PHY198S

Physics at the Cutting Edge (2020-21) -- PHY198S

Computing tips

Backing up

In my 35 years at university so far, I have learned a number of computing lessons the hard way. Here are my top tips to help minimize your suffering:-

It is wise to never work on a document without saving it often.
Each time you start a new writing/editing session, copy the document, and work on the new version while keeping the old version with a different filename. That way, if you later realize that the newer version is actually worse and you want the old one back, it will be sitting there waiting for you in your directory.
Back up all important documents onto an external USB stick that you keep with you, at least once a day. Also, back up your entire computer regularly onto an external hard drive, a bare minimum of once a week. That way, if you have a major crash, your losses will be limited.

Weekly summary essays

Each week for Jan.21 (Week 2) through Apr.1 (Week 11), you will be writing a short 1-2 page essay summarizing what you learned from seminar class and colloquium that week. Your intended audience is: other PHY152 students who are not taking this course. Each weekly summary is worth 3.5% of the final grade, and is due by the beginning of the next class.

Formatting tips:-

Please use a plain sans-serif font (e.g. Helvetica, Verdana, Arial) of minimum size 12pt, with minimum one-inch margins, and single spacing.
The essay should be mostly text, with a few formulas if needed. Diagrams or images should only be used sparingly, and should take up no more than half a page in total.
Part of academic culture and research culture is being careful about citing any sources we use - UofT expects this as part of student academic integrity. I think a nice way to frame the practice is this: we do it as an act of intellectual caring, to properly acknowledge the teachings of people we learn from. Here are some UofT Writing Support resource articles about how to do it properly:-
- How not to plagiarize;
- Paraphrasing and summarizing, and Using quotations;
- How to document your references -- please use science standard (numbered note system) formatting.
You may use any software you like to write your summary. Before submitting, please convert your document to .pdf (Portable Document Format) before uploading it to Quercus for grading. How to do this conversion depends on your operating system and what type of software you are running, but it should go something like this: choose File from the menu, then choose Export or Save As, then select destination file type as .pdf.

Grading will be focused on two things: getting the basic physics right, and explaining it understandably. Spelling or grammar errors will not be penalized, unless they really get in the way of understanding what you are trying to say. The TA will give brief feedback to help you improve your writing skills where needed, especially for the first two or three essays.

Presentations

Your group is welcome to use any software you like in preparing your Final Project presentation (4.5 minutes per student). For readability, please use 4:3 aspect ratio, a plain sans-serif font (e.g. Helvetica, Verdana, Arial), 24pt body text, and never use font sizes smaller than 18pt anywhere on the page. Also, stay away from colour combinations with low contrast, like yellow on white or blue on black. References should be listed at the end using the science standard (numbered note system) for formatting. Please ensure that you export your slides to a .pdf file before uploading to Quercus.

If you have never written an academic presentation before, please start by consulting the Library howto guide.