This repository includes 14 exercises and 6 projects written in python and easily accessible as Jupyter Notebooks that were used in several sections a calculus-based introductory mechanics survey course for scientists and engineers at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. The aim is to reinforce, through the structure and reuse of code, the relationships and commonalities of the main quantities of mechanics: position, velocity, acceleration, force, energy, momentum, torque, moment of inertia, angular momentum, etc. Knowledge of programming is not assumed nor required, but basic python constructions such as loops and functions were explained to the students by the instructors and teaching assistants, often ad hoc. The order of the topics is traditional, with force explained before energy.
The exercises and projects consist of a short introduction, code, and several questions. In the case of the exercises, the questions can be answered by changing the values of certain variables in the code, but no new code needs to be written. For projects, it is sometimes necessary to write a few lines of code, but several examples that require only slight modifications are provided. At UTEP, the exercises were completed in teams of 3 students in a 1-hour per week “workshop” session led by a teaching assistant and the projects were assigned as homework every two weeks and were completed in teams of 2 students, but larger study groups led by students were encouraged by the class structure and quite successful.
Feedback from the students made apparent that many did not see the connection between the exercises and the physics concepts being taught in class. Several word problems similar to those in Refs. [1, 2] that resemble the coding exercises are included in this repository. Including them in the weekly problem sets and pointing them out to the students ameliorated the situation, but it did not fully rectify it. Future versions of this work will include videos and Notebooks that will improve the integration between the physics concepts as taught in lecture and as taught in code.
J.A.M. acknowledges support from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. The development and implementation of this material is aligned with Goal 1, Initiative 2 of the UTEP strategic plan: redesign key core curriculum courses to provide high-impact, engaged-learning experiences. Initial work was supported by the UTEP Office of the Vice Provost for Curriculum Effectiveness and Improvement. Much freedom to experiment was provided by the UTEP Department of Physics and the UTEP College of Science. Above all, we thank the many UTEP students who have provided feedback on how to improve this course, and particularly those who completed these projects and exercises and gave actionable advice on how to improve them.
[1] Knight, Randall Dewey. Physics for Scientists and Engineers: A Strategic Approach. United Kingdom: Pearson, 2017.
[2] Crowell, Benjamin. Mechanics. United States: Light and Matter, 2017.