Writing Formal Problem Solutions

An important part of this course is learning to solve problems. We'll provide you with detailed methods which we expect you to follow. We'll base the evaluation of your work to a very large extent on whether you follow the methods. We'll base it to a lesser extent on whether your final answers are correct. In fact, a correct answer alone will receive no credit, and the deductions for incomplete work will be severe. The reason we take this approach is because we know that following the methods is the path to becoming a good physics problem solver. Therefore, as we've said before, read the following materials very carefully. After we've done a few example problems, we'll give you a problem assignment from the text.

A warning:  We've taught enough years to know that some students will be tempted to gloss over the problem-solving guide and start work on the assignment. That wouldn't be a good strategy.  The result would be poor work, which would give us a correspondingly poor first impression of your written work.

Click here to go the Guide for Solving Problems. 

© North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, All Rights Reserved. These materials may not be reproduced without permission of NCSSM.