Dr. Donald Luttermoser's PHYS-2020-002
Course Web Page
This web page has been set up for the students at ETSU taking PHYS-2020-002
General Physics II with Dr. Luttermoser. Links have been set up for the
students to download the syllabus, course notes, homework assignments, homework
solutions, review sheets, sample exams, sample exam solutions, and the
textbook's WebAssign web page on this web page. The downloadable files are in
PDF (Portable Document Format)
(which requires
Acrobat Reader to view). Note that we will be using
Edition 4.0 of my course notes during the Spring 2025 semester.
Course Overview
General Physics II is the second course in a two-semester sequence that
covers the following four main sections of classical physics:
(1) electromagnetism, including electric fields, forces, and energy,
Coulomb's law, capacitance, current, resistance, circuits, magnetism, and
inductance; (2) wave mechanics, which covers Hooke's law and the Doppler
effect; (3) electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with matter,
which covers the E/M spectrum, blackbody radiation, particle physics, the Bohr
model atom, and atomic physics; and (4) optics, which covers reflection,
refraction, diffraction, interference, and optical instruments. At the
conclusion of the General Physics I & II courses, students will have a firm
understanding of the basics of classical physics and an introduction to modern
physics.
On-Campus Attendance Required this Semester:
You will be required to attend class on campus in Brown Hall 370.
The exception to this is if you have been tested positive with COVID-19,
or you are sick from some other infection. Then you can watch the lecture via
Zoom. Note that your professor is immune-compromised due to the
medications he is taking. Please, keep your distance from me if you are
feeling ill during class, or wear a face mask if you plan to talk to me.
For providing information to keep the ETSU community safe and communicating
updates regarding policy changes, please visit the
ETSU COVID-19 Information
web site. It remains the best place to find updated information regarding
ETSU's protocols and safety measures concerning your health.
Course Syllabus
Course Syllabus for PHYS-2020-002, General Physics II
Course Purpose and Objectives:
General Physics II (PHYS-2020) is designed to be taken in tandem with General
Physics II Laboratory (PHYS-2021), although students receive a separate grade
for each. As with all of our department's Physics and Astronomy courses, we
expect that students completing these courses will be able to:
- Appreciate that physics is relevant to the real world and a useful tool for
solving problems.
- Develop the inclination and ability to apply problem solving techniques to
simplify "real world" problems in terms of simple physics concepts, and to
compute or estimate solutions.
- Appreciate that any model or theory of a physical process stands or falls
on the basis of experiment.
- Recognize that scientific conclusions, whether yours or those from an
outside source, may be incorrect, and develop the ability to check these
conclusions with simple calculations, independent external references,
and/or common sense.
- Use mathematics to solve equations, and appreciate the dependencies of
physical properties on each other.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- Understand how electric and magnetic fields are created, and their relation to corresponding electric and magnetic forces.
- Understand the relation of electric potential to electric potential energy.
- Use Ohm's Law and Kirchoff's Rules (and the physical intuition associated with fields and potential) to analyze basic circuits.
- Understand the "right-hand rule" for magnetic fields and forces.
- Know how to use Hooke's Law to model oscillating systems.
- Understand pendulum motion and how it can be used to measure time.
- Know the difference between traveling and standing waves.
- Know the difference between transverse and longitudinal waves.
- Learn how to calculate intensity levels for sound.
- Understand how a spectrum is formed and the various types of spectra.
- Understand all aspects of blackbody radiation.
- Understand the various ways light can interact with matter.
- Analyze basic optical systems consisting of lenses and mirrors using geometric optics.
- Analyze thin slit and thin film interference, and diffraction patterns using wave optics.
Course Notes Sections:
My lectures will be based on the following Course Notes that I have written.
I have been teaching Physics and Astronomy for nearly 40 years. During the
undergraduate and graduate years of my education, there were a handful of
courses where I learned the material very well. In each of these case, the
course notes were presented in an outline format. As a result of
this, I have developed an outline format for my notes in all of the courses
I teach. Although some students do not like this style of teaching, the
majority of students I have taught over the years find it a very useful
technique in gaining an understanding of Physics.
The course notes presented below are separated into sections, approximately
following the chapters in the textbook, with a few exceptions.
Finally note that the textbook refers to "Chapters" as "Topics", however I
will refer to them as Chapters.
D2L Course Website and Lecture Recordings
For the past few years, I have been
streaming the lectures in "real-time" so that students can attend
lecture in a remote (i.e., online) format and will be recording
these lectures. However, as mentioned above, I expect all students
to attend class on campus in Brown Hall 370 unless you are sick.
Although this course is meeting on campus, I will be streaming and recording each
lecture which will automatically be stored on D2L Course Website. So if you are
sick, or have tested positive with the COVID-19 virus, you can view the streamed
lectures, or watch the recording from home. Prior to each scheduled lecture, I
will be posting a Zoom link on the course D2L course web page that you can use to
access the synchronous lecture remotely. If you cannot make the `in-class'
lecture, you are expected to attend each Zoom lecture in `real time'
remotely! However, if you are forced to miss a lecture due to illness,
or be late to a class, each lecture will be recorded and the link for that
recording will be pasted on the D2L course web page.
If you plan to attend class via Zoom, I require students to notify me via email
(lutter@etsu.edu) prior to class! In this email, you are to give me the
reason why you are missing class on-campus. If you don't do this, you will be
considered absent for that class.
To access the ETSU D2L web site, click on the following link:
D2L Web Site Login Page
,
then select the PHYS-2020-002 course link once you log in, to
get to the D2L Course Web Page.
Homework Assignments, Reviews, and Sample Exams
There will be 4 homework sets assigned throughout the semester
composed of two sections of questions. The first section will be
problems posted on the textbook's WebAssign web site (see below for
details on accessing this site). You will be given further information about
WebAssign during the first week of class. These WebAssign
problems will be graded and count as 10% of the course grade. The
second section of problems will not be graded and will have
solutions posted on the course web page. Try to do these problems by yourself
before retrieving the solutions from the web page. Doing both sections of
problems will be a big help in studying for the exams.
Registering and Accessing WebAssign
To use WebAssign, you first need to register yourself into WebAssign.
How to Register for Your PHYS-2020-002 SPRING 2026 Course:
-
Go to
GetEnrolled.com.
- Enter this Course Key: ETSU34267832.
-
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete your WebAssign registration.
-
Visit the
Cengage Student Registration Page
for a step-by-step guide and short video on how to register for your course.
Once you are registered, to access the textbook publisher's WebAssign web site click the
following link:
https://webassign.com ,
then click on the Enter Class Key button on the upper right of this
web page. The class key for this course is:
etsu 3426 7832
Should you need additional assistance with WebAssign, you
can contact Technical Support information at:
https://webassign.com/support/student-support/
via the web or 1-800-354-9706 by telephone.
Preparing for Exams
Each Exam has a Review Sheet of topics and questions to prepare each
student for that Exam. These Review Sheets can be very helpful in
doing well on an Exam. In addition, I have posted past exams to help
you prepare, and to give you a sense of the format of the Exams.
Past Exams to Review
The format of the exams will be similar to the sample
exams posted below. Many of the "full-length" problems you will
see on the exams will be modified versions of the example problems
in the notes and textbook, and the supplemental and WebAssign
homework problems.
Click here to go to Dr. Luttermoser's home page.
Click here
to go to the Department of Physics and Astronomy
home page.
Last modified: January 21, 2026 by D.G. Luttermoser