from the Problems section at the end of the each chapter
and see if you can solve it.
Most importantly, understand the concept. Understand each equation; do not simply
memorize it.
When solving a problem, draw a sketch to help you understand what is being asked.
Does your answer make sense? For example, if your answer says that a person is
jogging at 500 miles/hr, it probably is not correct

Grading Policies
The grading policy is very simple. I hope you all understand it has to be fair to
everyone in the class. And that means that the same rule applies to all students
consistently. Obviously, extraneous comments about your feelings on the exam or
homework, how hard you worked, etc. are not relevant. Most of your classmates
probably also felt that they too should have gotten higher scores than they did, and
they studied very hard too.

1. Letter grades will be assigned based on a curve. If there is a distribution of scores,
the grades will similarly reflect that distribution. The median grade will be around
B.

2. Re-grading: if you want to have certain problems on a midterm considered for

additional points, you will need to submit the exam, along with a short note
describing which problems you want considered and why you merit more points, to
the discussion section TA within two weeks of the exam date.

Wk Date

Content

Reading and/or Homework due before this Date

Ch 14 Oscillations

Get your textbooks, sign up for

Mastering Physics

1 9/28

Pre-Lecture Ch 14

9/30

Ch 15 Waves

Pre-Lecture Ch 15

10/2

HW Ch 14

2 10/5

Ch 16 Sound

Pre-Lecture Ch 16a

10/7

Pre-Lecture Ch 16b

10/9

Ch 21 Electric Fields

HW Ch 15 & 16

3 10/12

Pre-Lecture Ch 21

10/14

Review

10/16

Midterm 1

HW Ch 21

4 10/19

Ch 22 Gausss Law

Pre-Lecture Ch 22a

10/21

Pre-Lecture Ch 22b

10/23

Ch 23 Electric Potential

HW Ch 22

5 10/26

Pre-Lecture Ch 23

10/28

Ch 24 Capacitors

Pre-Lecture Ch 24

10/30

HW Ch 23

6 11/2

Ch 25 Current

Pre-Lecture Ch 25a

11/4

Pre-Lecture Ch 25b

11/6

Ch 26 DC Circuits

HW Ch 24

7 11/9

Review

11/11

Veterans Day: NO CLASS

11/13

Midterm 2

HW Ch 25

8 11/16

Ch 26

Pre-Lecture Ch 26

11/18

Ch 27 Magnetism

Pre-Lecture Ch 27a

11/20

HW Ch 26

9 11/23

Pre-Lecture Ch 27b

Ch 28 Magnetic Field

Pre-Lecture Ch 28a

9/25

11/25

Happy Thanksgiving!

10 11/30

Ch 28

Pre-Lecture Ch 28a

12/2

Pre-Lecture Ch 28b

12/4

Review

HW Ch 27 & 28

11/27