BIT 1002 How to pass an Exam!

(Gary Larson, Far Side)

You may bring 8.5x11 formula sheet + calculator.

Exam: Time and Place: Friday Dec 14th, 2.00 pm. UC 282

• 20 Multiple Choice (MC) questions,
• 3 out of 5 problems:

• Kinematics
• Newton's Laws
• Waves and Sound
• Heat and Thermodynamics
• Optics
• Modern Physics

1. Read the questions: answer them in the order you find easiest.
2. Answer questions on right-hand side of paper: left-hand is for your rough work.
3. Ring the correct MC answers on the question sheet
4. If you don't understand a question, ask. If you can't ask, make a reasonable assumption, and write it down. If you need a number (e.g. what is G), look at the first page. If it's not there, ask.
5. Draw a diagram whenever possible, and make it nice and large.
6. Make an order of magnitude guess before you start
7. Don't put numbers in until the last step.
8. Always check your answer is dimensionally correct.
9. If your answer seems wrong, but you can't find the error, say so and explain why.
10. Do not complain that you forgot to put a formula on your memo-sheet

Don't write drivel!

• Explain why oil-tankers usually put ballast water in their tanks when they are not carrying a cargo of oil.
• Oil tankers put water in their tanks when they are not carrying oil so that they will be full up. If they were not full up they would not be able to sail very fast. Also the pressure would increase, and so it would be dangerous. It doesn't always happen, only in high winds, and ballast is what you have in a fluorescent light to make it work. Also oil is lighter heavier lighter the same density as water. and anyway, I haven't the slightest idea of the right answer so I will just write as much as possible in the hope that some of what I say will make sense

• Please give me an A on this course as I need it to get into a program to become a navel naval architect. I promise never to take physics again.

Memo-sheet:

one 8.5x11. You can write as much as you want on both sides, but advice is to write less rather than more. However: very important don't just write down equations: write down what they mean!