Physics 6060
How Things Work II -- 3 Credits

The home page and syllabus for PHYS 6060 How Things Work II for Spring 2017 is given below. Please read everything carefully and click on the SYLLABUS for more detail about the content. However, it is not final and subject to change. You have to purchase access to the electronic version of the 6'th edition of How Things Work by Bloomfield. The electronic version contains text, animations, exercises, and problems from which the homework assignments will be based. If you have taken PHYS 6050 in the Fall 2016, you will not have to pay again for access to the website. After you have registered I will email you the 6 digit course ID to get access to the electronic text at the website link Wileyplus.com.

An Online Physics Course for High School Physics and Physical Science Teachers
Semester Spring

• Computer technology
  Computer (with CD-ROM drive) using any recent operating system and browser. A few of the operating systems that work for WebAssign are Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I am using Macintosh OS X 10.11.1
  
  
• Internet Connection
  Cable, DSL, LAN, or Dial-up.
  I use using ComCast Cable provider with a MacBook Pro Laptop with a Zoom Cable Modem 3.0 and Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700. The router has four 50 GHz inputs for ethernet cable which gives me the speed to donwload videos in less than 2 minutes. This equipment is standard and you can buy it at BestBuy.
  
  
• Web Browsers
  I recommend Safari 9.0.1 or Opera 34.0 for Mac users and Internet Explorer for Microsoft Window users.
  It is important to use the suggested browsers otherwise you might not be able to play or download the videos.
  You will find it convenient to have all the videos stored on your computer for convenient access and viewing.
  After you have streamed the video into your Browser by clicking on "Lecture 1 Video" in Collab under Session 1
  in Resources, you can save it on your computer by clicking on "Save as" under File. You can also right click on
  the mouse while hovering it over the Lecture Video and then click "save page as". It will take 4-5 minutes
  to save the Lecture Video on your computer.You can save all 40 Lecture Videos to your computer by repeating this
  procedure for each lecture. Do not use Firefox as your browser since it will not play the videos on an OS X or
  Microsoft Windows operating system
  
  
• Frequently asked questions about WebAssign and browsers, Java, cookies, etc.
  Click on http://webassign.net/user_support/student/student_faq.html
  Some homework questions on WebAssign may have HTML that requires additional programs, like Java or Flash. Your browser will indicate if it needs an additional program and will often point you to the URL where you can download the needed files.


• Software
  Microsoft Office (97-2004) or 2008 version - Primarily for reading Word and power point documents
  Adobe Reader 11.0.4 - for reading pdf files - Download Free at Adobe Reader
  
  Use Quicktime or Realplayer for viewing lecture videos in .mov or .MP4 from course website COLLAB
  Quicktime comes with Mac OS
  For Windows or Mac Download Realplayer for Free at RealPlayer
  
  
• Hints on improving download speed. Wireless is slower than direct ethernet cable. If you are on wireless, it will take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes
  to download one 50 minute long video lecture file depending on the speed of your modem and router.
  If your router and modem are relatively new, then they are probably sufficiently fast enough or otherwise
  they will limit your speed. If you connect your computer to the modem directly with ethernet cable, then you
  can download much faster - maybe in 2-4 minutes. Direct cable is usually faster than wireless.