Course Description
This course is sequential to PHYS 157. The main themes of the course are waves, electricity, and magnetism.
The waves portion of the course covers interference (constructive and destructive), standing and transverse waves, double-slit interference, thin-film interference, and organ pipes.
The electricity portion of the course covers topics such as direct-current circuits, electromotive forces, electric fields, Gauss's Law, resistance, capacitance, dielectrics, inductance, and alternating current.
The magnetism portion of the course covers topics such as magnetic forces, electromagnetic induction, Ampere's Law, Biot-Savart Law, Lenz's Law, and motional electromotive forces.
This course is notorious for its intense difficulty, disorganization, and strict requirements. PHYS 158 will most likely take up a lot of your time and is often a GPA killer.
Types of Assignments To Expect
Activity Book - A book that includes in-class activities. The book is usually due at the end of the semester.
Tutorials - Mostly iClicker questions of exam-style questions. You obtain full marks for participation.
iClicker - Not fully graded on participation. You get one point for participating and one point for getting the correct answer. For full marks, you need an iClicker score of 80% or more.
Reading Quizzes - There are two reading quizzes a week.
Mastering Physics Homework - All of the questions can be found in the textbook.
Written Homework - Assigned for every week when there is no mastering physics homework.
Midterms - Written response, multiple-choice, and short answer. You are allowed to skip midterms without writing an academic concession (but not recommended).
Final Exam - Similar format compared to the midterms. If you do better on the final exam than your overall grade, your final exam grade replaces your overall average.
Advice/Study Tips
You don't have to finish all of the pre-readings or even complete any of them. This may sound counter-intuitive, but you are better off quickly writing down the necessary formulas, laws, and rules for each assigned textbook section than reading the entire textbook section and going straight into practice problems based on the topics presented for the pre-readings. You can also watch youtube videos on the same topic as a substitute for pre-readings. However, do make sure to complete the pre-reading quizzes!
Making notes for this class is also not very helpful since this course is almost fully problem-solving-based and there are lecture notes that you can re-visit.
Avoid using alternate methods other than those presented in class. Sometimes, the textbook will present a different method for solving certain problems that are easier for some students. However, you can lose marks for not using the preferred method.
The lecture slides are really unappealing to look at. The textbook is a lot better for notes if you are planning to review notes that the lecture slides already cover. Only revisit the lecture slides if the content isn't found in the textbook.
Practice using integrals and derivatives with the physics formulas by re-doing the class activities, written homework questions, tutorial questions, and the calculus textbook questions. They are testable content.
If you are not interested in extremely competitive engineering specializations like engineering physics, mechanical, computer, and electrical engineering, you should take PHYS 118. Save your grade! The class averages are significantly higher, the content is mostly similar but better taught, and the teaching team is more considerate about curving for low-class averages.
Don't underestimate waves in this course! They ask multiple questions about waves and interference that are worth a significant amount of marks on the first midterm and final exam.
While the textbook can have an overwhelming amount of questions, they are very useful for studying because some of those questions can appear on your midterms and final exam.
Note: For pre-biomedical engineering students, PHYS 158 is a co-requisite for BMEG 102.
Resources
1. Organic Chem Tutor has a playlist on electronic circuits.
2. Michel van Biezen also has a playlist on electricity and magnetism.
3. Organic Chem Tutor has a video on the waves portion of the course. Ignore the Dopper Effect and Decibel Level lessons.
4. An Organic Chem Tutor video on electromagnetic induction.
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