Confused by my modern physics class

[G01]

"Your homework is EVERY problem in this text"

Ouch, Dr. Transport, Ooouuuuuucccccchhhhh

 

[Dr Transport]

Ouch, Dr. Transport, Ooouuuuuucccccchhhhh

I found that if you didn't attempt every problem in the book at one point or another you were short changing yourself. Example: My E&M Professor would assign between 5 and 8 problems per week out of Wangsness equally distributed between even and odd so you could look up the solution in the back to check your answer. Before an exam I would work ALL the rest of the problems in the chapters covered, didn't help though, still only got B's, but I can stil do E&M after nearly 20 years, practice, practice, practice is the only way you will learn something.

 

[tim_lou]

After reading all the replies, it seems that a lot of the people are having similar experiences about modern physics. My friends said that the material covered in class will eventually be learned again later in our physics career...Well, do you think students would be better off without the modern physics class? or not?

Anyway, our class has just took the midterm about a week ago. I spoke to a lot of the people and they said that the general consensus is: everyone fails. My feeling is the same... Anyway, I can't blame the professor, so I guess I will pick a couple more Intro quantum books from the library and begin studying for the final.

My conclusion for this semester of physics is:
Modern physics=the first physics class I've ever disliked.
Classical Mechanics=one of the best physics classes I've ever had. I've finally learned the mysterious Lagrangian formalism. and the Hamiltonian formalism, non-inertial system and much more will be covered next semester... it's going to be LOVELY!

 

[symbolipoint]

So strange to comment on Modern Physics part of the beginning engineering physics courses as being so difficult. Among the three fundamental beginning courses, the modern physics course was both the most enjoyable and most learnable. The Electricity & Magnetism course was the most incredibly difficult and confusing. The Modern course as I remembered gave good very meaninful mathematics to support the topics, making the study of those topics a very reliable study. Maybe the one drawback of the course was that the treatment of quantum physics was fairly light, although much of the supporting topics needed in the development of quantum physics were well presented with good exercises.

If I were to complain of any parts from the fundamental physics courses being difficult, I certainly would not choose Modern Physics; but I would say that the E&M part was the confusing one.

 

[robphy]

After reading all the replies, it seems that a lot of the people are having similar experiences about modern physics. My friends said that the material covered in class will eventually be learned again later in our physics career...Well, do you think students would be better off without the modern physics class? or not?

As others have said, the Modern Physics course is the survey course that naturally follows the Mechanics and E&M survey courses. In fact, I would say that it is the most important survey course for physics majors and potential physics majors. This is the course where one could learn what the state of the art is... and where tomorrow's physics major can contribute. Without this course or with a poorly taught course, a physics department can easily lose potential majors to engineering or math. Few will slog through another pass at mechanics and E&M (at the intermediate level) to await their first taste of Quantum, Relativity, and Stat Mech.

 

[beanryu]

tim lou are you in stony brook?
it sounds like my modern physics class, I dropped it and decide never go into physics again, because it so freaking confusing and time consuming... my head was at the point of imploding...

 

[cscott]

As far as I can tell, for "modern physics" in my second year I take:

PHYS 234 LEC,TUT 0.50 Course ID: 007407
Quantum Physics 1
Background of quantum physics. Quantization, waves and particles. The uncertainty principle. The Schroedinger equation and postulates of quantum mechanics. Bound states in square wells. The harmonic oscillator. Transmission through barriers. Introduction to three-dimensional systems: rigid rotor and the hydrogen atom. Introduction to approximation methods for more complicated systems.

PHYS 263 LEC 0.50 Course ID: 003320
Classical Mechanics and Special Relativity
Newtonian dynamics of particles and systems of particles. Oscillations. Gravity and the central force problem. Lorentz transformations and relativistic dynamics.

With books:

INTRO TO CLASSICAL MECHANICS 2ED
Copyright: 97
Binding: H
ISBN10: 9780135052235
Publisher: PEARSON

by Arya

CHAPTERS FROM QUANTUM PHYSICS OF ATOMS MOLECULES 2
Copyright: 06
Binding: P
ISBN10: 9780470113974
Publisher: WILEY

by Eisberg and Resnick

We take this along with DE's, Calc 3, EM, and geometrical and physical optics.

 

[jtbell]

Who are the authors of those two books? Physics textbook titles are so generic and similar to each other that people almost always refer to them by the name(s) of the author(s). I know that I use "Taylor, Zafiriatos and Dubson" for my modern physics course, but I can't for the life of me tell you the exact title without looking at the book!

 

[cscott]

Who are the authors of those two books?

I edited my post and put the authors in.

 

[tim_lou]

tim lou are you in stony brook?

No...I'm in somewhere else.

 

[proton]

how many hours per week of studying do you guys do for your sophomore-level modern physics course? I usually spend about 6 hours/wk outside of class studying for it. Is this too much? The textbook I use is by Resnick, Halliday, and Krane, which lacks a lot of mathematics.

 

[jtbell]

If you're on a semester system like ours, where a typical course meets for three hours a week, that sounds about right. The rule of thumb I use when advising students or making up homework sets is "two hours outside class for each hour in class."

A typical student course load here averages 15-16 class hours per week. Therefore this rule gives a total of 45-48 hours per week including homework and studying. Compare that to a "normal" 40-hour work week (plus overtime and/or work taken home) in the "real world."

 

[complexPHILOSOPHY]

If you're on a semester system like ours, where a typical course meets for three hours a week, that sounds about right. The rule of thumb I use when advising students or making up homework sets is "two hours outside class for each hour in class."

A typical student course load here averages 15-16 class hours per week. Therefore this rule gives a total of 45-48 hours per week including homework and studying. Compare that to a "normal" 40-hour work week (plus overtime and/or work taken home) in the "real world."

What about those who already work during the week in addition to classes!