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- Seth J Putterman
- PHYSICS 220
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Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
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This was an incredibly fun class, but it's very difficult.
Make sure that you have a strong grasp of the calculus of variations. If you didn't take an undergraduate fluid dynamics class, try to teach yourself some of it because Putterman will assume that you are confident with that material and will jump straight into an abstract field theory formalism of fluids. Obviously, you will also need to be very strong with undergraduate Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics before you start the class too. Your perturbation theory skills from quantum mechanics will need to be flawless.
His description of Hamilton-Jacoby theory and generating functions was way too short and much more confusing than it needed to be, so you will need to supplement that with some YouTube lectures.
Spend time with Landau's book and pay very close attention to Putterman's notation; people would often have trouble digesting the enormous amounts of algebra on the board. Be prepared to do dimensional analysis on your toes to make up for his handwriting. Be alert about what Putterman's saying because he will do a lot of the mathematical steps in his head. You can also always ask; he responds to every question in a friendly manner, even if it's about week 1 material in week 8.
Homework problems are often ambiguous, but if you get used to his style of writing (and if you are able to guess what assumptions can simplify the problem to the point where it is solvable without losing the interesting physical behavior), you will understand that they reveal very interesting and fundamental results. The tests include primarily problems very similar to the homework, and then one random question that will, at first glance, look completely unrelated to the course content.
If you don't trip over any of those barriers, you will gain an extraordinary and unique perspective of a beautiful field from a professor who cares very deeply both about physics and teaching.
I don’t even know how to describe the feeling of helplessness I felt in this professor’s class. Really negative experience.
This was an incredibly fun class, but it's very difficult.
Make sure that you have a strong grasp of the calculus of variations. If you didn't take an undergraduate fluid dynamics class, try to teach yourself some of it because Putterman will assume that you are confident with that material and will jump straight into an abstract field theory formalism of fluids. Obviously, you will also need to be very strong with undergraduate Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics before you start the class too. Your perturbation theory skills from quantum mechanics will need to be flawless.
His description of Hamilton-Jacoby theory and generating functions was way too short and much more confusing than it needed to be, so you will need to supplement that with some YouTube lectures.
Spend time with Landau's book and pay very close attention to Putterman's notation; people would often have trouble digesting the enormous amounts of algebra on the board. Be prepared to do dimensional analysis on your toes to make up for his handwriting. Be alert about what Putterman's saying because he will do a lot of the mathematical steps in his head. You can also always ask; he responds to every question in a friendly manner, even if it's about week 1 material in week 8.
Homework problems are often ambiguous, but if you get used to his style of writing (and if you are able to guess what assumptions can simplify the problem to the point where it is solvable without losing the interesting physical behavior), you will understand that they reveal very interesting and fundamental results. The tests include primarily problems very similar to the homework, and then one random question that will, at first glance, look completely unrelated to the course content.
If you don't trip over any of those barriers, you will gain an extraordinary and unique perspective of a beautiful field from a professor who cares very deeply both about physics and teaching.
I don’t even know how to describe the feeling of helplessness I felt in this professor’s class. Really negative experience.
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