Will be administered through BlackBoard.
You may take it from 7:00 pm on Wednesday, 14 October, to 7:00 pm on Thursday, 15 October. There is no class on Thursday.
I expect it will take you about half an hour, but the time limit is two hours.
I recommend that you use scrap paper: two or three quick sketches will often clear up a murky situation.
Must be started between 7:00 pm on Wednesday, 14 October, and 7:00 pm on Thursday, 15 October.
Time limit is two hours.
No collaboration.
You may consult one 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of notes, but no other material (books, friends, additional notes, Internet). I recommend that you print out this course summary, and then add whatever notes you find appropriate, and have this sheet nearby when you take the exam.
You may use a calculator.
You may not communicate with anyone but Dan Styer about the exam (content, level of difficulty, anything) until 9:00 pm Thursday. This rule is because it's easy to begin with a simple innocent question and end up inadvertently giving away pieces of the exam. ("Say, how do you feel after the exam?" "Oh that racetrack problem was a breeze. Yikes, I've just told you what's on the exam!")
By taking the exam, you affirm that you have adhered to the Honor Code in the exam, which means that you have obeyed these rules and will continue to obey the silence rule until 9:00 pm Thursday.
You might want to look over your weekly assignments to prepare for the exam. Do this by clicking on "My Grades", then on the number in the "Grade" column, and then on that same number in the "Calculated Grade" column.
Due Friday, 16 October, 2:00 pm, at Wright 215.
Mark on your project if QP half is desired!
You may submit your project in handwritten form or typed on paper. If you're doing a problem involving sketches and equations then handwritten is probably the best format. Please don't submit your project electronically ... in the past I've experienced many difficulties due to format incompatibilities, viruses, and so forth. I'm grading 135 projects and I need to minimize the drama.
You may collaborate on projects, but this doesn't mean you may slack off: If there are five collaborators on a play, I expect it to be five times as good as a single paper. If two people work a problem from the book together, their result should be twice as insightful as the work of one person.
On the syllabus I gave a list of problems from the book that would make good projects. But since then I've solved some of those problems in class! Problems 14.1 (Pole-in-the-Barn with cloudburst), 14.2 (Pole-in-the-Barn with fatal mistake), 15.5 (Travel at the speed of light), 16.9 (Falling hula hoop), and 16.14 (The paradox of the mirror) are no longer eligible as projects.
If your project is not working out, switch to one of the problems mentioned in the syllabus (including problem 13.7 --- "write a time travel story"). You don't need a prospectus if your project is one of these problems.
Problem 7.6 is a popular project because it has no numbers: it's just raw reasoning. But many people fail this project precisely because there are no numbers: it's so abstract that it's difficult to wrap your mind around. Numbers are your friends! They change situations from murky and fluid to concrete and tangible.
See my web site and schedule grid.