PHYSICS 1C
Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Electrodynamics, Optics, and Special Relativity
Description: Lecture/demonstration, four hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: course 1A, 1B, Mathematics 32A, 32B. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 33A. Magnetic fields, Ampere's law, Faraday's law, inductance, and alternating current circuits. Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic waves, light, geometrical optics, interference and diffraction. Special relativity. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Profesor Larkin is VERY smart, but his lectures are structured completely around conceptual ideas, yet his exams are all problem-solving. It makes no sense how we are actually supposed to learn and practice the problem-solving. He maybe walked through a total of 10 problems the entire quarter. The homework also was not helpful and made us work through problems for hours that were not even included in the lectures. He was quite rude over email. The exams are difficult for no reason and include deep analysis and revision on variables we didn't cover in class, and he just expects you to know how to set them up. The TA's reviewed problems that didn't even appear on the exam. This is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. There are much easier physics professors out there. Save yourself.
Fall 2022 - Profesor Larkin is VERY smart, but his lectures are structured completely around conceptual ideas, yet his exams are all problem-solving. It makes no sense how we are actually supposed to learn and practice the problem-solving. He maybe walked through a total of 10 problems the entire quarter. The homework also was not helpful and made us work through problems for hours that were not even included in the lectures. He was quite rude over email. The exams are difficult for no reason and include deep analysis and revision on variables we didn't cover in class, and he just expects you to know how to set them up. The TA's reviewed problems that didn't even appear on the exam. This is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. There are much easier physics professors out there. Save yourself.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Best professor or teacher I've had in my 14 years of school. This class had me learning complex, difficult material while at the same time feeling like a chill intro class. Instead of being expected to master these concepts and apply them to ridiculous problems (which leaves students lost and learning nothing), Professor Mckeown kept all problems relatively simple. HW was a bunch of easy problems and a couple hard ones, and after watching lecture and doing HW I was very comfortable with everything covered. If I needed extra help though, discussion was very helpful (I stopped going but apparently it had good extra problems and HW help), and I heard amazing things about the professor's office hours. Tests were very plug and chug (with equations provided), so I was never stressing that much. Professor Mckeown should 100% be in charge of the entire physics 1 series, as he's the only one in the department who seems to understand that although the material should be challenging, it is an introductory series.
Winter 2024 - Best professor or teacher I've had in my 14 years of school. This class had me learning complex, difficult material while at the same time feeling like a chill intro class. Instead of being expected to master these concepts and apply them to ridiculous problems (which leaves students lost and learning nothing), Professor Mckeown kept all problems relatively simple. HW was a bunch of easy problems and a couple hard ones, and after watching lecture and doing HW I was very comfortable with everything covered. If I needed extra help though, discussion was very helpful (I stopped going but apparently it had good extra problems and HW help), and I heard amazing things about the professor's office hours. Tests were very plug and chug (with equations provided), so I was never stressing that much. Professor Mckeown should 100% be in charge of the entire physics 1 series, as he's the only one in the department who seems to understand that although the material should be challenging, it is an introductory series.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2017 - Great class, amazing and helpful teacher. The homework was from the book, and his office hours were very helpful. However, the exams were super hard. The class was time consuming simply because the concepts really had to be ingrained in your brain to do well on exams. Overall great class. 10/10 with rice
Summer 2017 - Great class, amazing and helpful teacher. The homework was from the book, and his office hours were very helpful. However, the exams were super hard. The class was time consuming simply because the concepts really had to be ingrained in your brain to do well on exams. Overall great class. 10/10 with rice
Most Helpful Review
His course is not particularly difficult until the second half of the material, for Diffraction and Interference. He knows what he is talking about, but for these sections specifically, it is hard to grasp what he is saying and his pictures suck. Otherwise, his midterms are straightforward, but again, by the second half of the course, it's hard to know what formulas are relevant.
His course is not particularly difficult until the second half of the material, for Diffraction and Interference. He knows what he is talking about, but for these sections specifically, it is hard to grasp what he is saying and his pictures suck. Otherwise, his midterms are straightforward, but again, by the second half of the course, it's hard to know what formulas are relevant.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - Professor Naranjo is one of those physics professors who doesn't believe in plug-and-chug questions, there is not one number to be found in any of his tests. He definitely is one of those professors who grossly overestimates the class' background knowledge in math and physics, so lecture can be hard to follow. Although he cares about his students' learning and is actually pretty understandable during office hours, lectures are a lost cause - he is sadly not an engaging lecturer and his handwritten notes are impossible to decipher. He is quite lenient on homework - although it is not fully completion, if an earnest attempt at solving each question is made, with some reasoning behind it, you should usually get full points.
Spring 2023 - Professor Naranjo is one of those physics professors who doesn't believe in plug-and-chug questions, there is not one number to be found in any of his tests. He definitely is one of those professors who grossly overestimates the class' background knowledge in math and physics, so lecture can be hard to follow. Although he cares about his students' learning and is actually pretty understandable during office hours, lectures are a lost cause - he is sadly not an engaging lecturer and his handwritten notes are impossible to decipher. He is quite lenient on homework - although it is not fully completion, if an earnest attempt at solving each question is made, with some reasoning behind it, you should usually get full points.
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Most Helpful Review
It’s funny how this professor is rated so highly on bruinwalk. From my experience, and from the classmates I checked with, Peroomian simply doesn’t teach. I learnt absolutely nothing from his class. He regurgitates material directly from the textbook without explaining the key concepts. The examples he goes through in class are alright, but he just copies whatever he worked out beforehand, even the mistakes… meaning to say I have never seen him thinking on his feet or doing an actual analysis of the problem in class. If I were a professor, I would do that only if I’m unfamiliar with my topic and require notes all the time. Asking him questions were a pain; he skirts the question often, and upon being pressed to give a rigorous physics explanation, he simply uses analogies, or resort to the all-encompassing generic answer that things are just the way they are (example, he tried to explain Brewster’s angle in the topic of light, but had to resort to “oh it’s just a behavior of light…”. Peroomian’s grading was weird. It was a 100% Final; as long as you attempted your midterm, your score for final was yours to keep. If you’ve done well for the midterm and screwed up the final, there’s nothing you can do to bump up your grade to an A, even if it’s borderline for final. And his final was not a walk in the park; you had to study hard for it. I had a few friends who didn’t so well for the final, and missed the A grade by just a bit in the final. They were extremely angry about the unfairness of it all. In short Peroomian was disappointing, given his rave reviews on bruinwalk. No doubt he’s a great guy, but maybe he’s just not suited for teaching e&m since he has more of an astronomy than a pure physics background. I speak only of what some of my classmates and I have experienced in Physics 1C. The class was horrible for me, and I’m glad it’s over.
It’s funny how this professor is rated so highly on bruinwalk. From my experience, and from the classmates I checked with, Peroomian simply doesn’t teach. I learnt absolutely nothing from his class. He regurgitates material directly from the textbook without explaining the key concepts. The examples he goes through in class are alright, but he just copies whatever he worked out beforehand, even the mistakes… meaning to say I have never seen him thinking on his feet or doing an actual analysis of the problem in class. If I were a professor, I would do that only if I’m unfamiliar with my topic and require notes all the time. Asking him questions were a pain; he skirts the question often, and upon being pressed to give a rigorous physics explanation, he simply uses analogies, or resort to the all-encompassing generic answer that things are just the way they are (example, he tried to explain Brewster’s angle in the topic of light, but had to resort to “oh it’s just a behavior of light…”. Peroomian’s grading was weird. It was a 100% Final; as long as you attempted your midterm, your score for final was yours to keep. If you’ve done well for the midterm and screwed up the final, there’s nothing you can do to bump up your grade to an A, even if it’s borderline for final. And his final was not a walk in the park; you had to study hard for it. I had a few friends who didn’t so well for the final, and missed the A grade by just a bit in the final. They were extremely angry about the unfairness of it all. In short Peroomian was disappointing, given his rave reviews on bruinwalk. No doubt he’s a great guy, but maybe he’s just not suited for teaching e&m since he has more of an astronomy than a pure physics background. I speak only of what some of my classmates and I have experienced in Physics 1C. The class was horrible for me, and I’m glad it’s over.