PHYS 16
The Way Things Work Winter 2020

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Class Details

How does a motor run? What do chocolate and steel have in common? How does Williams heat and power the campus? Can paper be washed? What’s inside everyday appliances? How do you build a speaker? From simple machines to complex processes, in this course we’ll explore the way things work! Class will meet four afternoons a week for a mixture of lecture, discussion, build time, local field trips, and lots of hands-­on exploration. Homework will primarily consist of readings and exercises relevant to the current class topics and extra tinker­time. Early in the course we’ll team-engineer and build a large project as a class. In the last part of the course, students will have a chance to explore the functioning of some process, object, or technology of their choice. These will culminate in either building a final project with a short writeup or writing a 6-page paper, and a presentation to the class.
The Class: Format: lecture
Limit: 16
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: class participation; midterm group project; final project with short writeup or a 6-page paper; presentation of final project/paper to the class
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: by seniority, and by requesting an interest statement
Materials/Lab Fee: $40 and approximately $35 for books
Attributes: EXPE Experiential Education Courses

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