Exam III solutions

Right now, you are still busy taking the exam ... its not so bad, is it?

Here are the solutions, and here is the exams folder to see all 3 exams and solutions.

I should be able to hand back the exams as well as your papers this coming Tuesday in class (in which I will give a lecture on how hard disks and flash memory work).

Exam III is this Friday

So. You have an exam on Friday during the recitation period. Since this means you have only 50 minutes to complete the exam, it will be short if nothing else. The following material is fair game (numbers refer to sections in Serway & Faughn):

• Lenses (23.4-7)
• Quantum Physics (27.1-3,5,6,8)
• Atomic Physics (28.1-7,11)
• Nuclear Physics (29.1-6)

The exam will have a format somewhat like the final exam, though shorter: there will be both problems (like exam II) and multiple choice questions (like exam I).

• multiple choice questions
• 50% of the grade
• approximately 8 questions
• like the quizzes - some conceptual questions
  
• 4 problems given / solve 2
• 50% of the grade
• choose to solve 2 of the 4; all have equal weight

You may bring in a formula sheet and a calculator, following the same rules as last time around. Your time will be limited on Friday. Don't be late.

Finally: you will know the results of exam III and your grade going into the final by Thursday of `dead week' (possibly excluding the paper grade ... I don't know yet if I can read 50 of them in a week or not).

Exam II solutions / quiz solutions

Just in time for final exam season, the detailed solutions to Exam II are ready. Note that Exam I and its solution are still there.

Also, at long last, all of the quiz solutions are available.

Papers due tomorrow ...

Just a friendly reminder that your 5 page papers are due tomorrow ...

Sending me a PDF is the preferred form of submission. Other file formats are fine (e.g., MS Word ) if you aren't sure how to generate a PDF. Of course, hard copies are fine too, if you want to go that route.

Lab for 20 Nov 2007

Today we will use the known line emission spectrum from Mercury atoms to calibrate a diffraction grating, and then use our calibrated grating to determine the wavelengths of emission from hydrogen atoms.

So basically, we will measure the emission spectrum from hydrogen.

Procedure.

homework deadline extended

If you have not already seen, the homework that was supposed to be due this past Friday is now due tomorrow (Tues) at midnight.

I was getting a lot of questions, which indicated to me we didn't cover a couple of things well enough. We will go over some of the questions in class tomorrow, and hopefully by the end of it you will know how to do all of the problems ...

Exam II results

So the exam results are in (except for a couple of you that had a reason to make it up late). You will get your exams back tomorrow.

The raw average was 70.7%, with a standard deviation of 18.5. Not to bad, but the spread was too high. I scaled the overall result to have an average of 80%, with a standard deviation of 12.5%, which makes the distribution more comparable to the last exam and a bit more fair I think. Here is what that looks like:

If we look at the average score by question, and the number that chose to respond (recall you had to pick 8 of 12 questions), it is easy to see which questions you perceived as being more difficult. Moreover, the second plot shows that your instincts were, as a whole, correct: questions perceived as more difficult (fewer people trying them) had a lower score on average.


Apparently, questions 6 and 7 were just mean. Maybe question 3 as well, but that was taken almost verbatim from the homework.

Anyway: you all did better than you think. Below is the breakdown by letter grade. Full exam solutions should be out by week's end.

A: 12
B: 11
C: 14
D: 5
F: 4