PHYSICS 1B
Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Oscillations, Waves, Electric and Magnetic Fields
Description: Lecture/demonstration, four hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: course 1A, Mathematics 31B, 32A. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 32B. Fluid mechanics, oscillation, mechanical waves, and sound. Electric charge, field and potential, capacitors, and dielectrics. Currents and resistance, direct-current circuits. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
*Lectures I found to be informative and easy to access on his website. *Homework was frustrating at times, but if Mastering Physics was at fault a TA can fix the problem. *Tests were challenging, but very doable. He allows one to use any non-electronic notes. The majority of Prof. Cowley's classes will say the course was hard, and they will be correct. The main thing that bothers me though is that everyone has a negative reaction to having to work for a grade. It's not Prof. Cowley's job to spoon feed every bit of information to you. He is there to lay a foundation for us to build on. We have to think for ourselves for once. Prof. Cowley can not cover everything in great detail, it is our jobs as students to fill in what is left. If something is difficult to understand on the homework or the class in general there are many options a student can take to remedy this. For one students need to learn how to read a science textbook. If this fails then go to the internet for help, then after that seek help from TA's and staff.
*Lectures I found to be informative and easy to access on his website. *Homework was frustrating at times, but if Mastering Physics was at fault a TA can fix the problem. *Tests were challenging, but very doable. He allows one to use any non-electronic notes. The majority of Prof. Cowley's classes will say the course was hard, and they will be correct. The main thing that bothers me though is that everyone has a negative reaction to having to work for a grade. It's not Prof. Cowley's job to spoon feed every bit of information to you. He is there to lay a foundation for us to build on. We have to think for ourselves for once. Prof. Cowley can not cover everything in great detail, it is our jobs as students to fill in what is left. If something is difficult to understand on the homework or the class in general there are many options a student can take to remedy this. For one students need to learn how to read a science textbook. If this fails then go to the internet for help, then after that seek help from TA's and staff.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Overall, Thomas is a good prof. He is always willing to help students working out their problems. And his midterms seemed to be hard but actually doable if you truly learned something. The only thing that he needs to improve is his logic when lecturing. He likes to jump to a brand new concept without any notification. But I do recommend his course.
Winter 2020 - Overall, Thomas is a good prof. He is always willing to help students working out their problems. And his midterms seemed to be hard but actually doable if you truly learned something. The only thing that he needs to improve is his logic when lecturing. He likes to jump to a brand new concept without any notification. But I do recommend his course.
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Most Helpful Review
He's a decent professor. Very helpful and nice. MAKE SURE YOU GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSION or at least do his review problems he posts online as the midterms and finals have almost the exact same problems. I cannot stress that enough. He also takes problem from the homework so if you can solve the homework and his extra problems you should be fine. His tests are fairly easy and almost all problems are computational which is very nice. Would recommend him again if you want a fairly easy 1B teacher.
He's a decent professor. Very helpful and nice. MAKE SURE YOU GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSION or at least do his review problems he posts online as the midterms and finals have almost the exact same problems. I cannot stress that enough. He also takes problem from the homework so if you can solve the homework and his extra problems you should be fine. His tests are fairly easy and almost all problems are computational which is very nice. Would recommend him again if you want a fairly easy 1B teacher.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - Prof. Garcia is fairly new to lecturing, but I think he still did a good job of covering material. His 1B class is way easier than other professors' (like Corbin's), but you still learn. Granted, you may not learn to be the expert problem-solver that you may think you need to be, but you will still learn enough to understand the basics of electricity. Garcia's usage of Kudu was a bit frustrating (because Kudu sucks), but he promised that he will use the textbook the next time he teaches this course. His exams are very fair (he adjusted after the first midterm) and are actually medium-level difficulty if you study problems out of the textbook (ones he recommends and other extra ones). As far as helpfulness, Prof. Garcia is probably the best in that department. He is very easy to approach and answers questions very positively without any judgement. In other words, if you ask a stupid question, Garcia will still call it a "good question" and answer it without making you feel badly. His office hours are very helpful, as he goes over the problems students have difficulty with, and he is very supportive of setting up personal appointments if you need them. Overall, Prof. Garcia's class is a bit easier than other 1B classes, but I'm sure he will learn to toughen up in the future. I would definitely take another class with him if I can. Thank you for a great quarter, Prof. Garcia.
Spring 2019 - Prof. Garcia is fairly new to lecturing, but I think he still did a good job of covering material. His 1B class is way easier than other professors' (like Corbin's), but you still learn. Granted, you may not learn to be the expert problem-solver that you may think you need to be, but you will still learn enough to understand the basics of electricity. Garcia's usage of Kudu was a bit frustrating (because Kudu sucks), but he promised that he will use the textbook the next time he teaches this course. His exams are very fair (he adjusted after the first midterm) and are actually medium-level difficulty if you study problems out of the textbook (ones he recommends and other extra ones). As far as helpfulness, Prof. Garcia is probably the best in that department. He is very easy to approach and answers questions very positively without any judgement. In other words, if you ask a stupid question, Garcia will still call it a "good question" and answer it without making you feel badly. His office hours are very helpful, as he goes over the problems students have difficulty with, and he is very supportive of setting up personal appointments if you need them. Overall, Prof. Garcia's class is a bit easier than other 1B classes, but I'm sure he will learn to toughen up in the future. I would definitely take another class with him if I can. Thank you for a great quarter, Prof. Garcia.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Gekelman is a researcher, not a teacher. His method of approaching physics is the result of a life of calculations and complex simulations. He thinks on a whole different level than undergraduate students, believing that things like exponential functions dealing with imaginary numbers should immediately come to us after a normal high school education. He does not seem to understand that he has spent his whole life studying physics, whereas the majority of students taking his waves and electromagnetism class have only had roughly two years of experience. This gap between the professor's and student's knowledge base and the disregard of this gap by the teacher highly detracts from the learning experience of us students. On the other hand, Professor Gekelman is a very friendly man. He does care about his students, even if he doesn't know how to teach them. You could almost call him the nice grandfather type (btw the bruinwalk picture of him is waaay old). I'm sure if you go to his office hours he will definitely be willing to help you to understand the material from the textbook and his supplemental equations for the textbook. To sum it all up: Walter Gekelman does not know how to teach undergraduate students, but he will definitely be willing to help you if you go to his office hours. Other things: He has weekly quizzes, his Physics 1B class is curved, the midterms occasionally deal with his "supplementary" material, he teaches through slides, and he sometimes tries to derive equations on the blackboard (with lots of mistakes).
Professor Gekelman is a researcher, not a teacher. His method of approaching physics is the result of a life of calculations and complex simulations. He thinks on a whole different level than undergraduate students, believing that things like exponential functions dealing with imaginary numbers should immediately come to us after a normal high school education. He does not seem to understand that he has spent his whole life studying physics, whereas the majority of students taking his waves and electromagnetism class have only had roughly two years of experience. This gap between the professor's and student's knowledge base and the disregard of this gap by the teacher highly detracts from the learning experience of us students. On the other hand, Professor Gekelman is a very friendly man. He does care about his students, even if he doesn't know how to teach them. You could almost call him the nice grandfather type (btw the bruinwalk picture of him is waaay old). I'm sure if you go to his office hours he will definitely be willing to help you to understand the material from the textbook and his supplemental equations for the textbook. To sum it all up: Walter Gekelman does not know how to teach undergraduate students, but he will definitely be willing to help you if you go to his office hours. Other things: He has weekly quizzes, his Physics 1B class is curved, the midterms occasionally deal with his "supplementary" material, he teaches through slides, and he sometimes tries to derive equations on the blackboard (with lots of mistakes).
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Overall, I really enjoyed Gutperle's class. The workload was definitely manageable (only one homework assignment per week, which was usually ten problems), and the tests were difficult but also usually pretty fair since they are definitely doable if you have a strong grasp of the content. Gutperle does have the tendency to show us a bunch of proofs during class and then tell us that we don't really need to understand any of it, so I think having some more example problems would've been good. He does have us do conceptual Kudu problems during class which are really helpful for understanding thing conceptually, but those aren't really too similar to the homework problems, so having a little more guidance on the computational problems would be nice. Discussion isn't mandatory (I stopped attending after week 3 since I realized that I could just practice the discussion problems on my own, since they're posted), and in general, he's a good professor who clearly knows what he's doing and has some really fun demonstrations as well.
Winter 2020 - Overall, I really enjoyed Gutperle's class. The workload was definitely manageable (only one homework assignment per week, which was usually ten problems), and the tests were difficult but also usually pretty fair since they are definitely doable if you have a strong grasp of the content. Gutperle does have the tendency to show us a bunch of proofs during class and then tell us that we don't really need to understand any of it, so I think having some more example problems would've been good. He does have us do conceptual Kudu problems during class which are really helpful for understanding thing conceptually, but those aren't really too similar to the homework problems, so having a little more guidance on the computational problems would be nice. Discussion isn't mandatory (I stopped attending after week 3 since I realized that I could just practice the discussion problems on my own, since they're posted), and in general, he's a good professor who clearly knows what he's doing and has some really fun demonstrations as well.
Most Helpful Review
The material isn't that difficult, but his exams are tricky. The homework is a lot of work but counts for little. He's not the best professor, and he doesn't publish averages, so its hard to gauge where you are in the class before your final grade comes out. He's a very boring lecturer, and the homework and lectures are useless in preparing for exams.
The material isn't that difficult, but his exams are tricky. The homework is a lot of work but counts for little. He's not the best professor, and he doesn't publish averages, so its hard to gauge where you are in the class before your final grade comes out. He's a very boring lecturer, and the homework and lectures are useless in preparing for exams.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - It was an awesome experience. Professor Jiang's lecture is quite clear, interesting and helpful. The homework is well-designed, some of them challenging but definitely can improve your skills. The test is fair: she gave us practice tests and they help a lot. The best thing is that Professor Jiang has SUPER LONG OH EVERYDAY. You can ask her any questions from the textbooks, homework or midterms. I would definitely take other classes taught by her in the future!
Fall 2016 - It was an awesome experience. Professor Jiang's lecture is quite clear, interesting and helpful. The homework is well-designed, some of them challenging but definitely can improve your skills. The test is fair: she gave us practice tests and they help a lot. The best thing is that Professor Jiang has SUPER LONG OH EVERYDAY. You can ask her any questions from the textbooks, homework or midterms. I would definitely take other classes taught by her in the future!
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