I am trying to find a few like-minded kids who are taking ece303 right now, so that we can cooperate on homework and studying and stuff. I know there are several of you I met already who are also feeling lost because of the lofty way this guy likes to explain things. There is only one section and it is pretty big, I'm sure alot of ppl in there have posted in here before.

I have some old homeworks and notes I was given for 303 but it was for a different section/teacher from a couple semesters ago. This current homework doesn't appear very complicated but it isn't quite obvious either, I just want to try and find a few people who are willing to exchange some clues. I know trying to do this over the wolfweb is kinda futile but I'm trying other stuff at the sime time as well.

1/24/2006 5:05:07 PM

Looks to me like the first homework problem comes straight out of the notes

1/24/2006 7:30:27 PM

i really enjoyed my emag classes, but i can't say that i miss them

1/24/2006 7:42:58 PM

Actually, two and three are also straight out the notes. I like homework I can do this fast

1/24/2006 8:10:35 PM

damnit pi master, weren't you in that class when i took it?

1/24/2006 8:15:44 PM

you shut up!

[Edited on January 24, 2006 at 8:41 PM. Reason : for the record, I DID pass]

1/24/2006 8:40:57 PM

lifting things from the notes is all well and good, but does anyone honestly undersand the things we had to copy down for the first and third problem?

I like how this homework comes straight from the notes, its great but only the second problem is anything that I can look at and understand, the others are some arcane looking lists of equations with some lofty words that I'm sure mean something but don't really help because we're just doing word matching to find these answers.

I feel like doing word matching now is just going to get me screwed once we are gonne be tested on this stuff so I am still looking for people who want to exchange clues, again not looking for instant gratification and answers, just some collaboration.

1/25/2006 7:17:41 PM

That's actually a really good point. We're gonna be raped

1/25/2006 7:42:27 PM

Read the book. There is a reason he said something along the lines of "you will not survive without the book". The book walks through all problems in this homework.

1/25/2006 8:16:40 PM

Is there anyway to find out who is teaching this next semester?

I think I'm going to drop.

1/31/2006 10:13:12 PM

1/31/2006 11:51:07 PM

you got alexander?

2/1/2006 8:21:49 AM

^No, Dr. Iafrate is teaching it this semester. I would be happier if Alexander were teaching it.

^^What building is that?

2/1/2006 9:14:52 AM

tompkins...CHASS building. he was making a joke that perhaps you should consider the college of humanities and social sciences...because ECE isn't for everyone, which is true.

however, i hated 303 despite having a great professor(lazzi) and i'm still set up for an on-time graduation with a decent gpa...so don't be discouraged. that 301, 302, 303 semester was miserable though

2/1/2006 10:05:34 AM

so after one overcomes 301, 302, and 303, do things get less miserable?

I went through 301 and 302 last spring. I enjoyed 301 but 302 was the most painful class ever. So far I find that 303 is not quite as awful as 302 was, aside from not really knowing what it is I am supposed to be able to understand at this point things are going relatively smoothly. At least I can answer the questions even if I can't immediately recognize what the hell all the math and gibberish he is talking about.

I think I need a good chart of all these equations that points out which ones are important to remember and when they are supposed to be used. I hope we don't need to remember how to derive these things ourselves because I cant pull chain rules and tailor series stuff out of my ass like that, that kind of stuff is hard to do without having a math book and alot of spare time.

I figured out some things that were confusing me last night, when I started to get some of the stuff(there is still alot that I don't understand) I realized that there were definately clearer ways to explain it then what was provided. Sometimes I get the feeling people intentionally leave gaps in their explanations to make us work to fill them in later, which is why I am still looking for a few people who want to work together for this class.

[Edited on February 1, 2006 at 12:13 PM. Reason : added stuff]

2/1/2006 12:12:48 PM

Quote :

"so after one overcomes 301, 302, and 303, do things get less miserable?"

Definitely

2/1/2006 1:45:52 PM

^agreed. all the 400 level clsses i have completed so far...402, 406, and 407 all substanitally easier than any of those 300 level classes. not to say they are easy...except for 407 which was easy.

2/1/2006 1:49:44 PM

Quote :

"Is there anyway to find out who is teaching this next semester?"

My best guess would be that Lazzi and Kolbas will teach it in the Fall. The reason Alexander isn't teaching 303 this semester is because he's been assigned to teach 301 since they did a major re-shuffling of who teaches what (i.e. Alexander has 301 instead of Snyder and Ozturk, Steer and Hauser have 211, etc.).

2/3/2006 6:07:27 PM

^ Yeah, I emailed Townsend and she said the same thing(Lazzi/Kolbas likely to teach it).

2/3/2006 9:13:25 PM

so how is everyone liking this Homework #3 so far?

while I go through this I realize that there are a shitload of details he could possibly ask us which I would not be able to recal quickly in this test. Everything is mentioned once then stuff is built on top of it, constantly when I try to solve a problem I have to look further and further back to find some term in these equations that I forgot about. I am doing alot of flipping through notes looking for things like incident current for the bounce diagram and stuff like that. I wish I could have all these terms on a single page to avoid all this flipping, some sort of heirarchy chart that puts all the pieces together and allows me to reduce each piece to its simplest definition so that I could trace back from what the question asks to what information the probelm gives quickly, but instead it is searching through the notes for every last symbol trying to figure out how to evaluate the thing based on the information given in the problem.

I hope that eventually I will be able to do this fast enough to answer 3 or 4 questions within the time limit, it isn't going so well right now. I wonder if he will let us use calculators on this test.

2/8/2006 4:36:05 PM

Wish I started earlier. Having trouble already.

2/8/2006 5:07:22 PM

If anyone wants to help/get help banging out the rest of this homework tomorrow morning from 7:30 until class time, I will be in the daniels computer lab trying to finish and correct this thing, I am stuck at problem 9 with the double bounce diagram. I had to make some guesses for number 8 for the current plot, but I am pretty sure my problem 7 is close to being correct. My mind just isn't working for me any more tonight so I must continue with this tomorrow. For now I am moving on to study for other classes.

If you want to exchange clues, finish the homework at the last minute, and help find mine and your mistakes, show up at daniels 204 tomorrow morning. I imagine that early there wont be many people in there and I will be easy to find, if not then ask the guy at the front desk, he knows where to find me.

I sure hope somebody shows up, this stuff is harder to do alone. And if enough people are there then we might have enough different clues among us to figure everything out.

2/8/2006 9:43:02 PM

2/8/2006 9:55:12 PM

how can you not like electromagnetic physics

seriously

2/8/2006 10:24:24 PM

I'm sure one can do all sorts of fun things with this info once they have mastered it, but it isn't coming very easily, at least for me it isn't. I don't have a problem with this stuff, but the class is kinda nasty especially this latest homework.

I am getting used to it though, I bet things would make more sense if I could stay ahead in the reading and practice the stuff he teaches before he has the lecture about it, that way I would know what the hell he was talking about and not have to reread this stuff over and over when it comes time to answer questions. If I could pull myself ahead in this reading I think his lectures would make more sense. His notes are good for sorting out confusion and laying down reference info but they make a really crappy introduction, he doesn't really ease you into this stuff at all and just reads out his notes in the class, occasionally saying little remarks and corrections about them while he reads.

It has only been a few weeks and already I am not able to keep the pace I want in getting stuff finished and studying ahead of the teaching, every year this happens things start slow then they suddenly jump in challenge and every year it always catches me by surprise. I feel like last week I was all caugt up in everything and this week I am buried alive in shit that I need to do.

2/8/2006 11:25:35 PM

definitely feel confident about #7. #8, I can't seem to figure out the currents, but I think I've gotten the voltages. #9, I'm totally lost, but I'm going to check the book out now. 10/11 are straight out of the notes. Anyone have a clue on tandem transmission lines?

2/8/2006 11:54:22 PM

I'll come by and work with you in Daniels. I have a test at 8am, and then I'll jump on the bus back over.

2/9/2006 12:14:14 AM

Check page 56 of the book for an example of a tandem transmission line.

2/9/2006 12:29:09 AM

haha... he uses i in the notes

Who the crap uses i? This is ECE. Use j, man.

2/9/2006 12:41:43 AM

aha

2/9/2006 12:51:26 AM

i wish i had paid more attention in 303, although i had easy tests so at least i net a decent grade

2/9/2006 8:14:03 AM

I just wrote out number 9, really friggin tedious doing like 5 iterations of bouncing, and I don't even know if I was multiplying by the right coefficient for one side of the bounces (the end of the 2nd line, not sure which reflection coefficient to use). I tried something and did a bunch of math using that number so if it was the wrong number then everything I've done after that point is also wrong, sigh.

Sounds like everybody is having trouble figuring out the bouncing from number nine and the currents from number 8, and everything else is doable?

Does anybody feel confident that they got number 8 and 9 right? I sure would like to figure those out before I turn this in.

2/9/2006 8:50:48 AM

More like WEEEEEEmag

2/13/2006 11:44:21 PM

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Please have mercy, Iafrate
Happy Birthday to Me

2/14/2006 8:30:11 AM

im worrying about this test, I just have the feeling some of these problems are going to be variations on the problems we have already done, and they are going to be strange variations that we don't know what to do with. I just have this lurking feeling that there will be some of these curve ball problems on the test and I don't know what to do to prepare for them.

I am trying to make a list of the things covered in each lecture, atempting to predict the questions he might ask based on some of the things that I've overheard him say. I think one of the things that might show up on this thing is the impedence matched transmission line which kills the reflections, because he said "remember that" when he was talking about it.

But there are some things I can imagine that I would have no idea how to handle:

What if we had to plot voltage/current at an intermediate spot along a transmission line(similar to problem 7 on the most recent homework) except that it was tandem transmission lines(line problem 9) except that it wasn't impedence matched at the source, so you would have reflection at every boundary, the reflections from thesource seeping through to junction to the other line, and at some arbitrary point that you have to plot from you find a big mess of cris crossing lines that you somehow have to add together to form this plot, you wouldn't be able to follow the bounces gracefully like a single line, what the hell would you do to get the plot?

What if we had to derive something that he hasn't derived in class yet? can anyone really pull the partials and taylor series stuff out of their ass like that?

What if we had something line problem eight on the last homework with an inductor instead?

What about a tandem transmission line terminated by a cap or inductor instead of(or in addition to) a load resistor?

so many possible variations that could friggin ream me, what do you guys think he might ask?

[Edited on February 15, 2006 at 4:46 PM. Reason : typos]

2/15/2006 4:43:39 PM

I found something I wrote down that I heard him say that makes me pretty sure we'll see tandem transmission lines with a lossy cap load on that test. I doubt that nasty reflection confusion thing I was imagining will show up though.

I am wondering if we will have to do anything with pulse excitation, there is a little section in the notes and he only mentioned it briefly.

Things to look out for,
pulse excitation
tandem w/lossy cap
impedence matched
inductive load

that is just my prediction, hopefully I'm close

2/15/2006 6:25:33 PM

Quote :

"I think one of the things that might show up on this thing is the impedence matched transmission line which kills the reflections"

So is it not just lectures 1-6, now?

That was the material that he said was going to be on the test originally. And that would not include impedance matching.

2/15/2006 6:29:24 PM

he described impedence matching in lecture 3, page 38. It is pretty simple though, just makes the reflection coefficient zero.

I am more concerned about pulse excitiation and capacitors right now

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 7:44 AM. Reason : typo]

2/16/2006 7:44:30 AM

Ok, I was thinking more along the lines of adding stubs and such.

Yeah, that's the most basic impedance matching.

2/16/2006 9:01:35 AM

Very fair test

2/16/2006 12:19:29 PM

I agree, there were no curve ball problems, no pulse excitation or capacitors, but that impedence matching thing did show up. I was quite worried but as I took the test I started feeling much better. I did it as fast as I possibly could thinking I would run out of time, I was able to finish the problems and find the stuff in my notes that confirmed they were right(for the most part). I'm feeling a bit better about this class, now I need to catch up on the last few lectures that I was ignoring in favor of studying for this test.

If I could figure out how to get better scores on the homework, then I'll be in good shape, I keep getting in the 60-70% range.

I think the only thing I really doubted myself on was the voltage at the load for the last problem, wasn't sure exactly which terms to add together to get the answer. I ended up adding 4 things, basically all the stuff that ran into and bounced off of that line at the load end of the diagram, wasn't sure if I just needed the stuff going towards it or if I should have included the thing that bounced off after that 2nd period, but I found a page in the book that hinted to me I needed all 4 of those terms, got something like (33*Vo)/64 for the answer, don't quite remember.

For the second problem I had the source impedence matched so it only bounced once, the functions were just the sum of the incidents and that one reflection off the load. I did a KVL and got the same answer for infinity as I did for the bounce summing, which made it look correct to me.

The first problem was just fliping through the notes and copying definitions, a couple of them I didnt bother looking up, pretty sure I got those close to correct.

We'll see how it looks when we get the test back.

2/16/2006 2:59:31 PM

For number 2, if there's no bounce at the source, then the line will reach steady state after 2td. At that point, you always have a 5V incidence wave and a -5/3V reflection on the line at any point.

Which sounds like what you had.

On the last one, my numbers were different. I had pretty much all pertinent (pertinent to calculating voltages at the load) coeffecients as 1/2. Vinc = Vo/2. After a transmission through the junction, a bounce at the load, a bounce at the junction, and another bounce at the load, I had V = (Vo/2)*(1+ 1/2+ 1/2*1/2 + 1/2*1/2*1/2 + 1/2*1/2*1/2*1/2) = 31Vo/32 for V(t=2T)⁺

Of course, that's not what I had on my test, because I left off the +1... hopefully that won't result in too much being taken off.

Of course, that's all assuming I did it right just then, which seems unlikely since I did it off the top of my head, without looking at notes, or having the problem at hand. So I guess we'll see.

2/16/2006 4:49:19 PM

who are you

2/17/2006 1:41:58 PM

...John?

Who are you?

Quote :

"nterests : Electronic music"

Maybe I had Waschka's class with you

[Edited on February 17, 2006 at 4:12 PM. Reason : ]

2/17/2006 4:11:47 PM

based on the homework 3 solution set, you should only add what actually hit the load for problem #3. I therefore think you only add 2 things. Again, I don't know squat about squat, but I copied the homework solution and assumed they did know squat about squat.

2/17/2006 5:52:25 PM

this is the most homo thread in all of study hall, you two should be arrested

2/17/2006 6:32:30 PM

2/17/2006 6:49:29 PM

Quote :

"this is the most homo thread in all of study hall, you two should be arrested"

2/17/2006 9:12:36 PM

couldn't be that, I am in washcka's class this semester, strange guy.

when you say hit the load, do you mean the things going towards the load?

hope the grades are good, can't screw up this class, even if it means I have to be gay on thewolfweb.

2/19/2006 11:51:56 AM

Grades are up. Class average was 69.9, which I can only assume was curved up to that.

About to check mine now...

2/19/2006 12:48:04 PM