PHYSICS 1A
Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Mechanics
Description: Lecture/demonstration, four hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: Mathematics 31A, 31B. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 32A. Motion, Newton laws, work, energy, linear and angular momentum, rotation, equilibrium, gravitation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
Last Name
- Last Name
- First Name
- Number of Ratings
- Avg. Overall
- Avg. Easiness
- Avg. Workload
- Avg. Clarity
- Avg. Helpfulness
2 of 5
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Fronsdal, unless you feel pretty confident about physics in general, is a very difficult teacher in that his lectures are not very helpful. You would think the examples he goes over in lecture would help but you soon realize there is no real purpose in showing up cause the problems on the test are way different. He tries to be fair and he does care (there is no doubt). But because hes not very good at explaining things--its gonna be harder for you. Overall, hes like any physics teacher--not very good. So you would think it should be easy to handle. The problem is that both his TA's are horrible. One takes forever in solving a problem and the other is practically apathetic to getting the message across. This made the class harder than it should have been. The only good thing is that his midterms are 10% each and HW is 30%. Just watch out for the final--thats the main factor in your final grade. The only advice I got if you're taking him for a lower div, get a lot of friends who are good in teaching physics.
Professor Fronsdal, unless you feel pretty confident about physics in general, is a very difficult teacher in that his lectures are not very helpful. You would think the examples he goes over in lecture would help but you soon realize there is no real purpose in showing up cause the problems on the test are way different. He tries to be fair and he does care (there is no doubt). But because hes not very good at explaining things--its gonna be harder for you. Overall, hes like any physics teacher--not very good. So you would think it should be easy to handle. The problem is that both his TA's are horrible. One takes forever in solving a problem and the other is practically apathetic to getting the message across. This made the class harder than it should have been. The only good thing is that his midterms are 10% each and HW is 30%. Just watch out for the final--thats the main factor in your final grade. The only advice I got if you're taking him for a lower div, get a lot of friends who are good in teaching physics.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Gekelman is a nice person and a fair lecturer. If you pay attention in class, there is no way you will not get an A for his class. A very fair grader with optional homework (this helps people like me a lot), he curves generously. Overall, a pretty good professor. On a scale of whether I'll recommend him to a friend, definitely!
Professor Gekelman is a nice person and a fair lecturer. If you pay attention in class, there is no way you will not get an A for his class. A very fair grader with optional homework (this helps people like me a lot), he curves generously. Overall, a pretty good professor. On a scale of whether I'll recommend him to a friend, definitely!
Most Helpful Review
I took 1A with Gelmini last spring quarter. I really like her since she is really funny during class with her accent(but you can understand what she is talking about). But her homework can be a pain in the ass since it takes you a lot of time but almost worth nothing (10%), both of her midterms are ridiculously easy and the curve is really high. That is to say, her final is quite challenging so make sure you really understand the materials. Overall, I would recommen this professor.
I took 1A with Gelmini last spring quarter. I really like her since she is really funny during class with her accent(but you can understand what she is talking about). But her homework can be a pain in the ass since it takes you a lot of time but almost worth nothing (10%), both of her midterms are ridiculously easy and the curve is really high. That is to say, her final is quite challenging so make sure you really understand the materials. Overall, I would recommen this professor.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - So I got a B- in this class but I don't think it's an accurate representation of this professor's teaching ability. It's my own fault that I didn't do so well, because I got embarrassingly behind in lecture (online but recorded) and it just snowballed from there. I also have zero physics background, while a lot of people in this class have taken physics/ AP physics in high school, and so this was a lot of review for them. For reference, I did rather poorly on the final, but the mean was an 88, so do with that what you will. In terms of teaching style and personality, Gutperle is a very kind and approachable professor, and he has fun while teaching. He's really funny and tries to make things interesting for students. Each lecture, he gives us an 8-minute break during which he plays music and answers questions in the chat. His lectures are a little disorganized, and so it can be hard to follow sometimes, so I found that reading the weekly readings were key to doing well. There are 2 midterms and a final, which are around 12 questions each which 3 tries per question. 35% of the exam grade is correctness (through this thing called kudu) and 65% is your work which you submit through Gradescope. Overall, Gutperle is a great guy, and it's very possible to do well in his class, but you have to stay on track and do the weekly homework and readings. (Having a background in physics certainly helps, although you don't need it).
Spring 2021 - So I got a B- in this class but I don't think it's an accurate representation of this professor's teaching ability. It's my own fault that I didn't do so well, because I got embarrassingly behind in lecture (online but recorded) and it just snowballed from there. I also have zero physics background, while a lot of people in this class have taken physics/ AP physics in high school, and so this was a lot of review for them. For reference, I did rather poorly on the final, but the mean was an 88, so do with that what you will. In terms of teaching style and personality, Gutperle is a very kind and approachable professor, and he has fun while teaching. He's really funny and tries to make things interesting for students. Each lecture, he gives us an 8-minute break during which he plays music and answers questions in the chat. His lectures are a little disorganized, and so it can be hard to follow sometimes, so I found that reading the weekly readings were key to doing well. There are 2 midterms and a final, which are around 12 questions each which 3 tries per question. 35% of the exam grade is correctness (through this thing called kudu) and 65% is your work which you submit through Gradescope. Overall, Gutperle is a great guy, and it's very possible to do well in his class, but you have to stay on track and do the weekly homework and readings. (Having a background in physics certainly helps, although you don't need it).
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Hamilton is a standard professor - he goes over concepts/theory in class along with some examples. I liked how he did in-class questions through a software called Kudu - this allowed us to interact with each other and not fall asleep at 9 am haha. However, I found that his lectures lacked example problems, and also he did not give us any sample exam problems before the midterm/final. As such, we kind of went into the exams without knowing exactly what to study. Also, some of the hw questions he assigned were kind of irrelevant to the material. Overall, Hamilton is okay as a professor - I'm kind of neutral about recommending or not recommending him.
Fall 2018 - Hamilton is a standard professor - he goes over concepts/theory in class along with some examples. I liked how he did in-class questions through a software called Kudu - this allowed us to interact with each other and not fall asleep at 9 am haha. However, I found that his lectures lacked example problems, and also he did not give us any sample exam problems before the midterm/final. As such, we kind of went into the exams without knowing exactly what to study. Also, some of the hw questions he assigned were kind of irrelevant to the material. Overall, Hamilton is okay as a professor - I'm kind of neutral about recommending or not recommending him.
Most Helpful Review
I took Astronomy 5 (not physics) with Hansen in Fall 2015. I highly recommend the course, as it is a relatively easy and extremely interesting GE. Weekly homework assignments do a convenient service to you by keeping you up to date on the course material, as so long as you put reasonable effort into them, you'll do an effective job of getting the material to "stick" for the tests. Nice that this 30% HW grade contributes to that. The key is to put your all into every homework assignment - getting 100% of the questions right every week is essential to securing a solid A in the class. When in doubt on a question, don't leave it up to the grader to see where you're coming from like I did. Ask your TA on those before you turn it in to make sure you're getting the controversial/questionable ones right. Missing a couple questions on HW here and there turns out to have as much effect as missing a test question, so that's a crucial mistake to avoid. Prof Hansen's lectures are very dry and very boring - the subject material is exciting, thought-provoking, and engaging, but I found the professor to be quite the mumbler. There really isn't much point in going to lecture, as the PowerPoint slides are really the only useful tool that will come from the lecture (and those are available online). It is clear that Hansen is very intelligent and fond of Astronomy, but his lecturing is just too dry to be worthwhile. Weekly homework assignments are worth 30%, one midterm worth 30%, and the final is worth 40%. I studied the night before the midterm pretty hard and as a result found it to be pretty doable. With some luck and time spent poring over that 57 question Multiple Choice test, I ended up with a 98 on it. The average score was about 85, however. The final was noticeably more difficult, as after what I felt to be also a very strong amount of studying I ended up with a solid B. The average was an 80 and the high grade was a 92, so this one was definitely tougher. To do well on the exams, go over both lecture notes and the textbook. Start with lecture notes and get the gist of the concepts, then find all of those concepts in the book and read a little bit about them and why they're important. Many of the textbook's details will prove to be pretty important on the tests. There doesn't appear to be any curving in the class, so it frankly doesn't seem quite as easy as is suggested by those who call it a blue backpack class. The homework is a nice buffer for your grade, but you better be getting nearly all of it right, as well a getting at the very least an A- on the tests if you want to nab a solid A. I did end up with a solid A in the class but I doubt I made the cutoff by much, even with high scores on the homework and midterm. Overall, this is an excellent class to take. My favorite part was the interesting material, since the idea of Life in the Universe is really fun to explore and it results in a class that is less dependent on quantitative concepts. Be prepared to put some reasonable effort in if you want an A, but there's no doubt that it's definitely within reach.
I took Astronomy 5 (not physics) with Hansen in Fall 2015. I highly recommend the course, as it is a relatively easy and extremely interesting GE. Weekly homework assignments do a convenient service to you by keeping you up to date on the course material, as so long as you put reasonable effort into them, you'll do an effective job of getting the material to "stick" for the tests. Nice that this 30% HW grade contributes to that. The key is to put your all into every homework assignment - getting 100% of the questions right every week is essential to securing a solid A in the class. When in doubt on a question, don't leave it up to the grader to see where you're coming from like I did. Ask your TA on those before you turn it in to make sure you're getting the controversial/questionable ones right. Missing a couple questions on HW here and there turns out to have as much effect as missing a test question, so that's a crucial mistake to avoid. Prof Hansen's lectures are very dry and very boring - the subject material is exciting, thought-provoking, and engaging, but I found the professor to be quite the mumbler. There really isn't much point in going to lecture, as the PowerPoint slides are really the only useful tool that will come from the lecture (and those are available online). It is clear that Hansen is very intelligent and fond of Astronomy, but his lecturing is just too dry to be worthwhile. Weekly homework assignments are worth 30%, one midterm worth 30%, and the final is worth 40%. I studied the night before the midterm pretty hard and as a result found it to be pretty doable. With some luck and time spent poring over that 57 question Multiple Choice test, I ended up with a 98 on it. The average score was about 85, however. The final was noticeably more difficult, as after what I felt to be also a very strong amount of studying I ended up with a solid B. The average was an 80 and the high grade was a 92, so this one was definitely tougher. To do well on the exams, go over both lecture notes and the textbook. Start with lecture notes and get the gist of the concepts, then find all of those concepts in the book and read a little bit about them and why they're important. Many of the textbook's details will prove to be pretty important on the tests. There doesn't appear to be any curving in the class, so it frankly doesn't seem quite as easy as is suggested by those who call it a blue backpack class. The homework is a nice buffer for your grade, but you better be getting nearly all of it right, as well a getting at the very least an A- on the tests if you want to nab a solid A. I did end up with a solid A in the class but I doubt I made the cutoff by much, even with high scores on the homework and midterm. Overall, this is an excellent class to take. My favorite part was the interesting material, since the idea of Life in the Universe is really fun to explore and it results in a class that is less dependent on quantitative concepts. Be prepared to put some reasonable effort in if you want an A, but there's no doubt that it's definitely within reach.
Most Helpful Review
Holczer is a very nice and likable guy, but a poor teacher. I stopped going to his lectures and went to Corbin's instead or just read the book. The class was extremely easy with me just taking college prep physics in high school. Holczer has an accent which is very hard to understand (though kinda awesome) and his handwriting isn't good. We graded homework in class which was definitely a plus, none of that online hw stuff. His tests were extremely easy. They are just questions from the book. In fact one of the questions on the final was a question I had done the night before while studying. Pretty much everyone gets A's which really helped my GPA since its a 5 unit class. I'd take his class again so that I'd get all the easy tests but just go to a different teacher's lectures.
Holczer is a very nice and likable guy, but a poor teacher. I stopped going to his lectures and went to Corbin's instead or just read the book. The class was extremely easy with me just taking college prep physics in high school. Holczer has an accent which is very hard to understand (though kinda awesome) and his handwriting isn't good. We graded homework in class which was definitely a plus, none of that online hw stuff. His tests were extremely easy. They are just questions from the book. In fact one of the questions on the final was a question I had done the night before while studying. Pretty much everyone gets A's which really helped my GPA since its a 5 unit class. I'd take his class again so that I'd get all the easy tests but just go to a different teacher's lectures.
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