Previous Announcements
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 18:40:43 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Quiz 1, Delay in "Mastering Physics" setup
As you may have noticed, Quiz 1 was graded yesterday, and the results have been posted on the 8.01 website. You should be able to access your individual grades through the Grade Management System. If that does not work, then please let me know. The website also contains a copy of the quiz, its solutions, and a histogram of the results. The Grade Management System will show you a standard histogram of the grades, and a more detailed histogram (showing bins of size 1) is included on the website, under Exams.
The class average was a walloping 95.3%, which is fantastic. The quiz was not too difficult, but nonetheless, I am VERY impressed by your performance. We had somewhat limited goals in what we expected you to learn in the first partial week of classes, but the quiz covered everything that we expected you to learn this week. And the grades show that almost all of you learned it thoroughly. Just keep it up. Remember that it is possible for all of you to get A's in this class. If you keep it up, most of you will. On this test I would consider any grade of 91 or above to be an A, and I am thrilled to see that most of you achieved at this level.
I need to choose a tutoring cutoff grade, and that choice seems a little strange when the class average is so high. While grades have absolute meaning, the tutoring cutoff grade should be adjusted to respond to class performance. The cutoff grade is basically our way of trying to make the most efficient use of the tutors. So I will set the cutoff grade this week at 95, meaning that all students who received a grade of 95 or above will automatically be given the maximum tutoring credit — i.e., credit for 2 sessions — for next week. Those people are still of course welcome to attend as many tutoring sessions as they want on Thursday, but they already have the maximum point credit. For students who received grades of 94 or below, you can receive credit for up to 2 sessions of tutoring next Thursday by attending those sessions — which I highly recommend.
Finally, many of you have been asking about Mastering Physics. I tried to set it up this afternoon, but it seems that I have to wait until Monday, to be able to contact people at MIT and at Pearson to straighten out our account with Pearson. I will therefore cancel the first Mastering Physics assignment altogether, so now the first Mastering Physics assignment will not be due until Feb 15. The Mastering Physics assignments altogether will still contribute 5% to your final grade.
According to the literature from Mastering Physics that I was given, student access codes are valid for 24 months, even when the students switch classes. So if you have an access code from last term, you should be able to use it again this term.
-- Alan --
Date; Thurs 3 Feb 2005
Subject: Quiz 1
We will be posting a formula sheet for each quiz, and the first formula sheet should be posted very shortly. Quiz 1, which will take place tomorrow at 10:05 in Room 4-270, will cover the same material as Problem Set 1. Note that this time slot is listed as LAB on the registrar's schedules, but in fact there will be no lab, only weekly quizzes in this time slot.
Since the amount of material covered on this quiz is rather slim, the formula sheet has only two formulas. But you should be sure that you understand them, of course. The formula sheet will be printed as part of the quiz, so you will have access to it during the quiz, and you need not bring your own copy.
Best of luck on the quiz tomorrow.
-- Alan --
I have a small hodge-podge of messages to relay:
1) My office hours today will be slightly shorter than originally planned. They will be from 11:00 am until noon in Room 4-159, and from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in Room 2-131.
2) I have had many inquiries about Mastering Physics, and I am sorry that I have not answered you all individually. Mastering Physics is new to me, and I still have not had a chance to set it up. The first assignment is scheduled to be due next Tuesday, but I promise that it will be very short. If the system is not running by tomorrow morning, then I will postpone the due date of the assignment.
3) Tutoring starts today, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm and from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Kenny Maclean will be in Room 26-310, and Ilya Sigalov will be in Room 26-210. Each session is 25 minutes.
4) I have been asked if the 5th Edition of the Study Guide will suffice. While there is of course a lot of text that is identical between the two versions, there were nonetheless quite a few changes between the 5th and 6th Edition, including some changes in the numbering of the problems. So I think you will be at a noticeable disadvantage if you don't get the 6th edition.
-- Alan --
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005
Subject: Office Hours
Today (Wednesday) I will be holding an office hour from 4:00 - 5:00 pm, in Room 8-302.
Tomorrow I plan to hold an office "hour" from 10:30 until noon, but a room for this has not yet been found. I will let you know as soon as I know. I will also have office hours from 1:15 - 2:30 pm, in Room 2-131. If you have questions, please come and we will talk about them.
In addition, tutorial sessions with the graduate teaching assistants will take place starting tomorrow, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm and again from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. They will be in both of Rooms 26-310 and 26-210.
-- Alan --
Date: Tues, 1 Feb 2005
Subject: Welcome
Welcome to 8.01. I'm sorry that our website is not yet functioning. It's mainly my fault, and I hope that it will be up and running by tomorrow. In the meantime, there are a few things you should know.
1) Lecture/Recitations start today:
The times and rooms for classes are as follows:
8.01 Sec. L01 Room: 26-328 Time: MTW10 Walter Lewin
8.01 Sec. L02 Room: 26-328 Time: MTW11 Walter Lewin
8.01 Sec. L03 Room: 4-153 Time: MTW2 Min Chen
8.01 Sec. L04 Room: 4-153 Time: MTW3 Min Chen
8.01 Sec. L05 Room: 26-322 Time: MTW10 Cancelled
These classes will function as combined recitations and lectures.
Note that the cancelled section, L05, was to have met at the same time as L01, so any students who intended to be part of L05 can join L01 instead.
You can go to any section that you want. We will learn what section you intend to join from your first homework and first quiz, where you will list this information. If any section is overcrowded, we will try to find some way to deal with this next week.
Walter Lewin is currently out of commission due to medical reasons, so today his class will be taught by Min Chen. Tomorrow it will be either Min Chen or me. Hopefully Prof. Lewin will be back in action by next week.
2) Problem Set 1:
Problem Set 1 is posted on the website, and will be due this Thursday, at 3:00 pm. The course gets off to a fast start. The faculty office hour schedule is not settled down yet, but for this week I will hold office hours on Wed at 4:00 pm, and on Thurs from 10:30 am until noon, and 1:15 pm until 2:30 pm. The room for these office hours will be posted on the website, and I will send you all email as well.
3) Weekly Quiz 1:
The first weekly quiz, based on the material in Problem Set 1, will be given this Friday, at 10:05 am, in Room 4-270. In addition to the lecture/recitations and office hours, there will be tutorial sessions late Thursday afternoon and evening to help you prepare for the quiz. The tutorials will take place in 25 minute sessions (X:05-X:30, X:30-X:55), and will certainly include the hours 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Two more hours of tutorials will occur later, probably 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The tutorials will take place both in Rooms 26-310 and 26-210.
4) Required books:
You will need to buy two books:
8.01 Textbook:
University Physics, 11th Edition, Vol 1, 2003 by Young and Freedman
8.01 Study Guide:
Essentials of Introductory Classical Mechanics, 6th Edition,
by Wit Busza, Susan Cartwright, and Alan H. Guth
There is also a separately packaged chapter of University Physics on special relativity that you will need near the end of the term. While the COOP might have some copies of this left over from first term, we have not yet made arrangements for this chapter to be available for this term.
[The URL of the 8.01 homepage is http://web.mit.edu/8.01/www/Spring05.]
My email is guth@ctp.mit.edu, and I'll try to answer all your emails as quickly as I can.
-- Alan Guth --
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