PHY138Y - Mechanics - Class 10 - Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003

Introduction

Last class we discussed work by West, Brown and Enquist on using fractal analysis to investigate the scaling of the basal metabolic rate with the mass of the organism. Here is a recent quote by West on Physics.

"Physics so far has concerned itself with the relatively uninteresting stuff in the universe. My view is having done that you now return to the problem that started these inquiries in the first place, namely where did we come from and what is going on inside our heads?"

Source: http://physicsweb.org/article/world/14/7/3 (July 2001)

Announcements

First Test

• Tuesday, October 28, 6 - 7:30 PM
• Locations TBA
• If you have a conflict, see Dr Savaria in MP901A as soon as possible.

Cancellations

This Friday, Oct. 8 the following are cancelled:

• Representative Assemblies
• My office hour

Monday, October 13 there will be no class.

Laboratories

• Begin Tuesday October 14, 2 - 5 PM, with P0202
• The first P0102 laboratory is Tuesday October 14 from 6 - 9 PM
  • The next P0102 lab is Monday October 27, 2 - 5PM
• Sections P0x01 begin the week of October 20
• For the first laboratory you need to prepare for two experiments You will do one of these first, and the second one next.

To find out which two experiments you need to prepare:

1. Go to the STORM laboratory page at: http://www.storm.utoronto.ca/PHY110_138Lab/student/. Use your student number as the login and your last name as the password, just as for the PHY138 STORM page.
2. Determine your laboratory group from STORM.
3. Go to the laboratory home page at: http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/PHY110_138Lab.html. Follow the "First Lab" link to determine which two experiments to prepare.

First Quiz

• In tutorials next week. Will take the entire tutorial period, which should provide you with lots of time.
• Chapters 1 - 7 of the text.
• Bring:
  • A non-programmable calculator without text storage capability.
  • A single 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper on which you have written anything that you wish. Hand written only please.
  • A soft-lead #2 pencil with an eraser.
• We will supply constants.
• The quiz will have 6 multiple-choice questions, which count equally:
  • Each question has five possible answers.
  • Each correct answer is awarded 100/6 = 16.67 marks.
  • Each incorrect answer has 100/(6 * 8) = 2.08 marks subtracted.
  • Blanks answers are ignored
• At the end, the best 3 out of 4 quizzes will count for 10% of your mark in the course.
  • If you miss one quiz, you need do nothing.
  • However, if you miss a quiz because of, say, a medical reason you should get and keep the documentation in case you miss a second quiz.

The above is a scan of the computer card you will use for your answers to the Quiz. The same card will be used for the multiple-choice part of the test. You should only use a soft-lead #2 pencil in filling in the circles on the card. Write your student number in the first 9 boxes labelled STUDENT ID NUMBER. Completely fill in the 9 circles corresponding to the numbers you have written above. Be sure to circle the number in the same column as the number you wrote. The tenth column will be used to identify which quiz you are writing. The number will be given on the cover page of the quiz. Print your name in the box labelled NAME. Completely fill in the circles for your answers to the six questions on the quiz. You should also circle your answer to each question directly on the test paper. Do not write anything else on either the front or the back of the card.

Today's Class

We continued our discussion of potential energy.

I pointed out that this concept is probably the most abstract of all the ones we have discussed so far this year. This may mean it will take a bit of extra concentration to understand it.

We followed the textbook fairly closely in discussing §7.1, §7.2, §7.4 and §7.4. It turns out we had already discussed the material in §7.5 - The Nonisolated System in a Steady State when we talked about metabolism and energy radiation in Class 9; you should nonetheless read that small section of the text.

You may access the "Journal" from today's class by clicking on the button to the right. Separate window, 188k.

The arrows jump to the previous/next class summary.