Here is a collection of homework hints I have sent out by email so far, a cut-and-past job from emails I have sent today.
I figure its no fair to give hints if you can't all see them ... but these are just plain text, so reading the math is a bit of an exercise. As is imagining the free body diagram I refer to for #6, which exists only in my head.
I know I promised a real, live laboratory today, with wires and everything ... but we will hold off one more class period. Instead, we will do one more set of interactive simulations, which you can find here. These simulations and exercises are designed to give you a better intuition for electric forces and fields before we move on to more complicated things.
You should go through:
Exploration 23.1, and Problems 23.1 & 23.5
The basic task is the same as last time -- work through the procedure given and answer the questions. Write up a short lab report for your group, turn it in when you are done. There is no need for screenshots this time.
In today's class, we will be doing simulations of the forces on electric charges in various configurations.
Our simulations will be conducted using a set of online 'applets', you can find them here. The username and password will be given in class.*
The procedure you should follow is right here [PDF]. Print out the procedure, and work on the exercises in groups. Turn in your report as instructed by the end of class.
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*The access should be screened by IP address, so you should not need a password when accessing this link on campus.
Homework II is now out on webassign, it is due this Friday 7 Sept. It covers Electric Forces and Fields, chapter 15 of Serway & Faughn or chapter 3 of the course notes packet. We will go over some of the problems in class this week to help get you started.
In general, if you need help on a homework question at odd hours, emailing me is the best option. I may or may not notice the help/extension requests on webassign in time, but email will almost always be dealt with promptly.
