Wes's Big Exam Thread - 3 Hours of Physics Fun

Wes72

I am Wes, and I have a Physics exam this morning at Laurentian University. I am actually a Biology/Education major and will likely take a Physics minor.

This exam is on basic physics and some more advanced calculations.

For this exam, we are allowed to use all course notes and laptops for online resources. The only thing that we are not allowed to use is instant messaging.

I decided to register with ths forum for help with this exam, I will post questions as I need help with them and check back often for responses.

All help will be appreciated. My exam starts at 9am Eastern Time (about 35 minutes from the time I post this).

Thanks in advance :)


By the way, our instructor does allow orum and email interaction, this is not cheating. There will also be several supervisors watching our laptops at all times.

ZapperZ

Then it boggles my mind why there is even any need for an "exam" when you can literally get someone else to answer the question for you. Is this really an exam to evaluate your knowledge, or just a test of your ability to find the answer online regardless on whether you know the material or not?

Zz.

J77

Is your school in Disneyworld?

ekinnike

i wish do your best and good luck!!!

George Jones

Are you sure that you're allowed to interact with other human beings via cyberspace during the exam. I agree with ZapperZ - this boggles the mind. It would be very easy to contact the chair of your physics department.

I once wrote a very difficult Applied Math exam for which we could bring anything, except another person. Things explicitly allowed included notes, any books, food, and alcohol. The exam took 6 hours.

Regards,
George

Wes72

What I am doing is 100% legal. I actually disagree with the professor about how easy this exam is, I got through the first half of the test without any problems at all. Here is an easir question tha I am not completely sure about. I am a bit weak in thinking of normal things in a quantum sense:

If the magnitude of the quantum of energy of an oscillating mass-spring system is .8x10^-33J, and the mass is 1.5KG, determine the spring constant k for the spring.

nrqed

This makes no sense at all. If forum interaction and e-mail are allowed then why would instant messenging be banned? why not let students walk out and go talk with anyone on the phone or, even better, go sit with someone at the library and get someone else to do their exam for them?

Maybe the prof really meant that consulting static web pages was allowed, but even that boggles the mind. How is that supposed to help test the indestanding of the students?

But I would not be totally surprised to learn that using forums and e-mails is actually allowed in a Canadian university level exam...Being ethical and attaining a result from hard work is not politically correct in Canada...

berkeman

I think there's a clue here folks. We've been punked!

0rthodontist

My Algorithms exams were like that (but they weren't 6 hours and alcohol wouldn't have been legal). I've never had an exam in my memory where food was banned.

George Jones

I hope this is true but I'm not so sure. The Laurentian exam schedule shows that exams for Introductory Physics II and Conceptual Physics II took place this morning at 9.

Also, even though I don't like the wording of the question, the instructor may have had something like the following in mind.

The quantum of energy of a quantum harmonic oscillator is given by

[tex]E = \frac{1}{2} \hbar \omega = \frac{1}{2} \hbar \sqrt{\frac{k}{m}},[/tex]

which can be solved for [itex]k[/itex].

Like I said at the start - I sure hope you're right.

No one actually brought alcohol, but at the end of the exam, the prof said "I'm going to the (student) pub, and the first round is on me!" Four out of the five students in the class took him up on his offer.

Regards,
George