Hey everyone! Here are administrative details about Physics 487.
(1) HOMEWORK DUE DATE: The homework deadline is each week on FRIDAY at 1 pm.
Solutions are to be written on your own paper and should be dropped off in the
487 homework box on the second floor of Loomis. The homework boxes are in the
overpass on the north side of the 2nd floor and they're painted bright yellow
-- you can't miss them!
(2a) OFFICE HOURS: Here is the weekly office hour schedule
Sundays 2 - 6 pm Loomis 464 Naomi
Tuesdays 5 - 6 pm Loomis 430A Pranjal/Tianhao
Thursdays 5 - 7 pm Loomis 464 Tianhao/Pranjal, Jahan
I urge you all to come to Sunday office hours in particular: it's a nice
quiet time to work on the homework *early*, and generally get most of it done
and checked before you leave. There's also FREE CHOCOLATE. :-) In any case,
please do not make the mistake of starting your homework the day before it's
due! (That is *never* a good idea in an upper-level class. :-/)
(2b) OFFICE HOUR POLICY: Homework is not a quiz, it's PRACTICE. We WANT you to
get 100% on every homework and we EXPECT you to get at least 95%. To this end,
the TAs and I will be very happy to CHECK your homework before you leave to
make sure you understand everything. We also strongly encourage you to work
together in groups: exchanging ideas is a superb way to learn!
(2c) OFFICE HOUR ROOM RULES: Loomis 464 is used by many people for seminars and
group meetings. It is *essential* that we keep this room tidy or we will no
longer be allowed to use it. (It is a very nice room to work in so we would
very much like to keep it!) Also, students in past semesters have appreciated
using the room to work on homework after office hours are over. To preserve
these priviledges, we *must* follow these rules:
• CLEAN UP: The chairs and tables must be arranged for a seminar and all
trash must be removed from the floor and tables before the last person leaves.
• The last person to leave must LOCK THE DOOR. (There are two small buttons
near the door latch, one of them unlocks the door and the other locks it.)
• If the last person to leave is not me or a TA, whoever leaves last must
TEXT ME A PHOTO of the room's condition. (This is so we do not get blamed
if someone else makes a mess of the room!)
This system has worked perfectly for the past three semesters; thank you
in advance for making sure the room is in good order for the next group!
(3) HOMEWORK LATE POLICY: We'll accept homeworks up to two business days late
with a cumulative -15% penalty per late business day, where "business day"
means days that are not weekends or university holidays. Thus, if it's due
Friday 1 pm and you hand it in by Monday 1 pm, you get -15%; if you hand it
in by Tuesday 1 pm, you get -30%. No homeworks will be accepted after that.
Also, for homeworks that are due within the week preceding a MIDTERM EXAM,
NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS are accepted, so that we can post the solution as soon
as possible for studying.
(4) HOMEWORK POSTING: will be on Saturday. The homework will appear
in this webspace, in the homework subdirectory.
(5) GRADING BREAKDOWN: The final grade breakdown will be approximately
Discussion attendance = 5%
Homework = 35%
Two Midterm Exams = 12% each
Final Exam = 36%
I may tweak this a wee bit, but not by more than 3% or so.
(6) TEXTBOOKS: The required textbook is
• D. Griffiths, "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics", 2nd ed.
This book has one of the best blends of good pedagogy and rigour,
although I find the order of presentation somewhat unusual. For 486
material, I am very fond of a second book that provides an excellent pedagogical
introduction and is available in Kindle format from
Amazon for the astonishing price of $2.88 !
• M. Jain, "Quantum Mechanics: A Textbook for Undergraduates"
Jain runs out very soon after 486, however, so for 487 my recommendation for
a second textbook that won't break your budgest is one of my all-time favourites,
• Albert Messiah, "Quantum Mechanics"
This huge 2-volumes-in-1 book is available for $30 in wonderful Dover paperback,
or $19 in Kindle format. Used versions are even less.
Finally to address a common question: "Can I survive without any textbook?"
If you go to all lectures you can probably survive, but with a subject this
deep, foregoing any textbook is crippling. Your best resource is a COMBINATION
of resourcesas you are best served by seeing different perspectives. Maybe the
best answer is that, in lecture/discussion/homework, I am ASSUMING that you
have Griffiths or Jain and are reading it.
(7) DISCUSSION SECTIONS: You may not be able to get through all the discussion
questions during section, and that's fine, but you are RESPONSIBLE for all the
material. Solutions will be posted very soon after each discussion section
so please try the questions you didn't get to, then consult the solutions
for assistance - and maybe for some new ideas on how to solve the problems!
(8) LECTURES: No points are assigned for attending lecture. However, you
are RESPONSIBLE for all the material covered in lecture. I will post photos
of the blackboards in case there is an expression or figure you didn't manage
to write down during lecture, but the blackboards do NOT capture all of what
goes on. Notable examples are demos, relevant items from the web, and most
important of all, our DISCUSSIONS: about interpretation, physical intuition
and significance, and answers to your outstanding questions! If you miss
a lecture, it is your responsibility to get notes from a classmate.
(9a) MIDTERM EXAMS: The midterms will be held during lecture period, with the
first one in week 5 or 6 and the second one in week 11 or 12. The exact dates
will be decided about 2 weeks in advance, after a poll in lecture to find
dates that avoid peoples' other midterms as much as possible. Once we pick
a date for each midterm, you will get an email and the date will appear on
the INFO-Syllabus page.
(9b) FINAL EXAM: The dates and times for final exams are determined for all
courses on campus about 7 weeks after classes start and a general schedule is
posted on their Final Exam page. The specific info for our course appears on
the 487 Course Explorer page. Once the final exam date is announced, it will
also appear in INFO-Syllabus. Your room assignments for the final will appear
in the gradebook during final exam week on the my.physics room asignment page.
(9c) NO-3-IN-24-HOUR RULE: The Final Exams section of the Student Code
(which you should read!) explains the no-3-in-24-hours rule: you can't be
required to take three final exams in any 24 hour period. If you are in such
a situation, there is an order-of-precedence rule for which course must
offer you a conflict final. Basically, the largest classes have to offer
conflicts first; if those still don't solve your problem, you contact
the next smaller class, and so on. Note that this rule does NOT apply to
midterm exams, only finals.
(9d) FOR ALL EXAMS:
- NO CALCULATORS are allowed (who needs 'em, they would just slow you down)
- NO NOTES or other reference materials are allowed (books, computers, etc)
- FORMULA SHEETS will be provided; they will be posted in the main
area about a week in advance of each exam
- NO HOMEWORK will be due during midterm exam weeks, but all office hours
will be held as normal to help you study. As noted in the office hour
section, if the exam falls on a Thursday, any Thursday or Friday office
hours will be moved to an earlier day of the week.
(10) WHERE'S THE GRADEBOOK? The online gradebooks for all physics courses
are in the same place: my.physics.illinois.edu/gradebook/.
Log in with your usual netid and password.
(11) TA EMAILS:
Discussion TA Jahan Claes jclaes2 at illinois.edu
Grader Pranjal Ralegankar pranjal6 at illinois.edu
Grader Tianhao Wu twu49 at illinois.edu
Any questions about homework scores should be directed to the graders.
Different graders score different assignments so please email all of them.
Here is a link to email all the graders.
(12) EMAILING NAOMI: Please USE THE PHONE, my dear friends. Phones rock.
Stuff gets done over the phone at relativistic speeds compared with email.
Call or text at any time (really!); the number is below. The only exception
is homework questions: with a class of ~100 students, the TAs and I must
regrettably confine homework assistance to the office hours (of which there
are many). As for physics questions, please bring them to lecture! Many of
the greatest insights we've had in lecture were prompted by student questions,
please share your thoughts with all of us! :-)
Cheers! Naomi
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Prof. Naomi C.R. Makins (217) 721-3793
email: please.use@the.phone (call|text any time)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Loomis Laboratory of Physics, Room 463
1110 W. Green St, Urbana, IL 61801-3080