Working Together
Students are encouraged to
discuss course material outside of lecture and section,
and are permitted to discuss and help each other with homework assignments.
All submitted work, however, must represent
original and individual effort.
For example, it is acceptable to get help from another student on a homework
problem, but it is not acceptable to show someone else how to fully solve the problem,
and it is very unacceptable to copy someone else's solution. If you get help from someone, YOU MUST
WRITE UP THE SOLUTION YOURSELF WITHOUT LOOKING AT SOMEONE ELSE'S!!
In the event of
outstandingly similar assignments, the teaching assistants have
been instructed to grade one and only one of the assignments and
then distribute the points evenly amongst the collective authors. Neatness and Stapling and Photocopies
In order to assist in the grading of homework, please write
legibly; you are likely to lose credit if the work is
unreadable or messy!
Please staple homework papers together. Do not use paper clips, as
the pages may get separated, and may never get back together again...
and you may lose credit!
Please hand in your ORIGINAL homework papers, not photocopies.
Late Homeworks
The penalty for late homework is substantial: 20 points/day.
A late assignment runs the risk of
receiving little credit. There is no late penalty if you obtain a
Dean's Excuse for a late assignment.
Please submit the Dean's Excuse with the assignment.
When answering questions involving math, a few basic expectations
will apply (aside from getting the right answer).
All answers should be expressed in terms of units, unless there is
an excellent reason not to do so (e.g., the number is a ratio). It will
be easier for the graders to check your answers if you leave them in
the units in which the problem is stated; don't feel compelled to
convert everything to standard metric units if the problem is not
stated in them. You may of course express your answer in any standard
units that you find easiest, but it makes the TA's jobs easier when you use
the ``natural'' units of the problem (``natural'' units being, for example,
solar masses / years / A.U. if working with Kepler's Law).
Make it easy on yourself: convert between units only when you must, or when you
are converting to units that differ only by factors of 10. For
example, it might be a good idea to convert from centimeters to meters,
but would probably be a bad idea to convert from light years to
inches, if the problem were stated in terms of light years.
Use significant figures when expressing an answer. The number of
digits contained in your answer indicates the precision to which you
believe it is accurate. If you use too many significant figures, you
overestimate the quality of the data which you have been given.
Show at least enough work to convince the grader that you have actually done
the problem and that you understand how you solved it. While it is not
necessary to show every step of algebra, doing so will make you more
likely to get partial credit in the event that your final answer is
wrong. Also, please draw a box around your final answer to make it
more identifiable to the grader.
Please justify any assumptions you make while solving a problem.
If you want to use a formula that is valid only under certain
conditions, explain that those conditions are adequately satisified in
your particular case.
