PHYS43 — Physics for Scientists and Engineers III

A lot of material was covered here:  16 chapters in total encompassing the subjects of Thermodynamics, Light and Optics, and Modern Physics.  And to make things even more difficult, the material that is covered in Modern Physics is just bizarre.  This is where Einstein’s theory of relativity is covered–all that fun stuff about time dilations when traveling near the speed of light–along with Quantum Mechanics.  To my surprise there was quite a bit of Chemistry in this course.  Much of what was covered in Thermodynamics and Modern Physics was centered around concepts founded in Chemistry.

As with the second semester, I performed very well in this course and continued to put those many bad experiences from Mechanics behind me.  The greatest challenge was just figuring out how to absorb so much material in so short a time.  I’m a book learner and so I have to read every chapter, even when the textbook is terrible, before I can start solving problems that are based on what is being covered.  I used up a lot of time every week just trying to make it through one dense chapter after another before the class moved on to the next topic.

Apparently my work during the semester was good enough to earn me an “Outstanding Achievement in Physics” award. I can count the number of awards I’ve won on one hand, so this was a bit of a surprise to me.

Award for Outstanding Achievement in Physics

Exams

– Forthcoming