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Instructor Class Description

Time Schedule:

Richard Jeffrey Wilkes
PHYS 110
Seattle Campus

Liberal Arts Physics

Basic concepts of physics presented with emphasis on their origin and their impact on society and the Western intellectual tradition. Primarily for students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Offered: AS.

Class description

A brief tour of physical science, aimed at non-science majors, and emphasizing concepts and development of ideas.

A "Science Appreciation" course, intended to help you understand the value of scientific research, and equip you, as citizens, to be more aware of the use and abuse of science in our society.

Course goals:

Encourage the habits of rational thought, skepticism, and asking questions.
Show how we can move from the simple to the complex, to figure out (more or less) how the Universe works.
Describe some basic facts about physical phenomena seen in everyday life.
Demonstrate how rational analysis of observations, aka The Scientific Method, led to (what we call) the modern world.
Study examples of how scientists use imperfect measurements and statistical estimation to draw conclusions, and learn how to interpret news items.
Explain how various everyday gizmos work: radios, car engines, planetary systems, etc.
Do all of the above without using any math beyond middle-school algebra!

For further information, please see the course website: http://courses.washington.edu/phys110/

NOTE: the course has been completely redesigned for 2008. Content, emphasis and grading scheme are different from previous editions of this course.

Student learning goals

General method of instruction

lecture, readings, discussion.

Recommended preparation

curiosity.

Class assignments and grading

We will not use a textbook, but instead will read parts of 4 popular science paperbacks: "The Elegant Universe", by Brian Greene, "Fear of Physics", by Lawrence Krauss, "Great Ideas in Physics", by Alan Lightman, and "A BRIEFER History of Time", by Stephen Hawking. Students will be expected to write 3 short term papers, or create websites with equivalent content.

2 midterm exams (best score out of 2 counts), weekly pop quizzes (best 7 scores out of 10), and 3 term papers or websites on topic chosen by student.

The information above is intended to be helpful in choosing courses. Because the instructor may further develop his/her plans for this course, its characteristics are subject to change without notice. In most cases, the official course syllabus will be distributed on the first day of class.

For more info, see CLASS WEBSITE
Last Update by Richard Jeffrey Wilkes
Date: 11/05/2007