Course policies

The rhythm of things

New material will be introduced in lecture, but then reinforced in discussion section as you work through a series of problems in which you will derive for yourself the origins (and consequences) of special and general relativity.

During the summer term we will be covering two units per week. The pace will be brisk and you must not fall behind.





Attendance

You are required to attend each and every one of the course meetings, arriving on time with your hardcopy of the lecture notes and discussion material. I will reduce your final grade by half a letter grade per unexcused absence from lectures or discussion sections. If you fall ill, have an unavoidable interview for an internship, need to attend to a religious obligation, or must miss class because of a family crisis, let me know, in advance, if possible. Be sure to gather convincing documentation demonstrating that your absence was necessary and/or appropriate.





Homework

Assignments will usually consist of four problems. Very important:

• • Please write your name on EVERY piece of paper you submit, and staple all pages together.
• • Problem sets for units that begin on a Monday will be due in class three days later, at the start of the next unit's discussion section. Assignments for units that begin on a Thursday will be due at the beginning of the following Monday's discussion section.
• • Late assignments that are submitted up to the due date of the next assignment will receive at most 50% of full credit. We will not grade assignments that are received after the end of the 50% credit date.
• • You are not to use computers, sophisticated calculators, and so forth to perform the algebraic or symbolic manipulations necessary to solve assigned problems. Do them by hand. And you are not to seek out solutions to the problems that might be floating around on the web.




Grading

If you show up to class, do a pretty good job on all of your homework, and a decent job on the exams, you will receive at least an A- for the course. If you do a really good job on your homework and write good exams you'll get an A. If you stumble onto something in some of your solutions that really blows me away, I'll give you an A+ and brag about you in the letters of recommendation I will write on your behalf.





Calculators, smart phones, and network access to irrelevant content

Laptops, cellphones, and smart watches are not to be in evidence in class, or during exams. You may find a calculator useful during lecture or discussion sections, but do not use this as a blind to effect covert access to your email accounts or social media sites. Period.

You will not be allowed to use a calculator during exams.





• About using solutions you find on the web

  Perhaps the quickest way to deal with the arcana of special relativity is to ask Google for examples of what you are seeking to understand. But you will need to use your judgment in doing this: the Google search “is the speed of light always constant?” is fine, while “show me how to solve the equations for Compton scattering” is not.

  I have two principal goals in this course. I want all of you to become Relativity aces who know in your bones how to think about fast-moving objects. And I want you to develop a real flair for using multi-variable calculus as a tool for solving problems. For this to work, you’ll need to generate your problem set solutions largely on your own before discussing them with classmates.

  
  
  

• Academic integrity

  You must never submit the work of someone else as your own. We understand that many of you will find it helpful to work with other students to master Physics 225. But when you collaborate with your study group on homework assignments, you must be a full, active participant in developing the solutions that you submit for credit.

  It is cheating to receive answers from another student and then use them as your own. It is cheating to submit as your own work solutions that you find by searching on the worldwide web (though see "About using solutions you find on the web"), or by subscribing to an online service that suborns cheating. It is cheating—and a violation of U.S. copyright law—to give (or sell) course material to someone else who intends to redistribute and/or sell it.

  All activities in this course, including documentation submitted for petition for an excused absence, are subject to the Academic Integrity rules as described in Article 1, Part 4, Academic Integrity, of the Student Code.

  
  
  

Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

---

Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright George Gollin, University of Illinois, 2017.