Course Syllabus

1st Semester, Summer 2019

1. Title: MECHANICS
2. Credits: 4 credits
3. Prerequisites: Math 124 (or Calculus I)
4. Course Description: This course is the first part of physics which is about basic concepts of
mechanics, which is of significant importance for students of electronics and telecommunica-
tion to master their major. Understanding the concepts of physics in general and of mechanics
in particular is one of the key factor for grasping natural knowledge. This course provides stu-
dents fundamental knowledge to continue to study the other parts of physics, such as Heat &
Thermodynamics, Electricity and Magnetism, Waves, ect. Besides, the concept of uncertainty
and its practices give students chance to become right engineers for their whole career.
5. Course Objective: This course tends to give students opportunity to explore the basic con-
cepts of mechanics. It is hoped that after this course student will have ability to solve prob-
lems concerning with mechanics and to practice on the uncertainty, which can be found in the
courses of their study and along career life.
6. Course Learning Outcomes (CLO): At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Explain the basic concepts of mechanics from physical quantities and units to mechanical
phenomena and laws.
2. Identify and explain critical principles of motion in one and two dimensions, in a circle, and
in rotation.
3. explain the important concepts of work, energy, conservation of energy
4. Use the concepts, rules, formulae and principles to explore a topic of their choice in a real
situation, and to apply to solve real-world mechanic problems.
5. perform calculation and state answers in correctness of uncertainty
6. Apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering.

7. Outcome Coverage: map to Program Learning Outcome (PLO)

PLO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Level H M L L L L H H H M M
Note: H – High; M – Medium; L - Low

8. Textbook:
Serway and Jewett, Physics for Scientist and Engineers, 6th ed. (Chap. 1 – 14)
9. References:
- Tipler, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 6th ed. (UW custom Vol. 1 and 2) (Thomson
Brooks/Cole, 2004);
- McDermott and Shaffer, Tutorials in Introductory Physics; PHYS121 Lab Manual.
10. Course Structure:
- Lectures: Following chapters of the textbook. Two periods per one class day. TA 4 hours/
week
- Project: Students working in a team and each team will be asked to accomplish one project
assigned by lecture instructor. Project will be graded as Test1.
- Seminar: Teams will be asked to do presentation in class on the assigned topics.
- Homework: all questions and problems at the end of each chapter.
- Quizzes: In-class quizzes. Results can be taken into account to the adjustment of final grading
point.
- Exams: Two tests (Test1: project competition and Test 2: multiple-choice Midterm test) and
one final exam (multiple-choice & writing).

IMPORTANT NOTE: No PC/laptop is allowed during class time!!!

11. Lesson Plan:

Week Session 4

Introduction about the course,

1 Chapter 1: Physics and Measurement, Significant figures and
1 Uncertainty
2 Chapter 2: Motion in One Dimension
1 Chapter 3: Vectors
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks

2 Chapter 4: Motion in Two Dimensions;

3 Project Assignment: Design and Construct a Mechanical Car/A
Catapult
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
1 Chapter 5: The Law of Motion
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
3 Chapter 6: Circular Motion and Other Applications of Newton’s
3
Laws
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
4 Chapter 7: Energy and Energy Transfer;
1
Test 1: Project Competition and Assessment
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
 3 Chapter 8: Potential Energy
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
5 Test 2: Midterm Test
Student seminar (Team 1):
1
Chapter 9: Linear Momentum and Collisions
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
6 Student seminar (Team 2):
3 Chapter 10: Rotation of A Rigid Object About a Fixed Axis
Sec. 10.1-10.3
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
Student seminar (Team 3):
1 Chapter 10: Rotation of A Rigid Object About a Fixed Axis
Sec. 10.4-10.9

7 2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks

Student seminar (Team 4):
3
Chapter 11: Angular Momentum
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
Student seminar (Team 5):
1
Chapter 12: Static Equilibrium and Elasticity
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
8
Student seminar (Team 6):
3
Chapter 13: Universal Gravitation
4 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
Student seminar (Team 7):
9 1
Chapter 14: Fluids Mechanics
2 Tutorials: Answer questions (if had), Onsite homeworks
10 1 Final Exam

12. Learning activities:

 Week Activities
2 (After Chapter 4) Project Assignment: Design and construct a mechanical car/
a catapult
3 (After Chapter 6) Project Competition and Assessment
6-9 Group discussion about assigned topics.
Presentation Peer Review and Assessment (using Peer Review Rubric)

13. Lab activities:

See couse syllabus MECHANICS LAB.
This is an independent session of the course, may be parallel to the course schedule or may
start at finished time. For more details, please check Lab Activities in a separated syllabus sup-
plied by the Lab instructor.

14. Teaching and Learning Methods, Learning Outcome and Assessment

- Classroom: lectures, discussion, tutorial, team-work
- Self-learning: reading, visual-audio learning, homework
- Seminar by group : team work, oral presentation, English proficiency, report
- Learning through doing : simple project design for team work, oral communication, solving
the real world problem, implementation, evaluation, presentation, report
- Assessment Plan:
Assessment
Assessment Components CLOs Standards Percentages
Types

A1.1. Participation 5%

A1. On-going as- A1.2. Quizzes 5%

[1,2,4]
sessment A1.3. Oral Presentation 10%

A1.4. Homeworks 10%

A2.1. Design & Imlementa-

15%
tion
A2. By doing A2.2. Report 5%
[1,4,5,6]
project
A2.3. Team-work 10%

A2.4. Oral communication 5%

A3. Midterm A3.1. Multiple choice Test [2,3,4,5] 15%

 Exam

A4. Final Exam A4.1. Written Test [1,5,6] 20%

-
-

Instructor (Coordinator): PhD. Cao Xuan Huu, the University of Danang

Teaching Assistant (TA): Huynh Viet Thong, Ho Nhan Tri

Note
1. Course policy and Assessment plan
Students will receive a combined grade for lecture and tutorial. The final course grade
is based on HW, the seminar score, tutorial participation, project competition, the midterm,
and the final exam. The lecture instructor may adjust individual final grades by no more
than 0.2 grade points (about 5 % out of 4.0 possible) based on records from the lecturing
time (by lecturer) and/or the supplemental homework related to the lecture. All per-
centages discussed in the policy statement and in the summary below are used to determine
your raw grade.
· In-class activities: This together with supplemental homework is designed for bonus point! Each correct
answer you take part in will contribute to plus one (+ 1) point to the bonus. The final bonus point evalu-
ates 5% adjustment of final score.

· Attendance (5%) + Homework (15%)

1. Attendance will be taken into account: 5%. Every missing class takes minus one (- 1) attendance
point.
2. Lecture homework (5%) will be assigned weekly or after each lesson. One problem from each as-
signment will be graded in detail, and will contribute to your score for homework.
· Seminar (15%): Grading policies will be explained in tutorial section (attendance, active answers, in-
class activities, homework assignment). Please note that grades for tutorial form a significant percentage
of your overall grade for the course.
· Project competition (15%) and Midterm exam (15%): There will be 3 projects assigned along the
course for each team to accomplish and a closed-book midterm exam (multiple choice). The average
score of 3 projects will be added to midterm score that will contribute 30% to your final raw grade. Non-
programmable calculators are permitted. Laptop computers, cell phones, radios, etc. are not permitted.
Exams are to be your own work; you are not permitted to collaborate with any other person.
· Final Exam (35%): A closed-book comprehensive final exam worth 35% of the final raw grade. The
exam is in mixing form of multiple choice and essay-style questions. This examination will cover mate -
rial from the entire course. Calculators (except the text-storage capability ones) are permitted. Comput-
ers, laptops, cell phones, radios, etc. are not permitted. The final exam is to be your own work; you are
not permitted to collaborate with any other person.
· Note that there will be no make-up exams. Students with outside professional, service, or career com-
mitments (i.e. military service, ROTC, professional conference presentation, sports, etc.) conflicting ex-
actly with the exam dates must contact the lecture instructor early in the quarter to establish alternate ex-
amination procedures. Students who miss an exam without making prior arrangements with the lecture in-
structor will drop that exam score. Except for extreme circumstances, a final grade of 0.0 may be assigned
to any student who misses the midterm exam or final exam.
 · Exam Re-grades: If you believe that the points on the examination were incorrectly totaled or if there is
a gross error in the grading, you may ask for regrading. To do so, you must write to lecturer a brief note
explaining the possible error in the grading no later than one week since score announced day. You
should be aware that any request for a regrade may result in a regrading of the entire exam. Therefore
your total score may increase or decrease.
· Your responsibility: Check your grades on the website of ECE after each examination and report any
problems to the lecture instructor and the relevant TAs (and/or lab/tutorial faculty) immediately. Lab, tu-
torial and exam grades should be recorded for your review within one week from the date that papers are
submitted for grading. The homework grades should be recorded within 24 hours of submission. Supple-
mental HW should be recorded every two weeks or so. Grading problems that are reported in a timely
fashion will be investigated and, if action is warranted, corrected. The lecture and tutorial instructors
may choose to ignore grading complaints that are not reported in a timely fashion.

LATE WORK
➢ You are expected to come to class on time. If you are late, you will receive only half of your attendance
point. If you are more than 15 minutes late you will be recorded no attendance.
➢ You must complete all your work on time. If you are absent from a class, see your teacher before class. If
you don’t, your teacher will NOT take late homework. If there are any quizzes or graded activities during
a class when you are absent, you CANNOT do it at a later time.
➢ Late assignments will lose one letter grade for each day past the due date.
ATTENDANCE
Concurrent enrollment in Phys121 lectures, Labs and tutorials is mandatory. Not only
do you lose class participation points for missing class, but also you will not receive any points
should you miss any of your presentations.
CONTACTING ME AND STAYING ON TRACK
Students are welcome to meet and discuss directly with the lecture instructor or contact via
phone/email.

Prepared by: Prof. Matt DePies (Univ. of Washington,

USA)
Modified by: Cao Xuan Huu. Updated on March 12, 2016.