Normally there aren't classes on it till Grad school, and yeah special relativity is much easier with 4 vectors than the methods presented in modern physics classes.
That stuff is only easy compared to the hard stuff. I'm going into the final year of my undergraduate and the easy stuff still surprises me sometimes.
Make sure you also read about those subjects online. It's pretty easy to find material on that stuff and learning it from several different...
Just so you know Physics problems sometimes do involve a lot of algebraic tricks, or require setting up a problem just so. My professor's always seemed to believe that a couple pages of algebra builds character. I don't know what experience you have with proofs, but my friends who majored in...
Talk about anything relevant to his field you find interesting, and emphasize any strengths you might have (programming, experience with unix, writing ability, etc). Listen very closely to what he has to say, and don't be afraid to ask about anything you don't understand.
If you know of any...
I've had professors give study guides before, but they aren't exactly helpful if your a decent student. They were meant to ensure people passed the test in lower division classes. To prepare for tests I've always found it more useful to study from the homework solutions, and talk to the...
On my father's side my grandfather has a degree in forestry from UCB, and my Uncle has a Phd in Mech engineering from UCSB. Of the two my Uncle was the one who pushed me to study Physics.
On my mothers side the closest my family came to science or engineering is a muffler shop they own, and...
I go to UCSC and the only bad thing I can say about it is that the faculty to student ratio is a little high. If you need more information.
http://physics.ucsc.edu/undergrad/ughandbook09-10.pdf
This makes me sad. When I was a kid we played the game so that if the owner of whatever property you landed on doesn't ask for rent you don't have to pay. So I usually got monopolies by trading free rent rights on certain properties. Our games rarely went longer than 6 hours though. Now Risk is...
Only way to avoid burning out is to lower your number of commitments. You should at least get enough sleep and a little relaxation/exercise time. You'll likely have to stop seriously doing several extracurriculars in college anyway, so now is a good time to start prioritizing your interests. A...